Watch Dogs (PS3)

My Sons Review for this game:

I like the game it’s not like call of duty where you get to automatically go into multiplayer you have to play the single player and unlock multiplayer game types as you go. If your on the Xbox 360 or the ps3 you can’t play free play mode you have to be on the next gen systems to play it, this wouldn’t matter if you have a ps4 or xbox one. The pc I don’t think has this restriction. If you have played GTA before it’s kind of like that but with a few extra perks of being able to use your phone to hack into bank accounts & security cameras. You can also see what people do by hovering over them your hooked into the CTOS so you can kind of see there whole life history which is kind of cool. You have to go to these CTOS towers to get access to new parts of the servers in different parts of the cities. If you have liked the GTA brand you will probably like this game. Only thing that I don’t really like is not getting to play multiplayer for a little bit and them making you play the single player version. I completely understand why they did that to make sure no noobs are on multiplayer not knowing what to do. Overall it’s a great game.

I have had this game since release day. Iv done about every thing you can do on it and I got to say there is more then enough to do! In point of fact if your A.D.D you will be hours into it without even hardly playing the main missions. I probably put 50 hours in before I even completed act 2. I will say that depending on how you decide to play the game it can become repetitive I did not have this problem because i was distracted by every shiny object in the game. From playing chess, to taking digital trips, to running down random bad guys. Now I pretty much agree with every thing the top reviewer True Story has to say in his review. However for me online hacking is the funnest part of the game. And after reading his update on online hacking I tested out some tactics to see if I could still have a fun hacking experience. While versing the other players advantages. And the answer was yes. So first lets address that fact that they know u r there. Yup they sure do. They dont know exactly where you are but they have a nice big purple search area to run to. So the trick is to keep your distance. and get the hack either through cameras or get close enough to them to start your hack. Iv actual found you can take advantage of them running for your position. Now once you start the hack you will disappear off of there radar. You now have about 50 seconds to run or drive to a location that is more advantageous to u. You then need to press the down arrow and start your down load. ( and yes i agree this is not exactly how the game was probably meant to be played but for me it has been quite fun) Now I have been on both ends of this situation. So try to pick places where you have a combination of Npc characters, places to hide (preferably ones you can move away from to another spot or around it) and cars.( have a getaway plan! )You get points weather you get the full hack or not. I dont even try to get full hacks. I just try for 50 to 60 percent then i get the heck out of there! Things to help you get away. ( if you see the person hunting you approaching the front of the car you are hiding in and he has not shot you or officially identified you. Hit him with the car! I have yet to see any one die from this and it gives you more time to get away! Also sometimes even if they see you if they dont get close enough to profile u your hack will continue. If they do profile you another thing to consider is that if you stay out of their line of sight for long enough you will automatically get away. So approach hacks as if the other person knows you are in there game from the get go, watch them on your radar and look for your opportunity to hack them . Then get your distance before you start the full down load. Forget about getting full hacks ( if you want to try more power to you but it will increase the likely hood of your death) Now on to the aggravating car situation. I have found that u usually get only one opportunity to start the hack when they are just driving around every where waiting for you to time out. So a few things to help with that. Watch your distance counter on the side of the screen if they are just driving away from you when it reaches 1000 you can fast tract to to them witch may put you in a better position to start the hack.( Also my personal fave is when you start the hack and they drive away form you. This will actually buy you more time as they will have to drive back to your location just make sure you start the down load before you get caught in the red on your radar screen or you will be to far away. Now as to the campers who sit in a building or get on a roof with no camera angle. All I can say is that this is dirty pool tactics and in my opinion UBI soft should not penalize u for not getting the hack and they should stop rewarding people that do it. While that one is a low blow I actually have only encountered it a few times. Its just bad luck and really I dont think most people have the patience for it. I know I dont so U probably wont see it to often. And I have not seen it enough for it to ruin the game. Now i am by no means a top notch player of watch dogs. I just really enjoy the game and I find that the tactics I use result in about a 70% success rate. The odds are stacked against you and that is all there is to it. But you can still have fun hacking the other players. Sometimes you are going to be instant killed when you go to hack another player. I personally only go after people that are worth 150 or above points my best hack was on a player worth 500 points I got a partial hack and this got me about 350 notoriety points. Though I have had many times where going after big points got me killed within seconds. Still I learn from my mistakes and continue to have fun. The best is when you manage to get away and you know you were on the brink of death. I just really enjoy this game and want to point out that the funnest part of the game is now more difficult, but not completely hopeless and that you can still have alot of fun with this game.

