JOE talks next-gen gaming with the producers of WATCH_DOGS

JOE got the chance to sit down with the producers of exciting new title WATCH_DOGS to talk about the brilliant game and next-gen consoles.

By Adrian Collins

At the PlayStation 4 launch event, we all got a look at one of the most exciting titles due out on the console, WATCH_DOGS, and it had us intrigued to say the least.

Set in Chicago, and with a massive city to roam around, you take control of Aiden Pearce, who uses technology and information as his weapons.

Hacking phones, laptops and the city's security grid will be a great twist to the action, so Creative Director Jonathan Morin and Senior Producer Dominic Guay walked us through the most exciting elements of their great new game.

JOE: What is WATCH_DOGS?

Jonathan Morin: WATCH_DOGS is a contemporary action-adventure game that explores the impact of technology on our society. The game is set in Chicago, where everyone and everything is connected. You will embark on a personal mission, using the city as your main weapon to inflict your own brand of justice.

JOE: Can you give us some info on the main character and his story?

JM: You are Aiden Pearce, a man shaped by violence and obsessed with surveillance, who monitors his family 24/7 in secret to protect them from something that happened in the past. Unfortunately, his family will get endangered once again.

Pushed to his limits, he will take justice into his own hands and confront a corrupt system using every weapon available to him. Aiden will become a modern Vigilante Hero – not a hero from the '70s with a cape, but a real human being that will deal with all the repercussions of his actions.

JOE: Why call the game WATCH_DOGS?

JM: The name refers directly to protection, surveillance and monitoring. It hints at our main character’s overprotective nature as well as the cosmogony of our hyper connected world.

JOE: Why did you choose Chicago as a setting? How does the Chicago of WATCH_DOGS compare to real-world Chicago?

JM: Chicago is one of the world’s great cities, it symbolizes modernity and progress alongside crime and corruption; great wealth and high culture alongside abject poverty and brutal violence. Those contradictions make Chicago the perfect location for our contemporary open-world game.

While we took liberties with our version of Chicago to better serve gameplay, it was fundamental for the team to deliver a credible reflection of this fascinating city. The atmosphere of Chicago is something we took very seriously. In the end, people on the streets will talk like real Chicago people, the city sound ambiance is literally source material from the real places, the music will respect the rich history of the city.

JOE: WATCH_DOGS seems to be about hacking. How does this translate into actual gameplay?

JM: Hacking influences the entire game in order to really offer the fantasy of controlling and monitoring an entire city, using it as a weapon.

Throughout the game, your access to ctOS and your surroundings will progressively grow. It will define how you find gameplay around you. By monitoring people’s lives, you will find various types of mission activities that will happen organically as you discover them. Depending on how you play, this may escalate to pretty serious situations, which will also affect the game world and how the media talks about Aiden Pearce.

JOE: What do you mean by “the city as a weapon”? What is ctOS?

JM: We all live in a hyper-connected world. Everything that has been invented surrounding the Internet these past 20 years has slowly redefined the way we live our day to day lives. Today, urban infrastructures are monitored and controlled by complex operating systems.

In WATCH_DOGS, we call this system the CenTral Operating System, or ctOS. Mobile phones allow ordinary citizens to be tracked from their bedrooms to their workplaces. All of these electronic devices form a complex, powerful network upon which we have become increasingly dependent.

Now imagine one man taking control of that network.

JOE: Will there be a marked difference between the PS4 version and other versions?

Dominic Guay: We are doing our best to provide a great experience, whatever the system you will be playing WATCH_DOGS on.

Our last demo during the PS4 event was running on a high end PC, but it was emulating the PS4 specifications in a very precise way, so what you saw is what you can expect on a PS4. That said, every time we do a demo, it’s better than the previous one and we are confident that we will even be able to push further the graphics as the game development continues.

JOE: Overall, are the team excited to be working on next-gen consoles and where do you see it going?

DG: Since the beginning, our goal on WATCH_DOGS was to create a new type of gameplay experience and push the limits of what’s been done so far in video games. So for us today, it is an exciting moment because we are able to define what the future of video games will be made of.

JOE: Were you able to do much more in development of this game given you were working with next-gen consoles?

JM: In the video game industry, technology is a tool which ignites possibilities. We often say that technology should not drive what we do – we should push technology to the next level. WATCH_DOGS is doing that.

In this case, I think what is going to be powerful is the ability to connect all the players together, within the game and outside the game as well. So when we say hyper connectivity, it doesn’t only mean the control of an entire city, it also means invading everyone’s privacy, whether they are within the game our outside of it.

JOE: You can choose to rescue citizens; will these decisions have repercussions later in the game as many others seem to have?

JM: In WATCH_DOGS, every open world moment needs to be treated seriously. Every action the player takes will have a direct consequence. When you cause chaos, people will be endangered. The media will talk about it. They will influence how the population perceives your actions and it will alter your relationship with the world.

In the game, there will be a Reputation System that will focus on the player’s attitude towards collateral damages. Each action will have Positive and Negative effects. The player will choose how he wants to play and the game will not judge him. Our system will simply recognize the shades of grey our society is made of and reflect it back on the player.

JOE: What can we expect from the co-op or online modes?

JM: If you think you’re alone – think again; because in WATCH_DOGS, everything and everyone is connected and part of the same network. There is still a massive amount of information that will come your way regarding our online direction plans, we can’t wait to tell you guys more about it.