What’s Wrong with Watch_Dogs?

What’s wrong with Watch_Dogs? The short answer is, nothing, but the long answer is a bit more complex. Having finally pulled myself into this generation of games, the first game I picked up was Watch_Dogs. For all intents and purposes it’s a perfectly serviceable, on-par, Ubisoft, open-world game. Its a genre in which Ubi is quickly becoming king. With Assassin’s Creed, and Far Cry being two of the biggest open-world franchises of the past few years, Watch_Dogs is a great addition to their stable.

Why is there an industry-wide feeling that Watch_Dogs was a flop? The review scores are pretty positive, and the sales were strong, but as the year ended very few accolades were thrown its way? In fact, Watch_Dogs won “Most Disappointing Game” in Giant Bomb’s 2014 Game of the Year Awards. Like so many other games Watch_Dogs’ shelf life was short and its impact wasn’t felt like Ubisoft would have liked.

But why? Having played through the entire game and through the vast majority of its side content, I can say I LOVED Watch_Dogs. It reminded me of the good parts of GTA and the pace and structure of an Assassin’s Creed. The cop chases were actually fun and the action was slick. If you haven’t played Watch_Dogs I fully recommend it, especially if you like open world games. With that said, why is the overall opinion of the game so flat? Expectations.

Let’s ignore all the questionable marketing tactics used by Ubisoft, and the disappearance of graphical fidelity mid-development. Both those things paint Ubisoft in a negative light, but they don’t have a bearing on the actual final shipped product. When it was announced and shown at E3, Watch_Dogs became the tent-pole “next-gen” release. It was unfairly given the insurmountable task of representing the future. The same thing was done to a lesser extent with Perfect Dark Zero and Resistance: Fall of Man last generation.

These games were supposed to prove that you NEED a new console. They were gonna show off the capabilities of the new hardware and BLOW…YOUR…MIND. None of these game were mind-blowing. They weren’t bad, but they worked and were fun. Outside of the cell-phone mechanic, Watch_Dogs doesn’t introduce anything revolutionary. And to be fair, that cell-phone mechanic typically boils down to just pressing X at predetermined times to see crazy stuff happen in game, that’s it.
This gen has been really bad about not having anything to play. Looking at a release calendar reveals that there are very few boxed games to go buy that are really worth buying. If you’re looking for truly NEW stuff, you’ve got to wade through a swamp of Call of Dutys, Assassin’s Creeds, Battlefields and countless remakes and reissues.

The most egregious example of this is the Borderlands Handsome Collection. It includes Borderlands 2, and The Pre-Sequel. The Pre-Sequel came out in October of last year, making the March 2015 release of this collection, a mere 5 months later, rather insulting. I love a good remake, but there’s something to be said about hanging your early adopters out to dry. I digress.

At its announcement, Watch_Dogs had the highest expectations of any game so far this gen. What players got when they bought it, was an experience nominally better than the experience they’ve been having on the PS3 and 360 for nearly a decade. Rather than seeing the game for what is it, gamers, reviewers, and the industry saw the game for they wanted it to be.

“When one’s expectations are reduced to zero, one really appreciates everything one does have.” -Stephen Hawking

Its clear in this generation of games, expectations need to be keep in check. We haven’t had that Demon’s Souls, Gears of War, Halo: Combat Evolved, Grand Theft Auto III, or Super Mario 64 moment yet. No game has stepped up and broken the mold, at least not in the realm of triple-A games. Indie developers are doing God’s work right now, by innovating all over the place, but we need something to pave the way. As much praise as games like Titanfall and Destiny have gotten, they aren’t changing the landscape of gaming, they are just existing in it.

So, what’s wrong with Watch Dogs? There’s your long answer. It was dealt a bad hand and Ubisoft’s marketing lead up to release only made it worse. Personally I can’t wait for Watch_Dogs 2, Ubisoft has a great track record of properly iterating on their second attempt a series (Assassin’s Creed 2, Far Cry 3, Rayman 2, etc.) I guess this is where I give Watch_Dogs a verdict.

Verdict: Don’t expect to to be mind-blown.