First Impressions: Hack into a new world in Watch Dogs

Watch Dogs, the highly anticipated next-gen title from Ubisoft, was released this week for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U and PC and it’s a game that I’ve been looking forward to since I first heard about it.

Watch Dogs takes place in a fictionalized version of the city of Chicago where players control Aiden Pearce, a grey hat hacker who is using his techno-wizardry skills to discover why he and his family were attacked, which resulted in the death of his niece. Using his mastery of technology, Pearce can use the CtOS system – a city-spanning network that controls nearly every function of Chicago – to do anything from manipulating security cameras, syphoning money from people’s bank accounts or stopping violent street crimes before they happen.

Pearce’s connection to the world of Watch Dogs is his smart phone. By installing backdoor programs into district CtOS systems, he makes use of a “Profiler” app which shows him information about everyone and everything around him. He can steal money from phones (which can be put toward guns, clothes, cars and more), listen to phone calls or chat dialogues which may lead to preventing a crime and much more. And while a majority of what Pearce is able to do in Chicago is related to hacking, there are tons of missions, side missions, activities and collectibles to collect, complete and discover around the massive city. Along with a large city, Pearce has plenty of skills and abilities to unlock which will lead to him becoming a more powerful vigilante.

Being that Pearce is just one man, staying out of sight and using his technological prowess is usually the cleanest way to accomplish a mission. Much of what Pearce will be doing in Watch Dogs will entail stealing data from a target or infiltrating secure locations to either steal data or incapacitate a target and often it will be easier to accomplish these missions using stealth than going in guns blazing. Don’t worry, though, Pearce has access to a wide array of weaponry (pistols, shotguns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, grenade launchers) as well as being able to craft items like grenades, lures and communication jammers to aid in disrupting and disabling targets.

There’s also a ton of online modes, most of which revolve around invading another player’s game and stealing information from them. This can happen to you at any time as well, which means you might have to drop everything and concentrate on finding this unknown assailant. This just happened to me yesterday. I was on my way to a clothing store when I was informed that my phone was being hacked and information stolen. A shaded area appeared on my map to display where the enemy hacker was hiding and using my profiler, I would need to track him down and kill him. As the time counts down a progress bar (showing the data theft) builds, the search area decreases. Finally, with less than 10% to go, I happened upon a parked car where my nemesis was hiding and carrying out the search from. It all happened in an instant – I walked briskly past the car, my profiler went off indicating my target, I pulled out a machine pistol and lit him up before he could turn the car on or get out to run. It’s an interesting idea, to combine single and multiplayer in this manner, though I think it won’t appeal to everyone. Also, you’re penalized for turning off the “always online” component of Watch Dogs – your Notoriety will be reset to 0 going offline (which is the XP you get for completing online missions that leads to unique abilities and unlocks).

I wasn’t blown away by the visual presentation at first, though. Compared to earlier preview videos used to hype Watch Dogs, I felt like the visuals on my PlayStation 4 version weren’t anything special – looking just slightly better than GTA V looks on my Xbox 360 – and certainly didn’t have the sheen of Infamous: Second Son. After I explored more of the city and watched the game in action, I realized I was a little hard on the game at first and even though it doesn’t look as good as the early hype videos (which were probably running on high end PCs), the lighting, textures and colors are all really top notch.

Watch Dogs is an incredibly fun game that has a ton of content and will definitely keep you glued to your PS4 for weeks. There are some unfortunate design choices but overall, you wouldn’t go wrong if you wanted to pick up Watch Dogs on a whim. Be sure to look out for my full review, coming soon.

Looking Ahead - Watch Dogs and Wolfenstein: The New Order

Early adopters of next-generation video game consoles haven’t had much choice when it comes to brand new games that push the envelope of what we know games are capable of. Games like “Battlefield 4” and “Infamous: Second Son” give us a glimpse of what is possible but new titles for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are few and far between right now. But not for long.

This coming Tuesday, May 20, “Wolfenstein: The New Order” is releasing for PS 3 and PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One and PC. A first-person shooter developed by MachineGames and published by Bethesda Softworks, this new Wolfenstein title is an interesting take on World War II – what would happen if the Nazis won?

Players take control of series protagonist B.J. Blazkowicz who wakes up in an asylum after being in a coma for several years to find out that the Nazis now control the world following the end of WWII.  Back in action, Blazkowicz takes the fight to the Nazis as he tries to gain control of the super weapons they used to dominate the world and end the Nazi menace.

I can still remember playing the original Wolfenstein 3D shooters back when I was much younger. I played through all the original chapters (I think there was six), even defeating Mecha-Hitler (who wasn’t the final boss of the series, somehow). 

What, you thought I was joking?

