Watch Dogs is now out; here’s our Watch Dogs review.
Till now Ubisoft have been playing up the control you’ll have of the dystopian city at the heart of their open world game, Watch Dogs, without showing the everyday mechanics of how you’ll employ this power. The newly released footage of one of the game’s missions shows exactly how easy it will be to activate roadblocks, unlock gates, and turn surveillance machines on their masters.
We were never going to have as much freedom as Ubisoft were describing in their initial game pitches, all the talk of commanding every electronic device in a city, wrapping yourself in a metropolis’ many interlocking systems, is compelling but it’s not practical – that said what’s on show in the video is disappointingly simple. For instance, in the mission we’re shown the player just needs to look for the highlighted object, press the corresponding key and they’re done. It’s a paint by numbers approach to play and it’s not particularly interesting, especially as open world games are meant to glory in freedom, not linearity.
That said, open world game missions are rarely where the fun’s at, anyway. The Grand Theft Auto games are always about what you do between missions, making your own fun. That may well be the case with Watch Dogs, too. For the missions, yes, all you do is follow the onscreen instructions, but, out of the missions, there you can play with the city to your heart’s content.
I’m still excited for Watch Dogs but the sheen is wearing off a bit as we see more of the game in action.
Now, if only we were getting The Division, too.