Ok so I have been playing for about 2-3 hours, I have a lot to say I suppose.
I spent about an hour and a half just driving around and listening to soul music.
On PS4, the game looks decent in the dry sunlight. Sometimes a little bland. At night the game looks great, and when its raining at night it is easily one of the best looking next-gen thing I have seen on the PS4.
Aiden (main character) is dry but surprisingly compelling for some reason. Im not sure if its the gravely voice (cliche I know), but in a lot of ways he is a cypher for the mood of Chicago, a mix of self-inflicted technological dependence/oppression in the vain of Orwells Big Brother surveillance-cross-Huxleys pervassive soma numbness. In a lot of ways, Aiden feels like an extension of the city, which is an interesting dynamic for an open world game. That, and hes kinda limp but it works still.
Aiden has a look, its clear ubisoft is trying to make another iconic look and it works.
The licensed soundtrack is disappointing outright. Some good licensed picks but some glaring inclusions. Rise Aganist? Alkaline Trio? 2 Chainz? the first 2 make some sense because they are from Chicago but still dont fit the game's tone well. For that matter, no Kanye West or Chance the Rapper in a game set in Chicago? Thats a strike Ubisoft. the original electronic, darkwave synth stuff is pretty good however.
Hacking is not really elaborate in the way you might think in a game that is all about hacking. There is no deep strategic deployment of hacks on their own. However, its the context that makes hacking intresting and ultimately the right choice of implementation. Hacking is literally one button, but awareness of environment manipulation is a totally unique mechanic.
This implementation of hacking understands that it is a tool for interaction with the environment, and oddly enough it resembles dishonored more than GTA in this respect. Manipulating the environment and random civilians creates opportunity for outsmarting the enemies. Hack a traffic light and cause a car crash too trap someone on the run and you have successfully synthesized the environment and NPC behavior to your advantage.
The NPCs are interesting in a way no open world game has been able to achieve. Watch Dogs distinguishes itself with a system of randomized profiles for 1000s of random civilians. The result is a populous of people that arent there to simply be run over or gunned down on a nihilistic bloodthirsty nihilistic. I saw a random argument between a husband and his wife over his action figure collection and through him out of the house. Upon hacking his phone and checking his information it shows that he is a middle aged man that frequently searches up porn makes about 30 000/year. You can fill in the blanks now, this is likely a manchild dwelling on some subreddit in the online ether. As stereotypical as that is, it does something remarkable, this random npc now has a backstory. A history, and a presence. In another instence, I saw an altercation between a couple ending with the male assaulting his girlfriend. She cowered away hurt, and his profile read something to the effect of aggression so I shot his knee cap. A similar thing has been attempted in Red Dead Redemption with random carriage robberies, but again this is different. This was a moral choice for me, I didnt approve oh his behaviour emotionally so I taught him a lesson.
Really the detail in Chicago is amazing, from the dilapidated southside to the loop, highly believable street designs and urban planning, swaying foliage, bellowing steam covers, detailed interiors, incredible wind simulation, sunny day breaks and massive architecture scale, Ubisoft has created one of the best open worlds I have ever explored.
Whether Watch Dogs keeps this up is yet to be determined. Hell, the story isnt even what Im all that interested in, but Watch Dogs may have kept its most crucial promise; an interactive world that feels alive and realized in ways unprecedented in gaming.
It's a pretty great game so far.
