Watch Dogs (2014 Video Game) User Reviews

This game revived my gamer instincts

[aldo-apachi · 8/10 · 8 June 2014]

1. I want to begin with all the fuss that's on the web: This game got so popular before it even launched that people started already hating the game they haven't played.

2. If you are average player who likes to button smash every stage trough game - this game isn't for you. Go get Wolfenstein or Serious Sam.

3. If you are looking for a good story, like maybe: Max Payne - This game isn't for you. Story isn't offering anything new. The story is probably the most boring part of the game. So cheesy.

4. If you like to figure out tactics, if you like to learn the scene before entering it, if you can wait for opponents, plan your moves in time - This game is for you. I was amazed by the filling of hanging around outside by the bench, while I control cameras inside the building and knocking out my enemies that have no idea what hit them.

Anyone, who enjoyed Splinter Cell - will probably enjoy this game. In bonus, Watch dogs offers you a weaker character (Aiden Pearce), compared to Splinter Cells Sam Fisher, who can kill 3 guys in a momentum and take out forth with a bare hands.

Your main weapon is your phone. You must create distractions for enemy's to pass by them, or take them out one by one. Also, you can lure them into traps, Jam their communication systems so they get a headache from buzz in ears and etc. Overall, game is very creative.

Also, it is hard. It's really hard just to shoot off your enemies (I was playing it on hard mode). You are not a Stallone, or Terminator, you are just a normal guy. But sometimes shooting is the only option and using your phone to hack nearby systems that act in your advantage - is the key for ultimate fun.

As a open world game, Watch Dogs offers many side missions - finding murderers, suspects, potential criminals, codes hidden around Chicago and many more.

All in all, I enjoyed this game very much. I haven't played anything like that. This was really new.

8/10 because story is boring, but gameplay does it's job very well.

I haven't spoken about graphics because my PC could only run it smoothly on low preferences. But real gamer doesn't mind for graphics. To me, it was all about gameplay.

Don't listen to the haters!

[darkphoenix-83164 · 7/10 · 17 December 2015]

Sure this game was over-hyped and it's far from perfect, but it is undeniably fun. The hacking is something new and interesting. Chicago is a great setting and the soundtrack kicks ass! I have no idea why nobody likes Aiden, I found him quite intriguing, the whole renegade without fear vibe is always fascinating. The stealth sections were decent and the hacking puzzles were adequately challenging, including for the collectibles. The only downside are the high speed car chases that were infuriating and are exactly the reason I stay clear of GTA games. The game didn't need such frustrations to weigh it down. All in all a great game with some minor flaws, but hardly anything that should keep you from trying it out.

Mysterious story in hacker's land

[AvionPrince16 · 8/10 · 25 August 2021]

I really enjoyed Watch Dogs and the story, in my opinion, was pretty good. The gameplay and the universe of it make this game pretty unique and have his own identity. The gameplay it s pretty good and integrate very well the hacker's world and the story was pretty good: it have some mysterious moments, a kind of conspiracy, an emotional purpose and i wanted to know the endmof the story. It was quite surprising because generally, the story its just a pretext to have a gameplay and to serve just the purpose of it. But the story can be very engaging too. So thi video game it was a very good surprise. I recommend it.

Solid game

[muamba_eats_toast · 9/10 · 1 March 2020]

Decent enough story largely great gameplay think the handling when driving at speed could be a little more manageable but other than that had a great time playing it.

An Underrated gem.

[ajgreer-20023 · 9/10 · 18 May 2021]

Overall, Watch Dogs from 2014 is an amazing game with many things to do, an amazing city to explore, and a brilliant story and atmosphere. This game is truly one-of-a-kind and honestly doesn't get the attention it deserves because of some features which, like the reputation system, I agree aren't the best. From a gameplay perspective it's a bit annoying as it is an open world and you will, say, run over pedestrians accidentally. However from a story perspective it makes sense because of the vigilante motif. Another feature that was fixed in later games was the music collection. The music was limited not only in the music itself but the features as well. There are no radio stations and whatnot, so you're just stuck skipping around hoping to pick the song you want to listen to. If those features were fixed or weren't in this game along with the sometimes flat graphics, I'd say that this was a perfect game, which is why I give this game a 9/10.

