Watch Dogs (PlayStation 4) review "Turning Chicago into your own deadly playground. "

There's something very intriguing about the slightly futuristic world that Watch_Dogs resides in — at least if you're on the right side of the cell phone. The main difference between its version of Chicago and the real one is that some big technology-based corporation has created a "Big Brother" sort of surveillance system allowing them to essentially monitor everything and I mean everything. Even the occupation, income and random factoids about any random person living under its umbrella. You control Aiden Pearce, a hacking genius capable of using his phone to sneak into that system and exploit it.

All of which has the potential to be a dream come true. An altruistic person could use their phone to prevent low-level criminals from mugging hapless victims. Someone dissatisfied with the size of their bank account could simply swipe other folks' money with a quick scan, followed by hacking into the nearest ATM. And a true fan of chaos could amuse themselves with fun pranks like manipulating traffic lights to watch accidents unfold.

Maybe Ubisoft realized on some level that having this sort of power over things isn't the healthiest thing. After all, if there's one conclusion one could make from this game's events, it's that Aiden's hacking skills aren't making his life super-awesome. If anything, the instant you stop fighting crime, stealing money and creating carnage for the laughs in order to start following the plot, it really sucks. Let's start at the top.

He was partnered with another hacker, Damien. The two of them were working to enrich themselves at the expense of some powerful (and shady) high-rollers, but met resistance in the form of another hacker. Sensing the potential trouble brewing, Aiden wanted to get out, but Damien got greedy. That greed quickly became costly, as some of those high-rollers weren't exactly cool with that sort of thing, leading to an attempted hit on Aiden. He got out of that situation unscathed, but the young niece he was driving through the city wound up deceased.

The action begins with the revenge-driven Aiden and an accomplice finally catching the hitman and trying to use whatever knowledge he has to figure out who ordered the hit — something his sister is not cool with. The trauma of her daughter's death essentially made her son go mute and her goals are more aligned with "trying to heal" as opposed to "making bastards pay". And you know what? After the first few missions, an emotional speech by her to Aiden over the girl's grave actually seemed to get through to him, causing him to wonder if he can put the past behind.

Sure, if that did happen, this would be one short game, but it was a nice thought. Damien has different plans, though. He also was paid a visit after that fateful hacking attempt and came out of it with one fewer good leg than he possessed previously. While he doesn't have a loving family to try to keep him balanced, he does have a lot of resources, so after Aiden turns down his invitation to get the team back together, he sends out a few guys to kidnap his sister in order to make his offer one that cannot be refused.

As a result, Aiden finds himself taking on the Chicago mob, a very well-equipped street gang and local law enforcement, while getting tangled up in the ever-so-delightful world of sex trafficking, with few allies beyond a couple other hackers and an affable, if not exactly trustworthy, hitman. He'll have to go underground after the hotel he uses as a residence gets assaulted by the opposition. And he'll also have to deal with awkward domestic situations. To keep his nephew safe, he foisted the lad off on his therapist and she's really wondering just why mom seems to vanished and Aiden's responses come off as convincing as "the dog ate my homework".

Fortunately, Aiden is a lot better at hacking, investigating and gunning down hostiles than he is at living a normal (or, quite frankly, sustainable) life. His adventure could be best described as Grand Theft Auto, but with more of an influence on stealth. If you've played any of those games, you know the drill. You can acquire all sorts of cars to drive around a large city and a bit of surrounding countryside while listening to a number of random songs. You'll grab an arsenal of guns to perforate folk before they do the same to you. There are all sorts of optional missions and scavenger hunts to do, various shops to visit and a lot of see and do, regardless of how tightly you're adhering to the plot missions.

In fights, stealth often is the key. Aiden has a low degree of tolerance for getting shot, so you'll either have to be really good at cover-based battling or simply take advantage of all his hacking tools — many of which are acquired via a skill tree that gradually opens up as you gain experience from completing missions and dispatching foes. The more skills you obtain, the more ways you'll have to take out enemies without putting yourself at risk.

You'll be able to spy on them by hacking into cameras. Some guys have the ability to radio for reinforcements. You can take that away. Some guys possess cameras. You can hack into those to follow their patrol route and, possibly, find something else to hack. Some guys hold explosives. You can make those go off while in their possession. If they aren't carrying a grenade, but happen to walk close to something explosive, you can set that off at the right time to kill them equally effectively. You can use car alarms to create diversions. If you wind up in a car chase, you can hack into traffic lights, bridges, barricades and other things to take out other cars. You can also craft a number of tools. If the cops are making life hell for you, you can jam their tracers or cause blackouts to give you a better chance of evasion. If you're expecting a large crew of enemies to appear, plant a few explosives and detonate them at the appropriate time to thin their ranks.

I had a lot of fun with Watch_Dogs after I started getting used to all these options. Really, if this game has a downfall, it's simply that it isn't quite as expertly-made as one of Rockstar's sandbox offerings. I don't know that I had any big problems while playing, but there were a number of minor annoyances that ensured it wouldn't reach the top of the mountain.

For example, one thing I love about games like this is simply being able to jump in a vehicle and drive around, seeing the sights and listening to the music provided. In Watch_Dogs, you can gain positive reputation in order to keep random citizens from calling the cops by preventing crimes. These events are procedurally generated on the map with regularity. Whenever you walk or drive near the location of a potential crime, your song will cut off as long as you're in that radius. And then start over from the beginning when you're clear.

Or there are the occasional glitches. After Aiden is chased out of his motel hideout, he finds a better one in a bunker on a small island. To reach it, he has to be transported via a boxcar. A handful of times, the game malfunctioned there, leaving me trapped in that place and needing to restart the game. And there are a handful of questionable design choices. The only legit boss encounter in the game puts you against two durable and powerful combatants on top of a roof. By nature, it's a tough encounter, but it's also artificially made more difficult by how, after dispatching a few regular enemies, those two will just spawn onto the roof at random locations. Not only does this make it very tricky to plan for their arrival, but in a game that's more or less grounded in a slightly futuristic reality, it's really weird when guys just magically appear as opposed to coming through doors or driving to your location like virtually every other enemy in the game.

Fortunately, this stuff just annoyed me temporarily, as there was enough good stuff to keep me invested in seeing Watch_Dogs through to the end. It was sort of addictive to control a guy who could utterly wreck peoples' lives and create local emergencies simply by activating his phone and the emphasis on stealth and hacking allowed combat to often become really interesting as I used my surroundings and all my tools to survive. A number of small flaws may have keep it from reaching the level of a Grand Theft Auto game, but I still had a good time taking on the Chicago underground with Aiden.

Community review by overdrive (October 06, 2023) Rob Hamilton is the official drunken master of review writing for Honestgamers.