Watch Dogs Review

This game is a lot like Grand Theft Auto with a nod towards those of us who loved Hackers.  It has the standard gameplay found in many sandbox driving games.  You drive to a destination on your map, start a mission, and then go fulfill that mission causing as little (or as much) damage as possible along the way.  But unlike a lot of games that focus on multiplayer as the main attraction, Watch Dogs is all story.  Yes, there’s multiplayer.  But if you want to be entertained while you watch the world burn, then Watch Dogs doesn’t disappoint.  Aiden’s mission to bring down the people responsible for his niece’s death is the driving force behind the game, and the story is driven by pure emotion.

Watch Dogs is a next-gen game.  Yes, it is available for Xbox 360 and PS3, but those ports are nothing compared to the quality of graphics on a fully loaded computer or a next-gen console.  Chicago never looked so crisp and detailed as it does in this game.  Just watching the rain fall on the streets of the Windy City is mesmerizing.  Each individual drop hits, splashes, and causes the roadway to look genuinely slick with water.  Reflections are super realistic, the lighting engine is very convincing, and the developers have put a lot of time and effort into making a game that feels and looks as real as a game can without sacrificing storyline or gameplay.

I have to give a nod to the guys and gals who built the city of Chicago.  They did a hell of a job recreating it, and having been there on a couple of occasions, I was able to pick out places in the game that I’d been to in real life.  You can also go to famous landmarks and locations and “check in”, as you would on social media.  This feels like it has a touch of pandering to it, but nothing I can complain about, as it doesn’t affect the gameplay in the least.

Some of the best moments occur when you put Aiden’s hacking skills to work.  I love being chased by police only to see their cars launched fifty feet in the air after I hacked into the city’s underground gas mains causing an explosion directly underneath a cruiser.  There’s a lot of fun to be had with that kind of power at your fingertips.  I spent a good portion of my gaming experience just hacking into things for fun to see what kind of chaos I could cause.  The hacking skills are great fun to play with, and are an essential tool to move the game forward.

You can customize Aiden’s skillsets as you go using skill trees that allow you to improve Aiden’s driving, hacking, combat, and crafting skills.  Yes, crafting.  You can pick up electronic parts to create everything from bombs to EMP devices.