The Division

The Division (Or shortened to The Division.) is an upcoming massively multiplayer online only third-person shooter video gamedeveloped by Ubisoft Massive, Ubisoft Reflections and Ubisoft Red Storm under the Tom Clancy brand for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 andXbox One.^[5] It was announced during Ubisoft's E3 2013 press conference, together with a seven minute gameplay demo and is set to release in 2015.^[4]

Plot

The Division is inspired by Operation Dark Winter and Directive 51, real-world events which "revealed how vulnerable we've [the United Stateshave] become"; society has become "fragile" and "complex". In the game, a disease that spreads on Black Friday causes the United States to collapse in five days.^[6] The player is part of a group called the "Strategic Homeland Division (SHD)", or "The Division" for short. This group was established to combat the threat brought about by the outbreak and are given direct authority by the President of the United States to do whatever it takes to "save what remains" in a massive multiplayer online situation, putting them against AI-controlled enemies, as well as other players in the game.

Development

The Division was originally being developed as an eighth generation consoles exclusive.^[7] However, shortly after the game's unveiling, Ubisoft released the following statement on the game's official Twitter account:

[...] We are optimizing the experience for next gen consoles. However, we are not ruling out any platforms for the future.^[8]

Ubisoft however asked PC gamers to show interest in the game by signing petitions, and then they would decide.^[9][10]

During E3 2013, Ubisoft announced that players can play the game on tablets. Players will be able to join in the game as a drone to offer tactical support for players playing on PC and consoles.^[11] On August 20, 2013, Ubisoft announced that the game would be released for PC on Microsoft Windows as a result of the "vocal and passionate PC community."^[12]

On May 15, 2014, it was announced that "The Division" will be delayed to 2015, according to an anonymous source inside Ubisoft Massive studio. "The game engine works well, it's not done, but works well. The actual game development has barely started, however," said the anonymous insider. The Division uses the Snowdrop engine, which was developed exclusively for the eighth generation of consoles. On June 5, 2014 Ubisoft revealed that The Division would be showcased at E3 2014.^[13]

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Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 (悪魔城ドラキュラ ロード オブ シャドウ 2 Akumajō Dorakyura Rōdo obu Shadō 2^?, officially translated Devil's Castle Dracula: Lords of Shadow 2) is an action-adventure game, the sequel to the 2010 game Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, and the 34th installment in the Castlevania franchise (37th if one includes the 3 Pachislot games). The game was developed by MercurySteam and published by Konami.^[3] It was released late February 2014 in both North America and Europe and on March 2014 in Australia. A Japanese release was released on September 4, 2014. A downloadable chapter has also been released in March from the same year.

The story is set in both medieval and modern worlds^[4] and follows a weakened Dracula who is on a quest to defeat his former enemy, Satan. Gameplay takes after the original Lords of Shadow but this time through an open world. The player controls Dracula who uses multiple powers and weapons to achieve his goals.

Gameplay

As in the previous game, the player controls Gabriel Belmont, now known as Dracula, as he fights through an open world.^[4] During the game's opening sequence the player is able to control Dracula while he still possesses all his powers as well as all of his weapons.^[5] Dracula's main weapon is his Shadow Whip, a weapon that is comparable to the Combat Cross from the original Lords of Shadow. Replacing the magic system from the previous game are the Void Sword and the Chaos Claws. The Void Sword can replenish Dracula's health when used while the Chaos Claws can be used to break through enemy defenses and deliver powerful attacks. The story mode in Lords of Shadow 2 has been stated to be far longer than the previous one.^[6] The game is mainly an open world allowing the player to choose what route to take.^[7] Lords of Shadow 2 features a movable camera, something that was not available in its predecessor.^[8]

Plot

The game starts out with a recap of Lords of Shadow and Mirror of Fate, detailing Gabriel Belmont's (Robert Carlyle) transformation into Dracula and his encounters with his son, Trevor (Richard Madden), whom he kills and subsequently resurrects, and grandson, Simon. The game starts proper with knights attacking Dracula's castle. He swiftly dispatches all of them before being confronted by the revived Trevor, now known as Alucard.

