I had the pleasure of obtaining Watch_Dogs through a redeemable code that came with my graphics card. This was pretty exciting, as you can imagine. It's especially exciting for me since the last time I bought or otherwise had new games available right at launch was The Walking Dead from Telltale Games and Diablo III.
These games came out in April and May of 2012, so it has been a while. I didn't get a review code, so that I couldn't get anything up on release day. Besides, I wanted to play the game solidly for a week, get my full opinion, see if my concerns and experiences match up with others, and, of course, see how Ubisoft handles bugs and patching.
Table of Contents
Watch_Dogs Rundown
I downloaded the Watch_Dogs game files promptly at midnight release in my timezone. The download was fairly slow, considering my connection, but it was steady.
I was able to connect and get to the title screen pretty easily. I didn't suffer nearly as much as some people had reported. After I fired the game up, I thought I was having artifacts and other various GPU issues.
I quickly discovered that it was the game art style rather than display errors. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, see the screenshot below.
The game begins with a pretty easy section where you need to escape a stadium. You then get an introduction to the game's mechanics as you play.
Also, there is a tutorial before every event so you know what you're doing. Here are 2 examples of on screen tutorials:
As you complete tasks and progress through the story, you will get skill points to enhance your skills. These allow you to hack into additional targets, increase fire rate, etc.
When you first start, you can hack most things in your area. However, you will need to hack the ctOS zone distribution panel to get access to additional zones. These panels can be hacked all in one sitting, or you can space them until you need to go to that particular part of the city.
Unfortunately, the game is not without its bugs. As you can see, the reticules and information windows do not function properly sometimes. The gadget interface is also blank sometimes. This does not happen often, and I'm not able to reproduce the error.
I experienced a few issues that I'll describe shortly, but overall, I really enjoy Watch_Dogs. I got about 20 hours into the campaign and tried a few online matches, but I'm done playing for now.
I don't think my opinion will change as I progress through the game. Besides, I want to wait for a performance patch so my PC will run the game better.
The Good
- Reasonable number of PC options
- Open world game, do the story or other missions at your own pace
- Many vehicles to choose from
- Progression wheel to keep track of story progress, mini game progress, songs collected, etc.
- Skill point system to make your abilities or equipment better
- Good difficulty curve, even with the instant failure states
- Your rise to power is consistent, there hasn't been complete facerolling after a while
- Great looking weather and water effects
- The city feels alive, there are many different people to discover with taglines, professions, and income levels
- Customizable outfits
- Many different weapons
- Online encounters are very thrilling, I hadn't felt as much tension in other multiplayer games
The Bad
- Police summons are very random, running through a red light and plowing into some pedestrians does nothing but pulling out a gun will get a call to the police
- Aiden Pierce is very non-inspired, he's the least likable character in the game, it also sounds like he constantly has a ham sandwich in his mouth
- The driving feels very loose, not nearly as fun to drive around as in GTA V or in Saints Row: The Third
- Although the game is refreshing, I felt like we've seen a lot of what this game has to offer before, this was supposed to be a brand new next gen experience
- The game does not look as good as the E3 showing last year
The Ugly
- PC performance issues, frame drops, micro stuttering, and some lockups
- The sound is extremely low for some reason, like much lower than anything else
- Dependency on Uplay, even if you buy the game on Steam
- Ubisoft server dependency: if the servers are down or busy, you don't play, some people report an offline mode but I haven't been able to play offline
It's definitely worth a playthrough, but, in all honesty, I wouldn't have picked this game up at full price at launch. It just so happens I got it with a graphics card. I usually don't buy games at launch anyway, and this game does nothing to change my mind on that notion.
If you are unsure whether to pick up this game, I suggest waiting for a patch to fix bugs and performance issues, a price drop, or both.