Who Watches The Watch Dogs?

Back at E3 of 2012, Ubisoft closed out their E3 press conference with one amazing looking trailer. The visuals and the unique concept were our first glimpse into the future. While Ubisoft was coy about what system the game would be available on, we all naturally and correctly assumed that this was not strictly a then current gen game. The game in question was Watch Dogs. Unfortunately it would be another two years before the game actually hit the market(after a delay from a PS4/X-Box One launch title to May of 2014.) Was the game worth the wait? Read on and find out.

Now before I really delve into this, I should probably cover some of the more ridiculous stories about the game. When Watch Dogs was revealed in 2012 we were presented with what amounted to a very slick, stylized technical demo. I liken it almost to the infamous Killzone 2 trailer from E3 2006. While the difference isn't extreme to that extent, as time went on there were debates over Watch Dogs' graphical quality being downgraded from the original reveal. While the game never does reach the same fidelity that we were presented with in 2012, it comes awfully close. With that out of the way, lets get down to business. I'll try to keep this light on spoilers.


Story
Set in Chicago, Watch Dogs follows the adventures of one Aiden Pearce. The game starts off with Aiden and his partner in crime, Damien, on a potential hacking job. All is going well until a second, mysterious hacker invades their job and sends things spiraling out of control. The intrusion sets into motion a series of events that leads to the death of Aiden's niece. This of course becomes the catalyst for Aiden's revenge fueled quest to find the mysterious second hacker. Along the way Aiden crosses paths with some seedy characters; from mob bosses to other hackers.

Watch Dogs isn't a narrative masterpiece by any means. Even by game standards it's actually pretty predictable. What starts off as a very interesting techno thriller centered around the main hacking mechanics, manages to devolve into schlocky action movie territory. It really was kind of sad to watch a game with such a unique idea sort of abandon it half way through for a more generic structure. Considering there's room for this to actually become a franchise for Ubisoft, I would hope that they realize this and embrace it completely in the sequel.

Gameplay
Watch Dogs' story might not be wholly impressive, the gameplay actually has some staying power. The engine used for Watch Dogs takes some of the best bits from other Ubisoft franchises like Assassin's Creed's free-running and Splinter Cell's stealth mechanics. When combined these give Watch Dogs a good blend of action and stealth, offering players the option to go guns blazing into a section or hack a server without ever entering a building. However, I would have liked if the hacking itself was a bit more varied.

The hacking is controlled by a single button. It mainly involves swapping from camera to camera for better vantage points. You can use these cameras to paint targets on the enemies in an area. From here a single button press can disrupt their communications, distract them with phone calls or text messages, or even remotely set off explosives. It turns tackling a series of enemies into a puzzle of its own. The actual hacking puzzles come in the form of hacking servers and locks around the city to access ctOS(the city's operating system). The puzzles basically come in the form of lining up circuitry to "hack" the security locks. Each puzzle either having more locks or rotating parts to increase the difficulty. It's an interesting mechanic but unfortunately it gets old quickly as it's the only hacking puzzle the game offers.

I would be remiss to not mention that there is gunplay in this game. Yes, at some points you will be taking down waves of enemies with pistols, grenades, hackable IEDs, and rifles. The gunplay is actually a bigger part of the game that I think it should be but that's strictly from personal preference. Again, for a game centered around hacking I figured they would make it an extremely powerful tool. It's great for distractions and a rigged explosive. During intense car chases it's actually your only defense against the police or whatever crew is on your tail as you are unable to drive and shoot. Thankfully the city layout provides you with hackable traffic lights to cause collisions in the intersections, hackable bridges, garage doors, and a slew of others.

To an extent this is actually one of the best parts of playing Watch Dogs. Engaging in a high speed chase with the police and using a citywide blackout to evade them or temporarily disabling the police chopper above so that they have no line of sight on you. These are all great tools that are available to Aiden as your level up your skills. The problem comes in when you actually get behind the wheel of the car. The cars in Watch Dogs have some weird things going on. There's a definite weight to them as you're driving them and you're getting some force feedback in the controller rumbling. That part of it is nice in its design. But once you actually start driving it becomes a mess. The handling for these cars is almost non-existent. You'll find yourself skating around corners with barely any control as you try to maneuver through the city. This is coupled with some odd A.I behaviors that have the enemies chasing you randomly speeding up ahead of you or quickly covering ground and rubberbanding right back into place. Because of this some of the chases can become tedious and just frustrating.