A thousand years have passed and Dracula awakens in a cathedral in modern times, weak from starvation and with no memory of the circumstances that led him there. He is warned by his former enemy, Zobek (Patrick Stewart), of the return of Satan, who until then was deterred from doing so by Dracula himself. Zobek offers him the Vampire Killer, the only weapon capable of ending his cursed existence, in exchange for him vanquishing the people trying to bring Satan (Jason Isaacs) back, his acolytes. The key to him regaining his power lies in his castle, which the cursed blood that kept it alive for centuries attempts to deter Dracula of his quest. Throughout his journey, Dracula is aided by various allies, including Zobek's bodyguard and specters of his deceased wife Marie (Natascha McElhone) and a younger Trevor. He also encounters the Brotherhood of Light and its current leader, Victor Belmont (Anthony Howell).

Having destroyed two of the acolytes and tracked down the third, Dracula prepares to ambush him but is stopped by the bodyguard, flashbacking to his last encounter with Alucard. It is revealed that centuries ago, Alucard had come to Dracula with a plan to destroy both Zobek and Satan, using his sword, the Crissaegrim, on him to induce a deep sleep and thus setting the current events into motion. The truth now known, the bodyguard reveals himself to be Alucard. Zobek discovers their treachery and angrily confronts them both. Dracula kills him just as the third acolyte summons Satan, who proceeds to summon a flying monster to destroy the human world. Dracula and Alucard are able to kill the beast, only for Satan to possess the latter, forcing father and son to battle. Dracula gains the upper hand and prepares to stake Alucard with the Vampire Killer, despite Satan's insistence that he would not and forcing him to vacate the body. Having anticipated this, Dracula kills Satan once and for all while saving his son. Dracula then destroys the Mirror of Fate and walks back inside his cathedral with Alucard as the sun rises on the city.

Development

The game was announced at E3 2012.^[9] The developers' intention was to play as Dracula for the first time in the Castlevania series and conclude the storyline started in the first Lords of Shadow. Although the previous game was well-received, the designers noted it had several flaws which they wanted to fix while improving the gameplay.^[7] This includes reducing the game's over-reliance on quick time events, removing the fixed camera in favor of a 360 field, and improving the framerate.^[5] Rather than recycling elements from previous games, the team decided to redesign the game engine. The developers also felt Lords of Shadow was too linear, which introduced another change for the sequel:^[5] it will have an open world to give players a sense of exploration and avoid transitions between levels. Despite an initially linear path, players will be given multiple options as they progress. This was also intended to contrast with other action series such as God of War and Devil May Cry.^[7] Designing the modern setting created difficulties for the developers.^[4] The team had previously done open world games but were disappointed with their quality and believe Lords of Shadow 2 will be an improvement over those.^[7]

On February 12, 2014 a demo was made available on the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live and Steam.^[10]

Following the game's release, reports surfaced from anonymous sources purporting to be developers at MercurySteam concerning the game's development. One source alleged that the development process had been "a degree of 'hell'", and laid the blame upon the game's director, Enric Álvarez. Álvarez, it was alleged, led the development "based on his personal criteria", while "completely overlooking programmers, designers and artists."^[11] A second source corroborated this information, bemoaning the lack of trust, leadership and communication between the teams working on the game. This source suggested that José Luis Vaello, a former art director at MercurySteam left the studio for Tequila Works due to the conditions described. Álvarez denied the claims on Twitter stating "Is sad [to] see people giving credit to the lies and insults from an enraged ex-worker." ^[12][13][14]

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Dark Souls II

Dark Souls II (ダークソウルII, Dāku Souru Tsu− ^?) is an action RPG video game. The third game in its series, Dark Souls II was developed forMicrosoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 by From Software, which also published the game in Japan, while Bandai Namco Games published the game in other regions.

Dark Souls II was announced at the Spike Video Game Awards on December 7, 2012.^[6][7] Hidetaka Miyazaki, who served as director on the two earlier games in the series, Demon's Souls and Dark Souls,^[8] acted as a supervisor, while the game was directed by Tomohiro Shibuya and Yui Tanimura.^[8] Although set in the same world, Miyazaki stated there is no direct story connection between Dark Souls and Dark Souls II.^[9] The game uses dedicated multiplayer servers.^[9]

Taking place in the world of Drangleic, the game features both player versus environment (PvE) and player versus player (PvP) play, in addition to having some co-op components. As in the earlier games in the series, it once again features challenging gameplay, but with a more powerful graphics engine and more advanced AI system.

