Watch Dogs PC full game

Watch Dogs (stylized as WATCH_DOGS) is an open world action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It was released worldwide on 27 May 2014 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, while a Wii U version was released on 18 November 2014 in North America, 21 November in Europe, and 4 December in Japan.[10] Set within a fictionalized version of Chicago, Illinois, the single-player story follows a hacker and his efforts to seek revenge after the accidental death of his niece. The open world design lets players freely roam Chicago, which includes the urban city, open countryside, and slums.

The game is played from a third-person perspective and its world is navigated on-foot or by vehicle. Players control Aiden Pearce, a highly skilled grey hat hacker who can hack into the "ctOS", a centralized operating system which manages the hyper-connected city of Chicago, and formed after the Northeast blackout of 2003 was caused by a hacker. An online multiplayer mode is also provided in the game, allowing up to eight players to engage in both cooperative and competitive gameplay in a recreation of the single-player setting.

Development on the game began in 2009. As part of their research for the open world, the developers conducted field research around Chicago throughout development and captured footage for the design team. Development duties were shared between many of Ubisoft's studios worldwide.

Following its announcement in June 2012, Watch Dogs was widely anticipated. At release, it received a polarized reception; praise was particularly directed at the game's hacking elements and mission variety. The game received criticism concerning the overall gameplay and some technical issues. Watch Dogs was a commercial success, breaking the record for the biggest first day sales of a Ubisoft game, and becoming the biggest launch of a new IP ever in the United Kingdom at the time. As of December 31, 2014, the game has shipped over 10 million copies.

Watch Dogs is an action-adventure game played from a third-person perspective. Players complete missions—linear scenarios with set objectives—to progress through the story. Outside of missions, players can freely roam the open world of Chicago. The world may be fully explored from the beginning of the game without restrictions, although story progress unlocks more gameplay content.

The player character walking through an urban environment, using his smartphone to scan the area for crime. The heads-up display elements are visible on-screen.
Using the in-game smartphone, players have the ability to view if a civilian is about to be involved in a crime.
In the main game, players take control of Aiden Pearce, a vigilante who can hack into various electronic devices tied to the city's central operating system (ctOS), allowing various methods for the player to solve numerous objectives.[12] The hacking mechanic in the game is performed directly from Aiden's in-game smartphone, which is equipped with multiple applications, namely the "profiler" and the "crime prevention system"; the former allows the player to access information on any citizen in the city, while the latter notifies the player when a crime is likely to occur in the vicinity. The phone is also equipped with applications that interact directly with the environment around the player; for example, players can hack into NPC's phones to retrieve bank data and steal funds as well as unlock new cars, weapons, and in-game music, or they can hack into traffic lights to cause collisions.[13] Players can also receive information on civilians via augmented reality feeds, providing them with information on demographics, health and potential behaviour. Equipment is also provided by smartphone apps, which can be used to summon cars and weaponry. Players can stop trains, raise security barriers, and black out the entire city and can slow down time to shoot.

The game's combat utilises a combination of stealth components and limited parkour (there is no jumping up or across), along with the mechanics of a cover-based third-person shooter.[14] The game allows the players to use non-lethal attacks and avoid killing anyone should they decide to, except the three main antagonists of the game, Damien Brenks, Lucky Quinn and Delford "Iraq" Wade. The hacking element of the game can also be used in combat situations to eliminate opponents, create diversions, or create cover. It can also be used as a stealth tool to sneak past guards. In combat, auto-aim and a cover system are available as assistance against enemies. If players take damage, their health meter will gradually regenerate. If players commit crimes while playing, the police may respond, as indicated by a meter in the head-up display. On the meter, the displayed levels indicate the amount of attention the crime demands; if the player reaches the maximum fifth level, efforts by law enforcement to incapacitate players become very aggressive and increasingly difficult. When players have escaped the officers' line of sight, the level enters a cooldown mode, which recedes when players escape the search area (as displayed on the mini-map).

As the game proceeds, the player can improve Aiden's skills either by expending skill points or earning skills and perks by completing side missions and collecting various items from the in game world, such as finding QR codes on the sides of buildings or finding ctOS servers collecting information on the citizens of Chicago.

