Ever since the fantastic teaser trailer Ubisoft dropped in our laps from seemingly out of nowhere at E3 2012, the world has been waiting to get our collective hands on Watch_Dogs. Seven months removed from the financial and critical success of GTA5, (PC owners are still waiting) Ubisoft has seen fit to finally let us dive into the networked world of Chicago. The time for anticipation is over, join us as we take a look at Ubisoft’s new open world IP and see if all this hype was worth the wait or if we will be found wanting.

Game: Watch_Dogs

Published by: Ubisoft

Developed by: Ubisoft Montreal

Review Sample provided by: NVidia

Platforms: Xbox 360, Xbox One, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, WiiU, PC (Review Sample)

Genre: Open world, Action-adventure

Release Date: May 27th, 2014

MSRP: $59.99

Written by: Debo

Screenshots by: Debo


Story

Watch_Dogs follows Aiden Pearce, a surveillance obsessed hacker and vigilante on the streets of Chicago. Eleven months ago, Aiden’s actions got him caught up in a backlash of retaliation that claimed the life of his young niece. The game begins with Aiden enacting his own personal version of justice on the man responsible for her death. Through this interrogation we find out that the man is merely a pawn in a much larger scheme and simply following orders.

WD 7

Through the use of Chicago’s CtOS, a central supercomputer that gathers information on all of the city’s citizens and controls nearly every piece of technology, it is up to you and Aiden to uncover his enemies and protect his family from further harm as the webs of conspiracy continue to grow. Along the way, you’ll be able to expand on your ever evolving abilities and enact justice on the masses how you see fit.

WD 27

WD 14


Gameplay

Much of Watch_Dogs gameplay style and inspiration comes from Open World series like Grand Theft Auto and Infamous series of games with a multitude of side missions and collectibles to keep you constantly engaged. Elements of third-person stealth and shooters like Ubisoft”s own Splinter Cell and Assassins Creed series of games are also included and from the onset, the game can seem a bit overwhelming. Luckily, through clear and concise tutorials Ubisoft manages to make much of the controls feel almost instinctual.

WD 24

WD 21

WD 47

WD 37

Watch_Dogs hacking mechanics are the basis for everything in the game. From stealing bank account information to gather money and tracking down criminals to dish out your personal brand of justice in the open world to creating distractions in combat and roadblocks during car chases during missions, everything has to do with networked and interconnected systems. As you advance through the game, you gain more and more hacking powers through unlocked abilities and the skill tree.

WD 36

WD 16

WD 20

These skill trees hones Aiden’s hacking and combat abilities and allows him to take on more and more dangerous encounters with the police, rival gangs and even other hackers along the way. You can tailor his abilities to your own personal play style through the main skill tree as well as unlock new weapons, abilities and vehicles through completion of certain amount of side missions and main story mission in the Progression skill tree. I am a personal fan of making these repetitive actions and collectibles worth more than a simple achievement.

WD 31

WD 32

WD 33

WD 41

Stealth follows Splinter Cell: Blacklist almost exclusively as you hit a button to stick your back to chest high walls and can maneuver around and through you enemies with button presses. That is where the similarities end, between distractions and gadgets you can dictate engagements however you want to play them. Cameras and the very environment become extensions of yourself as you can raise and lower cover as well as force your enemies in certain ways. Many of these stealthier missions require you to take down you opponents rather than simply mindlessly killing them.

WD 8

WD 25

WD 10

WD 50

The car mechanics in Watch_Dogs are passable but most vehicles, I have found, handle more like large bricks and accelerate at an incredibly slow pace rather than decently handling machines you might expect. Damage is far from realistic, as I’ve bounced off my fair share of buildings and houses to simply keep going without much fuss. The hacking mechanism, however, make many of the car chases and pursuits quite enjoyable as your quarry and your enemies are out a button press away from activating bridges, intersection pile ups and rising barriers that you control at the push of a button.

WD 17

WD 11

WD 12

With all that is going on, Ubisoft has even saw fit to put a bit of multiplayer in the mix. These interactions are handled through multiple types of side missions known as Online Contracts and they pop up throughout your play through in a similar ways as any of the other various side missions. Simply accepting one of these side missions allows you to infiltrate the game of another player or get infiltrated yourself. Like all other side missions, Online contracts also have their own set of progression unlocks to go along with them.

WD 34

WD 45

WD 18


Controls

 As is the norm with triple-A multiplatform games these days, Watch_Dogs comes fully equipped with support for both game pads as well as keyboard and mouse control schemes. For the same of the review and because of my own personal preference I primarily played with a gamepad controller because I feel it simply is the easier way to control third person games such as this.

WD 3

As far as the gamepad control customization goes, you will find yourself limited to four preset arrangements with two being distinctly designed for left hand dominant individuals. I have stated before that preset layouts are not necessarily a bad thing to see as most game programmers actually put a sizable amount of time and thought into controller layouts during the development process. Watch_Dogs is no different here and even most actions not made in the heat of battle have on screen prompts ready for you in case you forget which buttons do what.

WD 1

Keyboard and mouse support, on the other hand, is fully customizable down to the individual button presses. The same prompts appear with this control scheme active so you don’t have to worry about setting a certain action to a key and forgetting it.

