Watch Dogs Byte Sized Review

In June of 2012, Ubisoft blew the roof off the E3 in L.A. by revealing a brand new game at the very end of their presentation. Called “Watch_Dogs,” the game features a vigilante protagonist that can manipulate almost anything in the city by hacking it with his phone. Trying to escape in a car chase? Turn all the traffic lights green in a busy intersection and let the ensuing chaos take out your pursuers. Low on cash? Hack pedestrians’ phones as they walk by and withdraw money from their accounts at any ATM. The game looked unbelievably realistic, and ran away with multiple ‘best of’ awards from many gaming websites.

When it missed its 2013 launch window and got pushed back to spring of 2014, some of that hype died down. Ubisoft went on to break records with the release of Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag instead, so I don’t think it bothered them too much. There WAS enough hype left over for Watch_Dogs after all, as it broke those ACIV records by selling 4 million copies in one week!

Is it good? I think Watch_Dogs is very deserving of all the praise it can get as it truly feels “next gen” to me. There are the obvious comparisons to open sand box games, especially Grand Theft Auto and even Ubisoft’s own Assassin’s Creed. Players can accept main story missions or explore Chicago (and Pawnee!) for side missions and more advantage over the “CitOS” that runs everything. These side missions can vary from stopping potential crimes, driving missions, or solving missing person cases, and are pleasantly distracting from the main story.

Aiden Pearce compliments his hacking with impressive melee take downs, expert driving, and lethal firearm skills. It’s really fun to use a combination of these skills, like hacking a car alarm to distract a guard or blowing a gas line to even the odds in a firefight. Car chases and firefights require a lot of quick thinking and the game is pretty challenging. The controls are solid, though Aiden isn’t a super hero that can take a lot of damage. Timing a traffic jam in a hacked intersection is a lot harder than it sounds, as the enemies seem better at dodging other cars than one would expect. To ease the frustration, the game is generous with check points and missions can usually be restarted at any time.

If all of this sounds like another Grand Theft Auto or Assassin’s Creed game, but with hacking, you’d only be half right. The extra features of Watch_Dogs push it beyond the limits of the “sand box” genre into its own “next gen” world. I’m very happy with the way they’ve seamlessly integrated multi-player features into the single player experience; allowing players to “invade” or be invaded by other players simply by using Aiden’s smartphone. Some of my favorite gaming experiences so far have been playing games of “cat and mouse” with other players, or trying to evade the police cars and obstacles another player pits against me using a *free* companion mobile app! That’s right, someone that doesn’t even OWN Wach_Dogs can get a mobile game that lets them control a collection of “hacks” and police vehicles to try to run down another person in their “normal” single player game. It’s so ridiculously fun! There are other MP modes, including full team vs team modes, that I look forward to trying.

The hype is still alive at eBash Video Game Centers, as Watch_Dogs has been consistently checked out since it’s release. It’s open sand box game play and “next gen” integrated multi-player makes it a great fit for gaming alone or with friends at eBash!

Content Descriptors: Blood, Intense Violence, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs and Alcohol

Other: Includes online features that may expose players to unrated user-generated content (Windows PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One)