Does It Live Up To The Hype?
A man just called the police. I try to stop him but it’s too late. I rush to my car and speed away, but ctOS still manages to track me down. The police come straight after me but I was already at the train station ; I then proceeded to hack a train, got on board and said bye to my cop buddies. Yup, just a normal day as a vigilante.
Watch Dogs starts by introducing you to Aiden Pierce, a man looking for revenge against the people who murdered his niece. Set in a fictional version of Chicago, Aiden uses Chicago’s computer system know as ctOS to track down the murderers. With ctOS, Aiden can hack into anyone’s phone with a touch of a button.
I’m impressed by the hacking mechanism in Watch Dogs. None of it feels impossible to execute in reality. Ranging from steam pipes to the pacemaker of a heart, anything that is connected will be hackable. The city also feels like a living city, thanks to an application known as The Profiler. This app enables you to check information about any person living in Chicago. It creates an unique identity for each person in the game ; this was never achieved before in a video game.
The driving in Watch Dogs can sometimes feel clunky, especially when you’re running away from the cops. Drifting around corners must be timed accurately or else you will risk crashing into pedestrian walkways. This can be extremely frustrating and sometimes destroys the intensity. However, the amount of side activities in Watch Dogs looks infinite ; I once entered a Café for coffee but ended up playing chess there for about an hour or two. Exiting the Café, I found myself rushing to a crime scene to prevent a perpetrator from escaping.
The supporting cast of Watch Dogs includes a variety of personalities. There is never one dull moment where you meet a character and feel they are generic. That being said , I do not feel any attachment to most of the characters. There wasn’t enough introduction to the characters background to make me care about them. There was simply too little time given to each of them to allow me to develop feelings. The storyline of revenge, lacks freshness because it has been used numerous times in both movies and video games. However, the powerful ending in addition to the voice acting serves as the saviours of the singleplayer mode.
Online invasions are extremely fun. It starts in which you invade a player’s singleplayer game and must hack into his data. The player must then find you and kill you. Knowing that your enemy is annoyed at the fact that he can’t find you is extremely exhilarating. There is also another mode, Free Roam. Together with 7 other players, you can just run around the city and cause mayhem. Having a wealth of options sure is fun but without any objectives it can get repetitive.
The Verdict
-Watch_Dogs manages to steer away from being a GTA/ Saints Row clone. Through the eyes of a hacker, you are able to enjoy the joys of hacking but beware : it comes with it’s consequences. A brilliant story and amount of side content is only hampered by bad driving mechanics and lack of character development. I can certainly see a sequel for this coming in the future.
The Good
–A living, breathing city.
–Awesome hacking mechanics
–Stealth combination with hacking is done perfectly
The Bad
–Bad character development
–Multiplayer gets boring fast
–Not enough customization
Rob's Loco Gaming Blog 