Watch Dogs – my copy worked just fine

If there was such a thing as an objective review, I would be hard pressed to write one about Watch Dogs. The new title from Ubisoft was undoubtedly the most hyped up game of 2014 so far, and while this is good for sales, it is bad news for gamers. Whenever high expectations are created the game has to be near flawless and completely revolutionary to not leave you feeling somewhat disappointed.

Combine this with the fact that the launch of the game for PC and next-gen consoles did not go very smoothly, and it is hard to judge Watch Dogs in isolation – for the game it is.

So, instead of giving Watch Dogs a score, I am going to give you a brief overview of what it was like to play the game (on PS4) – from taking the disc out of the box, to connecting to Uplay, to running around a virtual Chicago.

Check out the scores the game has been getting: Watch Dogs review roundup

Watch Dogs – PS4

Getting Started

First off, the game worked. The loading times were a bit long, but besides that Watch Dogs functioned properly. There was one occasion where a mini-game had a glitch and I was unable to bet on a game of three cups, one ball, but besides that it was relatively smooth sailing.

From what MyGaming has seen online, and experienced in the case of the PC version, installing the game and connecting to Uplay was impossible on numerous occasions. On my PS4 version the game installed, the 90mb day one update kicked in, and I was able to connect to Uplay. To test the system I created a new Uplay account (plus, I couldn’t remember my details from the one I had when I used to play Anno), which was verified and working within minutes.

Watch Dogs – PS4

Playing as Aiden

Watch Dogs looks good on the PS4, not great, not terrible, just good. I was not blown away by the visuals, but the environments looked well put together and Aiden himself was fairly detailed. The cars aren’t visual masterpieces, but their wheels are round and the window glass breaks when you put your elbow through it.

On a few occasions the draw distance was not spot on, and various items – mainly bushes and plants – only rendered within a few metres of the camera.

As you know, the game centres around Aiden’s ability to hack various items, from traffic lights to CCTV cameras, using his smart phone. Pushing square opens the phone-based profiler which shows you what, and who, is hackable. This is a bit overwhelming at first as you are bombarded with a lot of information simultaneously, but once you get used to the constant flow of data you can start seeing what you should pursue and what you can ignore.

The hacking itself is accomplished by merely looking at an item and holding square – which, I have been told, is not how one hacks something – but it is fun nevertheless. You are also able to hack items through a hacked item, for example: you hack a CCTV camera, the camera can look over a wall at a gate switch which can then be hacked, all without you seeing or directly accessing the switch. It is a nice element, and saw me hacking various cameras to see what I could find from their elevated vantage point.

A feature I really enjoyed was Aiden’s “takedown”, which sees him whip out his collapsible baton and open up a can of whoop-ass on his victim. If you are running after someone, you are able to leap and tackle them from a few metres away and then open the can of said whoop-ass. Good times.

Watch Dogs – PS4

Chicago

Watch Dogs’ Chicago is not as lively or colourful as Grand Theft Auto’s Los Santos, but it is a city I wanted to explore. Watch Dogs’ story, although not terribly gripping, did enough to make me want to continue with my mission of vengeance and see where the digital trail of crumbs led.

Despite popular belief, gaming journalists don’t get to play video games all day while chilling in our space-age offices – we review the games after work in our spare time – and this puts a game like Watch Dogs at a disadvantage. This feels like a game that needs you invest a decent amount of time into, not only so you can be carried away by the story, but you can explore a city which is full of people, and digitally connected items, that are ripe for a hacking.

All-in-all, Watch Dogs is not too bad considering all the hype, and disaster, around it, and I will definitely be retuning to Chicago this weekend.

The review copy of Watch Dogs on PS4 was provided by Megarom Interactive.

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