Watch Dogs Review (PS3)

Story

Embark on Aiden's journey as the hacker vigilante.

Aiden is a hacker and a vigilante, who takes down any crimes with his own method of justice. He lost one of his family members earlier, and he is determined to find who is responsible for it as well as taking care of his remaining family members. Little did he know that his quest of revenge is also intertwined with secret conspiracies in the city of Chicago.

The story has some potential to become great, but it doesn't deviate itself from other stories from movies or video games that have revenge themes. Although the villains and other supporting characters have great designs, they are not exactly memorable for their roles except for very few characters. Aiden himself is the main star in the game, and I like the way he carries out his own justice against criminals and how he cared about his family members. However, I also felt that he himself is not developed well enough for players to understand him, such as where he got his shooting skills, fighting skills, and etc. Morality theme is also touched in the game, but does not fully expand in the game for us to relate.

Gameplay

1) Offline & Singleplayer Mode

Takedown enemies with your hacking skills.

This game is an open-world game like Grand Theft Auto series or Assassin's Creed series. What sets apart this game than the rest of open world games is the hacking ability. Hacking allows Aiden to interact with various electronic devices in the game, as well as allowing him to use it for defense, offense, or observation. More of the hacking skill will be explained later.

The game progresses as you complete the main Missions in different Acts. Mission objectives and methods of progressions are pretty varied, such as tailing a car, downloading data from an enemy via driving, hack through security cameras, fighting off enemies and others. To be honest, the missions' variety of objectives and progression methods what kept me from being bored in this game, and I thoroughly enjoy the structure of the Missions. Also, this game does not force you to be totally stealth or all-out attack on enemies at many Missions, allowing good deal of flexibility.

Mix both shooting and hacking in combat.

Combat is pretty standard, where you can use your firearms to shoot enemies, non-lethal takedown against enemies, or use sub-weapons. You can craft sub-weapons like IED or Frag Grenades by having the proper ingredients as well as having the proper Skills. They are useful if you are stuck somewhere in the game. Enemies come in variety, such as regular gunners, snipers, and Enforcers. Enforcers are tougher than regular enemies, and only headshots as well as powerful weapons can kill them. Police will also chase you during certain Missions or when doing something socially unacceptable like shooting a civilian. As you do a murder or other crimes, your wanted level will increase by one. Before the police chases you, they will scan any surrounding areas of you. If they successfully scan you, then they will send the police after you. You may jam their scans by using certain item, and you may escape the police by using Hacking skills like Blackout, Bridges, or Steam Pipes to stop them.

Aiden learns new Skills by purchasing Skills with Skill Points from the Skills Tree. Skill Points are obtained by obtaining enough experience points and completing certain Side Missions like Gang Hideouts. There are few categories of Skills, like Combat Skills and Hacking Skills. I highly suggest to all players to invest on Combat and Hacking Skills first, as it will allow you to fight in combat or escape from enemies more effectively, such as Blackout skill.

Some civilian profiles are damn funny.

Movement controls also similar to many other open world games, where you can run, walk, or Fast Travel to any unlocked Hideouts. You can also use vehicles like motorcycles or sports cars to travel. You may also unlock and spawn vehicles by using an application called Cars on Demand from your smartphone menu. Another useful thing that you have access is Profiler. Profiler allows you to check profiles of any people in the game, as well as allowing you to unlock Side Missions like Crimes, Gang Hideouts, and many more. It is also necessary to use it during main Missions as you need to ID your targets before proceeding. Profiler can also be used to hack people's bank accounts and obtain their money for your own usage, which can be withdrawn at any ATMs.

There are many Side Missions available in the game, which may be unlocked automatically or by using the Profiler to hack someone that has connections to the side mission itself. Gang Hideouts are side missions where you must takedown the gang leader non-lethally and escape the area or kill all of the gang members. Fixer Contracts are side missions that range from you delivering vehicles to certain destinations, downloading data from enemies, and others. There are many activities to be done, and it is highly suggested for all players to try it out.

2) Online Mode

Beware of online players that are trying to hack you!

If you are signed into PSN and Uplay account, you may even do extra online activities like Online Hacking, Online Tailing, and Online Race. Online Hacking allows you to hack other player online. To do so, you need to find the player first, hack him, and start installing a backdoor program. As you start installing it, there will be an uploading progress bar that tells you how many percentage of the uploading progress is. In order for the enemy to stop you, they must use the Profiler and profile you successfully. Then, they must kill you to prevent the hacking. If they discovered you, you can escape to avoid minimal loss of online experience points. By playing online, you may have access to several online Skills.