After some initial delays, the game had its official launch in North America on March 11, 2014, with the PC release launching on April 24, 2014

Gameplay[edit]

To begin the game, players customize the sex and physical features of a character in addition to choosing a gift and starting class, which determines starting statistics and equipment. From a third-person perspective, players explore a continuous, open world, where they are confronted by a hostile environment with unrelenting enemies and bosses. As enemies are defeated, "souls" are accumulated, which can be used as either currency or experience points, with players upgrading various character attributes to reflect a certain style of play.

The player moves through the world with little guidance or orientation, facing deadly opponents which generally increase in difficulty. The player can save their progress by lighting "bonfires," at which they can also rest to renew their health and magic, as well as repairing damage to their weapons. Resting at a bonfire also resets enemies in the particular area where that bonfire is located. The player can instantaneously travel between discovered bonfires in order to make backtracking less tedious. When a player is defeated, they "die", losing all the souls in their possession and returning to the last bonfire where they rested. When this happens, not only have they lost all their souls, but they are no longer human (called being "hollow"), and their maximum hit points have been decreased. The player can retrieve their lost souls at the location they died, but must do so before dying again. As souls are accumulated, the player has the choice to either trade them in to increase one of more than a dozen attributes (e.g. strength — to increase the damage inflicted, vigor — to increase the maximum amount of damage taken, or vitality — to increase the amount of equipment one can carry without impairing movement), or to use them to purchase items, equipment, or weapons. A third option, as one progresses in the game, is to use souls (usually in combination with another acquired item) to upgrade weapons and armor. The end of each section of gameplay consists of battling a boss — a much more powerful enemy that rewards the player with a "boss soul," which can be consumed for a large numbers of souls or traded for certain pieces of equipment. After defeating the final boss, the player may enter New Game+ mode.

In the early stages of the game, once a player becomes hollow there are only two ways for them to regain their humanity: to use a "human effigy," or to be summoned into another player's world and assist in conquering a boss. There are several advantages to being human, with the main one being the ability to summon other players into your world, discussed below.

Multiplayer features heavily in Dark Souls II. Players can call up to two players to join them, in order to help them through a level and/or to battle a boss. As a player, you can put down a "sign", which other players can activate, calling you into their "world". You may only call other players into your world if you are in human form, although you may be summoned in either human or hollow mode. Players can also participate in player versus player (PvP) gameplay, by either invading other players' games, or by leaving a dark spirit summoning sign. There are specific areas set aside for dueling, with neither player being penalized for defeat. While random invasions still occur, many are part of belonging to a particular covenant. Several areas, mostly for covenants (groups the player can join), also include being summoned as a "gray spirit" to defend or invade the specific region for specific rewards and progression within that covenant. For example, the player can join the Bell Keepers covenant, to defend the in-game regions of Belfry Luna or Sol. Upon joining the covenant, the player receives a ring that will automatically summon the player to defend the bell in the latter areas from other players who attempt to ring them. Every covenant receives a covenant-specific ring, which all have their own covenant-related effect, usually a way to summon each other or keep track of PvP kills for the covenant.

Enemies do not respawn indefinitely; after they are defeated a set number of times, they disappear for the remainder of the current playthrough. They can be returned using a Bonfire Ascetic, at the cost of permanently increasing the difficulty of that area. While this makes certain areas easier to traverse if the player dies many times, it also makes farming upgrade materials and equipment more difficult. The other major difference is the player's maximum HP is reduced upon each death, until their maximum HP reaches 50% of the full health bar. This can only be overcome by a player regaining their humanity or through the use of the Ring of Binding, which limits health reduction to 75% rather than 50%.

Magic plays a major role, with many enemies and bosses being weak to particular forms of damage, such as lightning or fire, either from magical weapons or spells. Both require the player to have a certain skill levels, such as a minimum intelligence to cast a spells or strength to wield a sword, as well as considering the overall weight of the player's equipment set.

Plot[edit]

Dark Souls II presents its plot in an unconventional way that makes it difficult to understand in one playthrough, and it has several unclear or unknown elements. In this way, the game encourages its community to share and review findings and interpretations with each other in order to fully understand it.

The story revolves around a male or female Undead human known as the "bearer of the curse", who has nearly lost their mind and gone "hollow" in their search for a cure. They have traveled to Drangleic, which is rumored to be home to powerful souls that can help Undead regain their humanity and avoid this fate. The bearer of the curse finds their way to Majula, a settlement in Drangleic, where they meet an enigmatic woman known as the Emerald Herald, who acts as the player's guide. She asks the player to seek four ancient beings with immense souls, and Vendrick, the king of Drangleic.

