Watch dogs

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Watch dogs
Watch Dogs.svg
Studio CanadaCanada Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher FranceFrance Ubisoft
Senior Developer Danny Belanger
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 Windows , Playstation , Xbox May 27, 2014 Wii U November 20, 2014
world
platform Windows , PlayStation 3 , PlayStation 4 , Wii U , Xbox 360 and Xbox One
Game engine Disrupt
Havok Physics
genre Action adventure , open world game
Game mode Single player , multiplayer
language Audio : German , English , French , Italian , Spanish , Portuguese Subtitles : German , English , French , Italian , Spanish , Portuguese , Dutch , Swedish , Danish , Norwegian , Finnish , Polish , Czech , Hungarian
Age rating
USK from 18
PEGI from 18

Watchdogs (own spelling WATCH_DOGS ) is an open-world - action-adventure game from Ubisoft , where the information war is discussed. It was released for Windows , PlayStation 4 , Xbox One , PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on May 27, 2014. The Wii-U version was released on November 18, 2014. The PS4 and PS3 versions have more game content than the others Frames.

action

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In a fictitious Chicago the near future is a cross computer network called CTOs ( c s t ral O perating S ystem) in operation. The player slips into the role of the Irish-American hacker Aiden Pearce, wanted by the police . Aiden and his partner Damien Brenks tried to ransack a hotel's bank accounts. During the execution, they were exposed because a third person hacked into the hotel's system at the same time. After the unsuccessful break-in, an attack is carried out on Aiden, in which his niece is killed.

Eleven months later, Aiden goes on a campaign of revenge and finally tracks down Maurice, the assassin, in town. After an unsuccessful interrogation, Aiden turns the guilty over to the fixer, Jordi Chin. While Aiden is investigating, Damien calls him, with whom he cut off contact after the incident at the hotel. Damien and Aiden want to find a second hacker who had bothered them at the time. Aiden initially refuses to work with him, but has to give in when Damien kidnaps Nicole, Aiden's sister.

With the help of the hacker Clara Lille, a member of the “DedSec” hacker group, Aiden tracks down the second hacker from back then: Delford “Iraq” Wade, leader of the “Viceroys” gang. Aiden gets the electronic key to Iraq's server room and receives part of the data that is on the servers. He and Clara find that Iraq has secrets about almost every single citizen of Chicago, which gives him effective protection against the authorities and the ability to blackmail the entire city. When the two of them stumble upon encrypted data that Clara's abilities are unable to cope with, Aiden sets out to find Raymond Kenney, a professional hacker and former employee of the ctOS developer company Blume Industries, who ran electricity in and around New York in 2003 switched off. This represents the “Northeast blackout 2003”, a real event to make it clear to the citizens how insecure the infrastructure is. However, several people died in the action, which led to Blume Industries starting the development of the ctOS in order to prevent such tragic situations in the future. Although there is apparently no trace of the hacker, Raymond Kenney, who hides outside of the city under the cover name "T-Bone Grady" from Blume, manages to locate him. After Aiden does some assignments for him, T-Bone agrees to help decrypt the data.

Aiden attacks Iraq's headquarters and gets to its server room. After he has downloaded the server data, he is provided by Iraq; However, Aiden eventually kills him. While Aiden, Clara and T-Bone search the server information, their system is infiltrated by another hacker, JB "Defalt" Markowicz, who steals the information and then deletes it from the trio's servers. Defalt also leaves a recording that reveals that Clara helped track down Aiden and Damien eleven months ago, which ultimately led to Lena's death. Angry, Aiden sends Clara away. When Aiden later confronts Damien with the loss of the server data, he publishes Aiden's vigilante justice and thus draws the authorities' attention to him.

Finally, Aiden and T-Bone manage to find Defalt, render it harmless and retrieve the data again. Meanwhile, Aiden finds out where Nicole is being held and frees her. He brings his sister and her ten year old son Jackson out of town and to safety. While examining the server data, T-Bone finally discovers the man who gave the order to kill Aiden: Dermot "Lucky" Quinn, the elderly leader of the Chicago South Club and owner of the Merlaut Hotel.

Aiden tracks down Lucky Quinn and confronts him. He hacked off Quinn's pacemaker. As he dies, Quinn reveals that he ordered the attack on Aiden because he thought Aiden was looking for material to use to blackmail Chicago's corrupt mayor, a business partner of Quinn. While trying to track down Damien, Aiden discovers that he has unlocked the ctOS and thus has access to the entire city. To find him, Aiden loads a virus developed by T-Bone into the ctOS and shuts down the entire system, causing the city to lose all electricity. In this way Aiden finds his former partner on a lighthouse, but the armed Jordi Chin intervenes. A fight ensues in which Damien is shot by Aiden. Jordi and Aiden, however, survive.

