Watch Dogs Review

I played the first Watch Dogs almost a decade ago and I remember liking it mainly because I decided to lower my expectations due to the backlash the game got at the time, I also remember preffering the game over the Grand Theft Auto series and many Rockstar open world games. However over time considering how homogenized Ubisoft's open world design template is, how much I tried to get into it's sequel and that game was said to be improvement, and how much I am not big on Modern Ubisoft in general, and how lukewarm I have gotten on open world games in general, I was expecting to drop the first Watch Dogs game after the first few hours and look up the cutscenes on Youtube since the story of the first Watch Dogs and particularly the character of Aiden Pearce would get praise nowadays after how many detractors he got when the game initally came out. 

After all that, do I like the game? Yes, and while I don't think the game is "great" by any means, I still think the game is a solid and enjoyable if you ignore the E3 graphics debacle and how the game isn't the revolutionary open world game it was hyped up to be. 

I'll start with the story first. Surprisingly, while I never disliked Aiden when I first played like many and after playing so many games with dull silent protagonists, Watch Dogs' sequel, and other open world franchises like the aforementioned GTA, Aiden Pearce stands out by quite a large margin. 

The big reason as to why he stands out is mainly because of the fact that while the open world can arguably get in the way of that, he has geniune agency and his unlikable nature makes him stand out. 

Aiden doesn't take orders from other people nearly as much as your average GTA protagonist or many other games in the genre, Aiden is a guy that if you do the main missions only, drives the story, and when he does take orders it's beliveable since he is doing everything in his power to keep his family safe and making sure his enemies don't get to him. Aiden is always trying to stay two steps ahead of his enemies even when the game's antagonists Damien Brenks is constantly trying to break him. 

Aiden despite his stoism being derided by some, does show a good amount of character, he's definately not as bland as your usual silent protagonist is in games. Aiden doesn't show emotion but he has to in order to take find the culprit who murdered his niece, he has to not stand out and blend in order to get anything done, he has to look strong in front of his family despite all the things happening around them and on a personal note, I find the idea of Aiden's family being the only people he geniunely likes while at the same time keeping them at arm's length to be a rather relatable aspect about his character. It also works hand in hand with how with his niece diedd and constantly thinking about her, he can't form a bond with anyone and is too scared to do it. Everyone he works with like Clara, Jordi, and T-Bone are just strictly professional, for a character who gets derided as "bland", I am surprised I connected with him to this much of a degree. 

He also shows remorse for being rude to Clara later in the game and he also goes through an arc of intially doing it for revenge but then realizing that he has use his talents for greater purposes. It's all some pretty well done stuff. 

The side characters are also pretty enjoyable characters like Jordi and T-Bone along with his interactions with Aiden are well done since, it's basically a game of Aiden working with people who either has to win over and tolerates like with T-Bone or just finds his antics to be detrimental and annoying like with Jordi. 

Clara and Aiden has some decent interactions with each other even if Clara no shows for quite a long time after one of the twists. I did like how Aiden was initially hesistant of interacting with Clara and the latter's enthuasim does a good job at foreshadowing to a later twist. 

What I didn't like is that some of the villains outside of maybe Iraq were kind of underwhelming, they were more as obsticles for Aiden to overcome than geniune fleshed out characters. Damien Brenks on paper could be an interesting foil to Aiden but he just comes off as a typical arrogant money hungry villain who is using Aiden for his own personal gain and nothing more, he isn't an outright terrible villain but he doesn't go beyond being "the obsticle". 

Also the game does pull some punches with the story regarding the fate of the character "Bedbug" but I don't really mind too much since I don't mind some questionable writing here and there. 

After describing the story, what do I think of the gameplay? It's solid, but nothing great. I am not against games that have multiple design "pillars" since I do like some of those kind of games with Batman Arkham and the Middle Earth games being some examples and Watch Dogs does shooting, hacking mini games, stealth, and driving and to the game's credit, all of these things are handled competently enough and are mixed around at regular intervals to the point where nothing gets overly monotonous. 

The driving gets criticized by some people but I have played games with worse driving controls than this and I did get used to it. Jak 2 being a good example off the top of my head. You can criticize that that the hacking during the vehicle sections could arguable make them too easy but at the same time, I view this as the game substituing this for the lack of "shoot out window button" and I enjoy the specticle of a button press causing lots of carnage and destruction. It adds to the power fantasy even if you didn't have to "work" towards getting it. 

The stealth is very much inspired by the modern Splinter Cell games like Conviction and Blacklist. Enemies do notice you way too fast for my tastes, but the stealth is flexible enough where you can use the silenced pistol along with the "Focus Mode" and the contextual takedowns to the point where stealth is semi reliable, so when the game has the occasional "no detection" mission, it's manageable rather than a complete chore and a dull game of trial and error. I did however dislike the lack of a dedicated crouch button since it's contextual, and when you get caught Aiden will automatically start to stand up, it makes' sneaking past enemies while caught hard to do and the lack of a last known position can be rather jarring since it borrows so much from SC. If the game had a dedicated crouch command, as well as last known position, the stealth would be more refined and more robust to do rather than takeout a couple of enemies and then get caught and then go guns blazing. 

The hacking mini games are a decent distraction that isn't overly challenging but at the same time not brain dead super easy to the point where you can get them super quickly, these could annoy people who want more challenging puzzles in games but my patience for them is wanning more and more so I didn't mind. You could argue that for a game playing as a hacker, the hacking can arguably be a contextual telekinesis, sight jacking and is just a contextual superpower in general. I didn't really mind since it's like I said before adds to the power fantasy. Watch Dogs wants you to be a cool super hacker along with being an action movie hero.   

The shooting is very much a traditional cover shooter like Gears of War meets Max Payne with the Splinter Cell Conviction cover system and while the game never reaches the heights of the MP series with it's shooting, it isn't as dull and one note enough like the first Gears of War game since WD has other gameplay mechanics breaking up the pace, and isn't just cover based shooting galleries, the guns also sound very punchy especially in focus mode which can make combat fun to get into, I love getting headshots while in focus. However I think have a cover system inspired by the Last of Us can be both beneficial for shooting and stealth. 

You can have the x button be crouching and then while Aiden is crouched, he can take touch the piece of cover and can peak around from corners or horizontal positions. Since it can be rather grating to have Aiden stand up while enemies are shooting and I want to be in a lower position were enemies will have a hard time hitting me. 

While WD doesn't do any of the aforementioned stuff amazingly well, it does mix up and change the pace enough during it's main missions and is also more mechanically refined than Rockstar open world games to be an enjoyable experience. 

Also, I love how WD, has better controls than Rockstar games do to this day, Aiden can climb over waist high walls and can reach some moderately high places which is something GTA protagonists couldn't do until GTA 4 and also, you can hold a button to sprint rather than tapping x constantly so props to WD there. 

Overall, while I don't think Watch Dogs is an amazing title, and it is far from the revolutionary game that the E3 2012 reveal trailer wanted you to believe, it's a solid and enjoyable time that uses mechanics like driving, shooting, stealth, and hacking to give the player a decent power fantasy of being a cool action hero. The story and main character are surprisingly well done in a game of this type too. I had a good time for the $7 I rebought the game for.