Watch Dogs (stylized as WATCH_DOGS) is a 2014 open world action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It was released worldwide on 27 May 2014 for Microsoft Windows, the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, with a Wii U version planned for release in the fourth quarter of 2014. Set within a fictionalized version of Chicago, Illinois, the single-player story follows a hacker and his efforts to seek revenge after the accidental death of his niece. The open world design lets players freely roam Chicago, which includes the urban city, open countryside, and slums.
The game is played from a third-person perspective and its world is navigated on-foot or by vehicle. Players control Aiden Pearce, a highly skilled grey hat hacker who can hack into the "ctOS", a centralized operating system which manages the hyper-connected city of Chicago, and formed after a Northeast blackout of 2003 was caused by a hacker. Players can choose to play as criminals or vigilantes. An online multiplayer mode is also provided in the game, allowing up to eight players to engage in both cooperative and competitive gameplay in a recreation of the single-player setting.
Development on the game began in 2009. As part of their research for the open world, the developers conducted field research around Chicago throughout development and captured footage for the design team. Development duties were shared between many of Ubisoft's studios worldwide.
Following its announcement in June 2012, Watch Dogs was widely anticipated. At release, it received generally positive feedback, with praise particularly directed at the game's hacking elements and mission variety. The game also received criticism concerning the gameplay, technical issues and graphical quality. Watch Dogs was a commercial success, breaking the record for the biggest first day sales of a Ubisoft game, and becoming the biggest launch of a new IP ever in the United Kingdom. Within a week, the game sold over 4 million copies.
Gameplay
Watch Dogs is an action-adventure game played from a third-person perspective. Players complete missions—linear scenarios with set objectives—to progress through the story. Outside of missions, players can freely roam the open world of Chicago. The world may be fully explored from the beginning of the game without restrictions, although story progress unlocks more gameplay content.
In the game, players take control of Aiden Pearce, a vigilante who can hack into various electronic devices tied to the city's central operating system (ctOS), allowing various methods for the player to solve numerous objectives. The hacking mechanic in the game is performed directly from Aiden's in-game smartphone, which is equipped with multiple applications, namely the "profiler" and the "crime prevention system"; the former allows the player to access information on any citizen in the city, while the latter notifies the player when a crime is likely to occur in the vicinity. The phone is also equipped with applications that interact directly with the environment around the player; for example, players can hack into NPC's phones to retrieve bank data and steal funds as well as unlock new cars, weapons, and in-game music, or they can hack into traffic lights to cause collisions. Players can also receive information on civilians via augmented reality feeds, providing them with information on demographics, health and potential behaviour. Equipment is also provided by smartphone apps, which can be used to summon cars and weaponry. Players can stop trains, raise security barriers, and black out the entire city and can slow down time to shoot.
The game's combat utilises a combination of stealth components and limited parkour (there is no jumping up or across), along with the mechanics of a cover-based third-person shooter.[8] The hacking element of the game can also be used in combat situations to eliminate opponents, create diversions, or create cover. It can also be used as a stealth tool to sneak past guards. In combat, auto-aim and a cover system are available as assistance against enemies. Should players take damage, their health meter will gradually regenerate. If players commit crimes while playing, the police may respond, as indicated by a meter in the head-up display. On the meter, the displayed levels indicates the amount of attention the crime demands; if the player reaches the maximum fifth level, efforts by law enforcement to incapacitate players become very aggressive and increasingly difficult. When players have escaped the officers' line of sight, the level enters a cooldown mode, which recedes when players escape the search area (as displayed on the mini-map).
As the game proceeds, the player can improve Aiden's skills either by expending skill points or earning skills and perks by completing side missions and collecting various items from the in game world, such as finding QR codes on the sides of buildings or finding ctOS servers collecting information on the citizens of Chicago.
Alongside the single-player mode, Watch Dogs features an asynchronous online multiplayer mode. One element to the multiplayer mode is a one-on-one interaction, in which one player secretly joins the single-player experience of another player and attempts to install a "back-door virus" onto their smartphone.[9] In addition, the game features an eight-player free roam mode Other multiplayer modes include car races, competitive decryption combat, and a ctOS mobile challenge.[a] A mobile application is also available for smartphones and tablets that allows players to challenge another player in-game and use hacks that triggers traps, in an attempt to stop them from succeeding.
Synopsis
Setting and characters
In the backstory of Watch Dogs, a computer hacker is discovered to have been behind the Northeast blackout of 2003, which led to eleven deaths. This event prompted the Blume Corporation to develop ctOS (CenTral Operating System). The ctOS supercomputer connects to everyone and everything—including personal information, security cameras, and traffic lights. Over time, Blume installs ctOS supercomputers in multiple cities across the United States, including Chicago, Illinois, the setting of the game.
