Watch Dogs Review

When Watch Dogs was first teased at E3 2012 it caught everyone’s attention. The level of open-world interaction the game promised, coupled with the real life fear of a surveillance enveloped state was truly promising, and Ubisoft’s fictitious futuristic interpretation of Chicago looked stunning. Fast forward to the Ubisoft press conference at E3 last year and anticipation had reached fever pitch: Edward Snowden had brought Watch Dogs bang in line with reality; that an Orwellian censored society could be more real than we had ever realised. Needless to say in the year which followed until now, expectation levels have steadily increased; but such is the way with big budget blockbusters. Entering the modern market off the back of such hype, Watch Dogs’ biggest challenge was always going to be how it managed expectation and identity. Although it looks very pretty it, unfortunately, fails to master either.

In the not-so-distant future, Chicago has been transformed into a smart city powered by the ctOS system - an interlinked surveillance mainframe which sees the town overrun with technology and CCTV cameras strapped to every building and street corner. The player takes control of expert hacker-cum-vigilante Aiden Pearce who has an axe to grind with the city’s corrupt bourgeoisie, and underworld gangs following the kidnapping of his family thus portraying, in essence, a fairly generic tale of retribution. Although in many respects a seasoned criminal himself - a maverick hacker and murderer - Watch Dogs paints Aiden more as an anti-hero, with whom we are expected to sympathise with.

Futuristic Chicago looks great

As has become quite clear over the course of the the game’s marketing campaign, manipulating the ctOS network is Watch Dogs’ most unique and most interesting feature. By holding ‘Q’, Aiden can use his mobile phone to hack security systems, cameras, secure-entry gates, car alarms, traffic lights, electronic bollards, and essentially any technology that is powered by the mainframe. This can be used in a variety of ways to help Aiden through missions as hacking security cameras can facilitate the exploration of previously unreachable areas, and performing a chain of hacks allows further reconnaissance, providing other cameras are in view. In doing so, obtaining security information, such as passcodes for locked doors, can be hacked directly from patrolling guards. On top of this, a skill tree - with categories Hacking, Driving, Combat and Crafted Items - offers new hacking techniques in exchange for skill points, such as performing blackouts or overriding the L train circuit, and the ensuing chaos resultant from hacking traffic lights mid car chase never gets old. By pressing ‘Z’ Aiden activates profiling, which pulls up every single citizen's personal information, such as age, sexual orientation, interests, and criminal record. This feature is never really used at any great length, aside from tediously identifying criminals, and most of this blurb is completely superfluous. Nonetheless, it does serve to add to the feel of a thriving city with real, idiosyncratic people - even if it is a bit of a hollow facade.



In the familiar set up now synonymous with the open-world sandbox, Aiden has the option to follow the main story mode - of which there are 5 acts, split into several missions - or explore the range of side quests identified by icons on the world map, or brought to your attention by text notification. For the most part, these extra curricular endeavours entail hacking, tracking and ‘neutralising’ criminals by brute force or worse, so as to teach the guilty party a lesson and prevent reoffending. This form of hands-on pseudo justice isn’t exactly plausible, and actually instead serves to make Aiden’s character feel a little less credible. Why should his illegal exploitation of the system be viewed as heroic, even assuming it’s for the ‘greater good’? Things become even more confusing when ATM machines can be hacked as Aiden empties the bank account of someone he’s never before met. Although side quests are completely optional, Aiden’s heavy-handed approach does gain him respect from the public, upping his reputation gauge, meaning the boys in blue are more likely to be kept at bay. Of course, the flip side to this means decreasing your street rep can lead to random civilians dobbing you in for merely walking down the street.

Profiling the public

A myriad of weaponry ensures Watch Dogs’ combat segments never stagnate, and the player often has the option to perform stealthy takedowns, hack traps, or go in all guns blazing at their discretion. Regularly, combining of all three moulds the best plan of attack. ‘Focus’ slows everything down for short bursts, ala Max Payne, and gives Aiden that extra help making quick-fire decisions in the heat of compromising situations. This feature is particularly handy whilst driving, as the player can toggle street lights on and off, or bollards up and down - creating makeshift roadblocks for pursuing bad guys to tackle once you’ve already passed. Unfortunately, this level of innovation within the open-world experience is not matched by the game’s driving mechanics. Vehicle control in Watch Dogs - with the single exception of motorbikes - is awful. Caught in limbo somewhere between the ultra-realistic Gran Turismo, and the playful deftness of earlier Burnout titles, getting behind the wheel in Watch Dogs is consistently labourious and always feels like a chore. As you’d imagine, considering the reach of the virtual Windy City, driving is often a necessity and therefore this is a fairly glaring problem.

Driving is the biggest crime of all

Via a mobile app, Aiden can access the game’s online multiplayer content which consists largely of PVP scenarios. ‘Fixers’ represent other hackers who must be dealt with in an allocated time limit in Invasion mode, whereas Car Races and Free Roam modes speak for themselves by name. Decryption mode is essentially team deathmatch by another name where players must race to decrypt a computer file, however this appears to be the only co-op-esque setting currently on offer. By participating in multiplayer mode, the player has the option to unlock new skills which can be used in the main game. Like any multiplayer, however, how quickly the game’s servers become populated will determine its real value.

Although reluctant to make comparisons with the Grand Theft Auto series, the fact that Watch Dogs doesn’t quite match the same free roaming open-world standard quickly becomes an obvious elephant in the room. Ubisoft Montreal should certainly be applauded for trying something new within the bounds of the genre - hacking in Watch Dogs is genuinely innovative, despite the threat of gimmickry - however, Watch Dogs has ultimately failed to live up to its hype. It’s good, but it could, and probably should, have been great. The underlying irony of Watch Dogs is the fact that the game itself suffers a bit too much from an identity crisis.