The remarkable thing about the “Drive somewhere, kill someone, drive away,” feedback loop is it holds remarkable sway over me. I don’t want to leave you with the impression that I had zero fun with Watch Dogs, which I understand would be an easy takeaway after this negative a review. Certainly it’s more interesting than forcing me and a bunch of others into an instanced world for competition, or jamming the same handful of stupid gametypes (Team Deathmatch) into games that aren’t built to support those. That being said, it is a fascinating sort of multiplayer I’d like to see more often. The game is long to start with, feels somehow even longer, and at the end you’re left with an utterly forgettable storyline and a handful of amazing “Remember when that street blew up?” moments. I just don’t even know what to say about Watch Dogs. Sometimes bad things happen and the sad music starts playing. Occasionally you’ll forget a character’s name. Characters you’re never given a reason to care about have things happen to them.
Aiden Pearce and his self-righteous quest for revenge (tinged every once in a while with “Oh no, what have I done?”) is the most boring story since Assassin’s Creed III’s tale of Connor, who was on a quest for vengeance after some other MacGuffin left his mother dead.Īlong the way, relationships will be betrayed and secrets revealed and plot twists unveiled with all the hitting power of a foam baseball bat, as most “twists” are telegraphed hours ahead of time. Most of our stories are middling at best-and it’s here that Watch Dogs resides. It’s not that a tale retold is necessarily bad. 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.
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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.
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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. It looks good, and that’s all that matters. Does it look as good as target videos, et cetera et cetera? I’ll admit, I don’t really care.
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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. It seems like so long ago-this promise of an incredible, next-gen open world experience, and one in which you could directly manipulate much of the environment by “hacking,” no less.Īfter a lengthy wait and a subsequent delay, it’s finally here. I remember watching Ubisoft unveil Watch Dogs at E3 nearly two years ago now.