The experience of playing Alan Wake is special. With darkness being your enemy and your weapon being a flashlight, Remedy Entertainment's 3rd person action/horror game put the thrill in 'thriller gameplay'. Watch_Dogs delivers a different kind of thrill, as you hack your way through a room to distract and eliminate guards silently via their own environment. Unfortunately for games the story surrounding the gameplay is a little hammy. Alan Wake's characters seemed to talk too fast and go over the top far too often, resulting in dramatic moments turning to in eye rolls, and spooky scares feeling a little cheap. Alan in particular felt a little forced, and for a game about writing, that was a bummer. While Alan Wake could hypothetically get the benefit of the doubt because it's an action game where you actually threw a rock concert to ward off a wave of tough enemies, Watch_Dogs doesn't afford itself that privilege. Instead it's a deadly serious affair with a protagonist that Batman could teach a thing or two in regards to lightening up. Yes, Aiden Pearce is a bore, and through his clichéd character and two-note performance ("Disgruntled" and "Angry") the promise of the game's narrative never really finds its own identity. But that's not to say the game isn't atmospheric, nor is the world un-engrossing. Again, like Alan Wake a little quality gameplay goes a long way, especially if you have an interesting place to do it in, and Watch_Dogs' Chicago setting obviously isn't creepy as Alan Wake's rural New England setting, but between famous landmarks and the ability to peep in on various citizens through side-missions, Chicago becomes a wonderfully exciting place to exist in, even if the character you're playing as is blander than a Chicago hot dog with no pickle. While the games are fundamentally about different things and are in completely different genres, the thing that binds Alan Wake and Watch_Dogs together (other than two syllable names) is how they deliver an awesome experience seemingly despite themselves. Alan Wake is an absolute blast to play through and there's a real tension and horror when physically playing that's sublime, despite the game's much-promoted but undercooked narrative elements. Watch_Dogs is the same - the act of playing the game makes you feel like more of a cool cyber-badass than any of the cutscenes do, and as you progress you'll probably forget what the heck is actually going on just because it's so much fun. Have you managed to get your hands on a copy of the game yet? What did you think of it, and which titles come to mind along the way? Let us know in the comments!
