Watch Dogs was the game that drew a large part of the hype from last year’s E3. It mixed the open world seen in games like Assassin’s Creed with the mercenary hacker’s ethos of a William Gibson novel.
The end product so far is poised to be Ubisoft’s next big thing. It will be an interconnected city that links offline and online players to create a seamless experience. From what I saw from the demonstration, this worked, and with mobile integration into the mix, Watch Dogs is sure to be on everyone’s wish list this holiday season.
The Watch Dogs demo begins with a mission to rescue your associate, “T-Bone,” from an enemy-controlled building. Players must use all available hacking abilities to overcome obstacles. The demo showcased the ability to control various aspects of the environment, such as electrical systems and doors, and even networked mechanized advertisements, to aid T-Bone’s escape. The use of asymmetrical gameplay via a tablet was also demonstrated, allowing a friend to jump in and save the day remotely. It seemed to work well in the controlled environment, but seeing how it all plays out in the real world will be interesting.
The next section of the demo has the protagonist, Aiden Pearce, attempting to break into the city’s network. The world is divided into wards around Chicago, all controlled by a vast network called ctOS (Chicago’s Central Operating System). Aiden must hack into the network and use it against the corporation. This is done by breaking into substations and accessing the network, allowing players to use the ctOS to scan the world and hack into various aspects of the infrastructure.
As in many open-world games, hacking in Watch Dogs is done by breaking into a building. This can be done in a stealth-like way or by blazing guns. In the demo shown at E3, the team chose to do a mixed approach. They snuck in for the first part, knocking out guards from behind as they slowly worked their way into the facility. For the second part of the break-in, they chose a more direct form of attack and went with an all-out firefight, clearing out the remaining soldiers. Overall, the system seemed to work well for both styles of play, and it was nice to see some of the better parts of Assassin’s Creed working their way into more Ubisoft properties.
The Watch Dogs demo demonstrates how Aiden can use the city’s phone lines and infrastructure to hack into someone’s home and steal bank data. This provides a compelling way to earn money in the game world, but as shown in the E3 demo, doing so can harm innocent people—in this case, a single mother. Additionally, the demo showcased how people in the world, including shopkeepers, can recognize you and call the cops. It’s unclear how this mechanic will work in the full game, as having everyone call the cops the moment they see you could become frustrating.
The last section of the Watch Dogs demo highlighted the game’s multiplayer aspects. Like Dark Souls, players can invade and hack into your game. This can be countered by investigating the people around a given area until you identify the hacker. Once discovered, you can chase them down and eliminate them from your game. It’s also possible to invade their game in a similar fashion.
From what was shown, Watch Dogs seems to be a well-executed and inventive open-world action game that stands alongside Assassin’s Creed at the top of the genre. While it remains to be seen how all the ideas presented will work in practice, based on what I saw, I am optimistic. Watch Dogs will be hitting shelves on November 19, and CGM will have your review close to launch.
Stay tuned to CGM for more E3 coverage, along with all the articles you know and love from our team.
