Finally, Watch Dogs now has a release date and will now be available to the general public on May 27, 2014. The game is an open-world survival game created by Ubisoft and was announced at its press conference at E3 2012. Watch Dogs was further previewed at E3 2013 with a demo. The game was pushed back for 7 months at the end of last year because of either funding or development problems. This push back can also be speculated as a late development start of the game as the Watch Dogs developer team was also creating a new game engine for the game. From the story to the gameplay, this game has surprised me and I do not mind waiting a couple months for the developer to perfect their work. The more time put in a game, the better it becomes. So far of what I have seen in the demo of the game, I can assume that Watch Dogs will be a mix of Assasin’s Creed and Grand Theft Auto V.
Story:
The story is focused around the idea of information/cyber warfare with the big question of “Who really runs technology?” The setting of the game in a near futuristic version of Chicago, Illinois; Chicago is one of the major cities to host one of the CtOS (Central Operating System) super computers. What is significant about these computers is that they control every piece of technology in the city and its powers extend to collecting every single bit of information that is sent around the city. One may ask “Why have these CtOS computers?” the reason for this is because of the Northeast blackout of 2003. After a hacker hacked into the Northeastern Power Grid and caused it to shut down, the government set up the CtOS in order to prevent such mishap ever again.
You will play as Aiden Pearce who is very skillful in the art of hacking. Pearce is also a combat specialist and can take most people out. During the E3 2013 demo, Pearce assassinates a media mogul named Joseph DeMarco, who lied during his murder trial and got acquitted of all charges. Pearce later helps T-Bone, his hacker friend, escape after he is caught stealing a motherboard.
Multiplayer:
There will be a free roam mode in Watch Dogs and it will be similar to Grand Theft Auto V, as it was recently confirmed by Ubisoft last week. However, Ubisoft has confirmed the other multiplayer modes of CTOS Mobile Challenge, Online Hacking, Decryption, and Racing mode. In addition to all these different game modes, there will be another special game mode where players can join other player’s worlds. The host of the world that the player joins does not know where or who that player is.
Gameplay:
The gameplay as I have seen is pretty realistic. The mechanics look very dynamic, but also fluent overall. I feel that Ubisoft put a lot of effort on what you can hack in the game because everywhere you go, there is always something to hack whether it is a person or car. The city of Chicago (Setting) is a simulation of the actual city. Even though there is not a lot of gameplay released, this game looks very promising to be successful in providing entertaining gameplay.