Video Game Vintage Title: Watch Dogs

Watch Dogs

Watch Dogs is an upcoming open world action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is due for release between April and June of 2014 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One consoles. The Wii U version of the game will be delayed beyond June 2014.

The game is set within a fictionalized version of Chicago, Illinois. The single-player story is told through Aiden Pearce, a highly skilled hacker, who can hack into various electronic systems, either to obtain and control information or to destroy such devices completely at specific times.

Watch Dogs Plot

The storyline of Watch Dogs game is built around the concept of information warfare, data being interconnected, and the world's increasing use of technology�questioning who exactly runs the computers they depend on. The game is set in an alternate reality version of Chicago, Illinois, which is one of many cities to feature a supercomputer known as a "CtOS" (Central Operating System). The system controls almost every piece of technology in the city, and contains information on all of the city's residents and activities which can be used for various purposes. In the game's universe, the Northeast blackout of 2003 was found to be caused by a hacker, prompting the development of CtOS. The game will follow a man named Aiden Pearce, a highly skilled hacker described as a person who uses both "fists and wits." The gameplay demo shown at E3 2012 depicted Aiden's attempt to assassinate a media mogul named Joseph DeMarco, who had been wrongly acquitted on charges of murder. In a demonstration shown at E3 2013, Pearce helps a fellow hacker named T-Bone escape after he is discovered attempting to steal a motherboard.

Watch Dogs Gameplay

Watch Dogs is an open world action-adventure video game in which players control an Irish-American vigilante named Aiden Pearce (voiced by Noam Jenkins), 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. Examples include hacking into people's phones to retrieve bank data and steal funds, triggering malfunctions in equipment to distract other characters and hacking into traffic lights to cause collisions. Players can also receive information on civilians via augmented reality feeds, providing the player with information on demographics, health and potential behaviour. Objectives showcased in presentations include finding specific targets to kill, evading the police and following potential victims in order to stop their would-be killers. Combat utilizes a combination of stealth components and parkour, along with the mechanics of a cover-based third-person shooter.

The game features an online multiplayer element. The "multiplayer" experience is a one-on-one interaction between two human characters in which one player seamlessly and secretly joins the single player experience of another player. The first player (which entered the other player's world) is tasked with finding the second player (which is initially unaware that another human is in their game session - no notification is given to the second player). Once the first player finds the second player the objective is updated. The first player's new objective involves installing a back door virus into the second player's smartphone, then hiding while that virus siphons off a portion of the data the second player has collected. This stolen information increases the first player's power once they return to their own single player session. The second player must stay within a certain radius of the first player for the download to progress. Once the download is initiated, the second player is alerted that they have been hacked and that data is being stolen from their smartphone. Once the second player has been alerted of the intrusion their objective is to locate the first player who is stealing their data, and either kill the first player or cause them to flee to such a distance that the download is halted (a certain minimum distance must be maintained for the download to progress).

Reception
The game demo of the PC version of Watch Dogs at E3 2012 was met with positive reception from critics following the press event, praising the game for its "next gen"-quality graphics and its unique gameplay. IGN selected it as Best PC Game of E3 2012, as well as Biggest Surprise and Best New Franchise.

The game also won GameSpot's People's Choice Most Exciting Game of E3 2013.

In Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag - another Ubisoft production, an easter egg involving Watch Dog's Blume Corporation can be found, although suggestions that the two IPs are set in the same "universe" have been denied by the game's writers.