Watch Dogs is exactly what you think it is. It’s Assassin’s Creed 4
meets GTA 5 meets Batman Arkham City… but--despite the pedigree of its
influencers--it narrowly fails to better any of them. Don’t
misunderstand: it’s a great game that combines some smart ideas with an
innovative setting, but it’s also one that arrives exhausted from its
cross-generational birth. There are some wonderful moments and features
in Watch Dogs; but also plenty of tired tropes and trappings that
should’ve been left firmly in the past.
The plot focuses on the
high-tech exploits of Aiden Pearce, hacker and self-styled vigilante.
He’s a bit of a dullard, really, and prone to occasional bouts of
hypocritical self-reflection (in between shooting men in the face, and
running down hobos). Before the action starts we learn that Pearce and
his partner Damien get involved in a risky hack job at a hotel, a
mission that goes hideously wrong and ends up with an unknown villain
retaliating against Aiden. His niece, Lena, dies in the crossfire and so
begins a classic tale of one man’s quest for answers / revenge. For all
the game’s reliance on tech, it’s the basest of human emotions that
drives the story forward, which is either a clever nod from the
developers or a lucky coincidence. Ubisoft Montreal, I’m giving you the
benefit of the doubt on this one!
Story-wise, the game is mostly dud. All the characters are unimaginative
stereotypes, with thin motivations and forgettable personalities.
Hacker chick with piercings? Check. Sinister, elderly villain? Check.
Gang leader with a stupid name? Check. The plot itself is a mixture of
predictable twists, dressed up with strange leaps of logic and enough
technobabble to make Bill Gates soil his beige chinos with delight.
However, while the overarching narrative is forgettable, there are
some delightful set-pieces and micro-plots to discover. These more than
make up for predictable story-beats. One mission has you searching for a
secret bunker on an abandoned island, close to the city centre. The
stirring Vangelis-style music mixes with a glorious in-game sunset to
make it feel as if you’re genuinely uncovering a secret new world, right
in the heart of the urban sprawl. Another neat little moment has you
searching for a rival hacker in a nightclub. No spoilers here, but he
turns the hacking system back on you, and changes the info you see when
you scan other club-goers. It’s a wonderful role reversal, making you
feel powerless, and forcing you to question Aiden’s motives much more
than any downbeat monologue ever could. So you’ll enjoy Watch Dogs’
narrative in piecemeal, rather than as a whole.
At first glance,
the game’s setting appears as shallow as its inhabitants. Chicago is a
lively mixture of skyscrapers, slums, and the token ‘countryside’
bit--sadly inferior next to the wonderfully colourful, sun-drenched San
Andreas of GTA 5. Look closer, though, and the city’s true beauty
becomes apparent. It’s densely packed with details, hidey-holes, and
some utterly dark secrets--many of which you only start to discover once
you start poking around side-missions and optional quests. Perhaps my
favourite moment in the whole game happens when I cause a mighty car
crash, and see a couple of ghoulish pedestrians taking videos of the
carnage on their phones. It really brought the game alive for me. The
only real reservation I have about Watch Dogs’ Chicago is that--during
the majority of my 40+ hour playthrough--it was either dark or dull. In
rare moments of sunshine the game looks beautiful, really showing off
its new-generation credentials.
It was vital to pack so much into Chicago itself, because the city is
intrinsically linked to how this game plays. Unless you’ve been living
under a hermit, who has been living under a rock, for the past three
years, you know that Aiden’s phone can hack various things within the
environment. This is what separates Watch Dogs from other open-world
games, and it isn’t just a gimmick: it’s integral to everything you do.
Hacking
cameras, for example, lets you probe and explore every inch of the
city. There are cameras EVERYWHERE, and you can--if you want--traverse
huge in-game distances by hopping from one hackable device to the next.
It’s hugely liberating, and provides loads of strategic gameplay
options. One sweet example happens when another player invades my game
to try and hack my phone for secrets and cash. Instead of rushing after
my attacker, revealing my position, I hack the cameras and jump between
them until I’ve profiled him. I then quickly, quietly flank his hiding
place before terminating his intrusion with a shotgun shell to the
brain. Good night, and a truly unique Watch Dogs moment.
