Watch Dogs is an open-world game similar to GTA and Saints Row and Just Cause but without the humor, freedom or fun. But it is a good game in its own right. Hacking is the main aspect Watch Dogs. Although the hacking does seem a bit far-fetched. Raising or lowering a bridge and causing blackouts and all that isn’t a big deal for a hacker. But doing it through your phone? Now that’s a bit ambitious!
The story is set in a not so distant future in a fictional version of Chicago, Illinois where everything is computerized and everyone and everything is connected to a dangerously unstable network and you are always under surveillance. Aiden Pearce is a highly skilled hacker who lost his niece Lena Pierce and vowed to protect his remaining family using the network to punish the people who killed her
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The developers at Ubisoft have delivered once again with their awesome worlds. They have given Watch Dogs one of my favourite open-worlds just behind Grand Theft Auto V’s open-world. The gameplay is good but the main character is a bit hard to get used to. Aiden Pearce talks a lot in this game and his voice is a bit hoarse. If Christian Bale’s batman smoked a pack a day he would only sound half as rough as Aiden.
Aiden is also a bit dumb. He is a man who can craft complicated electronics but not an extra battery or something for his phone because my phone frequently keeps dying and I can’t use it hack stuff and then I get shot and I die! When his niece dies out of revenge for a crime he committed, he doesn’t retire and reflect on his negative life choice. Instead he will murder those who are slightly responsible, everyone who is employed by that slightly responsible and every innocent civilian who gets in his way. It’s really dumb if you think about it. The hacking as I said before is a bit ambitious. It’s also a very unrealistic depiction of hacking. You hack stuff by pressing a key long enough or by solving a toddler level puzzle.
But after you’ve stopped complaining about all the little problems, you can blow off some steam by initiating police chases and using the cops’ own barriers against them, causing utter mayhem by changing all traffic lights to green or draining the bank accounts of Chicago’s population. The explosions in this game make it feel like a Michael Bay movie.
All in all this game is good but not all that good. Maybe average. But if you just want to cause big explosions and see people suffer, then this is the game for you.