I bought this one knowing very little about it. It was under $10 and it had “greatest hits” slapped on the top. PS3 greatest hits has not let me down in the past, so it figured to be a pretty easy gamble for so cheap. Starting the game… “Ubisoft linking? … What? No. I’m not on a PC. All purchases and information should be solely through the PS-Store. Why is there a third party trying to gain my information? … Skip. … What? You’re going to ask me this, EVERY time I start the game up? Why?” This seems like a poor choice, mainly because it’s on the console. Whatever.

The game starts you off in the basement of a stadium, with an empty gun to a beaten foe’s head. Once your buddy Jordi shows up, it’s your mission to get past the cops and escape the building. Intro mission obviously, so it shows all the game mechanics and capabilities available to you in game. Deceiving the police and using the your surrounds for cover while linking to mounted cameras to surveillance the room, or to trigger computers that beyond your physical reach. So far, I’m impressed, as it’s certainly a detailed world and everything is well rendered. The moving physics are pretty nifty and the AI isn’t a complete idiot, excluding the fact they are supposed to be gullible idiots. Plus, linking from room to room via the use of cameras is smoothly done. The buddy triggers a black out, and you make your escape a hideout using the provided car. Driving is a bit stiff, but I’m sure I’ll work into it.

Watch Dogs is a open world adventure that would make GTA proud in it’s expansiveness. Set in the real live location of Chicago, my first personal mission was to go exploring! It’s cool to look at the comparisons of game versus real life locations. It’s smaller, and they’ve obviously had to stretch the proportions to accommodate the game physics, and that’s to be expected. But… the Cloud Gate… what did they do to the massive reflective bean?! “Bah!” I said, as my game opinion instantly dropped. I’m not a developer, but I have worked with rendering software, so I know having a reflective surface that also bends the light to contour to a rounded surface is no easy task. The thing they came up with though… I don’t know what it is, but it’s something I wouldn’t even plug in for my kids’ night light.

Anyway, back at the hideout, the next mission continues on to more tutorial stuff; which while on that note, Watch Dogs does a detailed job of keeping you informed of the world you’re in, the things you can do, and how you do said things. I give props because some games leave it — too — open-ended, which may force you to use some google magic for an explanation. Watch Dogs has it all for you in a quick little database. The mission itself explains that in free roam mode, you can walk a crowd and pick up all their personal information via their phones. Money, conversations, chats, tools, and most importantly, side-missions (I’ll come back to this). This system, again, is very intuitive and smooth. A long depress of the button automatically hooks you up, so just strolling through a crowed street corner, you can pick up over a dozen different people’s account numbers. Leaving you with no money concerns for the rest of the game. Pretty neat mechanic.

Finally! An exposition mission! I was getting a little impatient as I knew little to nothing about my character. “Okay, birthday party. … I’m late. … And it’s been over a year since I’ve seen these characters? But I claim to be looking after them? … What? … You’re being harassed via phone calls? … You’d have thought I would already know this as I was already looking after you, huh?” … Oh, he’s around the corner?” After a quick chase, mission is complete and it sets me on my story arc path, and well, I’m bored. Those character interactions, including with your buddy earlier, all seem empty, like, there wasn’t any real character in them. Just someone reading a script.

