Watch_Dogs: Review (PS4)

The long awaited new game by Ubisoft is finally here. Watch_Dogs is the introduction of the hacking paradise. This game promised us full fledged hacking action, only previously found in movies like “hacker” and “Swordfish”.

But does it deliver? Why yes, yes it does. The team whom brought us “Assassin’s Creed” is back in action to give us control of a hacker on a mission.

Aiden Pierce, the resident badass

The story

First of all, let me start by telling you this is not an “Assassin’s Creed” game, nor storyline, though it his hinted to be the same world. It tells the story of Aiden Pierce, a very capable hacker who was caught on the job, and his target decided he couldn’t leave it at that. After his niece was murdered, Nathan goes out on a personal vendetta after everyone involved, ignoring all the dangers that come with doing so. With the help of some companions Aiden tries to figure out just what happened and why.
It’s a very know storyline, but It’s once again told with such conviction, to keep us playing the game, and hoping that everything turns out “allright”. Aiden thinks he's doing good, but even when trying your best, sometimes things don't go as you planned.
To reflect this, there's a sort of karma status, where civilians are less likely to report you to the authorities if you keep doing good things like rescuing people.

Using your cellphone for about everything

The gameplay

The game takes place in Chicago. Thanks to a sandbox environment like GTA, Infamous and Assassin’s Creed you get to unlock parts of the city one piece at the time. This is done by hacking several ctOS towers, thus spreading your influence on the network. This ctOS network is what controls all of the electronical devices. Thanks to your cellphone you're able to hack into ctOS and do all kind of fun things. Clicking a single button is what it takes to hack a device. Allowing you to take over all camera's, read/listen in on cellphone's, hack someone's credit info or simply open a garage port. By taking over security camera's you can even keep hacking from device to device, without moving near your target. You take over a security camera, take over another security camera which overlooks a plaza, and then start hacking all the citizen's phones thus cleaning their bank accounts. The system allows you to easily walk around town and hack the devices.
Thanks to the know freeflow system (as used in AC and Infamous) you can quickly walk around, jump over obstacles and climb buildings. Aiden automatically takes cover when moving to certain obstacles and driving is a brease.
The only part I had difficulties with was the shooting part. Not really the shooting itself, but the fact that almost every firefight I ever got in,ended up with me dying. You're not invincible in this game, and it does help if you take a stealth approach to some missions.
And there's a diverse choice of missions. The story missions take you through the story, but you have the option to go on multiple side missions. The basic being to stop an upcoming crime. This can be someone getting shot or stabbed, someone who wants to blow up a car, or simply someone stealing a purse. By just being there you can stop the crime from happening, and increase your reputation among civilians. And if that doesn't feel heroic enough, you can go and clean up gangs. Once you're feeling the hero, you can go out and complete some car challenges which involve you distracting the police from others in a daring race. You have to drive through a checkpointed parcours while dodging a police force. These and more side missions provide you with alot of content.

A whole lot can be done, in a big city

Next to the amount of missions to complete, there are a ton of collectibles to be found through Chicago. You'll be running around to see all the sites, find all the hidden QR codes, find the hidden military stashes or simply hack into the private life of some people. You can sharpen your gray mass with several chess games, or try to follow the ball in a game of follow-the-ball in the park. Chicago will keep you busy!
By doing all these activities, you are awarded with XP, that XP you can spend in new abilities, like the option to blow up waterpipes, hack into cars, improve your firepower, ... Unfortunately Watch_Dogs awards you very easily and you'll quickly find yourself overpowered in the game. By halfway the second act (of five), you're likely to have fully upgraded your abilities and bought all the weapons you want. But don't be overzealous, because the AI in Watch_Dogs is one of the best on the market. The enemies work together and the Police won't be easily outsmarted. Once they're on to you, you'll be happy you spent your XP in that trick to blow steampipes =) My greatest accomplishment was when the Police was on my tail and I jumped in the subway, then made it drive away.. it made me feel like I was in the trailer.

*ding* next stop.. freedom!

Online functionalities

Of course, when thinking of hacking, you'll think of the internet, and yes Ubisoft delivered. Watch_Dogs offers a variety of online challenges. You can go head-on against another player where you try and steal, or observe your opponent without him noticing. If you do get noticed, you'll have to get out of there before he shoots you down. You get to team up with other players in an effort of "capture the data", where two opposing team try to be the first to hack a file , or you can go and compete in a race, where the only rules are that you have to survive. Completing (and winning) those games offers you an adjustment in online-stats which gives you extra abilities, like nitro-boost, or extra damage vs vehicles.
Over the years, Ubisoft made it a point to not only create a game, but also hype the experience by broadening it with the needed apps.
And this is no difference. Using the ctOS app you can download for iOS or Android, you'll have the option to play cops 'n robbers against other players online. You then use your mobile device to control the police force in real-time. Having played alot of those games I can confirm, that since the upgrade on their servers this actually goes smooth (if internet permits it..)

BoOoOoM

Verdict

Watch_Dogs is a very extensive game, giving us really the opportunity do to whatever we feel like. The built-in 'Foursquare' pushes us to go all over the place, and the "threat detection system" fills in all the gaps.
You just want to hack all the camera’s just to see what meme, or crushing love scene you’ll find next and those side quest are real fun to complete.
All this combined keeps you playing for a long time. Though we’ve seen most of this before, this is the first time you’ll feel in a ‘real’ situation, doing ‘real’ stuff, making a ‘real’ difference (and being badass at it!)