Watch Dogs

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Watch Dogs

"Watch Dogs" [www.ubisoft.com Site] Type Video Game Series Launch Date May 2014 Status Active Product Line Watch Dogs Watch Dogs 2 Platform Playstation 3 & 4 Xbox 360 & One Wii U PC Website [www.ubisoft.com www.ubisoft.com]

Watch Dogs is an action-adventure video game series produced by the video game company Ubisoft. The first installment of the series, Watch Dogs, was released in May of 2014 and was followed by Watch Dogs 2, which was released in November 2016. The original installment was released for all major systems including Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U and PC while the sequel was only released for current generation consoles (Playstation 4 and Xbox One) and PC.

Set in contemporary United States, each game tells the story of a male computer scientist turned street vigilante. The games follow a traditional third-person shooter, open world play style, that allows the player to explore and investigate the game’s world. While the game is classified as a shooter, it finds its identity in its focus on computer hacking. Throughout the game, the player’s character hacks into and takes advantage of a highly computerized and connected society. Hacks include robbing ATM machines, electronic theft, altering traffic lights, exploding power lines, and hacking cameras. While the game revolves around a central protagonist, the player is forced to partake in these unethical behaviors more and more as each game progresses.

The series has been met with considerable success. Watch Dogs has now sold over 10 million copies across all platforms since its release in 2014. After a relatively slow start of sales for Watch Dogs 2, Ubisoft reported much better sales heading into 2017, reporting a “positive momentum” in sales.

Story

Watch Dogs:

The first installment of the series, Watch Dogs, follows the story of a man by the name of Aiden Pearce. Living in a version Chicago, Illinois that is now the most technologically advanced city in the world, Aiden makes a living as a “grey hat” hacker; a hacker who uses his or her skills for the good and sometimes the bad of society.

After hacking into and exploiting Chicago’s extremely advanced Central Operating System (referred to as the ctOS throughout the game) Aiden became known as somewhat of a vigilante. The ctOS acts as an advanced system that connects all electronics in the city together. Once infiltrating the system, Aiden had access to anything he wanted in Chicago and began taking on more dangerous tasks. Eventually, one mission, alongside his partner Damien Brenks went wrong and a bounty was placed on his head. In an attempt on his life, hitmen caused Aiden to lose control of his vehicle and end up in a crash that would eventually kill his niece, Lena.

The game begins roughly a year after the incident as Aiden decides to come out of hiding and seek vengeance against those who killed Lena. The open world style of the game gives the player a lot of freedom as to what type of person they want Aiden to be, but ultimately, the player is forced to embrace Aiden’s new identity as “The Fox”—a violent and cunning vigilante, willing to kill anyone in his path to revenge.

As the game nears its conclusion, Aiden finally gets what he wanted. Through painstaking hacking and forcefully retrieving information from his adversaries, Aiden was able to track down the man who started this all—Dermot “Lucky” Quinn. Quinn was not only the one who hired the hitmen who killed Lena, he was a notorious human-trafficker in Chicago. Quinn’s criminal history acts as yet another motivator for Aiden, as he used this information as a way to justify his pursuit of revenge. In the closing scenes of the game, Aiden corners Quinn into his final safe room—one constructed of impenetrable glass. Face to face for the first time, Aiden pulls off one final trick, hacking into Quinn’s pacemaker and forcing out information as he slowly and painfully ends his life.

The game ends with Aiden leaking evidence of government corruption (retrieved from Quinn in his dying moments) and the suicide of the leading government official behind the leak—Chicago mayor Donovan Rushmore. Finally, Blume Corporation (the company behind ctOS) announces that ctOS will begin to expand into cities across the world.

Watch Dogs 2:

The second game of the series picks up, in terms of timing, where Watch Dogs left off. Watch Dogs 2 takes place in San Francisco and follows the story line of a new protagonist named Marcus Holloway. Like Aiden Pearce, Holloway is a young, extremely talented hacker who straddles the line of good and evil.

