This is a game about hacking in which hacking very quickly becomes an abstract background.
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Aside from the inevitable debt owed to Grand Theft Auto - over 10 years on from GTA 3, we're still carjacking and stunt-jumping around virtual cities - the echoes of other games are loud. The way Aiden jogs and clambers as he navigates back alleys and rooftops, with you holding down the shoulder button to seamlessly vault and climb, is reminiscent of Assassin's Creed, for example - though without that game's nimble verticality and vertiginous parkour.
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Call it Ubisoft's house style, if you like, but it leaves Watch Dogs feeling more like a greatest hits compilation than a distinct title.
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Combat encounters also draw inspiration from existing games, with slightly stiff but workable sneaking and cover mechanics and decent if unremarkable gunplay.
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Crucially, you never actually feel like you're hacking anything. A lot of the time you're just pressing a button to make something happen, which at a functional level is no different to any action game.
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So many of Watch Dogs' ideas have been proven in other games, so it makes sense to use them again, but it does mean that the game never really nails its own identity.
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A strong story or a compelling character could make the difference, but sadly this is where Watch Dogs is at its weakest.
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Assassin's Creed launched with a thin game, but there was a sense that there were unique gameplay mechanics beneath its flat surface that were worth pursuing and, for a few sequels at least, those ideas were able to flourish and grow.
Watch Dogs doesn't have that promising kernel. It certainly entertains, but mostly through borrowed concepts, and the central notion that could have made it stand out - the hacking - is the most undercooked of all.