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– Chapters-
Intro: 0:00
Chp 1: The Windy City: 3:58
Chp 2: Hack Everything/Change Nothing: 14:52
Chp 3: Meaningless Code: 25:16
Chp 4: Ghost in The Machine: 36:48
Chp 5: Bad Blood: 55:53
Chp 6: A Dystopian Future: 1:00:13
Outro: 1:04:49
What comes to mind when I say Watch_Dogs? Is it disappointment, deceit, mediocrity? For a few of you it’s something positive, but that few is a growing minority. Why is that? Simply put, the years have been kind to Watch_Dogs, and each year separates us from the E3 demo of 2012 that promoted a game still yet to release. Sure, the idea for Watch_Dogs is there, but any comparison to the demo makes it clear that this was not running on current console hardware, and if that wasn’t clear, here’s the proof. Jonathan Morin, creative director of Watch_Dogs made it clear that the game was not ready to be shown, and was being developed for next gen consoles that weren’t even known at the time. The team didn’t know what to expect, or what would be possible on the hardware, but Yves Guillemot insisted that the game be presented, knowing full well there was a high probability that promises would not be kept. We can add that to the list of his crimes alongside promoting a toxic work environment and being a French Canadian, but it takes two to tango. When met with limitless presentation, why wouldn’t we think that limitless gameplay potential was to follow? Even in those early showcases, Watch_Dogs laid its gameplay bare, but it didn’t stop the allure of a new intellectual property, and the endless possibilities that come with such a new frontier. A world where everything is connected, and becoming less and less fictional has the potential to say a lot. What are the ethics of the government, or anyone for that matter, knowing everything about you? What are the social implications, political implications, criminal implications? Watch_Dogs only answers a few of these, and often with little depth. The concept is fresh, but it is supplemented by ideas that could fit anywhere.
This is a theme present across all of Watch_Dogs. The idea that the game does not need to have hacking, in fact, many of its best qualities ignore the hacking. It’s gameplay is at it’s best with one hand clutching a grenade and the other gripping iron, the story’s greatest qualities are the mystery that unfolds, Aidens response to his trauma, and its setting is unique because of its gloomy atmosphere, coat physics included. The hacking is unique, but stays an arms length away from everything else, and the moments it does intersect are fleeting. If your game that is marketed entirely on a hacking mechanic is still good without it, there may be a problem, or an excellent foundation. Regardless, the qualities here were overpowered by the taste left in players’ mouths leading up to the game’s release. With such a taste, the internet spit a toxic narrative that Watch_Dogs lied to the player about much more than its presentation. What resulted was a rude awakening, regarding both the game, and the effects of hype culture. This is what warrants a retrospective evaluation. We’ve had plenty of reviews that focus on what the game was supposed to be, or what we were told it was going to be, but the discussion of what the game is, and what its qualities are, disconnected from the could would, and potentially, should, is few. Because unfortunately for Watch_Dogs, it fell victim to the very dystopia it painted.
Watch Dogs is an interesting game. Watchdogs was initially panned upon release, but eventually Watch_Dogs was looked back upon as not being as bad, and eventually, we even got Watchdogs 2. Watch Dogs 2 would then lead to Watch Dogs Legion and uhh… Watchdogs Legion was a game. This Watch Dogs critique, Watch Dogs review, Watch Dogs analysis, Watch Dogs retrospective, or whatever you want to call it will be looking at Watch Dogs years later and Watch Dogs Bad Blood. Analysing the Watch Dogs gameplay, story, world, and more to understand the misunderstood reputation of Watch Dogs, and how it would eventually affect the Watch Dogs series. Aiden Pearce will play a central role in this argument, and there will be a heavy Aiden Pearce analysis to back up my claims. This video could also serve as a Watch Dogs story explained video. I hope we can get a new Watch Dogs someday, and one better than Legion.