While the two games generally follow a similar play style with similar game mechanics as well, the second installment places a larger emphasis on remote controlled technology. Many side missions as well as main missions require the player to control one of Holloway's various remote control (RC) devices. Specific devices include Holloway's Quadcopter and RC car. Both devices are equipped with streaming cameras that Holloway uses to maintain control from afar.

Gameplay

Single Player:

Both installments of the series focus heavily on the single player aspect of the game. The player can roam the world freely in multiple ways. While Watch Dogs features mostly foot and vehicle exploration (trucks, cars, motorcycles) Watch Dogs 2 expands on this by introducing some new tech. Players in Watch Dogs 2 can choose to explore San Francisco from the perspective of Holloway’s QuadCopter or RC car as well.

Hacking is a central part to the game as well. Across both games, the player does most of their hacking through the protagonists highly advanced smart phone. By simply holding down the hack button (square on Playstation, X on Xbox) the player is able to perform a number of hacks. For example by focusing on any random civilian and holding the hack button, the player is able to steal banking information and instantly add cash to their own inventory. Looking at a traffic light and holding the hack button can turn all lights green and cause a pileup of cars at the intersection—a very useful hack when attempting to evade the police. The two games feature over 25 hackable items alongside a wide variety of hacking techniques.

Weapon play is another important aspect to the series. Watch Dogs features 50 playable weapon types ranging from wrenches, to submachine guns, to electromagnetic pulse guns. Although Watch Dogs 2 features only 30 weapons, each one is much more customizable through the use of Holloway’s 3D printer. Players are able to fight in many different ways. Running and firing, firing from behind cover, and hand to hand combat are all viable options throughout the game.

Multiplayer:

Multiplayer surely takes a back seat to single player in terms of priority. In Watch Dogs the multiplayer content includes a variety of cooperative hacking missions, an eight player free-roam mode, and car racing. Watch Dogs 2 expands upon multiplayer player slightly by introducing another mode “Bounty Hunter.” In Bounty Hunter, a player’s single player experience is infiltrated by online players when they begin to cause too much havoc in San Francisco. Players then must either run, hide, or fight up to 3 random bounty hunters until they are killed, they kill the hunters, or until time expires.

Despite being labeled as somewhat limited, Watch Dogs was listed as one of five nominees for "Best Online Multiplayer" at the 2013 Game Critics Awards: Best of E3.

Ethical Implications

Over Integration of Computer Systems:

The gameplay in Watch Dogs focuses on the player interacting with the game map. The game map, which represents a futuristic Chicago, integrates ctOS, an operating system that connect all city critical electronics in Chicago. The player may choose to interact with ctOS in a malicious manner to achieve personal or game objectives. Watch Dogs raises questions about society's reliance on computerized systems for everyday tasks. The game portrays a more technologically involved Infosphere where people are in danger of those who understand how to exploit computer systems .

Cultural Appropriation:

Hacking as well as hacking culture is heavily referenced in Watch Dogs. Though the original Watch Dogs represents Hackers as edgy and potentially dangerous, in an interview on EPN.TV game developers at Ubisoft acknowledged misrepresenting hacking culture and contriving it for the sake of the game . Hackers come from all backgrounds and professions and while some find exploits, others hack to improve security systems. Watch Dogs portrays hacking culture in a misrepresented way. In this same interview with EPN.TV, the content director of Watch Dogs 2 claimed that Ubisoft was making a robust attempt to accurately depict the hacking community.

Desensitization

While the Watch Dogs Series offers players a lot of freedom when deciding the type of character that they want to be, violence and crime are inherent parts of the game. Missions like "Kill Iraq" from Watch Dogs or "$911" from Watch Dogs 2 are just a few examples of the many missions that require a combination of hacking, stealing, and killing all in one. The frequency of such missions has led to criticize of the franchise with some claiming that the games treat "people as objects."

External Links

• Hackers