WD 2


Graphics and Audio

Just looking at the minimum required specifications lets you know the Watch_Dogs was going to be a very graphically intensive (read: pretty) game from start to finish. The Disrupt engine the game uses at its core was built from the ground up specifically for Watch_Dogs and Ubisoft has opted into the GameworksTM development platform to unlock even more of the games potential with NVidia branded cards. During this review, we took full advantage of many of these graphical features, the HBAO+ Ambient Occlusion and TXAA anti-aliasing in particular.

WD 4

WD 6

Lighting and shadows in Watch_Dogs look amazing and really bring a special atmosphere to the game. Time changes from day to night are done in a very natural way and are very fluid. The sun sets and rises throughout your adventures and, with a few specific exceptions concerning story missions, the world seems to play out as if you are a member in it rather than the all-powerful center piece dictating the passage of time.

WD 19

WD 13

Little details also make the game quite appealing as sparks and shards of debris fly from cars during collisions, random leaves blow across the roads and sidewalks and drivers flash their headlights at you and your terrible videogame driving.

WD 22

Watch_Dogs graphically also handles water physics superbly. When the clouds open up and the rain begins to pour, clothing starts to get wet and puddles start to from along the ground. Car handling is even more noticeably worse in the rain and the world is noticeably less populated as most people are rightfully seeking shelter.

WD 40

As far as sound goes, the Chicago Ubisoft Montreal has built feels alive. Ambient noise paints a vivid picture of the world around you in a subtle and engaging way. People chat amongst themselves, carry on phone conversations as they walk down the street and even on a few sparse occasions I have seen impromptu beat box sessions break out amongst the rank and file while on my way to missions.

WD 46

Watch_Dogs nails its Information Age style almost perfectly when it comes to in game music. Accompanying the game is a large selection of songs from various artists in various genres. This list is initially quite larger but can be grown even more by hacking songs off random passers-by on the street. Since Aiden’s primary tool is also a powerful, fully functioning smart phone you can play these tunes anywhere, in the car or out. The game even goes one-step further by giving you an in game app to arrange your collected songs into specific play lists. The only grip I have here is Ubisoft went pretty in depth as far as the music goes but fell short in not providing a way to actually let us use our own downloaded songs in game.


Overall and Final Verdict

Though I feel as if I am far from finishing the game I can say that 10 hours into the Watch_Dogs experience I feel both engaged and interested. Side content and random fun have slowed my main story progression to a crawl but I still am having so much fun as the hours seem to tick by without me noticing. I am never at a point of wondering what to do next as much content seems to keep coming faster than you can complete it and because of that Chicago feels alive. The world Ubisoft Montreal has created pulls you in from the first moment and through all of it you really get the sense that what you’re doing matters. Character dialogue is distinct and the writing for Aiden and his many acquaintances feels unique and complex as if each character was more of a person that a pixelated puppet on screen.

WD 30

Car control I feel is an area that could use a bit of an improvement. Even the most sporty and agile cars still feel and handle like oversized bricks with slow acceleration and terrible turning. As you improve your driving skills through the skill tree things start to get even weirder as cars start to get the ability to ram delivery trucks at full speed and still keep going with minimal damage.

WD 23

A few graphical glitches are also present. The first, and most obvious, one seems to have to do with the layering of graphics. From time to time waypoint lines, piles of leaves and even sidewalk and road textures can find themselves being placed on top of other objects on the screen in a very jarring way that sometimes makes play impossible. A reload from your last autosave is enough to clear this up but it can be a little jarring on first encounter, especially in the middle of a mission. The second graphical issue is what has become the highly publicized “reflection bug” wherein Aiden and other NPC models actually don’t appear in reflections found in glass and windows. This isn’t as jarring as you might expect as many windows at street level are quite small and unless you go looking for this weird little issue it doesn’t take much away from the experience.

WD 35

Watch_Dogs is a very enjoyable experience and offers a large amount of this for you to do beyond simply completion of the main story. In typical open world fashion you can have just as much fun walking around doing much of nothing as you can engaging gangs in shootouts and tracking down other hackers in online play. If you find yourself and avid fan of games in the mold of the Grand Theft Auto series and Just Cause 2, Watch_Dogs is a perfect addition to you collection. If you just happen to like fun, enjoyable gaming experiences you can’t go wrong here either. Watch_Dogs certainly earns our stamp of approval.

fv3tophonors

Author Bio
William
Author: William
Review and Event Staff
William is the newest addition to both the Review and Event staff. Being in charge of power, hopefully you have to see very little of him during our lans. Outside of lans he can be found engaging in his unhealthy obsession with all things gaming in between writing the odd review and bothering Wes at all hours of the day. An avid gamer nearly all his life, it is common for the latest MMO release to cause him to drop off the face of the Earth for a week or two.

Log in to comment

Deb0's Avatar
Deb0 replied the topic: #34904 02 Jun 2014 21:56
Believe it or not, we still play games around here. Start your week off right with our review of Ubisoft's new open world IP Watch_Dogs.

We have 2858 guests and no members online

supportus