I don’t feel connected to the story — not yet anyways — so let’s do some side missions. Drive this car to this place in this time, sounds typical. Intercept this convoy on it’s path, bust up this gang-hideout, okay, still typical. Save this victim in this location… wait, I’m a crime fighter? That’s kind of cool. Mini-games, cups, chess, and drinking games. Literal cash runs parkouring around picking up giant coins? Interesting. Digital trips where you bounce from flower to flower to the tune of psychedelic music, or sneak the wasteland as robotic sentries seek to melt you skin with intense radiation?! Holy crap! There’s a lot built into the game to distract you from playing… well… the game! These all reward you with various prizes, depending on the scenario. Some with cash, but as I mentioned before, you’re never hurting for the digital greenbacks. Experience, which you can then use to upgrade your equipment. Allowing you to hack bridges, raising or lowering them on pursuers. Explode transformers, not only killing any foes, but also blackout the city block for a short time so you can make a quick escape. Gun skills, as you can “focus” on your shots, slowing down time. The upgrades are simple to incorporate into your play style as well. Just like the cameras, they only require a simple depress to activate that skill, and BOOM!, you exploded that guy’s cell phone effectively killing him.

You also earn Citizen Reputation. The bigger a do-gooder you are, the citizens will speak up for you when news reports against you and your shenanigans. The citizens will even take selfies with you. However, the bigger public menace you are, people will see you on the street and start calling the cops on your ass. Fun little mechanic. I just disagree with the fact that if you are racing down the highway and accidentally run over any individual, you lose citizen points. The driving physics are super rigid at times, and how could they possibly know I was in that car? Or, you witnessed an armed crime against an NPC and shot the criminal down, you lose citizen points as it was an “unjustified” killing of a citizen. “He did it first! He was clearly a public threat!” … Hell, even if you don’t shoot the criminal and proceed to chase him down, citizens will phone in his gun shots fired, and the cops will chase you down as you chase down the criminal, who is shooting his gun wildly behind him as he runs away. Do the cops care? No, they proceed to shoot YOU even though you never even presented your gun. It’s a bit goofy.

“Alright alright, lots to do in free roam mode, that’s cool… What’s this? … A hacking contract? Interesting. Find the target and open a backdoor. Shouldn’t be too much trouble… Wow, I know the AI can’t drive that well, but that is some pretty lousy path-finding… why is he running around like a chicken with his head cut off?… Holy s***, he just exploded a pipeline underneath the street! … That’s an actual player!? … When did I get online!?”

I’m used to the traditional “game room” setting prior to any online play. The process however was literally: Accept mission >> Quick Load of New World generation >> Track Down the Target. It was that simple. Being instantly zipped into another players’ world trying to hack/tail them while they run around like a mad-man in their own game — all completely unbeknownst to them — was a big shock, but is the biggest thing that has surprised me about this game. There was a lot about this game that I was not liking up to this point. But once I discovered this, I couldn’t get enough of it. In a matter of hours, I had a pretty high notoriety points, and I was pretty good at hiding away from my targets as I hacked their system. Slouched in a car looking through my rear-view mirror, as they run in bizarre patterns from person to person, or unleash all manner of pandemonium as the cops rush in to stop the crazed antics. It was thrilling as several times it looks like you are to be discovered when they simply brush past and hijack a car. By far, the most exciting part of the game for me.

There are things that work for the game’s favor. Definitely a unique online experience, tons and tons of side missions, and a robust number of things to do that aren’t “officially credited”, but are still fun. Like raising barriers on passing cars. Flipping them into the air as a train goes by is a bit of a challenge, but so rewarding. The city is pretty diverse with a number of different environments, and location specific missions, like expanding your ctOS range. Hell, even out running hostile vehicles is challenging and fun as you open up many different options to shake the heat by using bridges, barriers, traffic signals; or, I suppose you could use the super easy method of “going for a swim.” Visually everything looks great and the atmosphere is immersive. The combat is also done well, I don’t have much to say about it because I feel like they did a lot of right as far as taking care of hostiles. You have a lot of options, using deception to sneak past, or using the fairly direct system of engagement with an array of effective weapons that feel smooth as you shoot around a corner, or over your shoulder, of the many barriers that are provided. Walking around with the over-the-shoulder 3rd person perspective takes a bit getting used to, but in combat it works fairly fluently. My only complaint regarding combat is the melee as it’s reduced to a quick-time action where you do an automatic take down depending on whats in your hands, or what’s around you. It’s a neat animation, but you can perform it on anyone that is not considered a hostile.

