So, after getting my first Bloodborne character into NG+ while also finishing all the exploring / challenges in Just Cause 3 (another really fun game), I was at a bit of a loss as to what to play next (still tinkering with Bloodborne, by the way, finishing my 3rd character at the moment).
I tried Star Wars Battlefront, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Shadow Warrior, The Witcher 3, a few indie games from the PSN store, and finally, after reading an excellent review, loaded up Watch Dogs.
I was enthralled from the start!
I have always really enjoyed open world sandbox games, and this one, set in essentially-now-but-maybe-a-few-minutes-in-the-future Chicago, was a standout example of the genre.
You play Aiden Pearce, cybercriminal / hacker extraordinaire. He soon enough gets betrayed by his greedy partner-in-crime and his daughter gets killed by an assassin hired by the powerful victim of his last big job gone terribly wrong. Thus starts Aiden’s quest for revenge…
The story mode could DEFINITELY be longer, and many of the missions, especially the first ones, seem way too easy if you had, like me, taken the time to do most of the (many, many) side missions / activities / exploring before delving deep into the storyline.
Oh, I should note that, having been drunk upon starting the game, I played 3/4s of the game in “Normal” until I went poking deeply through the “Options” menu looking to find a specific button in the control scheme and realized belatedly that the game has 4 different difficulty settings – Easy, Normal, Hard, and Realistic. I immediately cranked it up to Realistic and the challenge of the game went WAY Up. Of course, by then I was fairly God-like, as you are in the later stages of most games of this type.
So, back to why I enjoyed this game so much.
First, the graphics and scenery are simply gorgeous. You can tell the people who designed this game truly knew and loved the city of Chicago (and suburbs) and wanted to do it justice in the game. One of the funner (for those who love history) side activities to do (for one of the many trophies/achievements) is to visit 100 “City Hotspots” scattered throughout the city and “check in” at them. At these hotspots, you can leave gifts for others who may check in, pick up gifts left by others, read a cleverly written description and history of each historic spot, and even become “Mayor” of the spot by checking in more times than other visitors over the course of the week (you get a badge, not achievement, for being Mayor of more than 3 spots simultaneously). So, even if you don’t want to do anything but take a virtual tour of Chicago and area, it’s a beautiful and rewarding experience.
Which brings me to the vehicles (and you’ll be doing a LOT of driving!) – they are awesome. The controls are smooth and simple and the vehicles look stellar and have many types. Again, like the city, you can tell these people wanted to pay tribute to a lot of real cars out there. You can see all sorts of awesome clones of modern vehicles if you know your cars and trucks.
There are sports cars, muscle cars, trucks, SUVs, sedans, old beaters, luxury automobiles, fire trucks, ambulances, cement and garbage trucks, even motorbikes and boats. Go drive around! BUT – you are also very well rewarded for walking the streets of Chicago, which brings me to the central premise of the game – the Profiler.
Basically, a company (in Watch Dogs, the Blume Company) creates a computer system called “ctOS” (Counter Terrorism Operating System) that is tied in to virtually all of the surveillance feeds throughout Chicago and area, and they are trying to expand it to go nationwide, and from there global. Actually, a very similar situation to the show Person of Interest, now that I think about it.
So, without giving away too much of the plot, this Blume company and their essentially omniscient / omnipresent / omnipotent ctOS is deeply entangled with the people Aiden is going after.
But, ctOS allows for you to progress through the game using Aiden’s Profiler. Using his Profiler (essentially it looks looks like a modern smartphone / tablet), Aiden can hack into ctOS (which, while spying on everyone in Chicago no matter where they are, even in their own homes, via hidden cameras everywhere, also runs Chicago’s entire infrastructure and power grid) and manipulate his environment in a variety of cool and interesting ways.
You can hack into CCTV cameras liberally scattered throughout the city. You can unlock vehicles to drive. You can cause widespread power blackouts. You can raise / lower bridges connecting the various parts of Chicago. You can explode steam vents or raise street blockers to destroy vehicles chasing you. You can jam enemy communications or hack explosives they are holding. The list goes on. Now, admittedly, many of these abilities you need to unlock with skill points as you level up and progress through the game. Your Profiler starts out with only the most rudimentary of functions.
Now, to even USE the ctOS functions on your Profiler, you first need to unlock / hack into ctOS broadcast towers in each given game area. These function much like the radio towers in Far Cry 3/4 that, when unlocked, reveal hideouts in the area for you to use, enemy bases (ctOS Command Centers), businesses (weapon / meds / clothing / crafting materials shops), and area side quests. However, unlike Far Cry, etc, it’s not just a matter of finding a tower, climbing to the top, and pressing a button.
Oh, no.
You have to search through the surrounding area, sometimes starting as far as a block or two away, for either a physical path or an electronic one. For example, in one situation, I had to climb the stairs to the nearest Chicago Loop L-train station, run along the tracks until they allowed me to drop down onto a roof a few buildings away from the one with the ctOS tower on its roof, from which point I had to hop from CCTV camera to CCTV camera until I found one that allowed me the precise viewing angle to unlock a switch box beside the tower that unlocked all the security doors in the building the tower was on so I could finally physically access the tower.
Very complex and fun!
Aside from hacking / taking out enemies, another vitally important thing you need to do with your Profiler is just turn it on, walk the streets, and profile your fellow citizens. You can steal money from their bank accounts (your main way of making money in the game), hack into their voice and text calls, find out locations of nearby crimes if someone is having criminal conversations, steal songs from people (the game has a GREAT soundtrack) and steal hacking code and materials from certain phones. Most importantly, the more people you profile, the more side quest locations will be revealed to you.
You can honestly have a blast just walking down the street with your Profiler running, playing songs on your in game media app, stealing people’s cash and music, reading the funny descriptions and financial information the Profiler provides you on literally every single citizen, and reading / listening to people’s texts and voice conversations.
Now, onto the core gameplay. In terms of doing missions / side quests / completing objectives, the Profiler adds a whole new element to getting things done.
In almost any given situation, you can either go in guns blazing, which is satisfying since there are a great selection of weapons and they all look / feel nicely real, or, you can go Stealth, which can be as simple as sneaking around enemies OR utilizing tech and your Profiler.
You can use security cameras to trace guard movements, hack explode-able objects near guards to kill them, turn on vending machines, printers, lights, screens, etc to distract guards, hack on to cameras guards have on their persons and follow them throughout buildings to gain remote access to sensitive inner areas without ever setting foot in the building, and many other creative electronic tactics.
Very cool.
When hacking into protected servers and other devices, there is even a hacking game where you have to manipulate data flow lines like a puzzle to unlock your objective.
There are also TONS of side missions and activities on offer: Stealth combat missions where you have to infiltrate gang hideouts and non-lethally knock out and humiliate their leader (you can do what you will with their henchmen) and escape, criminal convoy missions where you have to ambush a cavalcade of enemy vehicles en route, racing challenges, missions to follow a target and hack his data then take him out, tracking down a serial killer by a trail of hidden bodies missions, stopping a weapons trade ring, putting down a human trafficking ring, exotic car theft and delivery missions, and many more!
There are also “Online Contracts” (player versus player scenarios in about 6 different venue types – racing, hacking, pursuing, etc) that are integrated nicely (and optionally) into your single player experience if you choose to play in Online mode.
All in all, definitely one of the most unique and creative games of this genre I’ve played. Great voice acting, excellent cut scenes, damn decent dialogue, and lots of replayability.
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