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Here is the mod I used to fix the coat https://www.nexusmods.com/watchdogs/mods/83?tab=files
CHICAGO, no game explores the 3rd biggest city in America, the city I grew up in
This will forever be my favorite guilty pleasure franchise I love playing, even if 99% of people hate it. I love how cool and badass Aiden Pearce is and feels great to play vigilante that is ruthless. They did Aiden dirty in the DLC and gave him some soppy ending
Man, when this game first released, I remember being so caught up with the discourse about it not living up to the hype & just being an overall bad game, that I never gave it a fair chance at all. I played the game for about 2 hours and spent my entire time just looking for the faults I was TOLD online the game had. After that I dropped the game and never played it again. And I was someone who pre-ordered and bought the game on launch. (My behaviour is actually very similar to what i've been seeing now with the conversation surrounding Starfield lol)
Fast forward many years later and i'm locked inside during a certain pandemic with nowhere to go and a lot of free time on my hands, and a recently purchased Xbox Series X. For some reason, I decided to give the game another chance. This ended up being one of the best decisions I could have ever made. While not perfect by any means, Watch Dogs ended up being incredibly enjoyable and an absolute blast to get through. The story was a bit ridiculous at times sure, but it was engrossing enough to get across the story these developers wanted to tell without me ever really feeling disinterested. The gameplay itself was also fun as hell. Again, the hacking stuff was a bit much at times and certainly not at all realistic, but the loop itself was addictive. Whether a mission was stealth focused or combat focused, it was always a good time. By the end I was totally upset that I had put off the game for so long because it ended up being one of the more memorable and unique experiences with a game I'd have in a long time up until that point. If you haven't played this game then I HIGHLY recommend you go in and give it a fair shot if you have the means to.
this is the year watch dogs gets loved and be known as a cult classic
did you just make the "it intentionally looked shit you guys" argument lol
I did not know about this game at all until I played the PS4 version in a Sony store in a mall. I instantly fell in love with the gameplay and the graphics and I immediately bought the Xbox 360 (not knowing about the graphics downgrades). I have finished the game at least 3-5 times now and I still love it.
I never saw the demo. I bought the game in 2019 and liked it a lot. 🙂
we need a modern hacking game
I really, really liked Watchdogs when I played it, probably because I had zero idea of the E3 stuff or the Hype. I rented it from my local library and played it nonstop, didn't return it till I was finished. I liked Aiden, It was nice playing as someone who wasnt "Ultra Gritty Dark" or "Goody Toe Shoes White Knight" but just… a guy. A guy who doesnt always make the right choices and is mostly out for himself, a true Vigilante. I had tons of fun with Watchdogs… and was majorly disappointed with Watchdogs 2, in all honesty.
I love Watch Dogs, and it is definitely in my top 10 of all time. The gritty setting, the masterfully crafted city (helps that I live in a similar place), the very fun hacking gimmick, the pre-John Wick style gun takedown animations, and the underrated as hell story and main character (Pearce is still the best protagonist in the franchise), all of these make for a a very well made open world game that was unfortunately tarnished by greedy executives wanting to cash in on hype. I have countless hundreds of hours in Watch Dogs and I hope that if we ever get a 3rd game, it will go back to its Watch Dogs 1 roots and hopefully the fully realized version of the 1st game’s demo can be achieved on the latest hardware.
Thank you for this video
I can’t believe Aqua would say something so heinous truly despicable
I though watch dogs 2 was pretty good, definitely was a U-Turn on the whole dark theme but the story was still good if not better than the rest of the games. It's a shame that this franchise wasn't given the attention as it really could've taken over GTA.
loved 1, 2 and Legion despite some of the problems
I am a hard-core watchdogs fan. I took a shot on the first one and I'm glad I did. Watchdogs walked so watchdogs 2 could run. Sadly legion sucked. But I'm glad this game series exists.
Watch dogs 2 is worse than 1. But yall arent ready for that conversation
cops werent fast, they rubberbanded LIKE CRAZY. Chasing was a poorly made QTE
Fun video, but I don’t think anyone can convince me that this game is anything but absolute cheeks
This guy brought one of my favorite games into the light, and told the truth. He has my respect for this. I love his videos because he lays out the facts and tell his honest opinions and truth about the games he review. Ubisoft is my favorites game Company.
May i say that i was 13 when watch dogs came out and i played it on xbox 360 and always liked it ? that i got so hyped for that game at that time that i begged my parents to buy me the deluxe edition of the game too and that to this day i don't regret this game at all or ima gonna get shamed for it 🤔
can we all just appreciate how aqua baked whatever the hell that was
I'll always be grateful I was too young to know about or care about E3 and game reviews when this came out.
