So, this week I finished Watch_Dogs on PS4. By finished I don't mean I 100%ed the game. I finished the main story and the majority of the side quests. I currently sit at over 75% completion and I don't feel particularly compelled to try to eek out the mythical platinum trophy. Why? Well, come along and let me tell you about a game that I felt like I played before which has no soul.
For the unfamiliar, in Watch_Dogs you play Aiden Pearce a "fixer" who can use the magicks of the internets and an iPhone to "Hack the Planet" or at least Chicago. The city is connected by a network called “ctOS.” This is how you hack cameras, traffic lights, road blockers, garage doors, etc. You can even hack steam pipes and make them explode…somehow.
Anyways, like I mentioned this all happens in the sandboxed City of Chicago. Or at least I think it’s Chicago, everything kinda looks like Chicago but nothing has the same name. For example the Magnificent Mile is called the “Mad Mile.” I don’t know why they changed the names. Copyright issues? Can you copyright a city? I understand not wanting to shell out the dough to actually call the baseball team the White Sox but it seems like other places should share the same name as the actual city. If you know why everything is slightly different please leave a comment below and help me understand. The fact that ubisoft did this make me feel less connected to the game but more on this later.
The story is set in motion when Aiden takes a job with his partner and it all goes wrong. The fall out results in the breakup of his partnership and ultimately the death of his innocent niece. This is where the playable game picks up as Aiden set outs to find the people who murdered his niece and make it right. Pretty standard, correct? This adds to the whole “no soul” topic I mentioned earlier but I will come to that later.
Before I get into what I didn’t like about the game, let me state what I did like. The city and surrounding areas are gorgeous. It feels like a big city. There are many different places to visit and many different environments. You can go from the heart of the city to a trailer park on the outskirts to a park to a cemetery to the ball field to the docks, etc. It really does a great job in this aspect. I also liked how the game controlled. It was simple, no complicated button combos, and the aiming / shooting mechanics were surprisingly solid. There are also a decent amount of side missions with some variety. When you want something different from the main story, you can race, take out a gang hideout, transport cars, run from the police, and play online. The online one on one hacking is quite fun. It’s nice to invade someone else’s city, hack them, hide, and watch as they run around trying to find you. It can be quite comical at times. Finally, I liked that there is a very light RPG element. You have skills and as you level up you get points to buy new skills. Now, you can get them all so there is no replay value in going back to play as a different character builds, which is disappointing.
All this said, why didn’t I like the game as much as I had hoped? Well, it comes down to two points. First, I feel like I have played this game before. Second, I did not get connected to this game. Let me address each of these points individually.
First, I have played this game before. Not specifically this game mind you, but very similar ones and many of them in fact. This game comes across as a GTA clone that wants, nay requires you to be good. If you injure / kill civilians you lose reputation with the populous a whole. If you go far enough on the “bad side” people will call the police when you take their cars or even simply on sight. This game also plays like Assassin’s Creed. No surprise as it’s from ubisoft but it just seems too similar. You climb up buildings, jump over things, take out targets from far away or up close, etc. If you did it in an Assassin’s Creed game you can do something similar in Watch_Dogs. The game tries to go in a different direction but perhaps it didn’t go far enough. At times, I felt like I was playing Assassin’s Creed 2 with different texture mapping. There is a satirical article about “Ubisoft Game.” Let me link it below for you. This helps to sum it up pretty well.
My second issue with the game is that I didn’t get connected to it. I mentioned briefly that the city and the story really didn’t jump off the page at me. I feel that Ubisoft is trying to set up a blockbuster film starring Tom Cruise as Aiden. They look very similar to begin with. Aiden seems less crazy and more rigid though. The plot and characters are generic, so I couldn’t connect with that. The city isn’t really Chicago, so I couldn’t connect with that. The gameplay was solid, but I have done it before. What’s left? There was no soul to this game. For all the thousands of people that had a hand in making it, no one put the soul in. There was not a moment where I was truly brought in and sucked in.
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| I see what you are doing ubisoft |
I believe this is a problem that Ubisoft and EA games are running into. You put so many people on a game, you put so much money it, you have to play it safe to make that money back. This is a completely different topic that I will address in a different post down the line.
Ultimately, it’s a solid game. The gameplay is good and fun at times. For how large the scope of this game is, they missed the most important part. They missed something to make me connect to it. Each individual part of the game is solid. The problem happened when they put it together. It fits together like a robot, highly functioning but not personal. I don’t have much time for video games anymore so when I play them, I want something to connect to. I want a story, I want a reason to keep exploring. As technically solid as Watch_Dogs is, it lacks that special moment to push it over the top. 7/10.
Currently Playing: Call of Cthulhu, Dark Corners of the Earth
Currently Painting: Borka Kegslayer
Currently Listening To: Nightfall in Middle-Earth - Blind Guardian
Currently Listening To: Nightfall in Middle-Earth - Blind Guardian
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