Watch Dogs (2014)

The foundations for a great game are there, the shooting and driving is good, the hacking is fun and the overall gameplay is pretty solid albeit clunky sometimes. The problem is the ubislop formula, this game has a bunch of stuff to do yes, but most of that stuff is the same thing just on a different part of the map.

Most of the side content is running around and finding a terminal to "hack", and to do that you are mostly following a white line, or a "wire" I guess to the terminal that unlocks a terminal. Dear lord is it stupid and tedious. So basically what you are doing the most of the time is running around and holding the square button now and then. For example, there is a side quest where you try to find a murderer, so to do that you run around the city to find like 10 dead bodies and then press square button on them to identify them and listen to an audio log... That is basically just a collectible with a story, why not make it a series of 2 or 3 side missions with different things to do. I guess they don't do it because the game is not as long then and it actually requires effort.

The sad thing is the story is solid, even though I think the main character is kinda boring, and they ruined it with such boring side content. The game overall is really solid still but it could have been so much better.

Watch Dogs promises a gameplay system where the entire city of Chicago runs on a centralized computer system, and as a hacker, you have the keys to the city. In reality, the hacking mechanism is quite simple and gets repetitive after a bit. There are some upgrades and some specific story sequences that pack a punch, but the overall gameplay loop is fairly repetitive.

Side missions are aplenty - as is the standard for a Ubisoft open world game - but they don't lead to anything consequential. Only a few unlocks and some simple missions.

The story was supposed to be a major element, given the amount of time dedicated to it. However, it's a fairly basic revenge story that's stretched out to an almost painful extent. It's also quite predictable, which is another negative.

The protagonist, Aiden, is also a difficult character to like. His mission is supposedly revenge, backed by a noble cause to right a wrong. However, the gameplay sets him up as a mercenary - a contract killer, a getaway driver, or a transporter as needed. All in exchange for money. It's a serious dissonance that kills the characterization in favor of some side missions.

While there's fun to be had playing Watch Dogs - and I liked it enough to play it quite a bit - the game feels like a bag of underdeveloped ideas and conflicting tones. It's missing a distinct identity and could have benefited from a stronger sense of direction.

When Watch Dogs launched, it was one of Ubisoft’s most hyped new IPs, promising a futuristic open world where hacking was as powerful as a gun. Set in a near-future version of Chicago controlled by the ctOS surveillance network. The MC is called Aiden Pearce, a vigilante hacker seeking revenge after a personal tragedy.

The biggest strength of Watch Dogs lies in its hacking mechanics. With just a button press, you can manipulate traffic lights, shut down power grids, explode steam pipes, or hijack security cameras to scout ahead. These abilities add a creative layer to missions, allowing multiple approaches beyond standard gunplay. The city itself is dense and atmospheric, with side activities like criminal investigations, digital trips, and online invasions giving the world more variety.

And as I said on other reviews, the "freedom" on how to approach each mission, or situation, is not really a very well developed, complex or in-depth feature. In the end it all boils down to, if you want to go guns blazing, or stealth. So don't expect immersive sim levels of freedom, it is just enough freedom to use as an excuse, even though the hacking theme would make it up as an amazing way for more creative and complex approaches. On the downside, the story struggles to keep momentum.

Aiden is often criticized as a flat and uncharismatic lead, and the revenge-driven plot feels predictable compared to the game’s innovative premise. The driving mechanics also lack polish, with vehicles handling stiffly compared to other open-world titles of the time. This title is an ambitious first entry that introduced exciting ideas but failed to fully deliver on its potential. It’s still enjoyable for those who like experimenting with hacking mechanics in an open-world setting, but it feels more like a proof of concept than a polished classic.

Aiden Pearce: "I thought I could fix the death of a little girl, but instead it led to all this: lies exposed, corrupt authorities, a destroyed city. And me, a changed man. I don't look back anymore. I have no regrets. I watch forward. Everything is connected, and I will use it to expose, protect and, if necessary, punish."

Watch Dogs is probably one of my favorite games, and now I'll explain why.

Let's start with the setting: a noir detective story in modern Chicago. Gang war, tragic protagonist with a well-written story. Corporations as a symbol of universal evil and eternal hacking - all this is incredibly interesting and exciting. Until now, no game has been able to deliver what the first "Watch Dogs" presented. But why didn’t people love the game?

Let's start from the very beginning - this is the E3 conference in 2012, where Ubisoft presented the gameplay of "Watch Dogs". Seeing it, everyone gasped at the impressive physics, beautiful graphics and living Chicago. But closer to the release, the graphics in the trailers became worse, and a flurry of criticism began that Ubisoft had again been deceived and given gamers something of poor quality instead of candy.In parallel, the fan community began to dispel the myth that this game would be a revolution and that "GTA V" was not even close to it. As you can understand, this greatly affected the release, because, not being a clone of "GTA", the game became the object of negative reviews. Gamers began to say that it was just bad, criticized the downgrade of graphics, although many did not take into account that the first teaser was created long before Sony and Microsoft presented the characteristics of the eighth generation consoles. All of this, coupled with terrible optimization and a plethora of bugs, ruined the game's reputation.

