Watch Dogs: A Beautiful Game With No Substance?

A Beautiful Game With No Substance?

I couldn't wait for the game Watch Dogs since it was announced at last years E3 conference when they revealed PS4 and I said to myself, THAT is the first game I'm going buy for my PS4 (I still don't have a PS4 lol). The excitement grew near as the release date for Watch Dogs drew to a close. I had pre-ordered the game and couldn't wait for my shift at work to finish, for me to then run home and throw in the disk to play endless hours of the game till I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. As I sat starry-eyed toward the tv screen expecting to be hooked from the moment the cinematic started. I was appalled! The cut scene graphics were the same as the gaming graphics which threw me off immediately. If anything the cut scenes should be like watching a film and I just wasn't captured the way I have been with previous games. Do not get me wrong Watch Dogs is undeniably a beautiful game. The graphics are realistic, the combat is immense and with the city of Chicago at your control there's no telling what you could get up to.

The Story

Left to Right - T-Bone, Clara, Aiden and Jordi

So lets start of with the story, Aiden Pearce (also known as the Vigilante of Chicago) is a highly skilled hacker and rebellion of Watch Dogs. Through his past encounters and actions that consequently lead to the death of his niece, Pearce set out on a personal vengeance to find the person(s) behind his niece's killing. Brilliant story (AFTER I HAD FINISHED THE GAME), it just started very slowly for me but at the same time there was so much going on on my screen I couldn't quite understand what was going on. There were notifications popping up ever where, there wasn't really any proper introductions of people, everything was just thrown at you and you had to work things out along the way. It wasn't until I got to around Act II or III that I understood he was seeking vengeance for his niece (LOL) and still to this day (even after completing campaign mode) I still don't quite understand the whole Damien situation and why he kidnapped Nikki other than to get what he wanted. So other than that, it was a good story but just wasn't executed very well and some of the cut scenes were terrible. I just didn't feel the impact and empathy that I have felt with other games like the Modern Warfare or Assassin's Creed franchise. I couldn't relate to any of the characters, the characters were very confusing in terms of their purpose and personality and I think that's what over all brought the game down for me.

Combat

Combat within the game was pretty good. There were a range of weapons and upgrades you could choose from and hold access to at all times. The melee combat was pretty basic, the average take down from behind and the front, there were maybe two variations of take downs. Aiming and shooting was easy to handle, no issues there. Just slight frustration with aiming down the sights on the snipers and the intensity of the flinching when firing an assault rifle.

Skills

Skills is probably one of the best aspects about Watch Dogs. The amount of interaction you had access to around the city from as small as hacking someone's phone to making bridges rise up and down, to writing inappropriate messages on billboards. The Skills tree allows you to upgrade within 4 categories: Combat, Hacking, Driving and Crafting. It feels very rewarding and earning skill points is as easy as eating a piece of cake, from doing something as little as hacking someone's phone whilst you're on your way to a mission will contribute to your skills bar. Some of the skills are pretty basic like improving off-road handling, or swapping primary and secondary class weapons faster, however some of the skills are pretty pointless and could probably be replaced with something much more useful like as I mentioned before less of a flinch when firing assault rifles.

The City: Free Roam

I briefly did a bit of free roaming from time to time when I was in the mood to. The handling of cars is awful, it's not the worst but you do get used to it after a while, but can still be of some annoyance from time to time especially when escaping the cops. There are loads of mini games to play with that you can find around the city, including chess, betting, virtual space invaders and digital trips which turns the whole game into a completely different concept. For example one of the digital trips turns the game into a day the earth stood still kind of vibe, with robotic humans taking over the world and having to liberate the city, which was pretty cool to play. It just  gives the game a change of dynamics, sometimes you just want to have fun and create chaos, in which other digital trips allow you to do so in by becoming a giant robotic spider where the more destruction you cause the higher your score. A brilliant addition to the game and very similar to GTA V's mini games.

Unfortunately the game doesn't give you enough personal freedom in terms of purchasing cars, clothes and access to hideouts. In this aspect it's very basic and doesn't really allow you to make any sort of impact on the things you buy. You have a list of cars and clothes to buy from and that's it. You can't respray your car, or upgrade the rims, you can't mix and match clothing items or even pimp out your hideout with more hi-tech gadgets, which I would assume a hacker would have as his ideal hideout (I know I would!).

Cars on Demand Shop

A Possible Sequel?

I don't want to leave the review on a bad note because the game has a lot of potential. The whole hacking concept is genius and was executed very well, it was just the story that let it down and for me that is what carries a game. The game may look crazy but the gameplay was good and the story was poor. If this was an exam it would definitely get an over all B- !! Maybe I'm just being really harsh, but I like substance in my games and if I don't feel I can relate to the story then the whole experience of the game is ruined for me. On a positive note, DedSec (a hacking collective within the game) made a viral speech at the end of the credits. A statement of absolute uproar towards ctOS (a company who controls the electrical infrastructure of Chicago) showing strong disapproval of the way the company runs, believing it is flawed and needs a new system. They make statement that 'this is war' that they have 'had enough' shortly after I am shown an advert about a new ctOS upgrade (ctOS 2.0) emphasising their purpose of branching out to the world, could this possibly be a hint of a sequel. Will we get a Watch Dogs 2? Based in another city? Various cities world wide? Ohhhhh the endless possibilities! 

My Rating out of 10 = 8

IGN =  8.4/10

GameSpot = 8/10

GamesRadar = 4/5 

Why don't you leave a comment below or tweet me your experiences of Watch Dogs. What did you think of the game? Was you fully satisfied? What were your favourite aspects?