Alongside the single-player mode, Watch Dogs features an asynchronous online multiplayer mode. One element to the multiplayer mode is a one-on-one interaction, in which one player secretly joins the single-player experience of another player and attempts to install a "back-door virus" onto their smartphone.[15] In addition, the game features an eight-player free roam mode.[16] Other multiplayer modes include car races, competitive decryption combat, and a ctOS mobile challenge. A mobile application is also available for smartphones and tablets that allows players to challenge another player in-game and use hacks that triggers traps, in an attempt to stop them from succeeding.[18]

Synopsis[edit]
Setting and characters[edit]
In the backstory of Watch Dogs, a computer hacker is discovered to have been behind the Northeast blackout of 2003, which led to eleven deaths. This event prompted the Blume Corporation to develop ctOS (CenTral Operating System). The ctOS supercomputer connects to everyone and everything—including personal information, security cameras, and traffic lights, effectively making Chicago, Illinois (the setting of the game), the most technologically advanced city in the world.

In Watch Dogs, players take control of Aiden Pearce (Noam Jenkins), a grey hat hacker and vigilante. After a hacking job gone wrong, a hit is sent out on Aiden. While intending to kill him, hitmen accidentally kill his niece Lena, and Aiden seeks to bring his own kind of justice to the people responsible, all while protecting his sister Nicole (Anne Hopkins) and nephew Jackson (Nicholas Bode). Aiden meets a host of allies over the course of the game: Jordi Chin (Aaron Douglas), a "fixer" and Aiden's hired partner; Clara Lille (Isabelle Blais), a tattoo artist and member of the "DedSec" hacker group (under the alias 'BadBoy17'); and Raymond "T-Bone" Kenney (John Tench), a former ctOS engineer, and the hacker responsible for the north-east blackout in 2003. Aiden also encounters many enemies, including Delford "Iraq" Wade (Jerod Hayes),[19] a gang leader with a military background; and Dermot "Lucky" Quinn (Myron Natwick), owner of the Merlaut Hotel and crime boss of Chicago's crime underground. Other characters include Damien Brenks (Daniel Kash), Aiden's former mentor and partner-in-crime; and Maurice Vega (Christopher Jacot), the triggerman who caused the accident that claimed Lena's life.

Plot[edit]
In October 2012, Aiden Pearce and his mentor Damien Brenks launch an electronic bank heist at the Merlaut Hotel, with Aiden transferring the funds through his smartphone.[20] When they come across a strange file and alert another hacker, Damien tries to find the hacker, giving them both away. Unable to talk Damien out of it, Aiden stops him by leaving.[21] Fearing for the safety of his family—sister Nicole, and her children Lena and Jackson—Aiden decides to drive them to safety under the guise of a surprise trip. However, on the way, two hitmen are hired to intercept the car and take Aiden out. One of the hitmen, Maurice Vega, fires the shot that crashes the car and puts Lena in a coma, and she dies two months later.[22]

A year later, Aiden, now a vigilante known as "The Fox", or "The Vigilante", tracks down Maurice in the Parker Square district.[23][24] After a fruitless interrogation about Maurice's contractor, Aiden leaves Maurice in the hands of Jordi Chin while he hacks the ctOS to help them escape unnoticed.[23][25] As Aiden investigates further, Damien (whom he cut ties with since the Merlaut robbery) approaches him, requesting to find the other hacker from the Merlaut job.[26] Upon Aiden's refusal, Damien kidnaps Nicole, forcing Aiden to comply with Damien's demands in order to ensure her safety, though he manages to prevent Jackson from being kidnapped and leaves him under the care of his psychiatrist.[27]

With the help of Clara Lille, a member of hacking syndicate DedSec, Aiden tracks down the second hacker: ex-military gang leader Delford "Iraq" Wade.[28] Aiden obtains the electronic key to Iraq's server room and obtains a sample of the data from his servers.[29] He and Clara find that Iraq has secrets on almost every citizen of Chicago, effectively protecting his gang from the authorities.[30] When they come across encrypted data beyond Clara's ability, she directs Aiden to seek out Raymond "T-Bone" Kenney.[31][32] After Aiden completes some tasks for him, T-Bone agrees to help decrypt the data.[33]

Aiden mounts an assault on Iraq's compound, making it to his server room. After Aiden downloads the server data, Iraq confronts him; Aiden kills him and leaves the compound.[34] While browsing the server information, another hacker–JB "Defalt" Markowicz–infiltrates their system, stealing the information before deleting it from their servers. Defalt also leaves a recording that reveals Clara helped locate Aiden and Damien eleven months prior, which ultimately led to his niece's death.[35] Angered, Aiden demands that Clara leave. Later, when Aiden confronts Damien about the loss of the server data, Damien publicizes Aiden's vigilantism, alerting the authorities of his identity.[36]

Eventually, Aiden and T-Bone locate and take down Defalt, and retrieve the data again.[37] Meanwhile, Aiden discovers where Nicole is being kept, and frees her.[38] Aiden drives Nicole and Jackson out of Chicago to keep them safe.[39] Examining the server data, T-Bone discovers the contractor who ordered the hit that killed Aiden's niece: Dermot "Lucky" Quinn, leader of the Chicago South Club mob, notorious human trafficker, and owner of the Merlaut Hotel.

