Dedsec ctOS

Aright so I was reading a few reviews on games in the Watch Dogs series:

• Watch Dogs
• Watch Dogs 2
• Watch Dogs: Legion

A few days ago I tried to 'hack' the first game from the Russia version to the English version. It didn't work out so well. But after reading the reviews on the series as a whole, I quickly discovered that there's a very strong consensus that Watch Dogs 2 is the best one anyway (at least the best single player campaign and storyline). So I decided to do another playthrough... when was the last time I played this game that launched in November 2016? Hm let's see...

Even though I uninstalled the game a long time ago to free up disk space they still kept my user data (which is comically ironic considering the themes of dystopic data surveillance-state therein). To be fair it is pretty standard to not delete save games and key-bindings because they are the most important files and they are quite small. So I was actually glad that my key bindings were intact because I play games left-handed due to my shoulder and back injury. So many key binding changes. So so many.
 

What is ctOS?

If you ask the internet it might tell you Counter Terrorism Operations Support. Funny enough that isn't so far off. In the context of Watch Dogs it stands for centralized Operating System, a surveillance-state control grid that turns cities into "smart cities". Hm, sounds familiar for some reason.

The opening cutscene is intense:

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You are worth less than the data you produce.
 

Hot damn that intro jacks you up!

 
Foreshadowing much? The story for this game has aged like a fine wine, and all the themes are exponentially more relevant today than they were when the game launched in 2016. It's so weird that I was playing this six months before I got into crypto. It honestly might be one of the reasons why I took Bitcoin spiking to $20k so seriously and started blogging on Steemit in the first place. It was a sign of the times.

So I've been doing a replay over the last couple of days and taking notes so I could write this post on it.

Who is Dedsec? None other than the protagonist anti-hero blackhat hacker organization that you lead against Blume corporation: a Big Tech oligarch with strong ties to the government and no shortage of corruption.

The game begins as you playing the main character: Marcus (hacker alias Retr0). You're pretty much the most badass hacker on the planet, and you're pissed. You were charged and almost convicted of felony corporate espionage, not because there was any evidence against you (you didn't even do it), but because Blume's pre-crime algorithms labeled you the most likely offender due to all your skills. They have a laundry list file on you and you're an extremely high risk to society, according to the algorithms. The judge sentences you to community service, as there is very little actual evidence (if any).

Marcus is trying to get into the legendary Dedsec hacker group, so Dedsec gives him a test to see what he's got. His mission is to break into Blume's server farms and delete his own file. He accomplishes this easily, highly impressing Dedsec and quickly becoming the tip of the spear for their operation.

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Anonymous-Style recruitment videos.

This is a string of all the anti-propaganda videos Decsec distributes to the public as the game progresses. Each video marks a major milestone throughout the game. There are a lot of parallel themes in Watch Dogs that correlate with the real world. For example: one of the first side missions is basically draining the bank account of a "pharma bro" who's trying to buy the rights to a rap album. It's clearly a reference to Martin Shkreli and the Wu Tang Clan.

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(New Dawn == Scientology)

In the early game you go up against the New Dawn, which is basically Scientology. They're all about worshiping aliens and recruiting rich and famous people to exploit.

Police & FBI corruption

ACAB themes are pretty strong in this game.
There are multiple storylines with corrupt police and FBI agents.

Woke Politics

There are also several themes of woke politics, but you have to remember 2016 was a time when woke politics weren't absolutely insufferable. For one, Marcus is black, so the entire game you're role playing as a Black guy. There are a couple times in which racism and micro-aggressions come into play. You also randomly team up with a politician who's transitioned from male to female. San Francisco unsurprisingly has a lot of pride flags and I even saw a rainbow crosswalk at one point.

There are even some anti-pedophilia missions as well where you expose people in high places (which seems to be the 'opposite' of woke these days). Again, it's not insufferable like it's become in 2020 to now. There are no "pronouns". This game was made back in 2015/2016. In fact to showcase this fact there is even random NPC dialog that will pop up about a woman being shocked that a man is smoking pot in public on the street. "I have a medical marijuana card for IBS, want some?" Now smoking in public is way less taboo.

Internet of things

A core theme of this game revolves around the Internet of things and how everything is connected to the Internet for no other reason than to create a control grid around us. Marcus can hack anything. He can hack steam pipes on the ground to create explosions and electrical interfaces to shock people and knock them out temporarily. He can hack anyone's phone and every camera on the map, and he can even hack wifi signals with the cameras that he hacks. It's all very ridiculous, but also on point. It is a game after all.

