So the game didn?t live up to the hype(to put it mildly) mainly due to false advertising on Ubisoft?s part. Graphics were significantly downgraded and in essence this is just another GTA-clone. But now the smoke has settled there is no denying this game also did a lot of things right, something it might have gotten more credit for if the game wasn?t so full of overblown expectations. However, I still find myself returning to it again and again.
Chicago might not look entirely like Chicago(never been there so can?t personally decide) but it certainly does look like any other fairly prosperous western city. There is not really any interaction with random NPCs but the simple mechanic of you being able to spy for a tidbit of random(and often naughty) info on their phone gives these faceless drones a personality they wouldn?t otherwise have. Simple mechanic but one that's surprisingly effective.
The action is also really good, and probably my favorite part of the game. I absolutely loved Splinter Cell Blacklist and they basically transplanted the gameplay systems of this game wholesale. It just works really well in an open-world crime game. Watch Dogs simply has the best stealth of any open world game and going in and out of cover taking down enemies is a blast. There is a wide variety of weapons as well. It?s all really detailed which also makes it even better.
Speaking of detail this game is incredibly well made in terms of in-game assets. Almost everything seems custom made with no easy cut&pasting. On a game of this scale that is quite a feat(and a costly/time intensive one). Sure, graphics aren?t up to par with the E3 demo but the fallout of this debacle kind of unfairly discredits the immense detail that went into making this game. I have the impression they downscaled the graphics to increase performance b/c what they aimed for was too ambitious and self-contained(something more pre-release press demos suffer from).
Next is the setting which I think is also incredibly awesome. A ?connected? city controlled by a questionable corporation that heavily infringes on privacy issues with politicians in their pocket doesn?t sound that far-fetched, and the way it?s presented in Watch Dogs makes it play out like some near-future cyperpunk tale. Espescially with the population of Chicago being glued to their phones 24/7 which also isn?t really far-fetched.
Now ofcourse the game isn?t in any way perfect(even ignoring all the preceding hype). The character drama feels forced and although I didn?t really care about Aiden being considered a ?bland? character; it just didn?t really add anything to the game other than some contextual filler to tie the missions together. However with a setting this cool and intriguing there was no need for a story like this anyway, and I?d rather they kept it out altogether and focused the plot solely on ctOS and their hacker adversaries Dedsec. Gameplay wise the driving was serviceable but nowhere near as good as in say GTA5 or Sleeping Dogs. The missions were prone to repetition, but this was somewhat mitigated by the non-linearity with which you could approach objectives,
Watch Dogs is probably my favorite Ubisoft title in years. You can see in parts of the game that the developers didn?t really have prior experience developing a game like this with ideas that don?t necessarily all coalesce that well, but at the same time bring a novelty to the experience new iterations of GTA are starting to lack. It?s definitely a little rough around the edges and lacks a clear focus that gives the game a kind of ?jack of all trades, master of none? feel. However it also does a lot of things right that(atleast in my experience) makes the game consistently fun to play.
There is no doubt there will be a Watch Dogs 2 and I hope that with the experience of this game that will be what they promised to us at E3 2012. So, any of you still interested in this IP or did the original game destroyed all your hopes and dreams?
Chicago might not look entirely like Chicago(never been there so can?t personally decide) but it certainly does look like any other fairly prosperous western city. There is not really any interaction with random NPCs but the simple mechanic of you being able to spy for a tidbit of random(and often naughty) info on their phone gives these faceless drones a personality they wouldn?t otherwise have. Simple mechanic but one that's surprisingly effective.
The action is also really good, and probably my favorite part of the game. I absolutely loved Splinter Cell Blacklist and they basically transplanted the gameplay systems of this game wholesale. It just works really well in an open-world crime game. Watch Dogs simply has the best stealth of any open world game and going in and out of cover taking down enemies is a blast. There is a wide variety of weapons as well. It?s all really detailed which also makes it even better.
Speaking of detail this game is incredibly well made in terms of in-game assets. Almost everything seems custom made with no easy cut&pasting. On a game of this scale that is quite a feat(and a costly/time intensive one). Sure, graphics aren?t up to par with the E3 demo but the fallout of this debacle kind of unfairly discredits the immense detail that went into making this game. I have the impression they downscaled the graphics to increase performance b/c what they aimed for was too ambitious and self-contained(something more pre-release press demos suffer from).
Next is the setting which I think is also incredibly awesome. A ?connected? city controlled by a questionable corporation that heavily infringes on privacy issues with politicians in their pocket doesn?t sound that far-fetched, and the way it?s presented in Watch Dogs makes it play out like some near-future cyperpunk tale. Espescially with the population of Chicago being glued to their phones 24/7 which also isn?t really far-fetched.
Now ofcourse the game isn?t in any way perfect(even ignoring all the preceding hype). The character drama feels forced and although I didn?t really care about Aiden being considered a ?bland? character; it just didn?t really add anything to the game other than some contextual filler to tie the missions together. However with a setting this cool and intriguing there was no need for a story like this anyway, and I?d rather they kept it out altogether and focused the plot solely on ctOS and their hacker adversaries Dedsec. Gameplay wise the driving was serviceable but nowhere near as good as in say GTA5 or Sleeping Dogs. The missions were prone to repetition, but this was somewhat mitigated by the non-linearity with which you could approach objectives,
Watch Dogs is probably my favorite Ubisoft title in years. You can see in parts of the game that the developers didn?t really have prior experience developing a game like this with ideas that don?t necessarily all coalesce that well, but at the same time bring a novelty to the experience new iterations of GTA are starting to lack. It?s definitely a little rough around the edges and lacks a clear focus that gives the game a kind of ?jack of all trades, master of none? feel. However it also does a lot of things right that(atleast in my experience) makes the game consistently fun to play.
There is no doubt there will be a Watch Dogs 2 and I hope that with the experience of this game that will be what they promised to us at E3 2012.
So, any of you still interested in this IP or did the original game destroyed all your hopes and dreams? 
