14 DAY TRIAL // Open world games live and die based on their actual worlds, as no matter the gameplay mechanics or features, if the environment isn't fun, players will start looking elsewhere for their entertainment. It doesn't matter how large it is, how much procedural content it has, or how long it takes to get from one side to the other. If it's not fun, it's going to get abandoned soon.
Fortunately, Watch Dogs manages to deliver a good open world in the form of Chicago, the windy city that's recreated, while not in its entirety, in a fun way in Ubisoft's new title.
The big city in Watch Dogs is a near-future one in which all of its technology is routed into a central mainframe called ctOS that, rather usefully, can be hacked into by the player, who controls hacker vigilante Aiden Pearce.
You start off in the Farmer Square, which is relatively far from the city center, and slowly uncover more locations such as the Loop or Mad Mile, as well as fictional portions of the city like the Wards. They all retain their identities and, after a few hours and once you go through all of them, you'll easily be able to figure out in what portion of the city you are depending on your surroundings.
From the more town-like Farmer Square, to the skyscrapers of the Loop or the glitzy buildings in Mad Mile, the team at Ubisoft Montreal has managed to recreate a lot of landmarks. These are also tied into the ctOS check-in system that allows players to become the mayors of certain locations and share rewards with those that visit them during their own gameplay sessions.
While not all of the windy city is recreated in Watch Dogs, the portions that are look and feel pretty good, offering fun experiences and plenty of things to do.
Sure, the main story line will neatly take you through most of them in the first couple of plot acts, but the game fills them all with plenty of other activities, ranging from side missions to crimes in progress and much more.
As always, you might want to use the fast travel system to easily transition between Aiden's hideouts throughout the different districts, but you might want to also take some time and enjoy scenic drives through the center or the outskirts of Watch Dogs' virtual Chicago, as it's a really fun experience.
As of yet, it's unclear whether the developer will add new portions of the map via DLC.