Watch_Dogs Review

Press X to Jas-... Hack

Now when I first saw Watch_Dogs during Ubisoft's E3 2012 presentation, like everyone else I was instantly excited and intrigued by this stunning and obviously next gen game. The graphics were the best we had ever seen and the NPC A.I was astounding, especially during the car crash scene shown in the demo. Without a doubt it was the game everyone was talking about the most after the E3 expo that year and it convinced many they should move to next gen as soon as they could, even though the next generation of consoles hadn't even been announced yet. Sometimes later another gameplay video was released to the public and it was here that I slammed on the breaks of the hype train. During the demo, we were told that to reveal more of the map we would have to find towers and unlock them. It was pretty much "Press Y to synchronize", a gameplay mechanic we had been dealing with since the first Assassins Creed and was now implemented in all Ubisoft open world games. This made me cautious, as even though the game looked great, it was still at its core, returning to gameplay mechanics that were almost a decade old. At this point most people were still very enthusiastic about the game, but the more I saw, the more I was personally becoming cynical. Then finally, a few months before release, Ubisoft released a new gameplay trailer, one that showed reduced graphics and character animations. Although the video circled the net a bit before launch, it became obvious at the time of release that not everyone had seen it and were surprised and even angered by the changes. This was also after the game had been delayed from being a next gen launch game, so that it could be fine tuned and polished. The opposite seemed to have happened though. What we got in the end was an average open world game. Not great, not terrible, but a game that failed to meet most peoples initial expectations they got from the 2012 E3 demo, two years earlier.

I guess it still looks pretty at night.

 Watch_Dogs probably has the weakest opening acts of a triple A title I have played in quite some time. Everything feels old or recycled. The stealth, crafted items and gun-play are lifted from Splinter Cell: Black List (which might not necessarily be a bad thing), it's driving felt off and even downright frustrating at times. It's map layout has been used in every open world Ubisoft game for the last 10 years and it's characters were about as interesting and well voice acted as those in Farcry 3. It's here you start to notice that Watch_Dogs doesn't know what kind of game it wants to be. It has realistic weapons like in a modern shooter, but the protagonist Aiden can carry around an entire armory like in the retro games of old. The story, setting and characters are all dead serious, but there are instances of lewd, low brow humor that just don't fit in with the rest of the game. Aiden is a vigilante for justice, in part trying to push back an omnipresent computer system that watches you at all times, yet he uses it to spy on others and hack their bank accounts with no repercussions. The car chases are similar to those in games such as GTA, but you can't shoot out of your car, which leaves you just having to try and use hacks to stop an enemy car. This also just ends up feeling like a moving quick time event. Which brings us to probably the biggest gameplay let down of all: The hacking. You could stealthily sneak your way through an enemy base to get to a computer terminal, or you could just simply press X over and over to get from one camera to the next. Using the cameras to get around an area is not fun at all, as you just jump over to the next very conveniently placed security device. Yes you can use them to screw with and even kill enemies, but that quickly loses its luster when you realise it takes away from the strongest aspect of the game, the gun-play. The more people you get to shoot the better, as it's easily the most fun thing to do, open street battles can feel like a scene from Heat as enemies try flank you from all sides. 

The guns feel good.

The two main gameplay mechaincs, shooting and hacking don't always come together well either. Outdoors in open spaces hacking can be close to useless, unless it's night and you cause blackout. While indoors hacking can be hit and miss and it can be much easier to run up to enemies and knock them out with a context sensitive takedown, than actually shooting them. It was very rare to be in a situation where the area was set up well so you could use guns and hacking together, without it feeling like you had to force yourself to use one just so you could use it.

 The thing that annoyed me most about this game however was the side missions and collectibles. The side missions which mainly consist of Criminal Convoys, Gang Hideouts and Fixer Contracts. Fixer Contracts mainly rely on your driving skills and since the driving in the game is weak, the contracts quickly become boring and annoying. Convoys and Hideouts however are great fun. Convoys can lead to some really fun street firefights as you watch your planned ambush come to fruition. Hideouts use the games ability to hack and pre-plan enemy base attacks probably better than any other part of the game. It's essential to scout ahead before going in, not just so you can mark enemy positions, but so you can find your target and not accidentally kill him. These missions, although not much on variety were probably some of my favorite parts of the game. It was a huge letdown for me then, when I got to the final level of these missions to find that there was no climax, it was just the same as every other level that preceded it. The only difference being you got a weapon unlock and an achievement at the end of it.

 The weakest part of the entire game is easily the collectibles, there a tons of them, most of which come in the form of the 100 hot spots you need to check in at. And what do you get for checking in at all 100? A new gun? An awesome car? Nope, you get an achievement, that's it. Vast amounts of collectibles can be forgiven if you get a reward in return equal to that of the time and effort you put into it. But It is here, with the many different collectibles that Ubisoft has put in much of the padding for the game and it's not even fun. Not in the slightest. It feels like you have to set a few hours aside just to do chores within the game. It's unforgivable. Most of the investigations just have you finding a door, which you have to find the opening switch to, by following a white line around the neighborhood, which gets tedious insanely fast. If you're someone who obsesses over one hundred percenting a game, you might want to give this one a miss.

Nope.

One of the most memorable things from the original trailer shown two years ago was the astounding A.I. It reacted to a situation more realistically than we had ever seen before. Unfortunately in the final product that couldn't be more far from the truth. Civilians will fall to the ground and stay there, even if you're nudging them with your car. If there is a car accident they will just step out of their car and stand next to it, even if it's on fire and about to explode. They will just go up in flames with it and then the fire engine will arrive and then keep driving past, completely ignoring the situation. We had working fire engines over ten years ago in GTA and civilian A.I has been better in almost every open world game of the last gen. It's a city full of idiots who only job is to get hacked when you need money. It takes away from the feeling of it being an actual living, breathing city.

 The story... the story in this game is nothing short of atrocious. The voice acting is as bad as it was in Far Cry, Aiden's motivations don't feel adequate to excuse him from all the murder and crimes he commits as the vigilante. Especially since it all started because he as being a bad guy in the first place. The characters are mind numbingly boring that you just don't care what happens to them. The only bearable one is Aiden's colleague Jordi, who is pretty decently voiced by Aaron Douglas.

 The second act of the game is probably the worst, but it is also the longest and by the time you get to the end of it, you wonder if it was worth it. The acts that follow that are thankfully better and even become quite fun later in the game, especially when you meet T Bone and get to fight in his booby-trap laden hideout. The games missions grow in strength as you get nearer to the stories final conclusion. But when the conclusions does happen, it is over overwhelmingly unsatisfying. After which you are surprised with another final mission, which clearly shows the devs had completely ran out of ideas as you spend 15min being rammed by police cars as you try to drive to several locations. It is frustrating and leaves a sour taste in your mouth as the final credits roll. Even then the game isn't completely over. Nope first they have to set up the sequel during the credits. Return of the King had fewer endings than this game.

Watch_Dogs is a solid game, with a lot of fun moments. But a lot of it feels old and we've seen so much of the gameplay in other ubisoft games. It took me about 20 hours to get through the game and I must say the last five or six were actually a great time, it's just too bad that the rest of the game couldn't have felt the same.