After claiming these four great souls (or a certain number of regular souls, which changes depending on the playthrough), the protagonist gains access to Drangleic Castle and can meet Nashandra, the queen of Drangleic. Nashandra urges the protagonist to visit King Vendrick, who has abandoned his own castle. When the protagonist reaches Vendrick inside the Undead Crypt, it is revealed that the former monarch of Drangleic has actually gone completely hollow, mindlessly wandering around in circles.

In order to proceed, the bearer of the curse must travel through Aldia's Keep and visit the colossal Ancient Dragon in the Dragon Shrine. If the dragon isn't provoked, it will speak with the player and willingly give the player an Ashen Mist Heart. The player can alternatively attempt to take the item by force and kill the Ancient Dragon. After having met the dragon, Queen Nashandra may offer guidance to the bearer of the curse by instructing him to seek the Forest of the Fallen Giants. She will also claim the Ancient Dragon is a false deity.

With the Ashen Mist Heart, the player can travel through time into the memories of withered creatures. In the Forest of the Fallen Giants, the bearer of the curse may interact with several long-dead, withered Giants – a race from the northern continents, whose homeland was attacked by Vendrick at Nashandra's request. Inside the memories of the Giant found beyond the door that Vendrick's ring opens, the player must fight and defeat the leader of the Giants. After achieving victory, the player gains a mysterious item called the Giant's Kinship, and can finally reach the throne below Drangleic Castle.

As their final objective, the bearer of the curse must open the door to the Throne of Want and become the next monarch. After opening the sealed door, the Emerald Herald warns the bearer of the curse that Nashandra will come after him in order to prevent him from "linking the fire"; the act of offering oneself up as fuel for the First Flame of the world. Linking the fire temporarily cures the Undead curse, and hinders the spreading of the Abyss; which is a pitch-black darkness that threatens to corrupt and swallow the entire world.

Inside the Throne of Want, after the Throne Watcher and Defender are defeated, Nashandra herself will appear as the final boss of the game. Afterwards, the Giant's Kinship will activate severalgolems, who form a path through the Abyss. The player sits down upon the throne and becomes the next monarch. The Emerald Herald narrates that only the sovereign monarch can see what lies ahead; the protagonist is transported back to Majula and may choose to start the journey again via the bonfire.

Upon further inspection of Nashandra's soul, her identity is revealed to be a fragment of Manus, the "Father of the Abyss", who was the final boss and main antagonist of the Artorias of the Abyss expansion for the original Dark Souls. She had manipulated Vendrick in order to spread the "Dark" and extinguish the Flame. This might suggest that in the first game, the Chosen Undead chose to rekindle the First Flame, as Lordran's flame was the first flame which started the cycle.

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InFamous: Second Son

Infamous Second Son (stylized as inFAMOUS Second Son) is an open world, action-adventure video game developed by Sucker Punch Productions and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. The game was released worldwide on March 21, 2014. Like in previous Infamous games, the player-controlled protagonist possesses superpower abilities that players use in combat. The story follows protagonist Delsin Rowe fighting the Department of United Protection (D.U.P.) in a fictionalized Seattle. Over the course of the game, Delsin acquires new powers and becomes either good or evil as player choices influence his morality.

Sucker Punch began planning the game as early as 2010, when they began discussion with Sony to bring the Infamous series onto a new generation of hardware. They provided feedback to Sony on what hardware evolutions they would like to see on the PlayStation 4. Second Son was considered a fresh start for the series because it features a new protagonist. Delsin's superpowers were designed to feel fluid and suited to the open world design. Critical reviews were generally positive, with the gameplay, combat and visuals widely praised. However, the game was criticized on the morality system, which some reviewers found dated and binary, the protagonist and the game's repetitive side missions. The game sold over a million copies within nine days, making it the fastest-selling Infamous entry.

Development

Ubisoft Montreal began development on Watch Dogs in 2009.^[42] Ubisoft Montreal's creative director Jonathan Morin noted that Watch Dogs is designed to "go beyond the limits of today's open world games", referencing both its use of information as a plot point, and allowing players to control the entire city through its hacking mechanics.