They even reference themselves (Ubisoft) and you hack a fake (space) game trailer by Ubisoft to get more followers. It's all very meta.

Gameplay:

This game is heavily influenced by Grand Theft Auto, but it also plays a lot like Splinter Cell, which coincidently is a game that Ubisoft is responsible for.

Leveling System: Followers

The leveling system is pretty unique and is fully dependent on how many social media followers you have. The idea is that followers will download the Dedsec app and willingly allow you to hijack their hardware and donate computing power to our hacktivist group.

I find this particularly interesting because there is only one vague reference to crypto in the game (and only the autistic kid Josh messes with it), but yet the way the Dedsec app would work is completely decentralized computing. They really gloss over this in the game because it was 2016 and crypto was still in the shadows.

The more followers you have the higher level you get, and you'll receive research points that can make you have a lot more utility as the game goes on. In this sense it's a lot like the Farcry tech tree, which is also a game Ubisoft is responsible for.

• Remote Control
• Vehicle Hacking
• Social Engineering
• City Disruption
• Tinkering
• Botnets
• Marksmanship

Marksmanship is just classic gun upgrades like higher reload speed and less scope-sway. I've been trying to avoid this tree because I relied on it so heavily the first time; trying to play the game like it was Splinter Cell.

Remote Control is definitely one of the best ones because you get access to two different kinds of drones that act as an extension of yourself. By upgrading your drones you can often put them at risk instead of yourself.

Botnets are basically just how much computing power you have in terms of certain abilities. It exists so you can't just spam abilities over and over, although you can get it back pretty fast, especially if you hack other people's hardward to get it back quickly. The first upgrade gives 4 botnets for 2 research points, and the next level is 2 botnets for 4 research points, so the first level is super worth getting but returns diminish quickly.

Tinkering gives you access and upgrades to two different kinds of proximity mines. One of them shocks with electricity and the other is a traditional bomb. The bombs are really good for missions that require you to destroy drugs being ran by gangs or high target vehicles. These mines become exponentially better when you upgrade the ability to drop them from your flying drone.

City disruption is super useful in certain contexts. Shutting down security systems or hacking surveillance robots is useful and often hilarious.

With social engineering you can create distractions or fully trick gangs or the police into attacking or arresting your target. The first ability is extremely useful and the rest are a bit extra.

Vehicle hacking is surprisingly useful. You can force any car to accelerate right/left/forward/backwards. You can get a speed boost on your car to escape the cops, and even force helicopters to run away.

"Hacking"

Most of the hacking in the game is just done automatically with the push of a button, but there is a random mini-game that comes into play here and there when you have to pivot these terminals to send a blue signal through to the end of the "level". Super basic mini-game and kind of a waste of time, but then again it's not like the average gamer wants to actually grind out some extremely hard technical puzzle.

3D-printer

All of your best gear is 3D-printed but the schematics quite cost a bit. Money is valuable in the early game and then drops off hard, just like every other single player game with no real economy. It's funny because the cost of the flying hacker drone is super expensive at $60k+... but in 2017 I don't remember this being too ridiculous. At the same time, last Christmas I bought someone a drone for $70. Pretty funny how far technology comes in such a short time.

Spent way too long talking about mechanics.

The real interesting thing about the game is the fact that it's from 2016 and yet the themes of centralization and corruption are infinitely more relevant in the current time.

Of course the complete disregard for human life (the Grand Theft Auto part of the game) and massive military arsenals make it a bit more low-brow for the rabble. Makes sense considering their target audience. I give it a "B" overall as it does drag as the game progresses.

Conclusion

This game was made free in 2020 to generate hype for the launch of Watch Dogs: Legion, but all the reviews say that Watch Dogs 2 is the superior single player experience with a coherent storyline. I find it surprising that they'd make a game with full production values free but even I got it for free with my graphics card purchase. Maybe they're just being nice? Nah! Anyone can make a Uplay/Ubisoft account and play it right now (although I haven't actually tested that yet).

In any case the game loses a lot of momentum once you start playing it for a while. It's quite the grind especially if you start doing the boring side missions and research/cash pickups. Still, it's worth taking a look at just for the centralization/crypto themes it enforces that are still so poignant today.