 "Watching Big Brother")
We live in a connected world and often, our actions are being monitored by the powers that be. But what if you could watch over Big Brother? What if nothing was sacred - no server secure, no conversation private, no bank account fool-proof and no city utility safe from hackers?
Ubisoft's Watch Dogs (Rs 2,999 for PS3, the version reviewed), which has been on every gamers' list since it was unveiled a couple of years ago, offers you exactly this kind of control. This means doomsday or nirvana, depending on which side of the divide you're on. You play as Aiden Pearce, a grey hat hacker out to avenge his niece's death, and how your life story as this vigilante progresses completely depends on the choices you make as a player.
The action takes place in a futuristic version of Chicago, where you have the option of hacking into servers to control stuff such as civic amenities - electricity, traffic lights, obstacles and the like - to surveillance cameras, phones, bank accounts and even ATMs. The hacking, however, is as simple as it gets - Pearce can hack any network by pressing a button on his cell phone.
So how does Pearce fight his battle? With his skills as a hacker and with weapons - as is expected in a third-person shooter. And, of course, by taking control of various systems in the Windy City - check on an opponent by hacking into a surveillance camera, point your phone to any random person on the street and find tidbits of information, bank account details etc or listen in on an opponent's calls by hacking his phone.
The gameplay seems a mish-mash of several iconic games - slow down time during fights a la Max Payne, drive around in the city like in Grand Theft Auto and take people down stealthily like in Assassin's Creed.
In the limited time I played the game, the combat mode was quite satisfactory, especially because of the fact that I could find out a lot about the opponents by hacking into the system. At the same time, it curbed my natural style of a trigger-happy player, not because of any performance issue per se, but because it's easier to pull the trigger on a faceless/nameless enemy. The moment you are offered a peek into the intimate life details of an opponent (satisfying our innate voyeuristic urges as well), you humanise the virtual person and face a dilemma in pulling the trigger. Now I know what the protagonist was going through in Hitman Absolution, when he was asked to bump off a former colleague.
I love driving around in the virtual world, especially in an open-world environment, such as in Watch Dogs. Unfortunately, the driving experience is more arcade-style than realistic. The vehicles felt heavy to manoeuvre and seemed a tad unresponsive when compared with my driving experience in two of my favourites GTA San Andreas and Burnout Paradise.
Let me be very frank. I'm not the best person to have when anything has to be done stealthily. Okay I didn't make a mess of the Assassin's Creed series, but I'll be the first one to admit the performance of my friends in the game trump mine by a long way. However, I'm not as bad as Watch Dogs made me out to be - I would fail my missions for the silliest of reasons such as being spotted by a cop. And, once you're spotted, there's no way you can blend into the crowd. I wish the developers had made this function available, as is in Hitman Absolution.
As you progress in the game, your skill sets can be upgraded via the skill tree under the heads of Hacking, Driving, Combat and Crafting. Each upgrade unleashes some special powers. I found the Blackout skill, by which one can stop all electronic devices from functioning in your immediate vicinity, a great help in making a getaway.
By the way, the game also has a reputation system - the lesser the civilian casualties in your quest for vengeance, the higher your rating. Indulge in mindless violence against civilians and the city's residents will call the cops the moment you're sighted.
The weakest link in the game is, unfortunately, the protagonist. Even after playing the game for the greater part of the day, I was unable to know much about this person, beyond what is shown on the screen - his character isn't fleshed out (you can hardly understand what he says in his gruff and gravelly voice, without subtitles). While the side quests are a welcome addition, the story kind of meanders. Thankfully some of the side characters are fleshed out and the multiplayer modes are serious fun.
Watch Dogs might not have lived up to the hype but in sum, it offers loads of fun with the best bits of many iconic games.
Ubisoft's Watch Dogs (Rs 2,999 for PS3, the version reviewed), which has been on every gamers' list since it was unveiled a couple of years ago, offers you exactly this kind of control. This means doomsday or nirvana, depending on which side of the divide you're on. You play as Aiden Pearce, a grey hat hacker out to avenge his niece's death, and how your life story as this vigilante progresses completely depends on the choices you make as a player.
The action takes place in a futuristic version of Chicago, where you have the option of hacking into servers to control stuff such as civic amenities - electricity, traffic lights, obstacles and the like - to surveillance cameras, phones, bank accounts and even ATMs. The hacking, however, is as simple as it gets - Pearce can hack any network by pressing a button on his cell phone.
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In the course of the game, Pearce also uncovers the ctOS, a surveillance program that practically keeps tabs on all households and offices in Chicago; I felt this bit to be eerily similar to the NSA's Prism program.
So how does Pearce fight his battle? With his skills as a hacker and with weapons - as is expected in a third-person shooter. And, of course, by taking control of various systems in the Windy City - check on an opponent by hacking into a surveillance camera, point your phone to any random person on the street and find tidbits of information, bank account details etc or listen in on an opponent's calls by hacking his phone.
The gameplay seems a mish-mash of several iconic games - slow down time during fights a la Max Payne, drive around in the city like in Grand Theft Auto and take people down stealthily like in Assassin's Creed.
In the limited time I played the game, the combat mode was quite satisfactory, especially because of the fact that I could find out a lot about the opponents by hacking into the system. At the same time, it curbed my natural style of a trigger-happy player, not because of any performance issue per se, but because it's easier to pull the trigger on a faceless/nameless enemy. The moment you are offered a peek into the intimate life details of an opponent (satisfying our innate voyeuristic urges as well), you humanise the virtual person and face a dilemma in pulling the trigger. Now I know what the protagonist was going through in Hitman Absolution, when he was asked to bump off a former colleague.
I love driving around in the virtual world, especially in an open-world environment, such as in Watch Dogs. Unfortunately, the driving experience is more arcade-style than realistic. The vehicles felt heavy to manoeuvre and seemed a tad unresponsive when compared with my driving experience in two of my favourites GTA San Andreas and Burnout Paradise.
Let me be very frank. I'm not the best person to have when anything has to be done stealthily. Okay I didn't make a mess of the Assassin's Creed series, but I'll be the first one to admit the performance of my friends in the game trump mine by a long way. However, I'm not as bad as Watch Dogs made me out to be - I would fail my missions for the silliest of reasons such as being spotted by a cop. And, once you're spotted, there's no way you can blend into the crowd. I wish the developers had made this function available, as is in Hitman Absolution.
As you progress in the game, your skill sets can be upgraded via the skill tree under the heads of Hacking, Driving, Combat and Crafting. Each upgrade unleashes some special powers. I found the Blackout skill, by which one can stop all electronic devices from functioning in your immediate vicinity, a great help in making a getaway.
By the way, the game also has a reputation system - the lesser the civilian casualties in your quest for vengeance, the higher your rating. Indulge in mindless violence against civilians and the city's residents will call the cops the moment you're sighted.
The weakest link in the game is, unfortunately, the protagonist. Even after playing the game for the greater part of the day, I was unable to know much about this person, beyond what is shown on the screen - his character isn't fleshed out (you can hardly understand what he says in his gruff and gravelly voice, without subtitles). While the side quests are a welcome addition, the story kind of meanders. Thankfully some of the side characters are fleshed out and the multiplayer modes are serious fun.
Watch Dogs might not have lived up to the hype but in sum, it offers loads of fun with the best bits of many iconic games.