WATCH_DOGS Review
After years of development, push-backs and over-the-top hype, is Watchdogs as great as Ubisoft say it is? No!
You’re Aiden Pierce, an expert hacker and ex-con. A job has gone wrong due to your unwillingness to complete a bank (hack) robbery and those that felt let down by you have caused the death of your niece, Lena. You are now out seeking revenge on those that killed her and nothing is standing in your way. By manipulating the CTOS (Central Operating System) Aiden is able to track-down possible suspects and access every piece of technology within Chicago in order to gain information and keep the enemy off his tail.
Right, Aiden… He’s a very boring brown-haired -stubble-wearing husky –voice-bearing male that is the obvious fit to every other male you’ve played in every other video game. There is absolutely nothing distinctive about him, nothing quirky or different apart from his crap clothes and ability to hack. GIVE . ME . A . BREAK!
Chicago is a great setting for the game and it really does feel lively. There are huge arrays of people that don’t look too familiar and are all doing their own thing, and it’s great. It’s very rare to see a sandbox game offering such diversity in the public “AI” of the game but Ubisoft have done a great job here.
Graphically the game looks OK. I don’t think that Watchdogs looks any better than GTA V on the Xbox 360 and it definitely isn’t better looking than ‘The Last of Us’ on PS3., but the good news is that there is never any pop-in or other graphical annoyances. Actually, the weather effects are pretty good, but again, nothing better than we’ve already seen.
Throughout the game you will receive your missions through your phone from an accomplice that feels the need to use a voice changer. Watchdogs is full of your typical “go there and do this” mission’s and to be honest, the story is pretty boring which is a shame because it had huge potential. And the missions, well…. They’re pretty cliché and expected. There is nothing here that you haven’t done a thousand times in every other sandbox game, just this time you have a pretty cool phone.
Completing missions rewards you with XP, and each time you receive a certain amount you’re rewarded with a skill point which can be used to increase your abilities. The abilities that you can improve are; combat, hacking, driving and crafting items. Combat speaks for itself, it allows you to be more effective in combat, hacking (the most important) allows you to hack more objects, more effectively, driving will have you gaining entry to cars without tripping the alarm etc and crafting allows you to craft better and more effective items.Ranking up and gaining reward points feels like a very slow process, especially when some of the upgrades cost 3 points.
Apart from your main missions you’ll also get a few side-missions popping up. A notification will show up on the screen to tell you that a possible crime is about to be committed and then the option to put a marker in place is offered so that you can go there and deal with the situation. The problem with this is that the missions are pretty much all the same. You go to an area, hack a person and then follow them until they commit a crime. This is all well and good, but I have no idea why Aiden thinks he has the right to interfere in what should be the local law enforcements job. Maybe he’s just one of them “Have a go heroes”…
There are many shops located throughout the city where you can purchase guns and ingredients (more on ingredients in a bit) but you shouldn’t need too much ammo because the main idea is to move under the cover of technology without being seen. However, you will be forced to shoot a few guys at different points in the game. On a side note, whilst moving throughout the city you’ll be wise to get familiar with line-of-site because the whole game is basically built around it. If you have to go and infiltrate an area, your biggest friend is yourself in the right position so that you can constantly move between cameras. Failing this, you’ll be in gun fights constantly.
If you have purchased ingredients or found them whilst on your travels, you’re able to craft some very handy items. Blackout totally wipes out electronics within a small radius, grenades kill people and blow things up (obviously) jammers stop the public from calling the cops and also interferes in the police’s search of you, and lures can help you guide an enemy into a trap or just out of your way.The crafting is a cool idea, but again, it’s already been seen in a far superior game ‘The Last of Us’.
Multiplayer consists of races, capture and hold and hacking type missions and they’re pretty good for an hour, after which you realise that you’re becoming dopey with boredom. Seriously, one hour is enough and then it’s game over for the multiplayer
Watchdogs is far from revolutionary because it does the exact same thing that every other sandbox games does apart from the hacking side of things. There’s nothing new to see here and in my personal opinion, it’s just one massive over –hyped game that offers much less than GTA V.
6/10
Review By Wicket2961
