In the franchise, Aiden is portrayed as a highly skilled grey hat hacker and vigilante based in Chicago, who utilizes the fictional ctOS system to manipulate the city's infrastructure and security features.

[2] In Legion, which takes place nearly two decades after the events of Watch Dogs, Aiden relocates to London, where he tries to reconnect with his estranged nephew and becomes involved with the local hacking syndicate DedSec, which seeks to liberate the city from the control of an oppressive private military company.

[3][4] According to director Jonathan Morin, Breaking Bad's main protagonist Walter White was a direct source of inspiration for Aiden, as they were both intentionally designed to be flawed antiheroes.

[5] Aiden's character has received a generally mixed reception, with many reviewers criticizing his perceived unlikability and lack of growth, although his appearance in the Bloodline expansion for Legion was met with more positive responses.

[6] At an unspecified point in time, he, along with his mother and younger sister Nicole Pearce, emigrated from Belfast to Chicago, where it is implied that his father was a criminal and an abusive parent.

[9] In 2012, Aiden and Damien conduct a heist on the Merlaut Hotel, owned by Irish mob boss Dermont Quinn, in which they hack in and siphon money from people's bank accounts.

[10] On 26 October 2012, while Aiden is driving with his nephew Jackson and niece Lena to Pawnee, Illinois, Maurice Vega, a hitman hired by Quinn, shot their car's tires, causing them to crash.

[8] With the help of Clara Lille, a member of the hacking syndicate DedSec that is trying to expose the corruption of Blume – the creators of ctOS – Aiden tracks down and identifies the harasser as Damien.

However, he is soon forced to comply after Damien kidnaps Nicole[12][13] Setting up a new hideout in the Bunker – an undetectable former Blume base with access to ctOS – Aiden tracks down the hacker with Clara's help: gang leader and Army veteran Delford 'Iraq' Wade.

[14][15] To reach Iraq's servers, Aiden infiltrates a human auction he is attending to copy his access key, and blackmails his cousin Tyrone "Bedbug" Hayes into acting as his inside man.

[18] As the data recovered by Bedbug is encrypted beyond Aiden and Clara's abilities, they decide to track down legendary hacker and former Blume whistleblower Raymond "T-Bone" Kenney, who caused the Northeast blackout of 2003 while trying to expose the dangers of ctOS, which he had helped to create.

[22] Aiden, Kenney, and Clara are unable to decrypt Iraq's data because another hacker, JB "Defalt" Markowicz, infiltrates their system, steals it, and deletes it from their servers.

[31] In a side mission, the protagonist Marcus Holloway discovers that Aiden, who has since relocated to San Francisco, was investigating a human trafficking ring run by the Auntie Shu Boys and the Bratva, only to be captured by the latter.

[33] Set before the events of the base game, the expansion follows Aiden as he travels to London to reunite with Jackson, whom he has not seen in fifteen years, and complete a fixer contract given to him by Jordi.

Aiden's assignment is to infiltrate Broca Tech and acquire photographic evidence of a new robot design project headed by Thomas Rempart, as well as retrieve a device called the "BrocaBridge".

Later, Wrench is contacted by Broca Tech's CEO Skye Larsen, who offers to help with Aiden's recovery in exchange for retaking control of her facilities from Rempart.

Dan Whitehead of Eurogamer criticized Aiden's character by stating "He steals, assaults, extorts and murders in order to exact justice for identical indignities inflicted on himself.