Watch_Dogs

Aren't you a bit old for a hacker?

After a hacking job goes wrong, someone orders a hit out on Aiden.  That hit ends up killing Aiden's niece.  His quest to find out who ordered the hit will take him deep within the city's infrastructure.  It's time to take control.

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Recommended Age Minimum Age Available On... 16 14 PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS4, Wii U Overall Fun Length Frustration   Violence Sexuality Substances Gambling 7 7 4   5 6 4 4 Mods Religion Anti-Law Community Sports Magic Miscellaneous 0 1 5 1 2 0 4

1.     Gameplay

• Overall Fun - 7

Watch_Dogs is a victim in a cruel game where no one really wins.  Its marketing team did an excellent job of selling copies but a terrible job of selling the game, its management decided to release the game on six platforms, and its developers tried too hard to include enough content to fill its worldspace.  The result is an unfortunate hodgepodge of “too much not enough” that didn’t necessarily fall short of my expectations as much as it completely missed my expectations.

This relationship is about as awkward as it looks.

In its E3 reveal, Watch_Dogs was presented as a world where the player could use a cell phone to take control of practically everything in the city.  It was presented as beautiful and a stark contrast to the wide variety of shooter games and sequels.  This was something new, and I was instantly sold.  So were 4 million other people, judging by preorders.

Unfortunately, the actual game was far from what was advertised.  I expected a game like Prototype, a complete power trip where the question wasn’t “are you going to defeat your foes?” but “how are you going to defeat your foes?”  You are a hacker in a digital world, you have the power to control the entire city literally at your fingertips.  Instead, hacking felt surprisingly clumsy and was, at best, a tool for the player to use.  You can’t complete the game simply with hacking.  This is Grand Theft Auto meets War Games, but the stakes are not nearly as high.

You don't feel awesome or powerful.

Most of the characters were either forgettable (i.e. Iraq), frustratingly poorly scripted (i.e. the main character’s family), or overall not what I expected in a bad way (i.e. Clara).  Those few characters that I actually found interesting (Bedbug and Poppy) were completely underutilized, which highlighted a recurring theme for the game.  There were sparks of brilliance in the writing that were unfortunately quashed far too early in pursuit of a much less interesting story that was far too difficult for me to relate with.

These types of intimate moments were what I really expected. Some of them felt very invasive.

My favorite set of missions by far were the ones that revolved around human trafficking because it represented exactly what I wanted in a hacker vigilante.  Human trafficking is a horrible crime that is difficult to detect and almost impossible to eliminate.  Those involved are far too smart and careful, and the amount of bureaucratic red tape that normal law enforcement has to deal with prevents any significant dent in this market.  This is the kind of thing that is perfect for a hacker vigilante to solve.  He has nearly unlimited resources, is almost completely undetectable, and has a drive to help people (especially when they are in situations out of their control).

Yet the game leaves this storyline completely unfinished.  You even find an auction where women are being sold like cattle, but you leave out the backdoor and decide to call the cops rather than deal with the problem yourself.  The game then gives you a side quest to locate the remaining “buyers” and track down their briefcases so that you can ultimately take down the ringleader of the operation.  But this entire process is done in exactly the same way as nearly every other sidequest in the game.  Hack a character, follow a path, infiltrate into an apartment, scan an object, rinse and repeat.

The hacking was enjoyable, but more variety would have been nice.

This was such a missed opportunity, which is exactly how I feel about Watch_Dogs as a whole.  This game definitely isn’t bad, but I never felt like the storyline was as compelling as Sleeping Dogs nor was the gameplay as smooth and refined as Grand Theft Auto V.  This was a decent first attempt, but I expect far better in the future.

• Length - 7

There is a lot to do in this game.  I completed as much as I cared to accomplish in around 30 to 40 hours, but there was plenty that I did not complete.  There were a good number of collectibles, side missions, and a ton of minigames that I never got around to.  Because of the repetitiveness of the side missions, I lost interest soon after completing the main campaign.  There is no shortage of things to do in this game, but the repetitive nature of the missions significantly diminishes both the player’s desire to see them all through and the overall replay value of the game.

• Frustration Factor - 4

There were a few times when this game was extremely frustrating, but most of them didn’t have to do with the gameplay itself.  If the player failed a mission, the player would frequently have to watch a cutscene or listen to a character’s monologue before resuming the mission.  The different monologues are worth listening to once, but being forced to listen to them multiple times was painful.  This was especially true during the final boss battle with Iraq, one of the characters in the game.

There was an ultimate enemy type in the game that was heavily armored.  While most enemies could be dispatched relatively quickly with a single explosion or a headshot from almost any weapon type, this enemy type was completely invulnerable to bullets and could take up to five or more explosions before dying.  There were a number of times when I was caught completely unprepared, firing round after round of machine gun or shotgun ammunition straight into their face with no result before I was killed.