Watch Dogs

[Yungkeyz · 7/10 · 3 July 2020]

Intro: Watch dogs is a very polarizing game as some love it some hate it the hate spawned mainly from graphical downgrades due to it being released on the last gen consoles aswell as current gen consoles in the files of the pc port the stuff needed to mod the original graphics back into the game if you want with that said lets get into it

Story: The story of this game is a tale of revenge after the main characters neice was killed in an attempted assassination of the main character aiden pierce the goal of the game is to find who is responsible for her death and well kill him while i think the story is decently good the main character aiden pierce can come off as a bit of a brick wall of a character however its not the worst offender of this and it easy to get past and enjoy the game

Gamplay: The gameplay is fine for the most part driving is okay but nothing special and the gunplay can be clunky but not the worst the hacking abilities can be utilized in fun ways and easy escapes while i enjoyed the story some of the missions can be pretty meh and after finishing the story the side activities are pretty boring and uninteresting with no rewards customization is there but very limited

Coop And Multiplayer: I have only played a small amount of the online i got into a few multiplayer sessions and its fun for a bit but after a while gets boring as the open world is not as in depth as other open worlds in games but can be fun in short bursts

:Visuals Now although the graphical downgrade happened before release its still looks pretty good especially for a game that can be played on the ps3 and xbox 360 and is not that bad but the downgrade is obvious if you just take a look at the original trailers

:Conclusion Its a fun experience but honestly i think you play it once and thats all you need and i see no reason to play through the game more than once but the one experience is worth a playthrough and that is why i rate this a 7/10

Amazing game! (Besides the police..)

[macy-51937 · 8/10 · 14 July 2015]

Everything about this game is so perfect. The graphics, story line, open world, and diversity of life in the bustling beautiful Chicago are a perfect score for me, but unfortunately.. There are a few large flaws.

Lets start by addressing the people. Diversity? Yes. Realistic..? Not really. If you were to pull into a random parking lot at a restaurant filled with other cars, then pull back out at average speed and casually pause at the entrance to make you're leave.. the people would scream and shout dumb things you're way as if you'd shot towards them like a speeding bullet.

But the worst, most colossal problem?? The police. Real police don't try to kill you over a simple fender bender, especially if it was a hit-and-run.. you not being the fleeing suspect or the cause of the crash. The cop that saw the minor accident literally called for backup, and before I knew it helicopters were swarming the skies. No, 'put you're hands in the air' at least??!

Even though this particular flaw is huge, the game was still one of the best I have ever played. And so far, it continues to impress and entertain long after the main missions are through.

Fresh take on the modern sandbox style game setting. Weak story and protagonist keep it from achieving true greatness.

[Spartan_1_1_7 · 7/10 · 19 November 2015]

When Ubisoft announced this game back in E3 2012, I was blown away by it. Was easily one of my top anticipated upcoming games. When it was released, reception was polarizing. I myself stayed away from playing it due to bugs and optimization problems etc that Ubisoft is famous for. Well, after all that time, I finally decided to play it as it had been sitting in my HDD for ages.

What I liked: Straight from the bat, the game looked beautiful, even if it is a downgrade from the initial reveal. Graphics looked particularly good in rainy weather.

The city of Chicago and its surrounding areas were perfectly recreated. The detail is amazing. The best looking open world game taking place in a modern setting.

The hacking mechanics were fun to use. With just one push of a button, you could do so much. And I liked that many missions were designed to take benefit of it. I especially loved how we could move around just using hacking cameras.

In Ubisoft fashion, the game focuses a lot on stealth. And it was pretty good. The hacking really enhances the stealth and makes you experiment with different ways to remain in stealth.

IF stealth is not your thing, then the game does give you tons of firepower to go in guns blazing and third person shooting mechanics feel good.

Variety in story missions kept the game from getting too repetitive.

Ability to profile every single NPC in the game, hack phones of many of them to earn cash or learn something about them etc makes the world feel more alive.

Running from the police gets fun, ONCE you unlock more hacking abilities.

Some of the secondary characters were pretty good.

Some parts of the story were interesting.

What I didn't liked: The main protagonist was just OK. Didn't really cared for him..

The story was serviceable at best. The revenge tale didn't interest me that much due to weak main characters.

Driving felt lame. Maybe I'm spoiled by GTA but boy oh boy did it annoy me at the start. Once you get used to it and unlock abilities, it becomes more tolerable.

Due to the driving, the chase sequences in missions were not fun.

Stealth only missions became annoying.

Not many ways to utilize all the cash you can easily get by hacking.

Tons of side missions yet I didn't had the motivation to actually do them as they were repetitive.

