How One Modder Changed Watch_Dogs Forever

Welcome to Living City

More akin to an official Expansion, the Living City mod for Watch_Dogs is one of the most impressive, content-rich overhauls available today. Created by the renowned modder The_Silver, this DLC-sized serving of content gradually integrates itself as you progress through the story – implementing new gameplay mechanics, missions, gadgets, random encounters, hideouts, side activities, and that is only scratching the surface. Living City blurs the line between the game’s action-packed linear narrative, but often uneventful open world, with the consequences of playing as ‘The Vigilante’ now reflected between missions to provide a consistent element of surprise during moment-to-moment gameplay.

Danger Around Every Corner

Enemy factions can now be encountered throughout Chicago, patrolling their respective territories, tailing you from a distance, and may even attempt to steal your data. Gangs such as the Black Viceroys are seen driving around their neighbourhoods, guarding restricted areas, and will attack Aiden if he steps foot in their turf. Beyond gangs, Fixers are lone opportunists hiding in plain sight, and waiting to strike when Aiden least expects it. Unlike gangs, Fixers can be encountered anywhere, so Aiden will always want to be looking over his shoulder. If Aiden hacks too many civilians, rival hackers will retaliate against him. These invasions behave much like they do in multiplayer, allowing this Dark Souls-esque mechanic to be experienced more frequently without needing another player to join the session.

With danger now around every corner, the police no longer wait passively until their search discs pick up Aiden’s signal before hunting him down. Instead, the scan mechanic has been replaced with an actual police response, and the law now realistically searches Aiden’s last-known location rather than immediately surrounding his exact position.When you prove to be a REAL menace to society by hacking and harming your way to Heat Level 5, the law starts using ctOS hacks against YOU. They’ll lift bollards, close gates and raise bridges in an attempt to stop you, overriding any hacks you attempt to perform.

A Truly Reactive World

Unexpected encounters play a large part in making the world feel like a living, breathing place, and as its name implies, Living City is well aware of this. The likelihood of existing random events such as car accidents and store robberies have been increased, as well as introducing a plethora of new events to stumble upon. Every so often, you’ll witness dangerous drivers, gangsters getting into gunfights, street races and police chases, and you’re even able to assist the police in these events without getting a wanted level. Bear in mind this all naturally occurs, letting players experience the type of gameplay typically reserved for missions, such as gang shootouts and unique hacking opportunities, anywhere in the open-world.

On top of Random Events, brand-new, Objective Based events pop up from time-to-time, either as a moving Mission Marker, or triggered by hacking specific pedestrians, and are able to be engaged with or ignored entirely. Aiden can challenge rival racers to a duel, rescue convicts from police convoys, infiltrate signal-jammed enemy bases, and so much more. Existing Side Missions have been expanded too. There are new Gang Hideouts, Criminal Convoys, Human Traffic investigations, as well as a replayable Raid that rewards Aiden with high-end weapons yet to be obtained.

Ambushes

Once you get so far through the Story, Aiden’s infamy begins to rise, allowing ambushes to occur anywhere in the open world. Players will be notified of an Open Contract out for Aiden Pearce, and then they’ll have a few seconds to prepare themselves before a convoy of armed mercenaries arrives to to claim that bounty. If Aiden survives the ambush, he’ll be compensated as way of an apology. You have the choice to run, hide, or fight, encouraging you to utilize every skill in Aiden’s repertoire to make it out alive.

Tools of the Trade

Call Police

When the police are called, officers will arrive to search the perimeter and engage any perceived threat, and can be used to Aiden’s advantage by distracting and eliminating your enemies as he slips away undetected.

Hire Bodyguard

If you prefer a more DIRECT approach, you can hire bodyguards wielding assault rifles who are able to follow commands, be dismissed, enter your vehicle, and will EVEN drive TO YOU if you leave them behind. Bodyguards ALSO wield bodycams, enabling you to check for flanking enemies from unseen angles.

Personal Driver

Aiden’s newly appointed personal driver will escort you anywhere you desire, for a fee. Upon entering the vehicle, nearby points of interest such as stores, hideouts, missions and ctOS towers will dynamically appear depending on where you are. Just like in GTA 4, you can prompt your escort to drive faster, and if you prompt them again you will teleport to your destination. You can EVEN do drive-bys out of the window against your pursuers, and if you have a bodyguard, they TOO will enter the vehicle and fight alongside you.

Nitro Boost

The multiplayer-exclusive Nitro Boost is now able to be crafted and used in SINGLE player too, giving ANY vehicle a sudden boost in speed for several seconds and helping you outrun your enemies.

Black Market Dealer

Much like Red Dead Redemption’s Honor Mechanic that affects store prices depending on your deeds, Watch Dogs features a SIMILAR Reputation mechanic that offers weapon discounts if the public perceives you in a positive light.Living City expands on this mechanic by implementing black MARKET dealers that sell weapons from the trunk of their CAR, and in exchange for a low reputation they’ll offer a discounted price, incentivising you not to always play as the good guy.

Remote Sniper

The next gadget, the appropriately-named Hunter is Aiden’s very own remote sniper rifle, capable of being deployed ANYWHERE to kill enemies at the push of a button.The Hunter can be upgraded to improve its range, reload speed, the amount of enemies you can mark before remotely pulling the trigger, and if you invest in the incredibly expensive but effective SILENCER, the Hunter becomes the ONLY suppressed sniper in the game!

Rest

The Rest gadget allows you to fast forward time, similar to smoking a cigar in Phantom Pain, and is perfect for infiltrating an enemy base under the veil of darkness.

Sticky Camera

To help Aiden stay undetected, craftable sticky cameras can be thrown and accessed remotely, allowing you to strategise by observing and hacking your enemies from angles never before possible.

