It’s 2023 and I’m reviewing a game from 2014. I finally finished this game after playing it for little over a year. I decided to focus mainly on Ubisoft games because I’m not afraid to admit that I do like open world checklist games like the Assassin’s Creeds and Watch Dogs. Though, it take me a lot longer to finish Watch Dogs which only took me 30 hours in playtime to beat while Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Origin, both beaten by me in a year, were 100+ hour games. I don’t think it says that I enjoyed Watch Dogs less than the Assassin’s Creed since I’ve been trying to focus more on fighting games. But, Watch Dogs was an experience similar to many games, but has its own uniqueness to stand out among other open world games.
Story: The story focuses on Aiden Pearce, and the loss of his niece due to his past troubles. It’s a typical vigilante trying to make amends for his lifestyle interfering with loved ones, and him showing his regrets, but still not giving up that lifestyle because that’s just who he is. As Pearce goes on with his vigilantism, he makes friends along the way, but there was nothing too interesting about them. They’re all a group of hackers, and the game tries to make them seem cool. Watch Dogs is a game that’s trying to bring back the fascination of hackers that was starting or trying to become trendy back in the 90s. It’s reminiscent of the time where a floppy disc could save or destroy the world, but in this game it’s bit more complex than that. In the city of Chicago of the Watch Dogs universe, the entire city is computerized, and as you’re playing throughout this game, you’ll start realizing how bad of an idea it is. The game is a forewarning as there is already talk by Silicon Valley technocrats talking about building “smart” cities. It’s sort of a dystopian nightmare waiting to happen which is the most interesting aspect of game that should’ve been delved into further.
Sound: The music screams of the early mid 2010s. I wasn’t a fan of a lot of the mainstream music back then, and still not today. There were a few notables I recognized, and there were a lot I didn’t. Most of the music was rock. There were ways to unlock music by hacking other people’s phones, but I wasn’t enjoying a lot of the music so I didn’t bother most of the time. I would say I’d rather listen to the bgm that wasn’t licensed. The situational music was suited well for many different events, and I’d wished they had used it more often. The voice acting was well done. I especially liked the voice actors for Iraq mainly because his thuggish performance was funny at times. Sound effects were well done as well. I obtained great satisfaction killing enforcers once they gave off a death scream mixed in with the sounds of static and dying. Gun shots sounded great, and were felt once they connected with headshots as blood splattered the wall with squishy sounds. Car crashes, and tires blowing all sounded believable and caused enough anxiety to have me correct my tactics of taking out thugs and various other gang members.
Graphics: Watch Dogs is a 2014 game, and it’s showing its age. The game has ports to the X box 360 and PlayStation 3, and I played the PS4 version. The character models look like they could pass for games the 360/PS3 era easily. Despite showing its age, the character models do have an impressive amount of detail to them for this time period. However, I wasn’t too impressed with the wardrobe of Pearce. Maybe the developers were trying to appeal to hipsters durin who wore trench coats since that’s all Pearce would don with a baseball cap. Understandably, it’s a 2014 game and there’s a lot they could not do with the character designs that could be done now almost a decade later. But, I would’ve tried to go with a better look for Pearce. I guess his bland personality was to match his unimaginative wardrobe. The character designs were made to make hackers look cool and hip for the most part, but Pearce was an eyesore among his partners in vigilantism. The dry, cool headed protagonist is only as interesting as the characters he interacts with. The open world isn’t that big, and I realize there probably wasn’t a huge budget so maybe the world could be expanded, but it felt small even by 2014’s standards.
Gameplay: The best part of playing this game is the driving around and hacking the smart city to evade pursuers. I suggest stacking up on hacking abilities because that’s what really makes this game. Watching police cars and gang members crash behind you once traffic lights are hacked is funny to watch. The game pauses so you can see that chaos that’s been brought on by you. As far as shooting goes, it’s a typical third person shooter mixed in with a little bit of hacking that adds much needed to variety to the combat. The cover system can be frustrating at times, but the hacking makes up for the typical third person shooting combat anyone can find anywhere else easily in a game from 2010s. There’s a hacking mini game which is very easy to get through, but only is challenging when there’s a timer that pressures you into solving the hacking puzzle in time unless you want to start over. There are an infinite amount tries, so there isn’t too much pressure.
Overall: Watch Dogs is a solid game that pioneered the way for many more successive titles to come. I’m glad I got to play it, and I’m looking forward to playing its sequel. I wish there was more variety in music, the world was more expansive, and the character designs had more flare. The combat isn’t the main attraction. The city and the ability to hack in many different ways is what kept this game from becoming just another sandbox game.