In Watch Dogs, players take control of Aiden Pearce (Noam Jenkins), a grey hat hacker and vigilante. After a tragic accident kills his niece Lena, Aiden seeks to bring his own kind of justice to the people responsible, all while protecting his sister Nicole (Anne Hopkins) and nephew Jackson (Nicholas Bode). Aiden meets a host of allies over the course of the game: Jordi Chin (Aaron Douglas), a "fixer" and Aiden's hired partner; Clara Lille (Isabelle Blais), a tattoo artist and member of the "DedSec" hacker group (under the alias 'BadBoy17'); and Raymond "T-Bone" Kenney (John Trench), a former ctOS engineer. Aiden also encounters many enemies, including Delford "Iraq" Wade (Jerod Hayes), a gang leader with a military background; and Dermot "Lucky" Quinn (Myron Natwick), owner of the Merlaut Hotel and crime boss of Chicago's crime underground. Other characters include Damien Brenks (Daniel Kash), Aiden's former mentor and partner-in-crime; and Maurice Vega (Christopher Jacot), the triggerman who caused the accident that claimed Lena's life.
Plot
In October 2012, Aiden Pearce and Damien Brenks launch an electronic bank heist at the Merlaut Hotel, with Aiden transferring the funds through his smartphone. When they come across a strange file and alert another hacker, Damien tries to find the hacker, giving them both away. Unable to talk Damien out of it, Aiden stops him by leaving.[15] Fearing for his family— sister Nicole, and her children Lena and Jackson—Aiden decides to drive his beloved family to safety under the guise of a surprise trip. However, on the way, two hitmen hired to take Aiden out intercept the car. One of them, Maurice Vega, fires the shot that crashes the car and puts Lena in a coma, and she dies two months later.
A year later, Aiden, now a vigilante known as "The Fox", finally tracks down Maurice in the Parker Square district. After a fruitless interrogation about Maurice's contractor, Aiden leaves Maurice in the hands of Jordi Chin while he hacks the ctOS to help them escape unnoticed. As Aiden investigates further, Damien (whom he cut ties with since the Merlaut robbery) approaches him, requesting to find the other hacker from the Merlaut job. Upon Aiden's refusal, Damien kidnaps Nicole, forcing Aiden to comply with Damien's demands.
With the help of Clara Lille, a member of hacking syndicate DedSec, Aiden tracks down the second hacker: ex-military gang leader Delford "Iraq" Wade. Aiden obtains the electronic key to Iraq's server room and obtains a sample of the data from his servers. He and Clara find that Iraq has secrets on almost every citizen of Chicago, effectively protecting his gang from the authorities. When they come across encrypted data beyond Clara's ability, she directs Aiden to seek out Raymond "T-Bone" Kenney. After Aiden completes some tasks for him, T-Bone agrees to help decrypt the data.
Aiden mounts an assault on Iraq's compound, making it to his server room. After Aiden downloads the server data, Iraq confronts him; Aiden kills him and leaves the compound.[28] While browsing the server information, another hacker–JB "Defalt" Marcowicz–infiltrates their system, stealing the information before deleting it from their servers. Defalt also leaves a recording that reveals Clara helped locate Aiden and Damien eleven months prior, which ultimately led to his niece's death. Angered, Aiden demands that Clara leave. Later, when Aiden confronts Damien about the loss of the server data, Damien publicizes Aiden's vigilantism, alerting the authorities of his identity.
Eventually, Aiden and T-Bone locate and take down Defalt, and retrieve the data again. Meanwhile, Aiden discovers where Nicole is being kept, and frees her. Aiden drives Nicole and Jackson out of town to keep them safe. Examining the server data, T-Bone discovers the contractor who ordered the hit that killed Aiden's niece: Dermot "Lucky" Quinn, leader of the Chicago South Club mob, notorious human trafficker, and owner of the Merlaut Hotel.
Aiden tracks down and confronts Quinn, shutting off his pacemaker. In his dying moments, Quinn reveals that he ordered the hit because he thought that Aiden was searching for blackmail footage of the mayor, whom Quinn is closely associated with. After Quinn finally dies, Aiden races to Clara, who is ambushed and killed by Quinn's men. During Aiden's attempts to track down Damien, he discovers that Damien has unlocked ctOS, allowing him access to the entire city. In order to find him, Aiden uploads a virus into ctOS and shuts down the entire system, blacking out the city. By doing this, Aiden reaches Damien, but Jordi arrives, betraying Aiden, but Aiden injures Jordi and kills Damien. As he watches Chicago come back to life, Aiden accepts his role of "the Vigilante", to protect and, if necessary, to punish. After the credits, Aiden returns to Maurice, on Jordi's call, and chooses to either kill him or spare him. The Blume Corporation also announces that the ctOS will be adopted in several major cities across the country, using ctOS 2.0.
Development
Ubisoft Montreal began development on Watch Dogs in 2009. Ubisoft Montreal's creative director Jonathan Morin noted that Watch Dogs is designed to "go beyond the limits of today's open world games", referencing both its use of information as a plot point, and allowing players to control the entire city through its hacking mechanics.