For Watch Dogs, Ubisoft Montreal built a new game engine called Disrupt.^[43] The engine was originally intended for a different game focused on driving. Ubisoft North American president Laurent Detoc explained that the team working on the project realized an open-world game was a better fit than their original vision.^[44] Watch Dogs runs in 900p on PlayStation 4 and 792p on Xbox One; both versions of the game run at 30fps. Creative director Jonathan Morin explained that he's more concerned with the overall experience rather than the technical minutiae. Morin added that people tend to forget that achieving higher fidelity visuals is easier for corridor shooters than it is for open-world games.^[45]

In order to achieve realism in the game's hacking mechanic, the game production team worked with Russian anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab. The developers sent some of the game designs to Kaspersky, who then gave feedback. "Sometimes they say, 'Yeah, that's possible, but change that word,' or, 'That's not the way it works'", said senior producer Dominic Guay.^[46] When developing the hacking mechanic, the team focused on reducing it to one button; "You want to have one button, so that people don't have to swallow 'how' on top of 'when' and 'why' to use those things", said Morin.^[47]

When developing the game, Ubisoft prioritised development for the eighth generation consoles and PC.^[48] Guay stated that the Wii U GamePad is considered a "natural" fit for Watch Dogs.^[49]

The team travelled to Chicago during development to record NPC dialogue, to achieve the distinct accent. To record the dialogue, two studios ran simultaneously in Chicago for about six weeks. "You will never see exactly the same profile on any NPC anywhere in the game", said lead story designer Kevin Shortt.^[50]

Watch Dogs was officially unveiled by Ubisoft during their press conference at E3 2012. They released the debut trailer on the same day.^[51][52] The game missed its original projected 19 November 2013 release date, pushed back to early 2014 to allow for further polishing.^[53] The release date was later confirmed as 27 May 2014 for all platforms except Wii U,^[54] which was delayed to the fourth quarter of 2014.^[55][56] On May 14, 2014, Ubisoft announced that Watch Dogs had "gone gold", and was officially sent off to manufacturing.^[57] To encourage pre-order sales for the game, Ubisoft collaborated with several retail outlets to provide special edition versions of the game. The "Dedsec Edition", for example, includes a unique case packaging for the game, a game map, a figurine of Aiden Pearce and unlock codes for additional content for use in the game.^[58]

On 15 February 2013, a leaked promotional image suggested that Watch Dogs would launch in December 2013 for "all home consoles",^[59] which led to speculation about whether the game would launch on eighth generation consoles.^[60][61][62] During the Sony press conference on 20 February 2013, Watch Dogs was confirmed to be coming to the PlayStation 4.^[63] Shortly afterwards, Ubisoft confirmed that the game would also be released for the Wii U,^[64] after some retailers had listed it for pre-order.^[65] On 21 May 2013, Ubisoft revealed that an Xbox One version of Watch Dogs was also in development.^[66]

The exclusive GameStop pre-order poster for the game was created by illustrator Alex Ross, a native of Chicago, where the game is set. Ross emphasized that setting in the image by placing the Willis Tower and the elevated train tracks in the background.^[67]

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Watch Dogs

Watch Dogs (stylized as WATCH_DOGS) is a 2014 open world action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published byUbisoft. It was released worldwide on 27 May 2014 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, with a Wii Uplanned for release on 18 November 2014 in North America and 21 November in Europe.^[8] Set within a fictionalized version of Chicago, Illinois, thesingle-player story follows a hacker and his efforts to seek revenge after the accidental death of his niece. The open world design lets players freely roam Chicago, which includes the urban city, open countryside, and slums.

The game is played from a third-person perspective and its world is navigated on-foot or by vehicle. Players control Aiden Pearce, a highly skilledgrey hat hacker who can hack into the "ctOS", a centralized operating system which manages the hyper-connected city of Chicago, and formed after a Northeast blackout of 2003 was caused by a hacker. Players can choose to play as criminals or vigilantes. An online multiplayer mode is also provided in the game, allowing up to eight players to engage in both cooperative and competitive gameplay in a recreation of the single-player setting.

Development on the game began in 2009. As part of their research for the open world, the developers conducted field research around Chicago throughout development and captured footage for the design team. Development duties were shared between many of Ubisoft's studios worldwide.

