It was hard to not be a little excited for this game after watching the gameplay demo at Ubisoft's conference in 2012. It really looked like something special but we all should have seen through the deception. The way NPCs reacted in that demo was never going to work outside of this incredibly scripted scenario. Still, playing this game many years later, I think it's not bad. It even shines in some cases. It is very much a Ubisoft open world game which were already fairly routine back in 2014. I do enjoy these types of games although with regards to Ubisoft's franchises specifically, I favour Assassin's Creed because I enjoy the settings more than what Watch Dogs or Far Cry have to offer.
Hacking is Watch Dogs main theme and it's heavily simplified. Sometimes it only comes down to pressing the hack button when you're prompted to. I do understand the compulsion to make this easy because you'd never use the hacking in more frantic situations like shootouts and car chases if it was difficult to access. It does end up just being uninteresting when the most complex thing you do are some easy Pipe Mania puzzles. Combining the hacking with stealth can be very fun though. Completing an objective without being seen by using distractions or creating routes using the hacking can be very gratifying. Sometimes you don't even have to enter an area to get the job done by bouncing between cameras to find a hacking point. Surveying guards using the cameras is also more interesting to me here than using a drone (or eagle) that sees everything from an aerial view.
The game is filled with activities that are fairly typical of the genre. Although you're not actually climbing towers to unlock the map, there are two layers of "towers" that you need to do get icons to appear on the map. The first one, which allows you full hacking access to an area, where you have to reach a hacking point surrounded by guards was actually pretty enjoyable because I liked the stealth. The second layer which puts the icons on the map were navigation puzzles which ranged from decent to tedious. There's gang areas where you have to take out the leader, convoy targets, perspective puzzles and a host of collectibles. There's some story attached to the collectibles but they all lead to uninteresting endings. There's nothing amazing in there but there's some fun to be had unless you are completely bored by the same old open world activities. There's also these privacy invasions which I thought were weird. You hack in and watch some random person's private life. They were probably going for some fun or interesting vignettes but it just made Aiden come off like an absolute creeper. Speaking of Aiden, he is as dull as dishwater in what is already a fairly boring story. If it wasn't for his iconic hat, I don't think I could describe a single feature about his character model. I did have a good time with this game but it's certainly not going to sell anyone who is sick of Ubisoft's formula.
Hacking is Watch Dogs main theme and it's heavily simplified. Sometimes it only comes down to pressing the hack button when you're prompted to. I do understand the compulsion to make this easy because you'd never use the hacking in more frantic situations like shootouts and car chases if it was difficult to access. It does end up just being uninteresting when the most complex thing you do are some easy Pipe Mania puzzles. Combining the hacking with stealth can be very fun though. Completing an objective without being seen by using distractions or creating routes using the hacking can be very gratifying. Sometimes you don't even have to enter an area to get the job done by bouncing between cameras to find a hacking point. Surveying guards using the cameras is also more interesting to me here than using a drone (or eagle) that sees everything from an aerial view.
The game is filled with activities that are fairly typical of the genre. Although you're not actually climbing towers to unlock the map, there are two layers of "towers" that you need to do get icons to appear on the map. The first one, which allows you full hacking access to an area, where you have to reach a hacking point surrounded by guards was actually pretty enjoyable because I liked the stealth. The second layer which puts the icons on the map were navigation puzzles which ranged from decent to tedious. There's gang areas where you have to take out the leader, convoy targets, perspective puzzles and a host of collectibles. There's some story attached to the collectibles but they all lead to uninteresting endings. There's nothing amazing in there but there's some fun to be had unless you are completely bored by the same old open world activities. There's also these privacy invasions which I thought were weird. You hack in and watch some random person's private life. They were probably going for some fun or interesting vignettes but it just made Aiden come off like an absolute creeper. Speaking of Aiden, he is as dull as dishwater in what is already a fairly boring story. If it wasn't for his iconic hat, I don't think I could describe a single feature about his character model. I did have a good time with this game but it's certainly not going to sell anyone who is sick of Ubisoft's formula.