Online Tailing is where you may tail the only player. You must first discover the player and tail him. A progress bar will appear and you need to successfully tail the player for 100%. Unlike Online Hacking, the opposite players will not be able to triangulate your position easily and they must search even more thoroughly for you. Again, they will kill you if they are able to Profile you. Online Race is just a multiplayer mode where you can race with other players online. You may race with sports cars or motorcycles, albeit randomly.

Whenever you are free roaming in the game, you may get notification that an online player has already invaded you. From then on, you need to find that player and kill him/her before they are successful with their hacking or tailing. Also, Social Invasions may occur before you start a side activity or main Missions itself, prohibiting you from progressing unless you fail or succeed the Online Hacking or Online Tailing sessions. If you find yourself getting irritated with the Social Invasions, sign off from PSN.

3) Conclusion

Interesting integration of online features with the main game itself as well as good gameplay features, but with some issues.

The gameplay is good, but other than the hacking feature and good variety of missions structure, nothing makes this game stand out than other open world games. Some game controls can take time to get used to, especially the driving controls as it is not as tight as Sleeping Dogs driving controls. Reputation is also not well-developed here, as it doesn't affect anything in the game other than certain dialogues and lines from the NPCs and at the end of the game.

Graphics

Good graphics, but with performance issues.

The game has good graphics, but it is not up to par with Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag's graphics. Character models and the environments look fine to me. There are also performance issues in the game, such as screen tearing during cutscenes.

The game also has some glitches, where one occurred to me during post-game completion. The glitch caused my Skills Tree to be reset, and I am unable to learn back any Skills again. I suggest every players to back up their saves regularly.

Sound

Good voice acting, but not memorable. Instrumental score is pretty good.

The voice acting is generally good, but I do not find any of the roles that sticks out at my mind. As far as I can hear, Aiden's voice actor is perhaps the better voice actor than most of the voice actors in the game.

Soundtrack has great variety of licensed songs to be listened, although not many of them are likable to me. I also like the background music by Brian Retzell, which is very good on its own.

Replay Value

High replay value.

You can do lots of Side Missions, like Gang Hideouts, Criminal Convoys, or Fixer Contracts. You may also participate online features like Online Hacking, Online Tailing, or Online Race. Collectibles are numerous in the game, so you can collect them for completion purposes or to understand some background story on some major characters in the game. Also, you can opt to play many minigames available in the game like Chess Puzzles, Drinking Game, Poker, and many more.

Conclusion

A game that has potential to be great, but the final product itself feels downgraded and unpolished.

I had fun playing this game a lot, as both a hacker and vigilante. However, the game is not perfect or good enough to warrant it as one of the best games this year. Story lack good plot elements and character developments, control issues, performance issues, and others. The game is good and has potential, but unfortunately Ubisoft did not develop this game into a better one. If there is a sequel, I sincerely hope the sequel will be much better than this game. I highly suggest any players to watch Youtube videos or your friends playing this game, or buy other open world games like Assassin's Series games, Saints Row games or Grand Theft Auto games to get your money worth. Or, if you really want to get this game, get the PS4 version as it has less performance issues like screentearing.

Score

Story: 6/10

Gameplay: 8/10

Graphics: 7/10

Sound: 7/10

Final Score: 7.0/10 or 28/40

Pros and Cons

Pros

- Hacking is damn fun.

- Lots of hacking possibilities.

- Many usable Skills.

- Police chases are intense.

- Good combat, with great mix of third person shooting as well as hacking.

- Lots of side activities to be done.

- Lots of collectibles to be obtained.

- Great variety of Missions and progression methods.

- Good graphics.

- Good flexibility of total stealth or all-out combat in many Missions and Side Missions.

- Unique integration of online features to free roaming in the game.

- High replay value.

Cons

- Story is not really interesting.

- Characters lack proper developments or expositions.

- Game lacks of even more unique features other than hacking.

- Poor Reputation system.

- Some control issues, like unable to shoot while driving.

- Performance issues like screentearing.

- Has gamebreaking bugs or glitches.

- Last generation versions like PS3 lack some features available for the current generation consoles like PS4.

*Images are from Gamespot.

**Due to lack of PS3 screenshots, I used other consoles' screenshots.