Aiden tracks down and confronts Quinn, shutting off his pacemaker. In his dying moments, Quinn reveals that he ordered the hit because he thought that Aiden was searching for blackmail footage of Mayor Donovan Rushmore, whom Quinn is closely associated with, accidentally killing his secretary when she threatens to expose his dealings with Quinn. After Quinn finally dies, Aiden races to Clara, who is ambushed and killed by Quinn's men.[40] During Aiden's attempts to track down Damien, he discovers that Damien has unlocked ctOS, allowing him access to the entire city. In order to find him, Aiden uploads a virus into ctOS and shuts down the entire system, causing a city-wide black out. By doing this, Aiden reaches Damien, who is hiding in a lighthouse. As he confronts Damien, Jordi arrives, revealing that he has switched allegiance. Nevertheless, Aiden manages to injure Jordi and kill Damien. As he watches Chicago come back to life, Aiden accepts his role of "the Vigilante", to protect and, if necessary, to punish.[41] After the credits, Jordi calls Aiden one last time to tell him where Maurice is being held. Aiden heads to Maurice's location and chooses his fate.[42][43] Aiden then uploads the video of Mayor Rushmore to the web, exposing his crimes and leading to his subsequent suicide. DedSec releases a video stating that they are tired of hiding in the shadows and declare war against the Blume Corporation and ctOS. The Blume Corporation then announces that the ctOS will be adopted in several other major cities across the country, using ctOS 2.0.[44]

Bad Blood downloadable content[edit]
One year after the events of the single-player campaign, Aiden Pearce has gone into hiding while T-Bone erases all traces leading to him from Blume's databases and prepares to leave Chicago when he is contacted by his friend Tobias Frewer, asking for help after he had been kidnapped by Fixers. Upon rescuing Tobias, T-Bone realizes that both are being hunted by Blume and works with him to erase all their traces before fleeing the city, but their efforts are hindered by Defalt who, along with several other hackers, is working with Blume to track them down. T-Bone confronts Defalt and learns that he is after them in revenge for his brother, who was killed in the north-east blackout caused by him eleven years ago. After joining forces to defeat and kill Defalt, who at this point has gone insane from his desire for revenge, T-Bone and Tobias decide to stay in Chicago to fight against Blume and consider asking Aiden to join their cause, as they use the new CtOS against its creators.

Development[edit]
Ubisoft Montreal began development on Watch Dogs in 2009.[45] Ubisoft Montreal's creative director Jonathan Morin noted that Watch Dogs is designed to "go beyond the limits of today's open world games", referencing both its use of information as a plot point, and allowing players to control the entire city through its hacking mechanics. In order to achieve realism in the game's hacking mechanic, the game production team worked with Russian anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab. The developers sent some of the game designs to Kaspersky, who then gave feedback. "Sometimes they say, 'Yeah, that's possible, but change that word,' or, 'That's not the way it works'", said senior producer Dominic Guay.[46] When developing the hacking mechanic, the team focused on reducing it to one button; "You want to have one button, so that people don't have to swallow 'how' on top of 'when' and 'why' to use those things", said Morin.[47] The team travelled to Chicago during development to record non-player character (NPC) dialogue, to achieve the distinct accent. To record the dialogue, two studios ran simultaneously in Chicago for about six weeks. "You will never see exactly the same profile on any NPC anywhere in the game", said lead story designer Kevin Shortt.[48]

When developing the game, Ubisoft prioritised development for the eighth generation consoles and PC.[49] For Watch Dogs, Ubisoft Montreal built a new game engine called Disrupt.[50] The engine was originally intended for a different game focused on driving. Ubisoft North American president Laurent Detoc explained that the team working on the project realized an open-world game was a better fit than their original vision.[51] Watch Dogs runs in 900p on PlayStation 4 and 792p on Xbox One; both versions of the game run at 30fps. Creative director Jonathan Morin explained that he's more concerned with the overall experience rather than the technical minutiae. Morin added that people tend to forget that achieving higher fidelity visuals is easier for corridor shooters than it is for open-world games.[52]

Watch Dogs was officially unveiled by Ubisoft during their press conference at E3 2012. They released the debut trailer on the same day.[53][54] The game missed its original projected 19 November 2013 release date, pushed back to early 2014 to allow for further polishing.[55] The release date was later confirmed as 27 May 2014 for all platforms except Wii U,[56] which was delayed to the fourth quarter of 2014.[57][58] On 14 May 2014, Ubi