There are also a number of bugs that I encountered during my playthrough.  Most of these bugs should hopefully be fixed soon, but dealing with them was a chore.  For example, Watch_Dogs would blue screen one of my computers.  I was forced to update to a beta video card driver and unplug my PC controller in order to solve the issue.  There were also a good number of reported issues with corrupted save games.  Fortunately, this was a problem I didn’t have to deal with.

2.     Parental Notices

• Violence - 5

Violence in this game is surprisingly mild.  Most of the time the player will be roaming around the city, looking for collectibles, or solving puzzles, all of which are completely nonviolent.  The most common “violent” activity in which the player can participate is the random crime events.  For these, the player must identify a potential criminal or victim and incapacitate the criminal as the crime is being committed.  Beating down the criminal using a nightstick is by far the most effective way to solve these crimes and involves no blood at all.  Victims are merely incapacitated by this, never killed.

The blood was there before this beating.

The next most common form of violence is using explosives.  Most of the time this will come in the form of fuse boxes or wiring littered throughout the world.  The player can hack these objects and cause them to explode, killing any nearby enemies.

Kaboom.

The player can also hack certain enemies’ frag grenades, causing them to detonate prematurely.  In either case, blood and gore are never seen in explosions.

The game, both in overall design and in area-specific layout, encourages the player to use the two above methods first.  However, if all else fails, the player can directly engage enemies using firearms.  Shooting at enemies from a distance is practically required, since enemies can kill the player relatively easily.  If hits from any weapons of any type resulted in blood, I never saw it during normal gameplay.

If a shotgun at close range doesn't generate any visible blood, I don't think anything will.

Blood is visible during some cutscenes, but these are very infrequent.

Find the blood.

There were two notable exceptions to the violence in this game.  The first was relatively early on in the game.  The player first meets Lucky Quinn, a notorious mob boss, in a back alley.  In this scene, Quinn ends up stabbing another character in the throat.  This is by far the most violent part of the game and is not representative of normal gameplay.

I think you can communicate that this guy is evil without having him stab some lackey in the throat.

The other section was late in the game.  One character ends up getting shot in the head and blood can be seen on his face.  This is only notable because of the overall lack of obvious blood in the rest of the game.

Seriously, this is it.

• Sexuality - 6

This game toys with sexuality but hardly ever includes it.  When it does, it’s almost always included with a very specific purpose, but there were some times when I was left confused as to what the designers had in mind.  The most obvious inclusion of sexuality are in certain civilian characters’ description.  While many of the descriptions are innocuous or give personal medical information, a good number describe the purchasing habits or sexual proclivities of the character.  For example, there are a number of times when I saw that a civilian was a "member of a BDSM club” or “frequently purchases condoms”.  These types of descriptions are not gender-specific either.

Is the owner of a pawn shop considered a "bookkeeper"?

The descriptions were overall somewhat conflicting for me, since I wasn’t sure if the number of sexually-based descriptions was larger than the other types (medical, criminal, and innocuous) or if I just noticed the sexually-based descriptions more.  It was likely the latter, but the detail of some of the sexual descriptions was far greater than the other types.

There were other, more specific examples where sexuality comes into play.  Some of these were an unavoidable part of the main campaign, and others were events the player could see only if he completes the random sidequests.  For the main campaign, the most obvious example of sexuality surrounded the human trafficking missions.  These missions involved the trade of women.  While it can be inferred that the women are being sold into sexual slavery, the game never outright says this and the motivations of the bidders are not discussed.

There's a special place in hell for the people that do this in real life.

There are a few times when nudity is included with these missions.  The most obvious was when the player goes to the auction.  All of the women are put on display only in underwear (they are all topless) as the bidders place their bids.  The nudity of the women is unavoidable, but for me the idea that a human could be bought, discussed, and sold like a car or a piece of art was much more disturbing.

The only other example of sexuality in the main campaign was in a projects-like apartment complex.  The player can see a man receiving oral sex from a woman.  After he is done, he throws a wad of cash at her.  It’s a fairly brief sequence that can be easily missed.

Really? You can't find a room somewhere?

There are a number of opportunities in the city for the player to see inside apartments of private citizens.  A number of these depict sexual situations.  For example, one shows a married couple doing some roleplaying type activites (they pretend like he is a hired plumber that she is seducing).  Another shows a single father masturbating in front of his computer to pornography (you never see any nudity).

They're both former olympians and both have the same last name.

The most obvious and somewhat odd example of sexuality from these video feeds is one where a couple is playing Russian roulette.  The boyfriend is convincing his girlfriend to spin the revolver’s cylinder and take a shot at him.  This is clearly designed to show adrenaline junkies taking things to an extreme.  The part that I didn’t understand was why she was topless.

No, seriously, I don't get this.

There were a number of other examples where nudity and some “sensuality” came into play, but these were not as significant as the previous examples.

A little hidden gem that I found.

• Substances - 4

The player has access to a number of substances.  There are some that can be used at any time, such as energy pills that can boost the “focus” time the player has, but I never ended up needing to use these since I almost never used focus.  Even when I did, focus automatically replenished.  Since the game discourages the player from engaging in open combat, the pills meant for combat went almost entirely unused.

