Ubisoft’s newest IP, Watch_Dogs, has both hype and hatred surrounding its release, as the gaming community well knows. Following incredible E3 promises, a delayed release date, and a trailer that seemed to showcase a serious graphical downgrade, Watch_Dogs understandably polarized gamers. The question, then, is this: Does it live up to the hype?

To start things off, the story of Watch_Dogs seems fairly simple on the surface. Aiden Pearce—the phone-wielding, hacking, protagonist—is in the middle of a job that goes sour very quickly. As a result, the person whose system he and his partner had been hacking into puts out a hit on both of them. The hit fails, but Pearce’s niece is killed in the process. From there, it takes on a tale of revenge. While that might seem like a premise we’ve seen far too often, I found myself enjoying the twists and turns the story ended up taking. Without spoiling anything, the story of Watch_Dogs ends up being quite interesting, despite the fairly worn out premise. That said, I thought that many of the side characters did not get their due in this game, and that is unfortunate, seeing as Aiden is yet another gruff voice with a revenge complex. I suppose we’ll see more of T-Bone in the upcoming DLC, but Clara, it seems, won’t be getting any extra treatment from Ubisoft. I found that her story was conspicuously absent, for the most part, and that’s a shame. The antagonists, on the other hand, are actually surprisingly fleshed out (with one or two exceptions), and I found myself at least understanding their motivations.

Now, onto one of the most interesting aspects of this title, and the one that Ubisoft promised would be a game-changer: the gameplay. Ubisoft promised that the game’s hacking mechanic would be something revolutionary, and, for the most part, it is. While I’ve heard complaints that it is “too simple,” I realized that if it were any more complex, it wouldn’t allow for such a wide range of possibilities. With a press of a button you can do anything from hacking stoplights to blowing up transformers. Add to that an impressive stealth mechanic, and you have a game that is far more than “GTA V with hacking.” The gameplay shines when hacking and in gunfights. However, the driving was a puzzling aspect for me. Having heard that Watch_Dogs started out as a racing game, I was shocked to find that the driving mechanics and car physics were less than ideal. The handling isn’t the worst I’ve ever dealt with, but the way you can barrel through cars and objects with hardly a scratch can be a little annoying. Even before you get the perk that reduces the amount of damage your car takes, it still feels like you’re driving a tank with the way you push other cars around.

Now, on to the really disappointing issues: the bugs. I was fortunate to only experience (thus far) one major game-breaking bug. When I woke up on launch day and popped in Watch_Dogs to continue my playthrough from the night before, I found that it wouldn’t load my save game file. Ultimately, after trying a variety of solutions, I determined that the only thing I could do was to start a new save file. After that, I had no issues, but the problem is apparently a widespread one. Many people have taken to Ubisoft’s support page for fixes for bugs of all kinds, to mixed results. I understand that the launch of a game can be a difficult time for the developer, but a game with so many save-corrupting, game-breaking bugs should’ve been more thoroughly tested.

Graphically, the game looks impressive on my Xbox One, but it is obviously nowhere near the quality touted at E3 2012. That said, it’s still a beautiful game on consoles (I hear PC’s are having serious issues, though), and I’m personally impressed by what I see. The virtual Chicago that Ubisoft has created is indeed a striking one, so much so that my brother was complaining that Infamous: Second Son didn’t look nearly as good. Is it next-gen? I wouldn’t say so quite yet. We’re still in that awkward cross-gen phase. It’s getting there, though.

The final aspect of the game that deserves to be touched on is the multiplayer. With a Dark Souls-esque invasion system, Watch_Dogs promised seamless integration of multiplayer and singleplayer. Did they deliver? I would say that they have. The time I’ve spent hacking and tailing others has been a blast from day one, and although some matchmaking and lobby-finding issues still need to be sorted out, Decryption and Free Roam have been a lot of fun, as well. With a system in place to keep the immersion of the player being Aiden Pearce from being broken, the multiplayer truly does feel like a seamless extension of singleplayer—an entertaining, paranoia-inducing extension, at that. One thing I do hope to see is an update adding some of the singleplayer side missions into Free Roam, but it remains to be seen whether Ubisoft will do anything of the sort.

Final Score – 7.0: So, does Watch_Dogs live up to the hype? Is it a next-gen experience? The short answer is no. While I have personally really enjoyed this game, the bugs and issues other people across the board have experienced is too much to ignore, and some of the mechanics don’t really work well in this game when they really should. I do believe it is a great cross-gen experience, and one you should definitely play. However, it doesn’t quite excel in the areas that it promised, and that is certainly a detriment to it. That said, the game is a hell of a lot of fun, and I’ve put quite a bit of time into it over this past week and a half. The sheer amount of things to do will keep you busy for quite a while, and it is incredibly fun! I’d recommend checking it out and deciding for yourself.