Random crimes were also repetitive.

Reputation system was mostly pointless.

All in all, it is a fun sandbox/open-world game. The take on the modern world with all its connectivity and such felt fresh and not only shows the issues all of it has in our society but also makes us use it. Being a hacker vigilante had its charm, even if the story wasn't able to fully capitalize on it. As to those who were/still are comparing it with GTAV, YEAH, it doesn't hold a candle to it, so stop. :p

7.8/10

Good but quite repetitive

[angell-an-wright · 9/10 · 6 August 2014]

I got watch dogs as soon as it came out and i couldn't wait to play it. I played it and the one thing i liked was the fact you were pretty free in what you could do. For example you could follow the storyline or you could go around the cities hacking people on the street. I loved going around reading character profiles and hacking bank accounts. The storyline was very good and pretty much what i expected. You can run around and do 'tasks' which there are many of. These include stopping a crime from happening, convoys and so much more. Another thing i really liked was the fact that you could choose whether you wanted to be like a hero or a baddie. The score of you being a hero or a baddie depends if you help people or hurt people. It is fun having control of how you play. The graphics are stunning (though they are probably much better on the ps4 as i played it on the ps3).

The controls was good and it was very easy to progress through the storyline. You have the ability to upgrade your hacking ability so you can make more money to buy guns, clothes or even some drinks. Within the game you can also do 'mini games' like chess, drinking games or cash runs. The whole game is fun but if you just do the storyline with no other walking around the city it gets quite repetitive. I mean you get different missions but they're pretty much the same. Shot the enemies or hack them. It's still really fun though. I wouldn't say it was the best game i've ever played but it was near the top of the best games :D

the game is quite a bit violent and has one or two "adult themes" which really aren't THAT bad but not suitable for younger people. I would say this game is OK for people aged 13 upwards *even though this is a 18 year old game*

i would recommend to quite a few people if they like good games with a good storyline which you can't complete within 8 hours. :D :)

Perfect Game

[minacroix1 · 7/10 · 26 May 2014]

OK,First the game looks amazing .. Everything is connected and that is the point. Graphics are stunning . Cars ,motorcycles ,the effect in the environment like power cut and bridge up and down ,also the metro is something new to be on the top of it and hack a camera to another, Profiling people ,hacking anything ,cameras and phones .. It is worthwhile .. Chasing suspects and uploading files .. I like everything in the game except there is no helicopters to fly but that is okay if you can do anything from the ground why need the above but seriously , I think the game will beat GTA V and take best game of the year .. I am excited , everyone is .. Thanks ..

Amazing

[darkwizard404 · 8/10 · 7 August 2018]

The story is super intriguing and keeps you guessing till the end. The hacking elements are amazing!!

Not as bad as we remember but far from a masterpiece

[tobtalbotty-40893 · 6/10 · 2 March 2021]

Watch Dogs. This one was an interesting case. I was never too interested in the watch dogs series and as time went on and games came and went, I never really looked back at the slammed and forgotten venture that was 'Watch Dogs'.

Watch Dogs came out in 2014, a very busy year for Ubisoft; new Far Cry, The Crew and two Assassins Creed games with tons of indie games to bolster. But this year Ubisoft wanted to kickstart a new franchise, centered around modern day and the ever developing world that is technology. Without going too far in depth with the topics, it's safe to say that 2014 wasn't the best year for Ubisoft. Public opinion started to become wary of them and many were displeased with the games they were outputting. And so, Watch Dogs was born into a pretty rough spot, many would say 'destined to fail', but did it?

When the trailers and demo's were shown years prior, it looked spectacular. Graphics never seen before on any console, the movement was fantastic, the hacking was intriguing and the game looked like a breath of fresh air. And when the game finally came to fruition, folks were unhappy. The game had a serious downgrade in the graphical department, things didn't look amazing, things looked average, standard 360 graphics, nothing more. The graphics weren't the problem, the lie was, and so forth, the internet was flooded with Ubisoft's colossal disappointment. Comparisons between the demo's, trailer's, sneak peaks and all were compared with the game folks had bought, shock horror, people felt betrayed, as if they'd hyped the game up so much to get folks to buy it, they'd forgotten to properly develop the game. Whether you can interpret that as being either dramatic or harsh, doesn't change that they'd lied to people for their own gain, consumers don't like being lied to, and if they have been, they vote with their wallets.

