The videogames industry is a world of two halves. There is the side which everyone sees, the great games, the leaps in technology, the jaw dropping artistic value and the collective result of various different artists & technologists working together for a common goal.
Then there is a side that you only see when you look further than the game, when you venture onto the internet, when you involve yourself in the community, keep up with the latest news and keep an eye on developers & publishers activities; that side of gaming isn't so pretty.
Unfortunately as much as I love the industry there are a few companies that make me physically sick, that utterly disgust me due to their disrespect for consumers and the products they make, one such company I revile as such is Ubisoft. A company who has over the past generation grown from respectable developer/publisher with a large and varied catalogue of games under its belt, to a machine that cares for nothing besides making money. A prime example of a company that churns out identical yearly sequels, releases endless streams of DLC, forces a first party DRM and makes shoddy PC ports; and worst of all mocking and degrading their customers on a regular basis.
Watch Dogs was one of their newest IP's in a while, one that when first showcased showed promise and potential, so much so that it set the internet on fire with anticipation; I know because I was also part of that immediate fanbase. Though the more we knew about the game, the less appealing it became, the less it was starting to look like that truly next generation experience they had promised and more of a game of unfulfilled promise and wasted potential.
Though I desperately wanted the game to be good, I couldn't shake the feeling that I wanted it to fail just to Ubisoft could see that they cannot continue to operate their business the way they do. The game eventually released, it was met with reasonable praise and a shitty PC version as per standard, so I bought it much like I had intended to and I have to say, though I enjoyed it, I couldn't shake that feeling that something wasn't quite right about all of it.
In this day and age, everything is connected. Or cities our run by computer systems, we are always connected to our phones, computers or videogame consoles, even our cars have firmware updates!
Watch Dogs tells us the story of what we know goes on within these computing superstructures, but refuse to believe. About how anyone can access the information they want about anything or anyone at any time; and most importantly, how that information can be used to gain power, blackmail and ultimately destroy peoples lives.
Aiden Pearce is a skilled hacker and 'fixer', a term often used for people who do jobs for others that often conflict with the law. When attempting to perform an electronic heist in a prestigious hotel in Chicago, Pearce and partner hacker Damien Brenks are shut out of the system and subsequently have a hit placed on their heads. When the hit on Aiden doesn't go according to plan, his niece Lena dies in the resulting car crash.
A year later Aiden has undertaken a vigilante identity known as 'The Fox' and has hunted down the hitman responsible for causing the car to crash. Holding him for interrogation and receiving what little information he can, Aiden begins his investigation into who ordered the hit on him. However Aiden finds more than he bargained for and not only has to contend with his old partner Damien, but also the criminal underworld of mob bosses, hacker groups and corrupt governments.
To say that Watch Dogs has an ambitious story is an understatement. Delving into very relative matters such as who has control over our private information and who can see it; not to mention looking into matters such as human trafficking, corrupt governments, militia armies and drugs trades makes for a story that never sits still for too long, its always moving, always evolving but never giving you information that is irrelevant to Aiden's ultimate goal of finding who killed his niece.