A quick note on gunplay, then. It’s satisfying and robust enough to
be a genuine option for most scenarios (some missions ask you to avoid
detection, so er, easy on the shotgun blasts, yeah?), even if hacking
and stealth are often the more obvious scenarios. Yeah, it’s fun to
shoot someone in the head, but it’s even more satisfying to hack an
enemy’s grenade while it’s still hanging from his waist… Boom. Towards
the end of the game you’ll be savvy enough to combine bullets with
hacks, decimating rooms filled with grunts--it’s a great feeling when
you really bring it all together.
Aiden’s delightful phone (which
never seems to need recharging, oddly) can also digitally steal cash and
secrets from anyone in the city. It can overload power-junctions, move
forklift trucks, and even vent clouds of gas from Chicago’s pipe network
into the sky. While the act of using it is as simple as holding a
single button, its functions are myriad. It’s admirably simple to use,
even if sometimes you’ll end up raising a barrier instead of opening a
door. Generally the context-sensitive commands work extremely well,
though.
Sadly, the phone is all-too-often used as a solution to classic,
open-world problems instead of driving innovation. This is largely down
to the mission design, which is inconsistent. While there are enjoyable,
innovative moments (like where you guide friendly characters to safety
by jumping between security cameras, or when you remotely hack your way
through a prison level to reach a target), there are also plenty of
tedious chase / tailing missions, and ‘go here, kill this guy, escape
the police’ style levels. And while I’m on the subject of escaping the
police…
Vehicle handling is very heavy in the game, and unless you
hop on a bike or high-end sports car, most rides feel the same. That’s
no bad thing, as you’re less likely to fishtail out of control when
you’re fleeing the fuzz. It’s also a little less twitchy than other
open-world games to make on-the-road hacking easier to do--a welcome
trade-off. There’s an immense joy in zipping through traffic lights,
hacking them, and watching your pursuer smash into the confused drivers
behind you. It’s so satisfying, that the game even cuts to a crash-cam
when you’ve timed it to perfection.
Good
job, really, because you’ll spend a lot of time in the car as Watch
Dogs reaches its conclusion. Linear ‘do something, get chased’ missions
become more frequent in the closing hours of the game, and instead of
trying anything truly new to test the player’s skills, these stages
simply ramp up the difficulty to patience-killing heights. Top tip to
avoid putting your controller through your TV: unlock the perk that
disables the police helicopter ASAP. There are loads of abilities to
unlock as you progress, all of which expand your skillset, but I
recommend maxing out your hacking as soon as you can.
Luckily,
there’s plenty to fiddle with outside the main story, and it’s here
where Watch Dogs really shines. There are 100 HotSpots dotted around the
city, and checking into each one allows you to collect rewards (like
money), and leave gifts for other players. Each HotSpot has a
mayor--4Square style--and some hand out special badges. It’s a
wonderfully creative way to approach collectables. Elsewhere, the
investigation side-stories highlight the more interesting aspects of
Watch Dogs’ world. One has you tracking a serial killer, while another
tasks you with busting a human trafficking ring. Silly mini-games like
Chess, Coin Run, and Poker? Yeah, they’re all here and they’re all
perfectly OK. Juuust fine.
Then there’s the multiplayer, which is incredibly well
implemented. Most features are integrated into the single player, and
you get a pop-up message allowing you to accept or deny invites. Nice
touch--sometimes you just want to be left alone. If accepted, other
players enter your game to play one-on-one hacking games, races, or
police chases (via the companion app). While multiplayer activities are
slightly different to solo missions, they feel well connected to the
overall experience. I mean this in the best way possible: it’s as if
you’re not really playing online. There’s no disconnect, no server
hassle… just the tension of playing cat-and-mouse with a real human
opponent.
It’s these state-of-the-art thrills, combined with a
genuine desire to investigate and fiddle with every inch of Chicago,
that’ll push you to play until the bitter end; until the game has
spilled all its secrets. The story is unlikely to keep you logged in,
and the missions will often feel annoyingly familiar, but if you connect
with and really explore this high-tech world, there are plenty of
virtual--and emotional--rewards to harvest.
Via:
gamesradar