Graphics
I covered some of this already in the intro but I'm going to elaborate a bit more. The original reveal for Watch Dogs seemed unattainable in the long run. At the time Ubisoft was running off of a devkit with prospective specs for the next generation consoles. These specs weren't finalized until shortly before the reveal of the PS4 and X-Box One in early 2013. That's not to say that the final product doesn't look impressive because it does. It actually shines in some moments. The models look extremely sharp and the recreation of Chicago is actually quite stunning. Sadly I'd probably be more impressed if it weren't for Sucker Punch's incredible recreation of Seattle in March's Infamous: Second Son.

Still there are some really nice touches to Watch Dogs' graphical engine that can be seen once it's in action. And the game runs smoothly for the most part. I have noticed some slow down right after a mission is completed and the game tries to load in an unlocked trophy, mission status, skill pointed and progression status at once. The interface quickly becomes cluttered and slows the game down, even dropping a few frames in the process. You'll also notice some texture and model pop in as you're driving(usually at high speed) but I think that's something to be expected from some dense, open world games at this point. Considering the graphical load, it manages to stay smooth 95% of the time. From a game so large and ambition that's actually quite a feat. However I have read that there are some issues that are plaguing the PC and X-Box One version in terms of slow down and frame-rate so keep that in mind if you're interested in playing on either platform.

Sound
Watch Dogs is sporting a nice score actually. It compliments the tone that Ubisoft set forth but like with any open world game there's a radio and it's packed with tunes ranging from Weezer to the Wu-Tang Clan. The interesting thing about the soundtrack is it starts off very sparse but as you progress through the game and hack people's phones, you're able to collect more songs from the soundtrack. Collecting all 23 songs actually nets you an achievement so be on the lookout for random characters and hack them for their audio tracks.

From a sound design standpoint I wasn't completely wowed though. The voice acting is serviceable but Aiden really comes off as wooden. He's nowhere near as interesting as the characters around him. Some of that is due to the writing but part of that definitely comes from a wooden performance from his voice actor. The sound effects themselves are good for the most part. It's mixed well and it's great to hear some things like the chatter of other characters on the street as you're walking by. I like the little touches like that. But some of the effects for the cars and the weapons lack variation. The weapons in particular feel good in terms of gameplay but they don't sound great.

Final Thoughts
What it comes down to is the reveal of Watch Dogs presented us with a really cool premise and nifty gameplay ideas. The final product delivers on most of that and even comes close to the target render footage, but I feel like it falls a bit short of the mark. There's a lot that Ubisoft did manage to get right with this game though and I feel like a sequel can definitely build off the good ideas and turn into a tighter, more enjoyable experience. The hacking mechanic is quite possibly the best thing they have going for them but they need to refine it and make it more robust. But I do give them credit for all they did with it in terms of the profiler for when you're just walking down the street between missions or free roaming. Seeing the details and little tidbits about random NPC's in the Watch Dogs version of Chicago is both quirky and fun.

Watch Dogs also presents us with some interesting multiplayer concepts. The idea that any time during your game(outside of missions anyway) that another player can invade and hack your game is quite intriguing. It quickly turns into a game of cat and mouse with another player and leads to some fun encounters. Similarly the Online Tailing mode gives you a chance to tail and observe another player in the same point reward structure as the Online Hacking mode. Watch Dogs also throws in a 8 player free roam mode for random shenanigans through the city, an online racing mode(but with those driving mechanics I might stay away), and a team based Online Decryption mode. Quite possibly the most interesting of the bunch, the Online Decryption mode involves two teams in a sort of capture the flag meets keep away style game. Each team is tasked with retrieving and decrypting a file before the other team is able to do so. These modes as well as a slew of collectibles, mini games, and side quests add to the overall product and help lift it above some of its limitations, but not all.

Watch Dogs isn't a great game, but it's a decent start to a great franchise; much like Assassin's Creed got off to a rocky but promising start and built into the mega IP that it is known as today. With E3 right around the corner, we'll see if Ubisoft has any immediate plans in motion to follow up on it.

Score

7.5/10