This new chapter adds an interesting twist to the series. In the original games, Blazkowicz had infiltrated behind enemy lines to take down the Nazis but in “The New Order,” the Nazis control the world making practically everywhere “behind enemy lines.”  I’m anticipating lots of big, set-piece moments to break up the Nazi killing action. Since this is a reimagining of the history, I’m assuming there will be all sorts of interesting weaponry too. I’ve also read that there isn’t any multiplayer support for this game, which means that hopefully the single player campaign offers lots of replayability to warrant a purchase.

The following week, on Tuesday, May 27, Ubisoft’s “Watch Dogs” will be released on PS3 and PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC.

Watch Dogs follows protagonist Aiden Pearce, a hacker capable of manipulating the system which controls almost all aspects of the city of Chicago, called ctOS. Pearce operates as a vigilante, able to glean all sorts of information from ctOS as well as being able to tap into all manner of systems and use them to his advantage. Not much has been made known about the overall plot or story of Watch Dogs so it’s hard to say what kind of character arc or missions we can expect for Pearce.

What we do know is that Pearce is a highly skilled hacker, capable of using his smart phone and other gadgets to access information about any character in the city. He can use his phone to discover information about NPCs,  steal money from bank accounts, tap into security cameras, cause traffic lights to malfunction and create accidents and much more. There will allegedly be many more hacks available to Pearce, so it will be interesting to see if each hack requires special input or mini-game or if they’re available at the press of a button.

Unlike “Wolfenstein: The New Order,” Watch Dogs will feature an element of multiplayer that’s fairly creative and reminds me of the multiplayer from “Assassin’s Creed” in that it’s much more intimate than most multiplayer modes.

In Watch Dogs, a second player can infiltrate your game, unannounced to you, and will begin searching for you. Once you’re discovered, the infiltrator will begin stealing data from your character and only confronting them or escaping to a safe distance (to interrupt the hack) will end the encounter. There’s also mention of an 8-player free roam mode as well. This brand of multiplayer won’t appeal to everyone and you’ll be able to select a single-player only session, without the possibility of infiltration, if you wish.

Outside of enhanced visuals, I’m interested to see just how “Wolfenstein: The New Order” and “Watch Dogs” make use of next-gen console technology. Wolfenstein and Watch Dogs are two very different games but both have great potential. Wolfenstein is a unique twist on the classic series and it will be fun to see what the alternate history timeline brings to the table. While Watch Dogs already has a ton of buzz around it, the relative unknown in terms of the plot will probably determine whether it’s a huge hit or just another open-world title.

Free RTS browser title LittleWarGame a big value

I can still recall my younger days playing Real-Time Strategy games Command and Conquer and Warcraft 2, or getting into my dad’s turn-based games like Panzer General, Colonization and Civilization. And despite not owning a gaming PC, I’m still a big fan of the genre with titles like Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War and Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2 – Yuri’s Revenge still installed on my laptop. A few friends and I still, to this day, play Halo Wars on Xbox 360 and never have any trouble finding opponents despite having been released in 2009.

And while I sit and hope that developers will port PC RTS titles to the PS4 (I’m not holding my breath though), I can at least play LittleWarGame online and remember the good old days. LittleWarGame is a free-to-play, browser-based RTS title – meaning there’s nothing to download and nothing to buy, just go to www.littlewargame.com and start playing.

I’ve played a handful of matches on LWG so far and its overall quality really impressed me. Being that it’s only a free-to-play browser game, its level of depth in terms of creatable units and structures is fairly shallow but this is made up for by the numerous levels offered and the ability to play against computer controlled players or other human players. Perhaps most interesting aspect of LWG is that it comes with a map editor to create your own landscapes – though there are plenty of premade maps to choose from as well.

LWG reminds me a lot of Blizzard RTS titles like Warcraft and Starcraft in its presentation (but more Warcraft since it’s a fantasy setting). The screen layout, character/building creation screens and unit grouping schemes are all very similar so if you’ve experienced Warcraft or Starcraft before, you’ll be able to jump right into LWG.  There are only a handful of structures to create, 3-4 military units (soldier, rifleman, mage and catapult) and only one resource to gather. You can make use of hotkeys and you’re also able to group units and the unit cap also seems to be around 90-100.

The visuals are old-school 8-bit and the music is appropriate for a fantasy setting. LWG runs very well too, keeping up a nice frame-rate even when there are numerous characters on the screen at once. And while I really liked the visuals for the most part, I found that some structures look a bit too similar to one another and were sometimes hard to tell apart when looking to make units. Similarly, when engaging an opponent, I sometimes found it hard to differentiate between my units and my enemies, since all the sprites look relatively the same.

After you finish a game, there’s even a post-game report with stats to show your dominance with options to save a replay of the completed game. There’s even a stat which keeps track of Actions Per Minute (an important stat for pro RTS players).

Overall, I’m pretty impressed by LittleWarGame. It’s fun, it plays well and it’s cheap – there’s not much more you can ask of a browser game. And considering all the various built in maps and ability to play other humans online, LWG has a lot more to offer than most browser games you can find online.