Watch Dogs is an open world action adventure game by Ubisoft. This was one of the biggest games to be released for the PlayStation 4 during its early days and features better graphics compared to its PlayStation 3 counterpart. However, it is not much of an upgrade and the character models lack detail. As an Ubisoft open world game, it features an extremely familiar structure, which is either a good or bad thing depending on if you like this structure. You're free to explore the world but it is filled with various icons which represent story missions, side missions, minigames and collectibles. Watch Dogs is set in Chicago and is a fairly fun place to explore.
You control Aiden Pierce, who is a genius hacker. This world is set during a time where everything is online interactive. Aiden is able to use just his cellphone to hack into other people's phones to steal their information, change traffic lights, open doors and a myriad of other stuff. While this may sound cool and it is a unique premise, you only hold down one button to do all this so the novelty quickly wears off. All the "puzzles" end up devolving into looking around to find what you can hack and then change a few camera perspectives to unlock a door.
However, Aiden is nimble. It's almost like Assassin's Creed but set in the present day as Aiden can run and climb up various obstacles. He can take control of any vehicle although the vehicle controls feel slippery. A neat thing is that Aiden can craft various gadgets to use such as a jammer, frag grenades and even effects such as causing a local blackout. While Aiden can do stealth takedowns, gunplay is a big part of the game with a variety of weapons and a cover system.
Aiden has a skill tree and this is one of the more addictive elements of the game. As Aiden levels up through playing the game and completing missions, he gains experience to level up and gain skill points to unlock these extra useful skills. The mission structure is stock standard and nothing really stands out. The missions where Aiden has to infiltrate an area can be interesting as you can go in guns blazing or try and stealth your way through. There are some missions where it forces you to stealth and those can be annoying as the game forces you to play in a very specific way.
By the time you finish the second chapter, you'll be sick of the same types of missions (which extends to the side missions). There's really only so much "hacking" using the one button, switching viewpoints to direct NPCs, shoot-outs and sneaking that you can take. It's really taxing when the second half of the game throws bullet sponge enemies again and again and again, it's just not fun.
The designs of the later missions are also horrible. There are instant fail missions if you even try to do something the developers didn't want you to, you have to go their way or not progress at all. You are forced into stupid chases, escort missions and the most obnoxious is how it constantly forces you to do the "hacking" puzzles, which are ones where you direct beams of light. Seriously, whoever thought that solving three in a row with a time limit is fun needs to reevaluate the whole game.
The handling of the driving is horrendous in this game, making it unfun. You can't turn corners with even a little speed, and the missions forcing you to take down vehicles when you can't do much ramming damage (and instead have to rely on "hacking") is lame. The game becomes a huge chore to play and some missions are frustrating with its requirements. It's like Ubisoft took the most generic things about open-world games and put it into Watch Dogs.
The story focuses upon how one hacking job went wrong for Aiden causing the death of one of his beloved. Thus the game revolves around Aiden tracking down the killer and it's a stock standard revenge plot. Aiden himself is generic, and his low grumble of a voice doesn't help. You'll quickly lose interest in the story as it never seems to feel like anything meaningful is happening. The ending is anticlimactic and pretty bad in general. The mission structure was also annoying with it being compulsory that the police chase you for most of it. Oh yeah, and then there's Ubisoft's unskippable credits. While credits are good to acknowledge the people who are behind the game, it's annoying when it goes for 20 minutes and lists every person and their extended family that barely touched the game.
The online mode has a twist to it. In addition to more traditional modes such as races, you can infiltrate the games of other players to tail them or hack them. It becomes a cat and mouse chase as the infiltrated player will try and find the hacker. It's fun for the first few times but can get repetitive soon after. As typical of Ubisoft games, there is an overload of collectibles. It's too much and too boring. At least you can ignore nearly all of them but when you have over 100 collectibles and over 100 side-missions, it's a tad excessive and bloats the game, especially when it's the same thing repeated ad nauseam. That being said, the side missions feel like they give you a bit more freedom compared to story missions, and that makes them less stressful (or annoying instant-fail missions) and more enjoyable.
Overall, Watch Dogs is a mediocre game bordering on annoying at times. The hacking is a great concept but poorly executed. The vehicle handling is horrendous and is surprising that no one in the development team actually questioned it. The story is bland, the characters are bland and the game is just bland in general. If you really want to play the game, then play for maybe the first chapter or so because those are its best bits and it only gets worse from there.
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