While watching Chicago's power grid rebuild, Aiden accepts his role as "Avenger". After the credits, which report on the mayor's death, among other things, Aiden receives a call from Jordi and then goes back to Maurice Vega. Here the player is left free to choose whether Aiden shoots Maurice or lets him live.

Gameplay

The player is in a large freely accessible game world, which has numerous main and side missions and collectable objects (e.g. QR codes ) that can only be read from a certain camera angle. A number of different vehicles and boats are available to the player. The player controls the main character Aiden Pearce from the third-person perspective . In addition to various weapons, the player also has a smartphone with access to the ctOS. This controls the technology of the entire city and stores personal data of the residents. Aiden can retrieve this data with the so-called Profiler. He can also control traffic lights and cameras and hack into practically anywhere. The stealth mode can be used at the push of a button . Furthermore, the game also has minimal parkour elements.

The player can, as long as he is not currently on a mission, move freely in the game world and perform any actions. Depending on how the player behaves, his reputation changes. So if he shoots a civilian or drives him over in his car, his reputation will drop. However, if he z. B. knocks down a criminal, this reputation increases. The reputation changes the perception of civilians. If the player has a good reputation, then passers-by are not afraid of him. You will recognize him sometimes, and there may also be scenes in which a civilian takes a picture of the player with his cell phone. On the other hand, when the reputation has dropped sharply, the TV and radio keep reporting on the player, and especially on TV broadcasts, civilians can recognize the player. If they recognize him, they are very scared of him and call the police. The police pursuit is risky for the player, because injuring or killing police officers deteriorates his reputation, and more and more units are approaching, which is why a pursuit should be ended as soon as possible.

The multiplayer mode of the game includes, among other things, "intrusion missions" in which the task is to hack other online players inconspicuously. In addition, the multiplayer also includes a kind of secret agent mode in which certain people must be tracked in order to gather information about them. Classic modes such as team deathmatch , car racing and free roam multiplayer with up to eight players are also possible. The latter and the decryption mode are not included in the versions for Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii U, however.

development

Watch Dogs has been developed under the code name "Nexus" since 2009. The real hacker organization Anonymous as well as numerous hacker conventions served as inspiration for the development of the game .

The game was first presented at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2012, but the release planned for 2013 has been postponed. As with Assassin's Creed , Ubisoft was working on download content before it was released .

technology

Ubisoft developed its own game engine called Disrupt for Watch Dogs . Due to different hardware requirements on the part of Microsoft, Sony and the PC component manufacturers, Watch Dogs offers different resolutions and frame rates on the different platforms (PlayStation, Xbox and PC) .

  • PS4: 1600 × 900 pixels with 30 FPS (almost constant)
  • Xbox One: 1408 × 792 pixels at 30 FPS (largely stable, slightly behind PS4)
  • PC: no limits
  • Xbox 360: unknown
  • PS3: 1152 × 648 pixels at 30 FPS (around 25 to 30 FPS in cutscenes and a little lower in gameplay)
  • Wii U: 1152 × 648 pixels (without frame rate limitation; in practice often with 20 FPS and the lowest average frame rate)

marketing

Several different pre-sale versions were offered for Watch Dogs . The "Uplay Deluxe Edition" was only available for a limited time from Ubisoft's online distribution platform Uplay as a pre-order and was removed from the game before it was released.

An exclusive collection of clothing and accessories from the German label Musterbrand appeared with the game . UBIcollectibles also offers the main character Aiden Pearce as a 27 cm high figure in the "Execution Pose".

reception

Martin Woger from Eurogamer pointed out in his article Watch Dogs = Assassin's Creed. Pearce = Altair. Hacking = jumping. suggests that there are great parallels between Watch Dogs and the Ubisoft title Assassin's Creed . He made comparisons between the games, which he interpreted as evidence that "Ubisoft tinkered a new blueprint based on its successful series".

Ubisoft received criticism in advance when the company presented British game journalists with gift packages at a press event in Paris, which included Nexus 7 tablets, among other things . Parts of the public saw this as an allegation of bribery . Ubisoft released a statement apologizing for the action.