Following its announcement in June 2012, Watch Dogs was widely anticipated. At release, it received generally positive feedback, with praise particularly directed at the game's hacking elements and mission variety. The game also received criticism concerning the gameplay, technical issues and graphical quality. Watch Dogs was a commercial success, breaking the record for the biggest first day sales of a Ubisoft game, and becoming the biggest launch of a new IP ever in the United Kingdom at the time. Within a week, the game sold over 4 million copies.

Gameplay

Watch Dogs is an action-adventure game played from a third-person perspective. Players complete missions—linear scenarios with set objectives—to progress through the story. Outside of missions, players can freely roam the open world of Chicago. The world may be fully explored from the beginning of the game without restrictions, although story progress unlocks more gameplay content.

Using the in-game smartphone, players have the ability to view if acivilian is about to be involved in a crime.

In the game, players take control of Aiden Pearce, a vigilante who can hack into various electronic devices tied to the city's central operating system (ctOS), allowing various methods for the player to solve numerous objectives.^[9] The hacking mechanic in the game is performed directly from Aiden's in-game smartphone, which is equipped with multiple applications, namely the "profiler" and the "crime prevention system"; the former allows the player to access information on any citizen in the city, while the latter notifies the player when a crime is likely to occur in the vicinity. The phone is also equipped with applications that interact directly with the environment around the player; for example, players can hack into NPC's phones to retrieve bank data and steal funds as well as unlock new cars, weapons, and in-game music, or they can hack into traffic lights to cause collisions.^[10] Players can also receive information on civilians via augmented reality feeds, providing them with information on demographics, health and potential behaviour. Equipment is also provided by smartphone apps, which can be used to summon cars and weaponry. Players can stop trains, raise security barriers, and black out the entire city and can slow down time to shoot.

The game's combat utilises a combination of stealth components and limited parkour (there is no jumping up or across), along with the mechanics of a cover-based third-person shooter.^[11] The hacking element of the game can also be used in combat situations to eliminate opponents, create diversions, or create cover. It can also be used as a stealth tool to sneak past guards. In combat, auto-aim and a cover system are available as assistance against enemies. Should players take damage, their health meter will gradually regenerate. If players commit crimes while playing, the police may respond, as indicated by a meter in the head-up display. On the meter, the displayed levels indicates the amount of attention the crime demands; if the player reaches the maximum fifth level, efforts by law enforcement to incapacitate players become very aggressive and increasingly difficult. When players have escaped the officers' line of sight, the level enters a cooldown mode, which recedes when players escape the search area (as displayed on the mini-map).

As the game proceeds, the player can improve Aiden's skills either by expending skill points or earning skills and perks by completing side missions and collecting various items from the in game world, such as finding QR codes on the sides of buildings or finding ctOS servers collecting information on the citizens of Chicago.

Alongside the single-player mode, Watch Dogs features an asynchronous online multiplayer mode. One element to the multiplayer mode is a one-on-one interaction, in which one player secretly joins the single-player experience of another player and attempts to install a "back-door virus" onto their smartphone.^[12] In addition, the game features an eight-player free roam mode^[13] Other multiplayer modes include car races, competitive decryption combat, and a ctOS mobile challenge.^[b] A mobile application is also available for smartphones and tablets that allows players to challenge another player in-game and use hacks that triggers traps, in an attempt to stop them from succeeding.^[15]

Synopsis

Setting and characters

In the backstory of Watch Dogs, a computer hacker is discovered to have been behind the Northeast blackout of 2003, which led to eleven deaths. This event prompted the Blume Corporation to develop ctOS (CenTral Operating System). The ctOS supercomputer connects to everyone and everything—including personal information, security cameras, and traffic lights. Over time, Blume installs ctOS supercomputers in multiple cities across the United States, including Chicago, Illinois, the setting of the game.

In Watch Dogs, players take control of Aiden Pearce (Noam Jenkins), a grey hat hacker and vigilante. After a tragic accident kills his niece Lena, Aiden seeks to bring his own kind of justice to the people responsible, all while protecting his sister Nicole (Anne Hopkins) and nephew Jackson (Nicholas Bode). Aiden meets a host of allies over the course of the game: Jordi Chin (Aaron Douglas), a "fixer" and Aiden's hired partner; Clara Lille (Isabelle Blais), a tattoo artist and member of the "DedSec" hacker group (under the alias 'BadBoy17'); and Raymond "T-Bone" Kenney (John Trench), a former ctOS engineer. Aiden also encounters many enemies, including Delford "Iraq" Wade (Jerod Hayes),^[16] a gang leader with a military background; and Dermot "Lucky" Quinn (Myron Natwick), owner of the Merlaut Hotel and crime boss of Chicago's crime underground. Other characters include Damien Brenks (Daniel Kash), Aiden's former mentor and partner-in-crime; and Maurice Vega (Christopher Jacot), the triggerman who caused the accident that claimed Lena's life.

