Watch Dogs places you in control of Aiden Pearce, a master hacker who can bring the city of Chicago to its knees with little more than his smartphone.
While Aiden’s skills are formidable, when you first venture into Watch Dogs‘ open world you’ll likely find yourself overwhelmed by the variety of new features the game introduces to the sandbox sub-genre. While there’s a long road ahead of you until you and your cell phone become a force to be reckoned with, there are a number of tips you should keep in mind from the very beginning of the game that will help you along your way.
The following tips and tricks are essential if you want to make the most out of your Watch Dogs experience, as we give you a rundown of everything you need to know to set yourself up for greatness early on in the game.
Watch Dogs Guide
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Escape into the water
Aside from the police helicopter, which you can disable for a period of time if you unlock a certain perk in the game's skill tree, the law simply refuses to follow you into the water. Unlike Grand Theft Auto, no matter how much you devastation you cause in the city of Chicago, the police won't pursue you when you enter the deep blue.
Given that police pursuits can often become huge, neverending battles due to the popo's almost maniacal dedication to bringing you down, you'll often find that the best (and only) way to escape is to go for a dip.
Though police boats are non-existent in Watch Dogs, civilian boats are quite common, meaning that you'll often be able to use one of them to swiftly make as much distance between you and the shore as possible. Though this may seem like a cheap tactic, sometimes it's the only way to get yourself out of a pickle when the police simply refuse to let you escape.
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Complete the 'Open Your World' mission before doing anything else
It is common for a player to be thrust into an open world and then spend a vast proportion of their time doing nothing but exploring it. However, this isn't the optimal way to experience Watch Dogs.
Early into Act I of the game you'll be faced with the mission 'Open Your World' and, once completed, all of the game's skill tree options open up. It is crucial that you complete this mission as soon as possible, as the very best skills available in the game are locked until you successfully do so.
After 'Open Your World' is completed, the world (or at least Chicago) becomes your oyster, with skills such as the ability to burst underground steam pipes and place spikes on the road becoming available for you to unlock. Once you've done so, feel free to continue exploring (and wreacking havoc in) the game's sandbox.
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Cheat in poker
An easy way to earn a lot of cash is to attend the high stakes poker game in the Loop (North on the map), which features a security camera overlooking the table that you can hack into.
Using this camera you can monitor your opponents' stress levels and even view their hands, monitoring what cards they have and ensuring that you'll never leave a game without taking the largest portion of the pot. Cheating has never felt so cool.
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Always make use of security cameras
When infiltrating gang hideouts in side-missions or taking on a building filled with enemies in campaign missions, your biggest asset is being able to remotely hack into security cameras.
Much like Batman's Detective Mode in the Arkham series allowed players to view their surroundings before planning their next move, swapping between the security cameras will let you see the location of each enemy, along with various hackable equipment.
Once you've hacked into a security camera, you'll always be able to stealthily take out a few enemies by bursting pipes, exploding vents and by triggering any grenades that they're carrying. Cleaning house without being spotted will take a degree of patience, and will also often require you to craft secondary items such as the Lure in your weapon wheel.
These items can provide a reasonable distraction, which will force enemies to further scan their environment and therefore raise the likelihood that they'll wander into one of the many hackable traps that each building is readily equipped with.
Aside from giving you a great vantage point of your enemies' whereabouts, the security cameras also put red indicators over them, which prove to be incredibly handy when it comes to successfully avoiding sneak attacks.
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Don't worry about reserving cash
Unlike most open world games, money isn't your biggest commodity in Watch Dogs. Hacking into the bank accounts of civilians and ATMs means that you'll always have a steady flow of cash, and as most weapons and cars are sold at a reasonable price, you're not going to need to keep a tight grip on your wallet in order to save up for the best equipment in the game.
While Watch Dogs offers an array of weaponry to the player, your arsenal only really needs two essential items: a silenced pistol and a high-rated assault rifle. Your silenced pistol will be your best friend when it comes to infiltrating gang hideouts, as it allows you to dispatch foes whilst not alerting their comrades to your presence. An assault rifle will also allow you to make quick work of enemies when you're faced with a situation in which being stealthy isn't an option.
Money can also be spent on vehicles, though these serve a far less important purpose. While driving around in a plush sports car is undoubtedly cool, as you cannot order a car to be delivered to you whilst in a mission, you'll often wind up using a pedestrian vehicle when making your escape. Clothes can also be bought though, inevitably, these make for only superfluous additions to the game. Buy weaponry first, then worry about everything else later.
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Make use of Focus Mode
Watch Dogs' version of Bullet Time, titled Focus Mode, allows for easier evasion of enemies on-road and also makes protagonist Aiden Pearce a more formidable force in gunfights.
Focus Mode is unlockable in the game's skill tree, and should be one of the very first perks you invest in as it allows you to slow down time at any point in order to carefully deliberate your plan of action. Watch Dogs requires a lot of quick-thinking when it comes to dispatching/evading enemies, but Focus Mode rids you of the need to hurriedly make split-decisions when it comes to shooting/hacking..
While Focus Mode is useful in shootouts, it's in evading police and enemy vehicles that it really shines. Slowing down time whilst passing through traffic lights/road blocks/over steam pipes will allow you to pinpoint the exact moment to hack into them in order to send your enemies off your scent, something which is incredibly difficult to do whilst you're hurtling past Chicago's speed limit.
Aside from your super-smartphone, Focus Mode is undoubtedly your best friend in Watch Dogs, and you should treat it as such.
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Improve your driving
Unlike most open world games, Watch Dogs doesn't allow you to fire a weapon out of the window of your vehicle. While this seems like an odd mechanic, it means that players are forced to hack their environment when evading enemies rather than simply shooting them down.
Given that your vehicle and your smartphone are going to be your only weapons when evading enemies on-road, this means that you're going to need to upgrade your driving a tad. This can be achieved through the skill tree, with an upgrade to your vehicle's defense being a must-buy.
While you don't need to worry about spending all of your skill points in the driving skill tree (you should be putting most of your focus on hacking), you are going to need to bump up the efficiency of your vehicles if you wish to stand a chance against the incredibly violent driving of your enemies.