Was criticized by the press, among other things, that during the E3 trade show a gameplay - trailer was shown with spectacular visual effects, so were not in the version for retail is available. A mod makes it possible to reactivate the effects, especially the blooming . Although the impact on the performance is small, the functions are not fully developed and lead to annoying graphics errors. An indication that the game was prematurely released and misleading advertising was used to raise expectations of the title.

successor

On June 8, 2016, Ubisoft announced the successor Watch Dogs 2 , which was released on November 15, 2016 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and on November 29, 2016 for Microsoft Windows . Like its predecessor, the second part was also offered in different sales versions, some of which are also equipped with additional content such as the Zodiac Killer bonus mission . The Handlungsort of Watch Dogs 2 is the Californian metropolis San Francisco , the main character is named Marcus Holloway. One reason for the change of the location is, among other things, the reference to the high-tech industrial location Silicon Valley . In the course of the PlayStation Meeting 2016 in New York it was announced that the PlayStation 4 Pro would support the title and that Watch Dogs 2 could therefore display better graphics.

The third series part is expected to appear in the second half of 2020. This one takes place in modern London .

novel

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Keith Stuart: Watch Dogs - and how Ubisoft is planning the next decade of game design. In: The Guardian. July 3, 2013, accessed July 8, 2013 .
  2. ↑ Luke Karmali: Watchdogs Release Date Officially Announced. In: IGN . March 6, 2014, accessed March 6, 2014 .
  3. ^ Eddie Makuch: Report: Watch Dogs coming to Wii U in fall 2014. In: GameSpot . April 11, 2014, accessed April 11, 2014 .
  4. ↑ Sebastien Viard: Sebastien Viard's tweet. Retrieved June 30, 2014 .
  5. ↑ Nathan Kirsch: Havok Tech Powering Assassin's Creed IV, Watch Dogs and The Division. Retrieved June 30, 2014 .
  6. ↑ Malte Eichelbaum: Watch Dogs is expected to appear on May 27 , Spieletipps.de, March 6, 2014, accessed on June 13, 2016.
  7. ^ Zsolt Wilhelm: “Watch Dogs”: Ubisoft's “disappointing” farewell to Wii U , DerStandard.at, December 1, 2014, accessed on June 13, 2016.
  8. ↑ Watch Dogs - This is the exclusive PlayStation content , insidegames.ch, March 20, 2014, accessed on June 13, 2016.
  9. ↑ Ubisoft on Watch Dogs Multiplayer. In: games.de. April 28, 2014, accessed April 28, 2014 .
  10. ↑ Andre Linken: Watch Dogs - No Free Roam Multiplayer for PS3 and Xbox 360 , GamePro , May 14, 2014.
  11. ↑ Watch Dogs - The Inspiration Anonymus & Hacker Expert at Ubisoft TV. In: watchdogs-game.de. May 5, 2014, accessed May 10, 2014 .
  12. ↑ Watch Dogs: Ubisoft planned the DLCs even before the release. In: PC Games Hardware . Retrieved March 7, 2014 .
  13. ↑ Confirmed: Watch Dogs PS4 900p, Xbox One 792p, both 30fps. In: eurogamer.com. Retrieved June 2, 2014 .
  14. ↑ Digital Foundry vs Watch Dogs on Wii U
  15. ↑ Face-Off: Watch Dogs
  16. ↑ Watch Dogs: Clothing and accessories from Musterbrand. In: PC Games Hardware . April 13, 2014, accessed May 10, 2014 .
  17. ↑ UBIcollectibles brings Aiden Pearce collectible figure. (No longer available online.) In: Gamestrust. March 24, 2014, archived from the original on May 12, 2014 ; accessed on May 10, 2014 .
  18. ↑ Martin Woger: Watch Dogs = Assassin's Creed. Pearce = Altair. Hacking = jumping. Eurogamer , June 3, 2014.
  19. ↑ Benjamin Wojkuvka: Watch Dogs - Ubisoft is giving away tablets to journalists and apologizing , GameStar , April 16, 2014.
  20. ↑ Lucas Manhardt: Watch Dogs: The Worse Mod - Instructions & Comparison of the Graphics Mod , GameStar , June 20, 2014.
  21. ↑ Watch Dogs 2 presented: game world, features, release and trailer. pcgameshardware.de, June 8, 2016, accessed June 9, 2016 .
  22. ↑ Watch Dogs 2 - One hacker's idea further. GameStar.de, June 8, 2016, accessed June 8, 2016 .
  23. ↑ Instead of NEO now PRO - Sony presents a new console. In: ps4info. Retrieved September 24, 2016 .
  24. ↑ Watch Dogs - Legion: Game comes much later. Retrieved November 10, 2019 .