Watch Dogs Should've Been Groundbreaking

Watch Dogs is a series of video games that (although still ongoing) could've developed into something truly remarkable, unique and fascinating. A video game where you play as a most wanted internet hacker/vigilante, a Robin Hood for the modern, tech sauvy age of digital corruption. The groundbreaking Mr Robot comes to mind when thinking of the perfect espionage thriller storyline, a narrative that could blend this gameplay idea together into something truly groundbreaking. Unfortunately Ubisoft over-promised their claims for the original game, Watch Dogs 1 received a massive graphical downgrade, the gameplay took a huge hit too, it looked worse, played worse and was far less immersive than what it was shown or hyped up to be. The hacking was (and still is) very simple and surface level, you simply tap one of four buttons to make a traffic light go green, lift a barrier or take control of a CCTV camera. You might be able to stun/distract people by hacking their phones from afar, or emptying their bank account for in-game cash (you evil gamer!), but outside of the blackout hack (missing in 2 & Legion), the hacking was nothing but a gimic, that only served to make combat and police chases easier. They never really did anything truly innovative with this mechanic (although cheating at poker using the casinos CCTV was a really clever touch). I do think 2 & Legion did add a lot more to the toy box, as you can now turn police and gangs onto eachother by sending false crime reports, hack a series of different drones and work vehicles; from scissors lifts to drones equipped with machine guns. It seems they have rarely tapped into the privacy side of hacking though, outside of a couple of story missions and side activities, we're never given the opportunity to expose an evil corporation, character or group, to use that information to blackmail them, or maybe return all their stolen money to the people who were robbed.

There are only a small handful of story decisions to be made across the series. You could kill or spare your niece's murderer in Watch Dogs 1 or let a crazy scientist transcend into a virtual consciousness, or not by pulling the plug on her, killing her instantly, in Watch Dogs Legion. Watch Dogs 2 didn't even have any moral choices to make at all. Unfortunately the little choices we do get, have next to no consequences and are never brought up again. What a missed opportunity! These small, but fleeting moments give us a tiny glimpse at something that could be so much more than just another action based city game (but with hacking mechanics!) like so many others. In the original Watch Dogs, you had a karma system that determined how the people of Chicago saw you. Aiden Pearce could be seen as a vigilante hero, sticking it to the evil corporations , looking out for all the underdogs of society, by playing the game nicely (don't kill pedestrians or police, help people in need, etc). Or you could be seen as a monster, somebody who uses the system to your own advantage and causes chaos, acting selfishly, by playing recklessly (steal innocents money or data through hacking, kill everyone in sight, get in frequent trouble with police, etc). This gave every action I made some weight, although there were very little narrative decisions, the way I went about a situation inclined me to play stealthily, to avoid bad publicity. Unfortunately this system is removed in later entries, meaning going on a random killing spree or eliminating half the police force has no meaning. Suddenly you don't feel so watched and not only does that take away from the story (in a immersive gameplay aspect) it also makes the open world feel shallow, like this is just some mindless sandbox that will just reset after a few hours and nobody will care that you just blew up half of San Francisco or London. Outside of everything that I have just mentioned, Watch Dogs is a very linear game despite having an open world city, every story ends the same no matter how differently you play the game, every cutscene, story beat and dialogue is exactly same. Gaining access to highly sensitive information should be an absolute thrill, something that could be conflicting and result in huge consequences. For example: "If I ignore a government conspiracy, they will continue to do evil. Yet if I try to hack them, I may be targeted. This could end badly if I'm not careful!" - Imagine if that outcome had several different endings based on how you decided to proceed: ignore, hack successfully, or get caught. Maybe there could be scenarios where I'm being blackmailed and I have to make sacrifices or even throw people in harms way to save myself. Am I a greedy hacker, a vigilante hacker who wants justice, or maybe I'm just messing around for the thrill/fun of it, maybe I'm on a personal vendetta only wanting revenge! There are so many reasons to be a hacker and it just sucks how we are pigeon holed into fixed roles we may not like, or even agree with. Watch Dogs has some seriously good role playing potential here, that is just utterly wasted on trying so hard to be another Grand Theft Auto style game, full of shoot outs and car chases, that it tends to sleep on the more intriguing side of internet espionage.

Lastly, Watch Dogs has never really commented on modern day society. What I loved about Mr Robot is how it tapped into the disgusting side of the internet, it showed us the evil deeds beneath E Corps super clean/corporate facade and commented on how big companies own the whole world and people like cattle. It even showed us how criminals use the dark web to sell drugs, people, weapons and ordered assassinations. It examined our ignorance to all this horror too, showing us an ugly mirror of the world we live in. Of course a lot of these things are also touched upon in Watch Dogs, but only the first game attempts to take these discoveries seriously, even then it devolves into something over the top and comical (usually ending in a huge shoot out or action sequence). As mentioned before, we can never decide what to do with this information either, the game forces us to do what Aiden would do instead and we simply play out that scenario. I think about all the really deep, hard hitting commentaries a game like Watch Dogs could say; about all of our addictions to modern day tech, how companies use social media to steal data to keep people hooked on their phones 24/7. They could comment on how toxic internet personalities get idolised like gods, how certain politicians and news sites lie to sway public opinions. How we all secretively live in a dark dystopian, Orwellian future and don't even realise it because we're all so ignorant to the corruption! (I think Watch Dogs Legion went way too far with this though, setting it in a Cyberpunk London). I dream of the perfect Watch Dogs game, one that truly taps into complex hacking, a game that has a genius story, which challenges everyone's view on the world, with characters I can truly relate to. Personally Watch Dogs 1 had the best story with it's serious tone, protagonist and morality system. However that always felt like the concept piece to a much deeper, more personal experience that has sadly never come to be, as both Watch Dogs 2 and Legion felt very comical, comedic and unfortunately shallow in tone.