After many had written Watch Dogs off as a cheap, reused con for Ubisoft to hash out to fulfill a profit margin, what was left for those who stuck with it? Well, about what you'd expect.

The gameplay, to start off with, was very rigid in it's gunplay but fairly free in its movement. It adopted a cover system with a basic weapon wheel to match. The guns were fairly generic as you'd expect from a modern day shooter and the shooting was more so akin to the Hitman games (Kinda) it focused more on planning and tactics rather than your own brute force, using your hacking skills to gain an advantage in the fight, or by using stealth to take down your enemies with the hazards in and around the area. You couldn't really rush in a fight, even with your unlocked skills, you were never really a tank (At least never had the health of one) you try to charge a guy head on? You're gonna die pretty quick.

However, speaking on the aforementioned gunplay there is one fairly critical flaw in the game: At around Act 2 or 3 of the campaign, you'll begin fighting the heavy enemies, big guys with big armour and even bigger guns but the problem with that is that once you kill them you can start picking up the LMG, 'The Big Gun'. This gun, so easily picked up after you've fought one or two of these heavies, negates any other combat situation. For the most part, there isn't a need to use another gun other than the U100 ('Da LMG') as it runs off the same ammo as any AR and it melts through hordes of enemies. If you're going through combat situations, try to limit your use of it as it honestly makes gunfights a little too easy.

Besides from that, there is the surprisingly good driving mechanics, it's a bit more realistic in it's speed and physics style. The vehicles you can choose are super boring though, let me put that out there. But anyway, back to driving. Car chases are actually a big highlight in my opinion, cops are actually pretty smart when driving, there isn't a ridiculous amount always coming after you, usually just enough for you to have a competitive getaway from, but are the chases fun? Hell yeah they are. This game has a skill wheel you can add to, in four categories; hacking, combat, driving and crafted items. And my god, the hacking perks are so awesome. There's nothing more satisfying than being in a high speed chase with four cop cars, to then blow a steam pipe to send them all flying, I mean honestly, it's pretty damn cool.

Oh, and just to quickly speak on it. This game's also gotten an online mode that it constantly pushes onto you (It ain't too active nowadays). It's got few modes where you'll hack each other, race, compete for an objective and mess about in free roam and to it's credit, the free roam is up to 8 people which is pretty good for a single player focused game, even though I doubt you'd get a full lobby in its heyday, let alone now, but it's there for a one time play with your mate to mess around in Chicago and cause some havoc but to be honest with you there isn't much to speak about.

Now, the final thing I wanted to mention about the gameplay was the open world aspect. Being an open world game it should have a good open world...right? Well it's average to be honest. There isn't anything to do in it other than the main missions. Sure, you could stop a criminal convoy or take out a gang hideout, maybe even stop a crime until you realise once you've tried this mission once, it's the same every time. Stop a crime? Wait in the area until the guy is about to kill someone, then rush in and beat 'em up. Convoy? Wait until they go over a steam pipe. Hideout? Kill everyone but one guy who you have to beat up. It's just monotonous. And it isn't to say that open world games can't have simple, repetitive side missions to do as a little XP buff or to try out a new gadget or weapon but that's all this game has as side quests. Other than that it has little petty collectibles, fetch quest missions and ctos towers that reveal shops and the occasional hideout. I will say the digital trips are kinda cool but not something you could get more than one or two plays out of. Overall, the open world is very bland and cookie cutter, as if they tried the bare minimum with it.

And then we finally move onto the story. Probably the second of Watch Dogs most critiqued aspects. I'm not gonna go into great depth on the details as there isn't a need to go all out because of it but I will do a quick overview. The story is a classic vigilante, revenge plot, stemming from some sort of traumatic event that haunts the hero whenever he sleeps. That hero being, Aiden Pearce (Watch Dogs...3rd most critiqued aspect) who has been described by many as 'The most boring protagonist in gaming', which is...fair.

Aiden is basically if batman was a hacker...and killed people, like a lot of people. But with Aiden it can be taken multiple ways, he's a fairly generic character with a fairly generic motive, niece got killed, swears revenge on those who killed her, yada yada. He oddly reflects the city he's in, a dull, moody, damp individual (Please don't hate me Chicagoans), he's described as the vigilante and kind of lives up to the name, he can be a bit of an ass and isn't afraid to intimidate and kill to get what he needs. The truth is that he's a pretty wooden character who could be placed in a lot of other revenge plot games, but to be honest, I like him. I appreciate his simplicity and I felt like I could connect with him on a personal level, while not being a good character on a technical level, he's pretty good in my book.

