Watch Dogs Review: A GTA Challenger

Watch Dogs has finally hit shelves, despite multiple delays and extended deadlines. So how does the beleaguered open-world game from Ubisoft stack up? Let’s find out.As always, here’s the good stuff first: the city in Watch Dogs, a rendition of crime-ridden Chicago, is massive. There’s always something to do, whether it’s a side quest or an online contract to hunt another player down. There’s so much to explore, from hidden security towers to personal information of Chicago citizens and unlockable music. The story revolves around Aiden Pearce, a rogue vigilante SLASH hacker who’s taking on the Blume Corporation, a security firm that’s using towers and software to monitor everything and everyone in Chicago. If that sounds familiar, it should - Watch Dogs’ premise bears a strong resemblance to real-life security and spying concerns. Ahem...hello, Mister NSA. The main storyline spans a lengthy five acts, and combined with the side attractions, makes for an easy 50+ hours of gameplay. Where Watch Dogs really shines is multiplayer. Ubisoft has claimed that players would be able to enter anyone’s game at nearly any time, and they were telling the truth. Outside of main story missions, your game can be infiltrated - or you can infiltrate someone else’s game. The joining is seamless, and the game usually revolves around the protection - or theft - of vital information and money.At its core, Watch Dogs wants to be a stealthy open-world game, to contrast the brazen, explosive style of games like GTA. Approaching situations secretly is rewarding in its own right, but you’ve always got the choice to go in like a man possessed if you want. That’s rewarding too, especially when you’re chasing down fleeing enemies - Aiden can take down fleeing opponents in a blur, laying the smack down on their faces like he’s in a martial arts movie.Now for the bad: Because Watch Dogs is so big, you’ll be forced to use cars to get around the city most of the time. And all of the vehicles handle like they’re boats, pitching all over the road as your frantic inputs aren’t really commands, but more...suggestions. Collisions are either head-on explosions or inexplicable bounces of the sides. Since you’ll be driving so often, this is going to get on your nerves.Compounding this is the absolutely dreadful camera. Sure, it follows you around corners...eventually. It doesn’t recenter properly, so you’re often left driving blind after sharp corners, hoping that no one will be in your way. When Aiden’s on foot, the camera has this odd, over the shoulder floating angle - now that works when he’s running forward, but it becomes a disorienting nightmare when moving from cover to cover or around objects. The camera freaks out and messes up what you’re trying to do.Watch Dogs is ambitious, I’ll give it that much credit. We’ve been blowing up cars and shooting random citizens in games for over a decade now, but Watch Dogs’ techno-subterfuge background is a welcome attempt at diversity. You’re able to “hack” into cameras and equipment, using your enemies’ weapons and the environment against them. There’s a problem though: you’re not really discouraged from treating most missions like any other open-world game. Want to forget stealth and shoot all your enemies in the face,? No problem! Ignore the hacking. Most of the time, it winds up not mattering.And as long as the story is, it’s not much more than a pretty basic revenge plot...and Aiden isn’t that interesting, since he has a limited emotional range consisting of rage to “whatever.”Watch Dogs is definitely worth playing, if you’re into open-world games like Grand Theft Auto and Saints Row. It’s got its share of flaws, but it’s a solid entry from a new player in the genre with a ton of multiplayer potential.Rating