Breaking the long-standing curse of disappointing video game adaptations, Fallout and The Last of Us have now attained a gold-standard status amongst gamers being delivered faithful small-screen versions of games they pour hours into. This comes after years of inaccurate and shoddy live-actions that have left a stain on the industry, and for viewers and gamers alike.
While we’re still waiting for Resident Evil to give us our favorite Backstreet Boy-looking Leon Kennedy in a perfectly adapted series, and debating whether a triangular…chest is indeed peak Lara Croft, there are some games that deserve another go— Not as a game since they continually bombed, but as a TV show, since their stories can be done a lot more justice.
And while Ubisoft has broken our hearts with a terrible Assassin’s Creed adaptation, there is one more game that is now thought to be long dead. One that could see a surge in gamers if adapted to the small screen the right way- Watch Dogs.
Watch Dogs deserves a second chance
Bethesda’s and Prime Video’s series couldn’t have come at a better time. Fallout 76 really did a number on gamers, and The Last of Us was riding high on its success. While The Last of Us did brilliantly owing to a linear story, Todd Howard‘s nuclear bombshell had a vast open world to play with, thus birthing rich characters fit for a TV series.
When Watch Dogs was first introduced in 2012 with a stunning demo, everyone was stumped about how Ubisoft could pull off a game so visually tempting. But that was a momentary indulgence for gamers, as Ubi quickly downgraded the graphics by the game’s launch, and set a dangerous industry trademark.
The premise of the game had everyone going crazy like it was Oprah handing out cars to her studio audience. A valid reaction, given that something like this was once only a dream for gamers. Walking around a big city with your phone… Using it to hack into virtually anything. Need someone’s criminal record? Bam, it’s on your phone. Wanna blow up the city’s fire hydrants? Do that too at the touch of your controllers.
But Ubisoft fumbled big time. While Aiden Pearce’s story was interesting enough, he sure as hell wasn’t. A bland and boring guy who barely talks all the while having the power to alter the entire world if he wished to? It didn’t necessarily strike a chord with gamers. It might seem all John Wick-like, wanting revenge. But rescuing a relatively mum frontman’s niece with little to no character development while spending close to 63 hours for a full completion is not a compelling reason for gamers to pick up their controllers once more.
But leave the characters aside, and look at the premise. A TV adaptation of this failed game franchise has a lot it could learn from Fallout‘s success.
Watch Dogs can draw inspiration from Fallout
While players whined and complained about Aiden, Ubi thought it’d be a good idea to go the complete opposite direction with the sequel’s protagonist Marcus. Lo and behold, Marcus was labeled childish and clownish almost unanimously. So much so that an Aiden Pearce easter egg in the sequel was a bigger deal than playing as Marcus.
And then came Legion which had you playing as virtually anyone, with no permanent lead. Yet another idea that blew up in Ubi’s face and secured a spot for the series in the graveyard of “what could have been”. So maybe a series adaptation doesn’t have to follow in the linear footsteps of The Last of Us. While they could very well choose to have a leading man, the draw for Watch Dogs is in its setting, much like Fallout.
Give us a vast open world in a populous city like NYC, San-Fran, London, Tokyo… you name it. Sure, have viewers tag along to find someone’s niece, but make DedSec a focal point. So much of the games followed how power could easily shift the scales and make or break society by just one person. And that’s what we need. Not an Aiden Pearce, but a setting given justice.
