So the day has come, Watch Dogs has arrived. Watch Dogs has been in the pipeline for years, received multiple release dates, bad press and finally it is here. I have been waiting for this game to come and change my mind about the current state of next-gen and to be the first important game to help pull this console and this generation forward; in short the game does not achieve this.
This isn’t to say that Watch Dogs is a bad game though, mind, because actually it’s very good but I can’t help but feel like it was the foundation for something that was once great. If this game had come out before GTA V it probably would have had its glorious moment. Instead, really, Watch Dogs is a major step behind GTA V in regards to the open-world genre. I’ll try not to talk about GTA V too much in this review, though I do find it to be the most relevant game to compare it to at this current moment in time.
So, you are Aiden Pearce, a professional hacker on the trail for revenge against the murder of his niece from a hit which was intended for Aiden himself. He becomes a vigilante, using his powerful hacking skills to track down criminals and find the people responsible for the death of his niece. You also just so happen to be super talented at everything else, such as driving and shooting which makes you the ultimate vigilante.
The gameplay is where Watch Dogs shines and where most games should shine. The opening mission has you simply sneaking through various areas, hacking cameras, causing mobile phones to go off as distractions and finally causing a blackout in a stadium. The stealth gameplay is simple an effective; it works very similarly to games like Splinter Cell: Conviction which has you sneaking to various cover and staying out of the enemy line of sight. The hacking allows you to be smart, in some scenarios in Watch Dogs you can detonate grenades which are strapped to enemies causing guards to panic and numerous casualties. You can even set up some remote explosives in an area and then use the camera to detonate them when you’re clear to cause a distraction whilst keeping you away from the carnage.
Watch Dogs encourages you to be smart, because shoot-outs are tough. Watch Dogs doesn’t baby you when it comes to the alternate method to stealth which is all out guns blazing. You will need to stay behind cover as it only takes a handful of shots to take you down. You dying means you will have to complete the whole section again so it’s better to take a slow approach and use guns when absolutely necessary. Gunfights are pretty intense mind you, the guns in this game sound incredibly loud as well as the explosions which do also look great; hacking a guards grenades while he stands next to a line of cars has brutal and over the top results.
There are plenty of guns to choose from too: Sniper Rifles, lots of handguns, submachine guns and grenade launchers, all of which can be bought from the various stores in the game world. You can buy various materials to craft grenades or jammers which intercept police signals that allow you to escape; it all depends on your mode of play.
There is also a multitude of cars to choose from, though sadly I find the driving in this game a disappointment. Cars can be unresponsive, they don’t always feel fast and just lack any real excitement. The cars don’t look particularly great either; the textures look flat and I find sometimes clash with environment textures making it stand out more than it should. It was nice that Ubisoft attempted to try out a first person view camera which does look pretty cool, but your view is locked straight ahead and you can’t look from side to side, which would be useful, it is very restricting. Also the outdoor sound seems to muffle, like I guess it would in real life, but it muffles everything, I would at least expect the sound of a sports car engine would be more dominant sounding when in a vehicle. The best vehicles to drive are the motorbikes in my opinion, handling is exceptional and speed makes you feel powerful. Even though you are much more vulnerable than you would be in a car, if you can push the bike to its limit you can easily outrun any pursuers by flying down alleys and rocketing up sets of stairs, they won’t keep up. One feature that is missing is the ability to shoot from vehicles, you can only hack. Shooting in a chase would add to the intensity and make things a bit more interesting.
The sound track is one of the most disappointing things in this game. I feel as though the sound track does not suit the game at all. I’m not talking about the OST I am talking about the tracks you have access to in cars and on foot which you can add to your own playlist. There is a fair list of songs but it’s like I am looking at a list taken out of a Tony Hawk game. There is a short list of funk/soul songs and one Jazz song (one Jazz song and were in fucking Chicago?) but Hip-Hop and Punk Rock seem to be leading the lists and they aren’t particularly good either. I now find myself stopping the playlists because the songs I picked are now on a constant loop. Playing a custom playlist from my computer is much more satisfying.
Now graphics is where the game kind of shot itself in the foot. Ubisoft pulled the wool over our eyes when they showed the first gameplay reveal, which was actually played on a powerful PC with the settings up to max. This caused chaos when the new gameplay trailers were revealed and people saw how much the graphics had downgraded. Now I am not one to really care too much about graphics as I am more about the gameplay but we are in a new generation now.
I remember when I first looked at Oblivion for the Xbox 360 when it was released (and it was a launch title) and it looked gorgeous in comparison to most games I had played on my PS2 and Xbox. The transformation from the Xbox 360 to the Xbox One graphically hasn’t impressed me at all. The frame rates and colours are nicer but that is it!
Now, on the other hand, there is a ton of side activity to do, such as playing chess, poker, buying new outfits, cars & guns. You can also participate in “Digital Trips” which turn the city into a mini game for a little while. One has you chasing coins in a free running mode through the alleyways and rooftops while another has you take possession as a giant spider, crushing everything in your path.
There is plenty to do in Watch Dogs but I can’t help but feel like it is going to get tiresome… quickly. There are only so many times you can participate in an activity without feeling like you have already done it a million times before. The best bet is to follow the 20 hour campaign which does have some great missions and by completing side missions like “Gang Hideouts” or “Convoy”. These have you clearing out large usually indoor areas of gangs and you capture there leader or “Convoy” has you blocking off streets in preparation of raiding a vehicle which has not long returned from a heist.
So there is plenty to do in Watch Dogs and it fills the void for there not being many sandbox games at the moment but I still can’t help but feel there was so much more to come from it. Again, I have spoken about this in previous blogs; it comes down to the big hype machine. I started to become less and less excited for this release the closer it got because I had a feeling it would flop. It definitely didn’t flop but it didn’t jump out at me the way I thought it was originally going to either. Regardless I am enjoying it and will finish the title, and recommend it for anyone looking for a new sandbox experience which (although it tries) doesn’t take itself too seriously
Pros:
- Lengthy Campaign
- Plenty of side missions/upgradeable skills
- Lots of guns
- Lots of cars
- Cool things to hack
Cons:
- Graphical downgrade
- Poor soundtrack
- Repetition
Overall: 8/10 - Good
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