Topic: Watch_Dogs

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The thing about… Watch_Dogs

So it's me again with quite a lengthy post, about Watch_Dogs. This is no review and I'm only about 20% into the game yet but already spent hours doing side-missions and activities, generally driving around, hacking the shit out of Chicago and being "high" on digital trips. This won't be as sophisticated as my Impressions about Project Cars or my writing about Killzone and Gran Turismo, as simply, I haven't played through the game yet.

What I can do though is give people that are still on the fence some insight on things most reviewers forget to tell you or paint in the wrong light. Let me start with the most controversial subject about Watch_Dogs. The graphics. Attached here you will find a screenshot that I took myself from an ordinary scenery in the game. This is from the PS4 version obviously, it's 900p (not 1080p). What do we see here. You see that the lack of resolution really is barely noticable, there is some nice anti-aliasing going on (I think its 2x or even 4x) and this takes care of the most jaggies in the game. A few weird fences here and there will still display jaggies though. But honestly. It's hardly noticable. The rest of the game, as you can clearly see, is by far not ugly. It has awesome lighting, wonderful weather-effects and you can see really far into the distance. Also the shadows are nice, the mip- and bump-mapping (road imperfections for example) look realistic and generally this game is well done. In cutscenes you can easily see the fabric on the clothes and the animations are beautiful. And yes it runs in only 30 frames per second. Poop. So what. Honestly. Those 30 frames are ROCK solid, I was not able yet to pull some crap that brought a slowdown or a stutter (and trust me, I've tried some weird stuff already). 30 fps if perfectly stable IS ENOUGH. Sure, better is always better but if you're holding out from buying this game because it might not look the part, don't wait any longer.

How does it compare to GTA5 graphically? How to Infamous? Well I'd say the general quality of the models and everything in the city is on-par with GTA5, only with bigger drawing distance, better anti-aliasing and nicer shadows. I'd say it's about 25% prettier than GTA5 which is by no means to be scoffed at, as GTA5 really was a masterpiece on the aging PS3 hardware. For some this might not be enough, but to be honest, a mediocre game will always be just that, no matter how pretty it is, and the „Ohhh shiny next gen graphics" effect usually wears off pretty quick once you dive into the game and focus on the gameplay and story rather than go pixel-counting. This game is by far NOT mediocre. It looks the part and plays really well. Infamous might look a bit better, but also had its fair share of framerate problems when you were using your powers and everything was blasted to bits. I could not see any slowdown in Watch_Dogs yet.

But how does it play? Pretty well. Amazing actually. People and reviewers alike were critical about things, that I just can't see. For example, there is no jump button. Repeat that in your head and then think what you just said in your head. There is no jump button. So what? You have your context-sensitive action button that you use for vaulting, takedowns, climbing ladders etc… there is no need for a jump button really. This doesn't mean you're somewhat limited in your movement. By far not. Quite the opposite, everything is fluent and quick. The controls take an hour to get used to and the tutorial mission sucks big time, but after that, if you give it a chance, this game really shines. Especially, and this is also the critics were all over, the cars, the fighting, the shooting, generally, the controls. They are - especially in the shooting part - by far superior to GTA5. Nothing is clunky, it's all spot on. You can play this game as stealthy as you want or as bombastic as you want. I used only my silenced 1911 spec ops for the most jobs in the beginning, as its easy to hide, sneak around, get into cover, place distractions, hack the environment to distract your enemies, etc… you have so much freedom. Again: SO MUCH FREEDOM. This is what this game is all about. The hacking? Awesome. Yes it's simplistic, but it has to be, people were asking „but how does it work"? Who cares! No one ever asked the demon how he was hurling fireballs. It's a game and of course a process like hacking (thats a really boring endeavor to watch if you're not a hacker yourself) HAS to be simplified to be applicable in a car chase or in other „fast decision making" gameplay elements. And it works wonderfully well. Due to the hacking you have options like you have in no other game. Surveillance and gaining intel is interesting, engaging and easy. You always can play as tactical as you want, fool with the enemies or have some fun in traffic. There are plenty plenty plenty of missions and side-activities, randomly generated and pre-defined alike. You can tackle most of them however you want.

Let me give you an example. I picked up a random „convoy" mission. It's some gangster in a truck just returning from a heist, being guarded by 2 black SUVs, one in front, one after, hence the name „convoy". It's your job to stop that gang and neutralize the driver of the truck. How, however, is yours to decide. You get the likely route they'll take on your map and have some time to prepare as the convoy starts its journey. It shall not reach its final destination. From there on I already succeded with different approaches. I planted roadside bombs, went sniping, engaged in a car VS car wild car battle/chase around half of the city, I got the cops involved (not on purpose) and the most effective way of stopping them so far, was … with a firetruck.

That said, this is one of those rare games that allows you to „create your own fun". Regardless of genre those games are rare, for me such games were Battlefield 1942, Star Wars Galaxies and a few others. Games you could have your fun outside of the treaded ways. Unfortunately many gamers nowadays, being used to corridor maps and shooting galleries, fail to create their own fun, either from lack of creativity or attention. Players that like to experiment, take a game-world fully in and want to try other solutions than „boom you're dead" to the obstacles in a given game will welcome Watch_Dogs with open arms. The more casual players might still find plenty to enjoy here but it's those that step outside of their comfort zone and explore, experiment, exploit the city that will get the most from Watch_Dogs. Mostly everything in the game can be tackled in a very tactic fashion, and honestly, I'll get the season pass tonight as I want to have everything that's ever released into this fantastic world. I'd gladly pay for weapon-packs and car-packs if they're as well made as the rest of the game.

To close this already long post I wan't to make a final statement, GTA5 got mostly 10's and that was mostly for the story. Not that the gameplay was bad, but honestly, also GTA5 (which I loved) had a fair share of „downers". Yes the map was huge, but also lots of empty areas especially between Trevor's place and the main city. Sure the weapon selection was huge and became even bigger with the patches, but ultimately - at least to me - the gunplay always felt clunky. There are a few other things that are by far no gamebreakers but that are not the perfect 10 at least for me in GTA5. In Watchdogs most magazines rate it 8 or 9, I agree with that while I would say if you'd rate the gameplay only, It'd be a 10. It's cleverly made, well crafted with an incredible attention to detail (for example, if you take down a criminal you'll see on your profiler insert that he's for example mentally disordered or a drug addict, and this description fits with his behaviour and dialogue when committing a crime).

If you're strictly looking for the „aaaaww" and „ooooow" moments when looking at a nice picture, you gotta look elsewhere. Killzone looks better, Infamous looks better. But the fun to be had in this virtual Chicago is tremendous. Also, if you don't generally like sandboxy games like GTA, you'll also not get convinced otherwise by this one, the tropes are there, and THEN SOME.

If I'd have to rate it this early, I'd easily give it a 9.
I hope I was able to paint a bit of an alternative picture than the mainstream reviews and gave some insight that's helpful to the one or another still unsure if to get it or not!

Thanks for reading this long thing.