I really wanted to like this game. I, like many others, was really excited when I saw the screenshots and gameplay trailers. This was the the first game for PS4 that I really wanted, and I pre-ordered it almost the moment it became available. The first hour was pretty neat getting to know this new world of hacking in an open world setting. Ultimately though, the game really disappoints. Watch Dogs tries to be innovative with the everything-is-hackable environment and giving its NPCs individual personalities. Unfortunately the story is lackluster at best, the supporting cast of characters is forgettable, and after the shine of the hacking gameplay wears off (very quickly), it feels like GTA without the inspiration or, frankly, fun.
First, the positives. The visual presentation is amazing. This is a next-gen game that really takes advantage of the hardware the PS4 packs. Chicago looks amazing, and feels like a busy-bustling city. It also feels huge. There is plenty in the city to see and explore, and the game's built-in Foursquare-esque mechanic gives the player a reason to find interesting spots in the city. The small details are very well presented as well, from sounds a people talking on the phone around the city, the thread patterns on Aiden's clothing, different sounds from the cars you "borrow," the sound of the trains; it gives Chicago life.
There are aspects of the hacking mechanic that are also very cool. Hacking an item is as easy as holding down a button and watching your work take effect, and some of the puzzles created to access certain items can be pretty interesting. By far the most gratifying effect is causing a blackout: watching all the generators explode, the lights going out, and sneaking away like a crafty ninja. Some of the available cars are also pretty cool. I also found breaking into boats and cruising on the water a cool experience as well (especially when escaping the police or enemies).
The biggest weakness of the game is the story. I'm a big fan of immersion plots, getting thrown into the story and learning about your character as time goes on. Tomb Raider and Red Dead Redemption did this really well. But in Watch Dogs, you are thrown into the story and never given much reason to care moving forward. The most basic plot line is that in a previous mission (played as the prologue to the game), a mistake made leads to the death of one of his loved ones. The rest of the game is essentially getting to the bottom of who was responsible. Yes, the story takes some twists and turns, but ultimately they're formulaic and uninteresting. Without any type of meaningful surprises or character development, the story really falls flat.
Aiden's character is also a difficult character to attach to. The game has a morality system (like so many others), but the story thoroughly casts Aiden as an antihero, making the morality system feel meaningless. The Infamous series did a good job of making the morality system feel like it had an impact in the game. The story changed, the way the city interacted with your character affected the gameplay, and ultimately the morality choices unlocked and locked parts of the game in interesting ways. In Watch Dogs, it feels like a tacked on system that was thrown in as an afterthought. Yes, citizens will become more afraid of you if you are more evil and will be more sympathetic to you if you act justly, but the game really forces you to play Aiden's character as evil (which is saying something since I tend to play my characters through the "good" tracks). It's far too easy to kill someone than spare them, and ultimately I don't really have a reason to care how I act. Again, compared to Infamous, my choices felt more impactful. Killing a civilian meant the breaking of a multiplier streak or gaining a super ability in Infamous: Second Son. In Watch Dogs, it just feels like an unimportant part of the game.
Another weak aspect of the game is also the side missions. Now, there is a lot of content to do on the side. There are mini-games that can be played, exploration tasks, and online missions (more on this later). The problem is that they're not original (Texas Hold'Em, the shell/hat game, running collecting coins while avoiding obstacles), they don't really unlock anything useful, and they're not very fun. But these side missions are literally everywhere and they take up a large portion of your map. Sure you can turn those icons off, but it really shows how empty the game.
The most frustrating thing to me (and probably the most debatable/controversial) is the online missions. The concept is a neat idea: as you roam through the city, you are also playing with other people in the game and you can initiate certain side games/missions against other players. This can be tailing other players, hacking their characters, and other types of intrusion missions. In theory, that sounds fun and a pretty unique style of gameplay, and for most things, it generally works (when the servers have actually been working to support this, though I expect that will get smoothed out over time). But the problem is that for some of these missions, you have no choice to back out. If a character starts hacking you, you have to drop everything and find them, and the game gives you no option to ignore it. You can't continue with the mission you're currently on, and you can't start new missions. All of your focus goes to finding the character hacking you. An example: I was working to hack one of the ctOS towers to open up more of Chicago, and while these ctOS towers aren't necessarily difficult puzzles to find, they do take a bit of work. Right as I arrived at the tower to hack it, I was informed that my player was being hacked. I didn't have the option to hack the tower then deal with this player. I have to climb back down the building, find the player, deal with them, and then re-climb the building from the beginning. In a game where things are already not feeling very fun, this was an extreme annoyance. Now, depending on your style and preference of gameplay, this may be an enjoyable feature, and that's fine. This is not something I was thrilled with. I'm a player that like to keep single player and multiplayer in controllable realms (i.e. I like to choose when I'm interacting with others and when I'm playing alone). So if you're a player like me, this aspect of the game will probably be very annoying. If not, then this may not be as big an issue to you. But to me, this was a big turn off.
[UPDATE: Some commenters have correctly pointed out that it is possible to turn off the multiplayer aspect of the game. However, by turning off the "online interactions" (the online tailing and hacking), you will also erase any progress and skills you gained using the online interaction missions. When you try to turn off the online interactions, it gives you a big warning message giving you that information. So if you disable it before beginning any part of the story, you're fine to turn this off. If you've done any part of it enough to unlock skills or progress, that will be erased if you turn it off. Again, to me, this is the most debatable part of the review. If this part of the game is something that is really enticing to you, then you can safely ignore this section. If you don't think you'll like this aspect of the game, know that you can turn it off but that you're also locking out part of the gameplay and progression. To me, it again emphasizes a poor design concept that's present throughout the game. But I want to make sure I'm being fair and giving accurate information. If this is the only part of the game that's preventing you from buying it, know that you can disable it from the outset. I still think at its heart, Watch Dogs is a two-star game, so it doesn't effect my overall rating or thoughts on the game, but hopefully this will help you make a more informed decision.]
Overall, I'm really just disappointed with the game. There are definitely some cools features and this planted a seed for potentially better games in the future. Unfortunately, this game is just not that fun. It was almost going to be impossible for this game to live up to the hype that was created around it, which I'm taking into account. After sitting with it for awhile and trying to assess, it is ultimately a dull game that tries to do what other open-world games have already done much better. Hopefully Ubisoft can take the foundation they've laid here and build it up into a more interesting, tighter game next time around.
No comments:
Post a Comment