Interconnected World

There are now 19 enemy hideouts located throughout the city, ranging from underground tunnels protected by Blume Employees, to gang-owned vehicle showrooms, with many being one-time-visits during the story, except NOW, they coexist within the open world. Inside these hideouts, now known as Red Zones, you’ll find patrolling security guards or gang members depending on the location, giving you the opportunity to acquire weapons and collectibles originally only obtainable during missions.

Beyond Red Zones, there are over 20 new interiors to explore. Some of which are unlockable hideouts for you to rest in, change clothes, as engage with several new gameplay mechanics. Many of these interiors are visited during the story, with some being ones that are only ever seen during cutscenes or when accessing cameras. Interiors are unlocked in different ways, either by completing the relevant story mission, or as rewards for unlocking the various districts across the map.

Activities

Once the Main Story is completed, the new Street Cleaning Side Mission can be started from within a Red Zone, in which every enemy in every Zone must be eliminated before the timer runs out. This minigame turns Watch_Dogs into a Roguelike, with randomised loadouts and mutators affecting gameplay in numerous ways, such as disabling Focus Mode, enabling explosive headshots, or restricting Aiden to a single bullet in the chamber. You’ll be placed on the scoreboard depending on how well you perform, and you’ll be handsomely rewarded if you manage to overcome this endgame challenge.

Hacking civilians now nets Aiden new rewards, and there are a number of additional hacks you can perform, such as decrypting device for multiple System Keys, donating money to increase reputation, stealing battery power to charge Aiden’s phone, and on exceedingly rare occasions Aiden will stumble upon recent lottery winners for MASSIVE amounts of money.

And money you’ll need in order to pay the entry fee to compete in one of 18 available races. Originally a game mode only playable Online, Aiden is now able to enter into both street races and boat races. The difficulty of each race is randomised, and the 18 routes on offer provide unique challenges every time you race. The vehicle class you drive, the number of opponents you face, how skilled they are, along with optional mid-race obJECTIVES, such as taking down a boss, or escaping the police providing bigger payouts.

Quality of Life

How often ambushes occur, whether enemies can use ctOS against Aiden, and numerous other features can be fine-tuned in an easily accessible config file. Limited Inventory, an optional gameplay mechanic encourages you to pick the right tool for the job by restricting you to a single weapon in each slot. Rather than roleplaying as a Terminator with an entire armory in your pocket, you now have to plan ahead and prioritise your loadout depending on the situation. This restriction makes your decisions more impactful now that you have to consider a weapon’s strengths and weaknesses, and makes the process of investing in high-end gear, a lot more rewarding.

Every safehouse now comes stocked with an armory, allowing you to equip ANY weapon you’ve previously picked up or purchased. Black Market Dealers also have portable armories if you wish to change your loadout on-the-fly without having to return to a safehouse. Alongside his armory, Aiden now has access to a workbench, and is able to spend money on equipment such as lures, explosives and Blackouts, without having to travel to a specific vendor like in the Vanilla game.

General Improvements

Restored Relief Mapping, a cut feature that adds realistic contours and shading to 2D textures, giving the illusion that they are in-fact 3D, and vastly improving the appearance of surfaces such as walls, pavements and shutters with minimal performance impact.

Gone are the days of needing to grind through tedious online challenges to get your hands on the rarest weapons. Every single weapon is now immediately obtainable, but if that wasn’t enough, you now have access to weapons that were previously console-exclusive, such as the revolver, expanding the game’s already impressive arsenal. Bear in mind that with the numerous new ways of making money, the economy has been rebalanced so that the strongest weapons carry the heftiest price tags.

When using the game’s vast array of armaments, a small but meaningful change to combat is that Focus Mode no longer tints and blurs the edges of the screen, allowing for less distracting, more satisfying gunplay.

Aiden is now a lot more talkative, and will react to the situations he finds himself in, such as swearing when crashing his vehicle, identifying a fixer before they attack, and many other scenario-specific lines that help give Aiden more character.

There are now considerably more pedestrians and vehicles on the streets, making Chicago a truly bustling place, but keep your eyes peeled for enemy fixers blending into the crowd.

Living City Addons Loader

Vehicle Respray

Aiden can lose his Heat Level by respraying his vehicle at one of several garages across the map, with some offering discounts depending on Aiden’s reputation.

Money Loss

For those who desire an extra challenge, money loss can be enabled upon death, removing a percentage of Aiden’s bank balance every time he’s eliminated.

Hacking Mode

As seen during the E3 Reveal Trailer, Aiden must first turn his phone on before he can hack city infrastructure. With the phone switched off, nearby objects no longer flash, allowing you to explore the city at your leisure without being distracted.

Hacking Wheel

Also seen in the E3 Reveal Trailer, Aiden must first select the type of city infrastructure before he’s able to hack it. This slows down the hacking mechanic to make it more methodical and less overpowered.

Crouch Anywhere

Strangely absent from Vanilla Watch_Dogs, Crouch Anywhere lets Aiden crouch regardless of his location instead of only being able to do so in restricted areas.

Conclusion

Living City is the way Watch Dogs is meant to be played, seamlessly bridging the gap in-and-out of missions making for a cohesive, content-rich experience from start to finish. It lets you take part in Aiden’s story on a much deeper level, exacting justice in a city teeming with activities to conquer and enemies to overcome.

Not only does it rejuvenate the game with a plethora of creative new features, mechanics and quality-of-life improvements – Cut Content originally worked on by Ubisoft, such as ambushes and armories intended for the game, were remade completely from SCRATCH, fulfilling the developer’s intended vision.

Living City doesn’t just improve Watch Dogs – it completes it.