It’s a tale that’s been told and retold so many times you can see the footprints all across its face. Aiden Pearce, a hacker/criminal, is on a quest for vengeance after a job gone wrong left his niece dead. It’s a more logical version of Assassin’s Creed’s locale data, which I’ve always enjoyed.īut the overarching story in Watch Dogs is just bland. One of my favorite features ended up being the in-game take on Foursquare you can “check in” at landmarks and in the process receive a brief history lesson about the location. Commendations to those who recreated Chicago-I don’t know the city as well as, say, Los Angeles, but Watch Dogs sells its incarnation of Chicago hard. On a smaller scale, Watch Dogs takes up residence in Chicago. The hacking’s an interesting twist the first few times you use it, but the shooting in Watch Dogs is just as subpar as I’ve come to expect from open-world games, and it’s far more prevalent. As a hacker, Pearce can force his way into this system and use it for his own vigilante needs, or simply spy on people. It’s a not-so-subtle commentary on our own world and the question of privacy in a post-NSA era. ![]() A big, maybe-evil corporation created a network called ctOS that controls everything from the steam pipes (oh, so that’s why they explode!) to your phone to the camera on your favorite game console. Watch Dogs stakes a claim to this near-future, reflection-of-our-own-tech-dependency, hack-everything world. I loved Assassin’s Creed IV despite it having essentially the same feedback loop. If you’re not going to innovate, you have to- have to-make your mark here, with story. Assassin’s Creed dominates the “We love history!” market. Saints Row picked up the “We’re wacky!” flag when Grand Theft Auto disposed of it. Grand Theft Auto has taken up the incredibly-serious, “It’s like a movie you control!” segment of the market. With a few of these open-world games every year, games have survived by staking claims to specific niches. (Which, just so we’re clear, is Assassin’s Creed III.) Watch Dogs plays like a weird fusion of Grand Theft Auto and the worst Assassin’s Creed game. But do not be tricked by pretty graphics into thinking you’re receiving something more than what’s actually in the box. Skill trees-hacking, combat, driving, and crafting items-help you tailor Aiden to better suit your chosen play style, a nice touch. It’s a fun enough game, punctuated by some mind-blowing moments of hack-powered awesomeness, and it’s full of distracting things to do in that now rote open-world way. If you’re a fan of that now rote open-world feedback loop, congratulations-you are going to love Watch Dogs. There is no innovation here, and nothing to make the feedback loop any more entertaining than it has been in the past. Why are all our open-world games still so largely bereft of foot traffic? Why is there so little for me to spend my accumulated cash on? Why are the buildings just husks-pretty exteriors with few real interior environments? I can’t help but wonder if we went wrong somewhere. ![]() There is nothing next-gen about Watch Dogs outside of its graphics, and that’s a damn shame. Its lights reflect convincingly, and we’ve about reached the feasible limit of “recreating cities in 3D environments” without drastically changing up how developers create games.ĭistill Watch Dogs down to its core concepts, however, and you’ve got Grand Theft Auto III. It looks good, and that’s all that matters.īut as we enter into our third console generation with these massive open-world games, I think it’s finally time to ask what we expect out of this genre. Does it look as good as target videos, et cetera et cetera? I’ll admit, I don’t really care. Find a dark, rainy night in Chicago on your super-powerful PC and just watch the lights reflect off the wet pavement. Ignore that it’s coming to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3-Watch Dogs looked next-gen, and it still does. Prior to the delay, Watch Dogs was supposed to be most people’s first real next-gen game. Unfortunately, the end result doesn’t feel quite as groundbreaking as the years worth of previews would have us believe. The shoes of Aiden Pearce, hacker-at-large and all-around vigilante, are ready to be filled. After a lengthy wait and a subsequent delay, it’s finally here.
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