The narrative part at the beginning feels exactly like a Rockstar game. Check out trailers from games like Red Dead Redemption and GTA V and you will see what I mean. WatchDogs feels like a similar game from the game-play footage I have seen so far - A strong plot in a living, breathing world.
A world filled with other characters making the game feel realistic. I have played GTA V and Red Dead Redemption. By increasing the number of scripted events, the chances of a player encountering the same event twice was greatly reduced. Robberies, hold-ups, car-jacking, gun-fights and other random events gave more character to the otherwise random people in the game.
Gone were the days where you see dozens of the same character model just walking around aimlessly, making weird remarks from a small selection of lines from the game's database.
Now, it seems that Ubisoft is going 1 step further. In this game, with the power of hacking, we are able to get access to each of the NPC's profile through the CtOS. In some of the trailers released thus far, I have seen descriptions like "single mother of two", "man undergoing divorce", "suffering from claustrophobia". With descriptions like these, will I be more pitiful to that character? If I have to steal from someone, will seeing a description like that, deter me from from choosing him/her as my potential victim?
I think I would.. I might be inclined to rob from someone who perhaps is a "wife-beater" or someone who is a psycho, rather than someone whom I could feel sympathetic towards.
What I'm trying to say is.. By giving each NPC a profile of who they are, Ubisoft is bringing more realism into an open-world game. Each of this random person is now a real character. For me at least, it's going to change who I target for petty crimes and when I have a choice. I tend to immerse myself into the game I'm playing, I try to play a game as realistically as possible. If I want Aiden Pearce to be a good guy, I'm going to let off the 'good' people in the game, maybe try to help them even.
And the 'bad' guys...? The picture below speaks a thousand words.
Then there's the online feature. (Trailer makes it sound like it will be incorporated into the Single-Player game, or will it be a separate game) Other players will be watching and just like GTA Online, there will be other players in the game watching you, and online is never going to be friendly.
Welcome to Chicago..The city of Chicago is going to be a dangerous place..
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Buy Watch Dogs for PS4, PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U and PC on Play-Asia.com.