For Watch Dogs, Ubisoft Montreal built a new game engine called Disrupt. The engine was originally intended for a different game focused on driving. Ubisoft North American president Laurent Detoc explained that the team working on the project realized an open-world game was a better fit than their original vision. Watch Dogs runs in 900p on PlayStation 4 and 792p on Xbox One; both versions of the game run at 30fps. Creative director Jonathan Morin explained that he's more concerned with the overall experience rather than the technical minutiae. Morin added that people tend to forget that achieving higher fidelity visuals is easier for corridor shooters than it is for open-world games.
In order to achieve realism in the game's hacking mechanic, the game production team worked with Russian anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab. The developers sent some of the game designs to Kaspersky, who then gave feedback. "Sometimes they say, 'Yeah, that's possible, but change that word,' or, 'That's not the way it works'", said senior producer Dominic Guay. When developing the hacking mechanic, the team focused on reducing it to one button; "You want to have one button, so that people don't have to swallow 'how' on top of 'when' and 'why' to use those things", said Morin.
When developing the game, Ubisoft prioritised development for the eighth generation consoles and PC. Guay stated that the Wii U GamePad is considered a "natural" fit for Watch Dogs.
The team travelled to Chicago during development to record NPC dialogue, to achieve the distinct accent. To record the dialogue, two studios ran simultaneously in Chicago for about six weeks. "You will never see exactly the same profile on any NPC anywhere in the game", said lead story designer Kevin Shortt.
Watch Dogs was officially unveiled by Ubisoft during their press conference at E3 2012. They released the debut trailer on the same day. The game missed its original projected 19 November 2013 release date, pushed back to early 2014 to allow for further polishing. The release date was later confirmed as 27 May 2014 for all platforms except Wii U, which was delayed to the fourth quarter of 2014. On May 14, 2014, Ubisoft announced that Watch Dogs had "gone gold", and was officially sent off to manufacturing. To encourage pre-order sales for the game, Ubisoft collaborated with several retail outlets to provide special edition versions of the game. The "Dedsec Edition", for example, includes a unique case packaging for the game, a game map, a figurine of Aiden Pearce and unlock codes for additional content for use in the game.
On 15 February 2013, a leaked promotional image suggested that Watch Dogs would launch in December 2013 for "all home consoles", which led to speculation about whether the game would launch on eighth generation consoles. During the Sony press conference on 20 February 2013, Watch Dogs was confirmed to be coming to the PlayStation 4. Shortly afterwards, Ubisoft confirmed that the game would also be released for the Wii U, after some retailers had listed it for pre-order. On 21 May 2013, Ubisoft revealed that an Xbox One version of Watch Dogs was also in development.
The exclusive GameStop pre-order poster for the game was created by illustrator Alex Ross, a native of Chicago, where the game is set. Ross emphasized that setting in the image by placing the Willis Tower and the elevated train tracks in the background.\
Minimum System Requirements
Operating System
Windows Vista (SP2)
Windows 7 (SP1)
Windows 8 and 8.1
Note that Watch Dogs only supports 64 bit OSs.
Processor (CPU)
2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400
3.0 GHz AMD Phenom II X4 940
System Memory
6GB RAM
Video Card* (GPU)
nVidia GeForce GTX460
AMD Radeon HD5850
Hard Drive Space
25 GB
Sound Card
DirectX 9.0c Compatible Sound Card
DirectX Version
DirectX 11
Internet
Broadband connection required for multiplayer mode
Recommended System Requirements
Operating System
Windows Vista (SP2)
Windows 7 (SP1)
Windows 8 and 8.1
Note that Watch Dogs only supports 64 bit OSs.
Processor (CPU)
3.5 GHz Intel Core i7 3700
4.0 GHz AMD FX-8350
System Memory
8GB RAM
Video Card* (GPU)
nVidia GeForce GT600-series
AMD Radeon HD7000-series
Hard Drive Space
25 GB
Sound Card
Surround Sound 5.1
DirectX Version
DirectX 11
Internet
Broadband connection required for multiplayer mode
My point of view
Now let me tell you something. You see the ~ specs needed to play the game? I s*** you not when I tell you this game kills every bit of your computer. Why? Tried to play it on 280x dual 3gb crossfire. Flawless until it crashes...every 5 minutes. Tried with only one 280x. Same s***! The car control is like controlling your way to the bathroom when you just got a bottle of ipecac in you!
Game has bugs, shitty graphics for a game that was so much advertized for his best graphics game of the year. You walk with your phone that does everything in that game and hear stupid conversations between people. Open doors, turn traffic lights, hack cameras etc. The game lacks at everything even at the story. Why do I show a PS4 gameplay? Easy, because the PC version has the graphics f***** UP by the secret settings that UBISOFT "forgot to get it out of the game's menu" so the PS4 LOOKS WAY BETTER than the PC version! WARNING! This is my personal view of the game!
Verdict
Gameplay7
Video 6
Audio 8
Story 4
If I where you id stick to the fact that GTA V comes out on PC! (spoiler)
