Watch Dogs

So instead of doing a formal review, I've decided to just make a list of the most important things in the game, and try my best to explain them and tell you what I think.

Gameplay - 3/5:

The controls in this game are strange and unconventional. You'll hate them in the beginning, but you get used to them as the game progresses, and I actually became quite fond of them. The cover mechanic is very good in this game, just a simple push of the X button makes Aiden dash from one cover to another, simply and effectively. This is actually quite useful in this game, since it's pretty obvious from the beginning that you're supposed to "stealth" your way through a level. You can go in guns blazing if you wanted to, but I wouldn't recommend it since playing stealthily has a much more satisfying feel.

Story missions in Watch Dogs can get repetitive and boring. There's only a certain amount of times that I can sneak my way past 10 security guards before it gets dull. And that is literally almost every mission in the game: you trying to sneak past a bunch of security guards to get to the objective that you either have to hack into, destroy, or steal. Then if your sneaking around doesn't go as planned, switch over to an assault rifle and just take everyone in the level out.

You've probably already heard this, but the driving in this game is really, really bad. It seems out of place in a game like this, as it felt a little too arcade-y. The cars feel floaty and are quite hard to control and maneuver. I regretted having to turn in this game, since my car would almost always overshoot the turn and I'd go slamming into a wall. Because of this, I almost always just ordered a motorcycle and drove it around. Not only do you have the obvious advantages of speed and maneuverability, but motorcycles simply handle better in this game. Driving is easily the worst part of the game, and is obviously a huge part of it since it is an open world game.

Hacking in this game doesn't really play as big of a role as you think it does. I hardly used it in the game, unless I was forced to in a story mission. Really the only time you'll be using it is when you want to escape pursuers. You can use your phone to hack traffic lights, steam pipes, garage doors, and blockers in an attempt to cause your pursuers car to crash. You can also use your phone to profile people, and even hack some for goods such as money, vehicles, and crafting ingredients.

Story - 2/5:

In Watch Dogs, you play as a vigilante named Aiden Pearce who, after losing his niece in a car accident caused by a hit man out to kill him, goes on a vengeful quest to kill the people responsible. Halfway through this quest for justice, however, his old partner returns and kidnaps his sister in exchange for Aiden's compliance. It's a very dull story, and one that we've seen a million times (except the kicker here is, it's not his daughter and wife, but his niece and sister). Characters seem to get thrown in and out of the story so quickly it's very hard to even notice that they're there. In fact, the very character responsible for ordering the hit on Aiden and subsequently "responsible" for his niece's death is seen maybe three times in the entire story. The story also doesn't fit into the world that Aiden inhabits. It doesn't really make sense that, in the story, Aiden is a vigilante who just wants justice for his niece, but then as soon as he goes into the open world has absolutely no problem stealing money from a person that was recently diagnosed with cancer, or stealing cars from old ladies, or causing traffic accidents just so he can get away from the police. It doesn't do a good job with merging the story and the world. In Grand Theft Auto, you're an asshole in the story AND in the world, but in Watch Dogs, it tries to make Aiden a good guy in the story when he is, in fact, a criminal.

Graphics and Performance - 4/5:

I played this game on the PS4, and it looked great and usually ran at a solid 30 frames per second. The game would occasionally drop to very low fame rates, but only for a couple of seconds (usually after you finished a mission, and all the status and progress and skills graphics popped up at once). There where times in multiplayer, however, that the game performed very badly. In online racing, the frame rate was probably somewhere between 15-20 frames per second for the entire race. In some parts of the city, it was so bad that it was almost impossible to even drive. This probably isn't a big deal though, since if you're buying a game like Watch Dogs, you're probably not going to be participating in online races that much. There were also some performance issues in online free roam and online decryption, but both of these modes were playable and the frame rate was acceptable most of the time.

When you see how good Watch Dogs looks, you'll probably forgive the performance issues it occasionally has. The graphics are stunning on the PS4, and while it doesn't look like that E3 video, it is certainly the best looking PS4 game I've played so far. The city and environment look incredible, and the water is some of the best I have ever seen. And when it gets night, the game looks even better, thanks to the great lighting effects, and night looks even better when it's raining, due to the beautiful reflections on the asphalt and on the sides of the buildings. Character models and Aiden look pretty good, too.

Final Verdict - 3/5:

Overall, Watch Dogs is a pretty average game that was way over hyped. It doesn't really do a lot to set itself apart from other (much more fun) open world games such as Grand Theft Auto. It does have it's very fun moments, but it mostly consists of average moments. Not a bad game, but certainly not one that I will be playing as much as I play a Grand Theft Auto or a Saints Row.