Watch Dogs, Revisited
Recently my illustrious (and handsome!) colleague Charles reviewed Watch Dogs (Ubisoft, PS4/Xbox One, Xbox 360/PS3 and PC) , and did a bang up job (Editor’s note: Love the way you kiss up here Chris!). I’ve spent the past few months with Watch Dogs and have some thoughts of my own. Charles played the Xbox One version and I’ve been playing it on PS4.
I followed Watch Dogs closely before its release this past May 2014. In fact I remember seeing it last year at PAX 2013 and thinking how amazing it looked at the time. One of the features I was most excited about was the ability to play with your friends remotely via tablet. For example a remote player could control helicopters or UAV’s while you play on the console simultaneously. I haven’t had a chance to try out this feature so if anybody wants to let me know!
As I played the game more and more, I couldn’t help but think of GTA4. Watch Dogs is set in near-future Chicago but it feels a lot like Liberty City to me. The driving mechanics and constant looming presence of the elevated train just completes the feeling (TIP – The EL is a great place to hide from helicopters, by foot or car!) While the graphics in GTA4 were resembled an annoying bubble-gum looking impressionist painting, Watch Dogs looks pretty sharp. Graphically its not the most amazing title that I’ve seen, but it looks pretty good.
Gameplay overall is satisfying, but the driving mechanics may drive you a bit crazy (Editor’s note: There isn’t an easy emoticon for me to enter here that shows me groaning at that pun). If Watch Dogs also took after GTA4’s refined and elegant driving mechanism, life would be better. But as it is, the driving mechanics in Watch Dogs feels clunky at times. It’s a shame because if you want to get across the city during a mission you really don’t have any other quick, practical way to get there. There is a quick travel feature but is only available in between missions. Charles’ description as vehicle mechanics resembling a refrigerator on wheels is sadly accurate. But like most open world driving games each vehicle has its own unique feel – so steal… I mean borrow… wisely.
Shooting and weapons gameplay is fine, but nothing significant. You have a standard assortment of weapons ranging from hand guns to assault rifles to hand grenades and IED’s. some of these you can purchase at gun shops and other items you craft from in-world supplies. Where Watch Dogs excels by far is the hacking skill. Hacking is a fun trick that allows you to interact with your environment and take out enemies in satisfying and unique ways. You can hack traffic lights to make them turn (always resulting in muli car pileups which is just funny and ridiculous, even if the intersection is empty before). You can hack bridges and bollards to make them raise and lower. Once you acquire enough skill points you can also cause underground steam pipes to burst, and also cause electrical boxes to explode. One frustration is that early in the game, a mission required a certain craftable item (called Jam comms – it does what it says). I didn’t realize this until I got to the very end of the mission and was unable to complete it due to the lack of a required item. Doh! I had to go back, obtain enough skill points to craft said item, then complete the mission again from scratch.
I’ve mentioned Skill points, so its worth noting they are quite essential to gameplay. As with many games ranging from Fallout to Oblivion, skill points allow you to increase your abilities. These include hacking various devices, combat, driving, and general attributes. Skill points are relatively easy to obtain and can be achieved by completing main or side missions, or playing various VR-style minigames located throughout the city.
My colleague Charles was quite infatuated with one particular minigame, Spider Tank. And I can see why! The game allows you to go on a rampage (a la King Cong) equipped with a bad ass DARPA-inspired robot spider tank complete with mini gun and missile launcher. It’s a fun way to go ballistic in Watch Dogs’ carefully rendered version of Chicago without totally screwing up the main mission or game progress. Overall Watch Dogs is a fun and engaging experience from Ubisoft with some unique mechanics such as hacking. If you like open world driving adventures with occasional combat then its worth checking out.
That said, I’d still like to try the tablet-based co-op so if anybody is interested let me know!