Which segways me into my biggest complaint about the game overall, the is the quick-time button events. As “open-world” as the game plays, it doesn’t feel like it sometimes, primarily because it restricts what you can do control-wise. Instead of simply, pressing the “crouch” button and crouching where ever you please, the game forces you to “take cover”. This works in fights, but it was ever-so annoying to sneak along a half-wall because as soon as you made to move in that direction, the character simply stands and walks over there… in plain sight. “Give me a damn crouch button, and if I’m near a wall, then make me hug the damn thing! Seriously!” … Same statement applies for the jump button. There is no jump button. WTF? This reminds me of the days of GoldenEye, permanently cemented to the floor, and unable to leap around like a loony! It’s not “jump” … it’s “vault” or “climb”, and it’s only available when there is a surface of sufficient measure to allow you to do so. But that’s the thing, sometimes even when there is a perfectly a good area to jump-over the option is absent. Glitch? I dunno, but this problem also existed when you hacked devices. Sometimes the options are there for your use, and sometimes, even though you haven’t changed a thing, they are entirely absent. And an area that is particularly heavy with “hacking” options, it seems to disregard some in favor of others… why? I don’t know. Probably because instead of allowing you to simply put your cursor on the desired device to enable hacking, the game will automatically decide on the desired device when it is in close proximity to the device you really want. This was an especially annoying thing when you’re attempting to hack someone’s phone, and instead, it explodes the transformer behind that character. That’s a pretty big screw-up that leads to you getting shot and the lose of reputation points. Whether this in particular was a glitch I don’t know, but I did experience several bonafide glitches in my game play. For example, I was driving along when the game froze, removed my car, and the character was hovering mid-air, waiting for me to do a force-restart. Was this a frequent occasion, no, but there were several things on my HUD I grew familiar with seeing and was surprised to see them absent after extended game play, or the frame rate dropping significantly as certain points of the game.

I’m aware this review is a bit all over the place, but that was literally my experience, and it seemed the only way to express my indifference. For the price, I’m not sweating it as the online experience was definitely the highlight, which is usually never the case for me. It’s a mixed bag. I like the game as a romping adventure through the digital universe jumping from camera to camera and exploding something 10 blocks over, or being a digital assassin to another players’ credit with very little hassle over a network connection application. I dislike it for the freedoms I’ve grown to love in other games, surrounded to stupid quick-time actions. But I can forgive all that if it were not for the terribly bland story and characters. I’d have rated the game higher if the story and characters were better, but they’re just not that great. I don’t know, I’m in the later half of Act 1, and I don’t feel invested. I will eventually finish the game, but at the moment, it feels like a chore as it trudges along. I’m pretty sure my “buddy”, Jordi, is going to betray me eventually. That’s how clunky the story feels to me. I feel like I’ve played this game before, and it doesn’t help that the main character feels blank, or even like a carbon-copy of better characters in previous games. For the price, it was worth it just to experience. I feel like there is a lot of room for improvement, but it’s still a solid game.

its good everything is in the box except the manual is missing in the box

Aside from the really delayed delivery from Flipkart. The Game disk itself was in good condition and did came with a manual. For the PS3/PS4 users. Update the game from XMB menu before installing the game.

IT’S A GOOD GAME WITH COOL GRAPHICS…..IF YOU RE A UBISOFT FAN U SHOULD SURELY BUT IT

It is a very good and long game interesting things in the game also