Getting Our Hands-on Watch_Dogs on PS4

Hands-One Experience With Watch_Dogs On PS4, Plus 9 Minute Multiplayer GameplayDemo

April 24, 2014, By Dean Howard

Watch_Dogs will revolutionize how open-world games are played. Set in a not too distant future in Chicago. You will take on the role of a vigilante hacker by the name Aiden Pierce as he battles again't seedy criminals involved in violent human trafficking, prostitution rings and their high powered underground clienteles hiding their corruption within tightly protected data.

Aiden's history is one of incredible pain and his story of revenge unfolds brilliantly within the first few hours of playing.  Watch_Dogs begins with Aiden hacking accounts, stealing money from unsuspecting victims, but after a job goes terribly wrong resulting in the death of his niece, Aiden is devastated. In his quest for vengeance we are lead down the path to uncovering the identity of his niece's killer and the powerful underground organization determined to stop him.

Gamers will take control of Aiden after the tragic death of his six-year old niece Lena Pearce. Aiden has doubled his efforts to finding her killer and that hunt has led him to an assassin under May Stadium.  As the sound of fans cheering wildly is heard above them, Aiden interrogates the hitman, getting one step closer to finding the truth.

Watch_Dogs focuses on hacking. Aiden uses the information gathered to gain funds from banks, steal vehicles, stop crimes and weaponize his location and environment. This style of game-play affects the way players can approach different situations in Watch_Dogs, from being stealthy when infiltrating an internet mogul's multi million dollar mansion to burning down the highway in their stolen exotic cars.

Accessing the abundance of Chicago's data is a simple press of the Square button thanks to the ctOS (The city wide monitoring and security network). This simple one button hacking is flexible allowing Aiden to interact with elements around him like, bridges, garage doors, traffic lights and much much more by aiming the reticle in a selected direction and pressing Square. Ubisoft Montreal have also done a phenomenal job working on every individual NPC which has its own set of data points which Aiden can inspect at any moment. By pushing Square, Aiden can activate the profiler in his smartphone, enabling him to access data on every individual person he walks by including their names, criminal records and their net worth. This level of attention and detail is staggering and shows just how much time and effort Ubisoft Montreal have put towards making Watch_Dogs feel authentically real and full of life.

Gamers can literately spend hours exploring Chicago, gathering intel on people and stealing money from their bank accounts. Or spying on their phone conversations, even watching private text messages being exchanged back and forth. Apart from the huge main story missions to play through, Aiden can also pursue a wide variety of side missions and mini-games during Watch_Dogs free-roaming mode. Aiden's profiler will also alert gamers to random crimes taking place in their current location and players can either choose to intervene if they so wish. Players can also hack into security cameras at anytime to watch the city. The possibilities are truly enormous.

Your hacking ability also extends beyond surveillance cameras and banks as Aiden can also use it during combat, driving and stealth missions. This constant sudden shift in gameplay will almost certainly require players to think quickly on their feet as they explore the open-world of Watch_Dogs Chicago.

As a skilled vigilante Aiden is trained in arm to arm combat, skilled takedowns and weapons, but his skill to hack is where the real game changer comes into play. Explosive grenades can be armed and detonated remotely, security cameras can become useful allies in tactical mission allowing for stealthy attacks and diversions, while electrical fuse boxes can become explosive wall mines for unsuspecting enemies.  Ubisoft montreal have added several layers of options to the traditional open-world experience allowing you  more control of how the game is played.

For example in a particular mission later into the game, Aiden is able to plan his attack on an enemies meeting point before they get there, making sure he has the much needed vantage point for the upcoming battle ahead. The more you play with Aiden the more his kinetic abilities  begin to grow. These abilities are divided into skill trees, crafting, driving, hacking and combat. As you progress the skill trees open new ways to  counter the police and criminals like causing huge city black outs, or disabling tracking devices on pursuing cop cars and helicopters.

Watch_Dogs Available to Pre-Order Today

Watch_Dogs also includes a ton of multiplayer modes smartly integrated into the games single-player missions. A particular mode for example will require 2 teams to decrypt a packet data. Each team must keep their data from the other to avoid it being stolen and hacked. This capture the flag style multiplayer action will most likely lead to hours of car chasing and shoot-outs across the expansive world of Watch_Dogs Chicago city.

Watch_Dogs takes the open-world gaming experience to yet another level, giving players more control of the way they would like to play from moment-to-moment. The ability to hack creates a whole new dynamic approach to traditional espionage and gamers can get to experience this when Watch_Dogs lands on Playstation 4 and Playstation 3 on May 27th.