I was excited by the premise and I never had anything to compare the actual game to, so I loved it and still do to this day
does anyone know the name of the song that plays at 28:50
Man I wish they would've stayed with this dark, vigilante like aesthetic.
whenever i miss Chicago i play watch dogs when i miss Greece i play aco
sniff sniff someone cooked here
Hey! Great video, but wish you also mentioned his appearance in WD2 and culmination of his arc in WD:L DLC. Great video nonetheless.
The main issue of this game was not the game itself, was its marketing. If the marketing campaign was honest about the product, it would have been SO much better.
This is dude is talking shit but also complimenting it, in the same sentence. “I love this shitty, gray boring city, it’s great!”
I loved it as a young teenager.
I honestly belueve Ubisoft SHOULD remake watch dogs.
Aiden was one of my most favorite protagonists in videogames ever.
I dont understand the hatred against edgy.
Aiden is great
I am SO GLAD this video has finally been made. The story of this game is heartwrenching and great, and I'm sad the sequal didn't keep any of the cool noir vibe.
The best diving in open world games is Mad Max
Who’s we? This game was the first I bought on ps4 and had so much fun with it. It was always special to me.
I find it really hard to not be mad about the reception of this game from the general public. Anyways, having dodged the insults for most people's intelligence, oops, this was the first game I played 100% immersed. No mini map, used public transportation and purchased two cars during the entire campaign to use, as well as only one or two guns, even though the silenced pistol you get for free is the best. Never stole a car, never robbed a store, never hacked npcs credit cards besides a handful of filthy rich ones after the upgrades and never used fast travel. I even walked instead of running most of the time cause that's what felt right. It's an excellent game, solely ruined by its players and the reviewers. If anyone is thinking of getting the game for the first time, play it vanilla, but if you are considering a re play, there are some excellent mods around that come very close to what a perfect watch dogs games could have been.
I went into Watch_Dogs without knowing any of the controversy, and absolutely LOVED IT! So imagine my disappointment when I played Watch_Dogs 2, hoping it'd continue Aiden's story and have a similar tone. Sadge….
I remember back in the day around AC3 and 4, there were rumors in the Assassin's Creed fandom that sooner or later we'll get an AC game set in the modern day. No generic memories, no animus, just Desmond or whomever in the 21st century. If course Desmond died in AC3 and that never happened.
Last year I bought Watch Dogs Legion during a holiday sale, and I ended up enjoying it very much. It sorta felt like that idea we all had of a modern day Assassin's Creed game, and it later even got a recruitable, playable Assassin character.
biggest takeaway, holy fuck I didn't know Maurice was going through it like that, I've always loved this game since it came out and I love that people are finally starting to appreciate it
I just recently cleared for the 3rd time earlier this year
Watchdogs 1 > watchdogs 2 > watchdogs legion.
Every release watchdogs got worse because of the unnecessary wokeness and cringe characters being added more and more.
Watchdogs 1 had soul, a good or atleast a touching story, intimidating main character and a particular vibe that the other two games are lacking. Legion is the worst i didn't even finished that game.
Now aiden Pearce is getting love because of his comeback in legion
1:02:27 THERE WAS A WINDOW THERE!? SINCE WHEN!???
Heh, back at E3 I was already very unimpressed by that trailer that hyped everyone.
You can't imagine how great it felt, after a full year of not being able to have an opinion without getting ganged up on with "go back to CoD", when it actually came out and it turned out to be exactly what it looked like to me.
To this day I still have no idea what even fooled anyone aside from the graphics.
replaying it i love it
Bro I played the game and got lost in it 😂 . It was way too good . I don't like watch dogs 2 and 3 at the moment but it could be because I never played it
Gotta love the baking part 🤣🤣
The original Watch_Dogs was the closest thing the open world crime genre got to television’s prestige dramas that defined so much of the aughts. For all its polish and wit GTA remains a pastiche of gangster film and junville comedy. It may critique Americana or the vapid nature of modern life, but it is much more South Park than the Wire. The original vision of Watch_Dogs was special and sadly it was scrapped in its sequels for greater brevity and humor.
41:12 damn I do not remember Maurice’s voice actor being that good. Idk why but this part gave me chills and nearly made me tear up goddamn
I look back on this game fondly, the tone and atmosphere was always interesting. I wish we could have gotten more games continuing in the same fashion as part 1.
Watch dogs is a game I held off on cause of ehat other mfs said, played it for myself recently, became one of my most favorites that dark serious tone it has, ubisoft sadly ignore this franchise they give up to easy smh