So I originally did not want to buy Watch Dogs for 360, I thought it was ridiculous they would charge $60 for it when it didn’t even have most of the content its next-gen counterparts had. But alas, I had been waiting for this game forever so I broke down yesterday and just bought it and here’s my first impressions of Watch Dogs on the 360.

I have to say, I always thought this game looked a bit like ‘Person of Interest’ with the whole “cameras watching everything” thing and the way they display all kinds of crazy info about the person but after playing it all day yesterday, I am thoroughly convinced at least a few of the devs for this game drew inspiration from ‘Person of Interest’. It really hit me after I did one of the “Crime Prevention” missions. Those are straight out of the TV show, straight down to having to watch the person to find out if they are the victim or perpetrator and seeing the percentage of likeliness that they will end up committing a crime. I also must say, I did a number of these last night and haven’t done two that are even remotely similar yet.

Not to say Watch Dogs doesn’t have a slue of it’s own original ideas as well. The hacking works better than I ever could have hoped for. Sometimes it can be a little difficult to pull of those quick hacks during a high speed chase, luckily a quick tap of the ‘Right Stick’ will activate your Focus mode which will slow time down around you, giving you time to make what would otherwise be split second decisions. The Focus bar won’t last forever though so don’t over do it, you can always refill it by visiting coffee shops or taking meds if you need to refill on the fly.

There is really so much to do in Watch Dogs you will find yourself getting distracted between every mission. Hacking a random person on the street could end up alerting you of a crime about to happen or a money drop about to be made. Sometimes the person will be on the phone allowing you to hear their conversation. Hacking people will also net you money, songs and unlock new vehicles. Between hacking random people, ctOS towers, city infrastructure, home modems and almost anything else your heart desires you will never be at a lack of stuff to hack. The ctOS towers work similarly to view points in Assassin’s Creed, if you can figure out how to climb up to one you can install a backdoor in the ctOS network in that particular area which can give you new safe houses, show you the location of collectibles and unlock the ctOS in other parts of the city.

The fun doesn’t stop at missions and hacking. If you just want to take a break and have a bit of light-hearted fun there are several forms of mini-games. Phone AR Games like Cash Run and NVZN, there are city games you can play to make money including a challenge version of Chess, shell games, drinking games, back alley poker and slots, all of which are relatively fun and can be good sources of money (especially the slots if only slots in real life paid out like that). Last but not least for side activities there are the Digital Trips, there are only four right now but the story DLC is apparently supposed to introduce some more. Currently there is “Alone” a game where you are the only person in a city of robots, you need to sneak around stealth killing the robots to get through each area and activate a generator. “Spider Tank” where you literally drive a Spider Tank, “Madness” which is a kind of driving, road rage type game, you are supposed to run over as many of the demons as possible while making good time around the city. Last is “Psychedelic” where you bounce from flower to flower while trying to make it through rings, the closer to the flowers center, the better your score.

So far I really only have good things to say about this game, it is fun, clever and its originality is very refreshing in a genre like the open world sandbox where devs tend to stick to what is safe. Even the limited online capabilities the 360 version has are fun and well implemented, better than the usual “invasion” style multiplayer. The only bad things I can really say about this game is the driving feels kind of weird and you barely have any health, if you make the mistake of running up to someone to take them down and don’t realize they have a gun, they can kill you before you are able turn around or pull a gun of your own out. Other than those two minor details the game is just amazing all around.

I really just can not say enough good things about this game, Ubisoft really topped themselves. I also can’t help but to relate to Aiden, his problems feel real. You meet his family for 10 minutes and you already feel yourself caring about them and what may happen to them. This is one of those games I would recommend to pretty much anyone. It is wonderfully written, some of the conversations you listen to when you hack into someone’s phone or home modem are just hilarious. If you haven’t picked up Watch Dogs yet, I would recommend doing so as soon as possible. This game has GOTY potential written all over it.