Watch Dogs

Watch Dogs

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. 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 a 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 generally positive feedback, with praise particularly directed at the game's hacking elements and mission variety. The game also received criticism concerning the 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. Within a week, the game sold over 4 million copies.

Using the in-game smartphone, players have the ability to view if a civilian is about to be involved in a crime.

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. 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. 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.

A year later, Aiden, now a vigilante known as "The Fox", or "The Vigilante", tracks down Maurice in the Parker Square district. After a fruitless interrogation about Maurice's contractor, Aiden leaves Maurice in the hands of Jordi Chen while he hacks the ctOS to help them escape unnoticed. 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. 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.
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. Aiden obtains the electronic key to Iraq's server room and obtains a sample of the data from his servers.> He and Clara find that Iraq has secrets on almost every citizen of Chicago, effectively protecting his gang from the authorities. When they come across encrypted data beyond Clara's ability, she directs Aiden to seek out Raymond "T-Bone" Kenney. After Aiden completes some tasks for him, T-Bone agrees to help decrypt the data.
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. While browsing the server information, another hacker–JB "Defalt" Marcowicz–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. 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.
Eventually, Aiden and T-Bone locate and take down Defalt, and retrieve the data again. Meanwhile, Aiden discovers where Nicole is being kept, and frees her. Aiden drives Nicole and Jackson out of town to keep them safe. 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 the mayor, 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. 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 stun 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. After the credits, Jordi calls Aiden one last time to tell him where Maurice is being held. Aiden heads there, and chooses to either kill him or spare him. Aiden then uploads the video of the mayor to the web, exposing his crimes and leading to his subsequent suicide. DeadSec 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 also announces that the ctOS will be adopted in several major cities across the country, using ctOS 2.0.

Bad Blood downloadable content

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 ten 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.