I've lived in the Chicagoland area my whole life. Never lived in the city itself, but I've spent a whole lotta time there and I love so many things about it. I'm moderately enjoying Watch Dogs and finding it becoming more fun as I go along. One thing I can't let go of, though, is how shoddy the game's representation of the city is.
I'll admit, it definitely has the Chicago feel; they really nailed the general look of the architecture and basic layout of certain areas. However, the omission of basically every major landmark is baffling. There's no north side to explore, no Chinatown (that I've seen). No Soldier Field, no Shedd Aquarium, no Wrigley, no Navy Pier ferris wheel, no Museum of Natural History...seriously, what the hell? I guess the "May Stadium" is supposed to be both Solider and Wrigley combined. While I'm not intimately familiar with every historical or significant point of interest in the city, it seems like they've renamed a number of the ones they have decided to include. For instance, I'm assuming the Ambrose Theater is supposed to be the Chicago Theater. Others, like the Chicago Water Tower, are placed in seemingly random locations, or least the in-game surroundings don't really reflect those of the real thing.
They also took a lot of liberties with the actual layout of the city. There's a hell of a lot more going on in the Loop in reality. Now, I didn't really expect Ubisoft to recreate everything, road for road, building for building, but would asking for a bit more care and attention to detail be asking for too much? Never mind the fact that the city in the game is surrounded by fucking mountains. That's too silly for words.
It's still cool to have Chicago, a city I have great love for, finally represented in an open-world game, even if it is some French guys' weird, slipshod take on it. I mean, it still kinda feels like I'm there when I'm playing, so that's something, I guess.
Actually, if there's one thing that bothers me more, it's that the crimes committed on an hourly basis in the game don't come close to how many people are being shot, stabbed, mugged, or raped there right now.
Fellow Chicagoans, how do you feel about Watch Dogs' version of this great city?
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