Plot

In October 2012, Aiden Pearce and Damien Brenks launch an electronic bank heist at the Merlaut Hotel, with Aiden transferring the funds through his smartphone.^[17] When they come across a strange file and alert another hacker, Damien tries to find the hacker, giving them both away. Unable to talk Damien out of it, Aiden stops him by leaving.^[18] Fearing for his family— sister Nicole, and her children Lena and Jackson—Aiden decides to drive his beloved family to safety under the guise of a surprise trip. However, on the way, two hitmen hired to take Aiden out intercept the car. One of them, Maurice Vega, fires the shot that crashes the car and puts Lena in a coma, and she dies two months later.^[19]

A year later, Aiden, now a vigilante known as "The Fox", finally tracks down Maurice in the Parker Square district.^[20][21] After a fruitless interrogation about Maurice's contractor, Aiden leaves Maurice in the hands of Jordi Chin while he hacks the ctOS to help them escape unnoticed.^[20][22] As Aiden investigates further, Damien (whom he cut ties with since the Merlaut robbery) approaches him, requesting to find the other hacker from the Merlaut job.^[23] Upon Aiden's refusal, Damien kidnaps Nicole, forcing Aiden to comply with Damien's demands.^[24]

With the help of Clara Lille, a member of hacking syndicate DedSec, Aiden tracks down the second hacker: ex-military gang leader Delford "Iraq" Wade.^[25] Aiden obtains the electronic key to Iraq's server room and obtains a sample of the data from his servers.^[26] He and Clara find that Iraq has secrets on almost every citizen of Chicago, effectively protecting his gang from the authorities.^[27] When they come across encrypted data beyond Clara's ability, she directs Aiden to seek out Raymond "T-Bone" Kenney.^[28][29] After Aiden completes some tasks for him, T-Bone agrees to help decrypt the data.^[30]

Aiden mounts an assault on Iraq's compound, making it to his server room. After Aiden downloads the server data, Iraq confronts him; Aiden kills him and leaves the compound.^[31] While browsing the server information, another hacker–JB "Defalt" Marcowicz–infiltrates their system, stealing the information before deleting it from their servers. Defalt also leaves a recording that reveals Clara helped locate Aiden and Damien eleven months prior, which ultimately led to his niece's death.^[32] Angered, Aiden demands that Clara leave. Later, when Aiden confronts Damien about the loss of the server data, Damien publicizes Aiden's vigilantism, alerting the authorities of his identity.^[33]

Eventually, Aiden and T-Bone locate and take down Defalt, and retrieve the data again.^[34] Meanwhile, Aiden discovers where Nicole is being kept, and frees her.^[35] Aiden drives Nicole and Jackson out of town to keep them safe.^[36] Examining the server data, T-Bone discovers the contractor who ordered the hit that killed Aiden's niece: Dermot "Lucky" Quinn, leader of the Chicago South Club mob, notorious human trafficker, and owner of the Merlaut Hotel.

Aiden tracks down and confronts Quinn, shutting off his pacemaker. In his dying moments, Quinn reveals that he ordered the hit because he thought that Aiden was searching for blackmail footage of the mayor, whom Quinn is closely associated with. After Quinn finally dies, Aiden races to Clara, who is ambushed and killed by Quinn's men.^[37] During Aiden's attempts to track down Damien, he discovers that Damien has unlocked ctOS, allowing him access to the entire city. In order to find him, Aiden uploads a virus into ctOS and shuts down the entire system,blacking out the city. By doing this, Aiden reaches Damien, but Jordi arrives, betraying Aiden, but Aiden injures Jordi and kills Damien. As he watches Chicago come back to life, Aiden accepts his role of "the Vigilante", to protect and, if necessary, to punish.^[38] After the credits, Aiden returns to Maurice, on Jordi's call, and chooses to either kill him or spare him.^[39][40] The Blume Corporation also announces that the ctOS will be adopted in several major cities across the country, using ctOS 2.0.^[41]

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