But what actually happened?

Yes, there were optimization and bugs, but they were fixed. As a result, the graphics turned out to be quite beautiful, and even without modifications the picture looks vivid. The open world really seems very rich, car control is quite acceptable, the weight is felt, and the cars are noticeably bumped, unlike the same “GTA V”. The gaming community has completely missed the fact that there is a tragic and elaborate story behind this hack-and-slash shooter. Even aside from the criticism of globalization and digitalization, the entire story unfolds in a down-to-earth setting with constant bargirls, old mobsters and corporations. The game's plot reveals both the post-traumatic fate of the protagonist and the ills of society, from human trafficking to the darker aspects of real life with its dirt.

I actually loved this game when I played it a few years ago on 360. Looking forward to chipping away at my Xbox One and PS4 playthroughs. Something about the GTA like driving mixed with the Chicago scenery really did it for me. I even enjoyed the combat and collectibles quite a bit.

I also picked up Watch Dogs 2 for PS4 as a bundle, though I can't say I will ever get to that one. I played the first 20 minutes on Xbox One a while ago and was pretty much disgusted with the design choices, dialogue, all of it.

I had an absolute blast with this game. I've been playing so many games that are 15-20 years old that I nearly forgot what it was like to play a game that feels more modern (or at least relatively so). It's like putting my contacts in after seeing the world in standard definition for a long time lol. It's refreshing.

However, I noticed the ratings for this game are a lot lower than I would have expected, so maybe my standards or expectations are lowered by my tendency to play older games and indie games, or from the fact that I only recently started getting into these shooting/stealth/driving-type games after only playing RPGs and cutesy Nintendo games most of my life.

There are some things I could criticize - I can see how the side missions (fixer contracts, criminal convoys, criminal catching etc.) can feel repetitive or pointless after a while. And it can be annoying how they pop up when you're trying to focus on something else. But for me, it didn't take away enough from my gaming experience - after all they are optional, and I actually found some of them fun. The gang hideouts are my favorite, because each one usually has a different set-up to navigate and there are so many ways to approach it. It's a great combination of strategy, stealth and shooting action.

I can also say the plot wasn't necessarily my favorite part of the game, it seems a bit like it's trying to do too much combining so many themes (revenge, vigilantism, greed, corruption, privacy, security, control, the list goes on) but I actually really liked most of the characters. They all had their own personality, quirks and style ... except Aiden. Well, he has the style (I guess), but maybe I'm just getting a little sick of the same brooding white man with dark hair whose only personality trait is vengeance. But again, maybe I haven't played enough mainstream games to know better. And again, it didn't take away from my enjoyment so much, it just didn't add anything extra.

Overall, I loved this game a lot compared to many of the games I've played recently, even though I've played a lot of enjoyable games over the past couple months. And there's so much to do in this game beyond the campaign, my completionist heart is chomping at the bit to finish as much as I can. It's yet to be seen if they'll be as fulfilling as the campaign was for me.

If you're an awesome person who can get through my long reviews, please comment to let me know I'm not talking to myself (even if you disagree!) :D Thank you!

I wanted to write "if you like this game, you can eat my butt". But I won't write it. Instead, I'll just write that I was going to write it. That way I can write it, but I don't have to own writing it.

I realized that it ultimately comes down to "I don't like it". I don't like the gunplay. I think the protagonist is boring. The stealth is IMO not intuitive. It all is just underwhelming. For whatever reason, everything just feels broken and makes me want to play MGS5 or GTA5 or some other big open world game. The mechanics don't match my memories and it lacks any salivating punch for that reason.

But I can say one thing objectively. As a long time Chicago resident, its vision of Chi-Town sucks! We deserve better. How many games have you been able to play in New York? Hundreds! Give us one good game set in the Windy City.

Watch Dogs could become a cultural statement, but all the themes it tries to raise are poorly implemented, or shallow, or just can’t work with full effect.

It’s hard to reinvent a GTA game again, but W_D wasn’t even aiming for it - you can count it as a strength or flaw, it’s arguable. However, it doesn’t deliever all things right. Look at the stealth. It works, but only if you’re on foot and other circumstances aren’t against you. The full half of glass is here - if you have crafted items, it’s going to be fun. Patrols don’t see you, and you’re feeling like a god with your phone. The car stealth doesn’t deliever the same amount of fun - too much scaners, you can’t raise the camera to turn off the helicopter (was this done intentionally?), physics can remind you of Saints Row 2 and, oh, they’ve just added the QTEs here instead of hacking the traffic lights, blockers and steam pipes? I honestly was confused when I’ve tried to lose the tail with hacking and saw that game chooses the perfect moment to use the hack for you. Not that I’m against it, it’s actually useful, but a little stupid.

