As one of the most highly anticipated games of 2014, it was going to take something truly spectacularly ground-breaking for Watch_Dogs to be anything other than disappointing, even if that disappointment is only miniscule when compared to the overall positivity on offer from the rest of the game.

Which is exactly what we have here, as Watch_Dogs doesn’t bring anything particularly fresh or new to the open-world, sand-box genre, but what it does bring is just rejigged and well-presented enough to warrant a purchase.

You play as Aiden Pierce, a world-class hacker who got on the wrong side of the wrong people, who then killed someone close to you. Jump forward a year later, and you’re swearing violent revenge, with the help of some hacker buddies and your fantastic phone which can hack into just about anything electronic you can think of. You tear it around a slightly futuristic Chicago; a massive, living, breathing city, with everything electronically controlled and connected to everything else, and it all just one phone tap away from being under your control.

To its credit, when it gets going, there are very few games that can both raise the pulse and make you feel like a God simultaneously quite like Watch_Dogs does. Driving a pimped out car, chased by the police, you hit the switch and the traffic lights change to green, causing a massive pile-up that they get caught up in and allowing you to get away works seamlessly, and can be achieved effortlessly.

The story is pretty decent, if far from revelatory, and the primary gameplay will have you ticking over for about 20/25 hours. Add in the inundations of potential side quests and collectibles, and you can possibly add another 100 plus hours to the gameplay time.

BUT (of course there was a but coming) there is nothing here that really pushes the envelope, either gameplay-wise or in terms of innovation. All in all, it feels like a slightly remixed version of a Grand Theft Auto game, set slightly in the future, with the option only given for you to play a good guy, even though all the gaming options are presenting you with the opportunity to play a city destroying villain. The missions tend to get a little repetitive – stealth here, drive here, shoot here, repeat – with just enough changed window dressing in each one to ensure that they’re not all EXACTLY the same.

Regardless, this is still a solid, confident first step for what could potentially be a new, exciting franchise. But now that all of the groundwork has been done, it’ll be interesting to see if they take the concept in any new, original directions.

Platforms: PlayStation 4 (Reviewed copy), PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC, Wii U
Developers: Ubisoft Montreal
Genre: Action-Adventure