Watch Dogs, one of the biggest console games ever made was released recently, and we are thrilled to review the game for you today. The game is a masterpiece of its own. Right from the movements, to the responses from the characters in the game, everything will keep you occupied, except for the brainless (literally) hacking methods the game offers. Well, Aiden Pearce would do most of the hacking work for you instead.
I am not a gamer. But I do follow the hype that’s making rounds in the industry. And the two-year long hype for Watch Dogs is worth it. It was during the E3 2012 that the Ubisoft announced the new game’s development, and the company has done an excellent job in keeping the hype alive. And the sales numbers can prove it.
We live in a world where almost every single information you might need about a person is available online. Right from where the person is to the person he is with. And this has exposed us to a lot of vulnerabilities. Watch Dogs takes advantage of these exposures a human has in the current world, and portrays it with a story. With all the high-end gadgets, lethal weapons and a sense of liability for the tasks we do, everything is in this game.
When it comes to reviews, its not always that everything is captured and told in that review. And for Watch Dogs, it is a real challenge for an author to review the game. While some feel that the graphics has been downgraded from the original clip that was played during E3, I personally feel that it is perfect, except for some acceptable glitches.
If you are fan of games like Batman: Arkham City, GTA 5 or other chasing and story based game, then this is a combination of everything.
Lead Character – Aiden Pearce
Spoiler: Aiden Pearce – He is such a sociopath
The game revolves around Aiden Pearce, the main character of the game is here to stay. The man is a not-so-clear voiced character, who is after the people who murdered his niece and he achieves this by hacking into systems, and also, by taking them down.
The game opens up in a room, where you are supposed (guided) to kill a guy screaming for life. And once you do, the game moves on. Right from being chased by the cops to everything that would happen in a regular murder-revenge story, happens here. At one point of the game, it gets out of hand. His sister, who would beg him to move on, is killed by along with her child. But the point is, the murderer in this case, is no one else, but Pearce himself. I hated this aspect of the game, and that’s where I lost the whole point and storyline of the game. Why would a guy kill his own sister to take revenge on those who killed his niece? Well, may be to leave no trails and to save his life? But still. There’s no point in doing that.
The gears that Aiden carries are impressive. He carries a Profiler, a tool that works on a smartphone that allows you Aiden to hack into ctOS in the state, and get the information he wants. The point here is, Aiden is literally able to hack into any device that is not properly protected by the state. Which is all the devices in the state.
The worst part about the Profiler, was the ability to get any information you would want, about any citizen who is walking on the street. This is literally Herald Finch (From Person of Interest) put to bad use in the game. But then, the mostly, you would be hacking into the cameras that are around you. And these hacks doesn’t matter much, in all the situations.
There are some interesting things you can do with the cameras. You can connect these cameras, and link them together, to get some intel about the people who are being watched by the camera. By enhancing the microphone in that camera. Well, in real-life, this is creepy.
Though the game revolves around the same old storyline that I’m not expecting change anytime in this generation, the game’s graphics would eat you off. But only if you play in the right devices. I did find some flaws in the storyline. The game is completely single-minded and I wish there was an aspect of the game where you get to decide who you want to be, instead of killing those people, taking revenge, and kidnapping. May be that’s where the gaming industry should head to? Who knows.
The entire game is set in Chicago, and the main thing you would be doing in the game is to drive around in the car, that you would hack into, and then shoot people who are your targets, those who are involved in some criminal activities. But then, no one is in stealth mode always. Anyone who does a mistake or a criminal activity would pay for it. That universal rule is true for Aiden too. There’s a lot of hiding and safe houses to take in the journey.
The game has a bit of learning curve. There are some of the things that you will have to do to get to a level where you can quickly hack into the systems, run between blocks that are placed on the floor without getting caught by the cops and much more like it. Once you are used to the system, its easier for you to keep moving fast.
Watch Dogs is probably the best game till date. But there might be some alter-thoughts about this too. There’s a bit of thrill that is always happening in the game, which keeps the adrenaline rush in a really good shape. The game, which is set in Chicago, uses a lot of privacy, surveillance and data-mining to play.
At this point, I have completed the game. But then, I’m still not having the satisfaction of killing the real villain. The reason being, there’s no clear idea about who the villain is, and this is giving a sense of something that’s not been completed.
Watch Dogs is brilliant. But there are some aspects of the game that I expected. I was expecting a lot more to happen in the open, instead of chasing just the single-minded gameplay of Aiden. Believe me, GTA’s free-roam is its selling point and addiction.
To close off, Watch Dogs is a game for those who are always serious, and its a class by itself.
This game was reviewed using Watch Dogs for Xbox 360.