You might be able to make the pills via chemical components.

There were a few other instances when substances become a much more noticeable factor.  For example, the player can engage in a “drinking game” with a few random characters throughout the city.  This game involves the main character taking shots of alcohol, and then the player has to engage in a brief minigame.  It’s a rather crude way to engage in a drinking game, since it’s not particularly entertaining.  Like many of the other gambling games (discussed in more detail below), this game isn’t a great source of income but does provide a benefit if the player completes all of the drinking games.

Are these types of games real?

After successful completion of the drinking game, the player is temporarily drunk (meaning his screen gets blurry and moves around awkwardly) for a short time.  By the time I walked my character from the bar to my car parked on the street, he’d sobered up completely.

There was one scene where narcotic use is visible.  In one of the campaign missions the player follows a camera trail through a projects-type apartment block.  Two of the characters can be seen injecting themselves with what is probably crack cocaine.  This was the only time when I noticed illicit narcotics being used.

I hate needles.

• Gambling - 4

There are a number of different gambling minigames throughout the city.  The drinking game (discussed in the previous section) is one example, but there are plenty of others that don’t involve substance use.  For example, there are a number of locations where the player can participate in a simple “cup-and-ball” minigame.  The ball goes under one cup, and that cup is shuffled with two other cups.  If the player can figure out where the ball is, he wins.  It starts out simple but does eventually get pretty complicated.

You have to have quick eyes and a good framerate.

There are a number of other small minigames, such as illegal underground poker.  The player might participate in each one in order to unlock the “bonus” that the game offers for completing the maximum level of the minigame, but overall the bonuses weren’t vital to the game.  I completed the cup-and-ball minigame and the chess minigame, but didn’t bother with the others.  The player can go through the entire game without playing any of these minigames.

Except for the few instances where games are mandated by the campaign.

3.     Other Factors

• Mods - 0

There are no modding tools available for this game.

• Religion - 1

Some of the graves in the game include religious symbols and a few of the characters will discuss faith and going to church, but overall this is an extremely rare thing to see.

Evidently there's nothing to hack in a church.

• Anti-Law - 5

Anti-law is a mixed bag in this game, as it mostly depends on the player’s approach to each situation.  The game includes a morality system that aligns the player with good or evil based on the player’s specific actions.  Helping citizens, such as by stopping crimes, increases the player’s overall morality.  Hurting citizens or police officers decreases the player’s morality.

It's hard to avoid harming civilians while driving on sidewalks.

The main character is given the title of “vigilante”, which is entirely true.  He goes about punishing criminals without consulting any sort of law enforcement, and there are a number of times when the player’s actions will directly go against local law enforcement.  However, the majority of the player’s actions are meant to help people, which prevents this category from being rated more highly.

However, following the morality system only prevents the local citizens from reporting the player’s actions to the police, it doesn’t actually stop the police from pursuing the player.  There will be plenty of times, both part of scripted events and part of non-scripted free roaming, where the player will have to escape the cops.

There was one mission where the player had to break into prison in order to intimidate a witness.  This meant, while in prison, breaking out of his cell, infiltrating the basement, killing a dozen or so dirty guards who were going to kill the potential witness, and then breaking back out of prison.

The one man that can walk in and out of prison at will.

• Online Community - 1

This is one game where I chose not to engage in the online events, so my opinion in this section is going to be purely from what I have read and been told about by other players.  The online community in this game has been reported as overall civil and direct communication between players is kept to a minimum.  The online game modes can be fun, but are definitely not required.  All players can turn off the online functionality at the start of the game.

• Extreme Sports - 2

The game does have a “freerunning” mechanic that allows the player to jump over high fences and vault low objects while sprinting.  The player will use these during the occasional footchase (especially when chasing down criminals), but this isn’t entirely outlandish or dangerous.

The most dangerous element will simply be the player driving, especially while being pursued.  However, if the player attempts to abide by the morality system laid down in the game, insane stunts will be kept to a minimum simply to ensure that the player doesn’t accidentally run over any civilians.

• Magic - 0

Magic is not a factor in this game.

• Miscellaneous - 4

Kidnapping / Slavery

A few of the main campaign missions involve infiltrating a high-value auction.  It turns out that this auction is for human sex traffickers.  All of the women have clearly been kidnapped and enslaved.  The bidders’ intent for the girls is never discussed.

Torture

As part of the human trafficking ring missions, the player must steal the identity of a European man who is described as brutal to the women he buys.  Evidently he is into extreme forms of BDSM, enough that one girl tries to kill the main character (mistaking him to be the European) rather than be tortured.  However, the specifics of what he does are never shown or discussed.

Language

Language can be a factor during a number of cutscenes and conversations.  It wasn’t so over-the-top that it felt unnatural, but many of the conversations between characters included words that would be inappropriate to say to your grandmother.  Unless your grandmother swears, in which case you probably don’t care about the language in this game.