The big problem (as big as the ones that are listed in the end) is that stealth lacks a motivation and, I don’t know, context maybe. You know, it’s usually easier to go and kill everyone. You can allow yourself a massacre or two, but the vigilante image is broken after that.

I want to go to the positives now: the Chicago is beautiful and the hotspots are a perfect feature here. The music by Brian Reitzell is surprisingly good, it goes perfectly with context and can be listened without the game as well - a rare moment for a game OST. The Pierce’s design is a godsend. Maybe I'm exaggerating, but let's see, they’ve created a quickly recognizable look and I guess it’s already iconic. Does it happens often? I don't think so.

The implementing of online features is interesting, works fairly well, though you may want to turn them off sometimes. And Profiler. It’s a genius idea too, though I’ve thought there’s lack of traits.
Before I become angry again, here’s the best thing in this game. Privacy Invasions. 30 little scenes of people’s life. They’re done in the spirit of GTA (in terms of satire) and personally I found them to be the best feature of the game. I won't spoil them, if you want to see them, find a video.

Ok, now the worst parts. This game is an unoptimized mess. You can read about it anywhere, you can’t fix it, it’s a painful reality. The cover system always let you down because Aiden goes not where you want to. You’ll die or fail the mission because of that, so it’s important to mention. The plot and character design is almost ok, but in some moments it’s generic as hell, ending is somewhat disappointing and Aiden’s interactions with almost everyone are trite.

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8/10

Before I start, I have to acknowledge a problem that I have with the game that isn't actually its fault. I'm getting a little tired of this genre. Since GTA3 we've had more and more of these types of games. A lot of big games are going more "open" in an effort to give us more play time. Ubisoft promised us 40+ hours or something with this game, and it definitely is that long. This is a sandbox game that I would have liked a lot more had it come out years ago, because really, there's not much wrong with Watch Dogs... but it also doesn't live up to the hype (how could it?).

Any sandbox game falls back on repetitive side-missions in order to fluff the gameplay. If that's your thing, then great. It used to be more of my thing, but now since more games are adding that element to their games (because apparently linear games are terrible now?), it's losing its magic. Generally what I do is, I play each side-mission type a few times, and then as the game goes on I focus more on just doing the campaign and less on doing side-missions. Watch Dogs was no different.

Another trap of the genre is the core gameplay: start, grab a car, drive to mission, start mission, drive your car across the city in order to do the mission. It doesn't sound terrible, but you do it so much it usually kills the momentum. Again, this isn't the fault of Watch Dogs... this happens in all of them. To Watch Dogs credit, there are actually a few moments that the driving is really cool, because at times the soundtrack is perfect, especially as the game goes on. More on that in a bit.

I do really like Watch Dogs though. I've spent more time talking about nothing than I planned so I'll just try to make this quick.

The online modes are fun, and the way they're worked into the game is neat. This is something different rather than the typical death matches, but it's not something I'm going to spend hours upon hours playing. My only problem is the online free roam, which is kind of useless. I was excited to do side-missions with my brother but it turns out all you can really do is just drive around the city and do mini-games. If this was a decade ago, maybe driving around and destroying things with a friend would be fun... but we've been there, done that many times before. In fact, I don't really think Watch Dogs lends itself to that type of gameplay, because while you CAN be a bad guy in terms of your reputation, I think it's pretty clear you're not supposed to be. GTA this is not, or even Infamous (which has more of a moral compass).

Everything looks and feels good. Shooting is fun, driving is good for this type of game, the city is alive, and I love how everyone has characteristics about them that pop up on the screen. I enjoy hacking their phones, seeing their conversations, taking their money. I like hacking the screens around town and seeing the memes that pop up. Ubisoft put a lot of care into the visuals and the city as a whole. I also just love cyberpunk stuff.

The soundtrack is also cool. As the game went on, it seemed to get better and I started noticing it more. I'm talking about the actual original soundtrack, not the songs you play in your car (though some of them are good too... especially liked hearing C.R.E.A.M. play during a shootout). Excellent usage of music in this game at times.

The progression system is serviceable but I wouldn't say it's anything great. Same kind of stuff here... do missions, get XP, level up things like your combat skills, hacking, etc. You don't really need to put up your combat skills, but upping the hacking allows you to do better and more destructive things around the city.

Speaking of the hacking, this is where the game is cool but a little disappointing. From the beginning, we were basically told we could hack everything. I didn't expect to be able to do that, but I would have liked to be able to hack more than I was. The first few times you hack traffic lights, or spikes, etc, it's thrilling, but there's not enough variety. It's still a great gameplay choice, but I wish they would have gone farther with it.

I also like the story. It's a basic revenge story, but as it went on, there were enough twists and turns to make it interesting. I also felt something for the characters. About halfway through I started to really dig it, so I put the score up from an original 8 to an 8.5.

Watch Dogs is a great game... don't believe anybody who says it sucks because it didn't live up to the hype. The game was always destined to fail in that regard, but it's still a fun experience that people should try out.