Power Hour Review: Watch_Dogs (Ubisoft, 2014)

Let me start by saying the Ubisoft’s Watch_Dogs was a system seller for me…back in November. I pre-ordered my XBox One and a copy of Watch_Dogs and waited. Waited to have the next generation experience of a lifetime. That was what was supposed to happen. And then Watch_Dogs got delayed. I considered canceling my pre-order because it really was the only game that I wanted that was going to be available at launch, but I didn’t. I stuck to my guns and (yet again) became an early adopter.

Fast forward seven months and the long awaited title drops. I go digital download and wait impatiently as the 20-odd GB game downloads onto my console. The huge download and my crappy internet connection means that I have to wait an extra day before I sit down and begin <sarcasm> to hack Glenn Beck’s iPad and watch him and his wife do dirty, dirty things </sarcasm>. But when I do finally fire up the game I quickly learn that I can’t actually press X to hack Glenn’s iPad, but I can hack cameras, bombs, and cell phones in game. 

Running_across_the_L-Train,_Watch_DogsIn the interest of full disclosure I have to say that I can’t drive in video games worth a damn. The first time Rockstar introduced the mechanic of letting you skip a mission that you had failed too many times (always the driving missions for me) and decided that it was ok for the partner to drive in L.A. Noire I cried tears of real joy. No such luck in Watch_Dogs, but you can actually run between most locations and later the L-Train opens up for travel betweens certain points in the city. But I’m jumping ahead here.

From the very beginning, I was really hoping that Watch_Dogs was not going to be another GTA clone. I am really GTA’ed out. Too bad, because that is exactly what this game is….GTA: Hacker Nation. Not only did the first hour of the game find me running from the police (in a car) and chasing a stalker (in a car), but beating a hacker who was attempting to hack me (thanks to online play) to death with a telescoping nightstick. Yeah, doesn’t get more GTA than that. All that was missing was a few hookers.

jordi_WDsIn spite of being a GTA clone, Watch_Dogs asks that you constantly hack the people and the world around you and all of this gets controlled by the game’s mediocre mechanics. Tracking lines of security cameras back to their source where a hack is actually possible or using the GPS on your phone (in the game) to track down potential criminals before they have the opportunity to commit the crime (very Tom Cruise in Minority Report) are done with clunky mechanics that sometimes had me unintentionally drawing a weapon while running down the street or jumping from a car when I only mean to hack a traffic signal. An hour in the one thing that has kept me going has been the story itself, that and a burning desire to see what Aidan’s crazy ass friend, Jordi Chen does next.

Minor story spoilers ahead

And that brings us to women in the game. The trope of the woman in the refrigerator is still alive and well. And it started off with (you guessed it) a dead female child  who becomes the catalyst for the main protagonist, Aidan, to continue his mission. And it continues when Aidan has to continue to protect his sister and nephew from forces that are out to get him. Once again he is both the cause of and the solution to the problem. Female NPCs in this game so far feel very much like collateral damage.