I know that I focused solely on Aiden but that just because there isn't much to talk about in the story, it's okay, the other characters are fine and there are some emotional and tense moments but there really isn't much to talk about. Though, in honesty, the first time I played this game, I did not see Clara's twist coming, that actually blew me away and kind of kicked the story up a notch or two.

Welp, in conclusion I suppose. Was this game really that bad? Was the story awful? Should you never touch this game? Was it all that? Eh, not really. When the game released, it looked average, it felt average, it was just...average. I'm playing this because of Watch Dogs legion, it reminded me that this franchise still existed, it made me want to replay the first couple just to look back with a fresh pair of eyes and a more fair and critical mindset and honestly, I'm not disappointed. For me this was a boredom play, I had some time and a bit of curiosity and I'd recommend you to do the same. This isn't a game I'd rush to save in a fire but If it was there, I'd probably grab it (Disclaimer: If you are in a fire, never, ever, rush to save a video game)

Epic mega cluster fail! Ubisoft... What the hell guys.. What happened!?

[angiris · 4/10 · 3 June 2014]

Watch_Dogs...What to say...ohh what to say...Well The game is beautiful I must say. The terrain details is sort of meh... but the character design is very much likable to me. The libsync which many 3-person games suffer from is pretty smooth too. Voice acting is good. The game appears to be in somewhat decent shape without going deeper

Now...with that said... Going deeper is where the rotten core begins to become visible and very much so.

Watch-Dogs... is a, in my opinion, a very very very boring game. The start ha you going crazy...YOU CAN HACK..YOU HAVE STEALTH... YOU HAVE TAKE-DOWNS... I was beginning to think this could be another Alpha Protocol... But the thing is that Alpha protocol had re playability even though the game suffered from certain things. The game kept many coming back... I don't see any reason why I would return to this OTHER than to run around and shoot randomly at everybody. Is this game a GTA clone...no...its not... but the game is definitely suffering from the same encouraging "time killing" features. Run around, drive like a madman and kill kill kill... Yea...gets really F-ing trivial really F- ing fast! Now... I was informed that THAT was the only fun playing the game and the storyline sucked...I disagree. I found the only worthwhile thing to do was to STICK COMPLETELY with the storyline. The open world feature was pointless because you did nothing but: 1: Hack for money (GTM's) 2: Hack for information about money drops(Parcels with money lying around) 3: Hack for items used to build stuff like distractions etc 4: Hack to find out about people committing crimes( Which is where you run up to them, press the F- key. (quick-time event!!!) DOne deal. ON TO THE F-ING NEXT ONE... Sounded fun right. You can also shoot the guy but that is not much funnier. Its just...THERE....DONE....FINISHED...The guy you saved doesn't say thank you or ANYTHING...just stands there...and then moves on....tralalalala..perfect world....

Yea...I JUST SHOT A GUY WHO TRIED TO KILL YOU!!! REACTION PLEASE UBISOFT!! OR IS THAT TOO DIFFICULT! GOd....Assassins creed games suffer from the same... masterfully dumb AI behavior.

I will say that the world appear more alive..but thats just because of the hacking feature. You get information about peoples lives...thats it...much of it you cannot even use...you can't blackmail..you cannot sneak into peoples homes...you cannot hack peoples PC's...you cannot do anything...but to hack their phones...get ALL THEIR INFORMATION...and get 5 % of the money they have on their bank accounts... Yea...fun...

Now... other than that...the arsenal in the game is boring. Guns are feeling unpolished, not worth spending thousands of dollars on...we don't have enough either. Ohh yea...and for those gore lovers like myself... WHen you shoot someone the ONLY blood you will see if the TINY TINY bullet hole EVEN IF YOU USE A FREAKING 50 CALIBER BULLET!! and the blood spatter on the wall the bullet flew into by passing them. There is no bleed out effect...no gore... Just rag dolls with red dots... Killing is pointless and boring.

In stealth you have a couple of take downs which is...okay...but the fact that you use your Non-lethal retractable baton EVERY..SINGLE...TIME rather than your..I don't know...HANDS!!! that too is getting trivial really fast. ALl in All...its IN NO WAY assassins creed style combat where every take down was special. And stealth is very poor as well. You can only stealth when taking cover or going into (hostile territory) Auto stealth mode...

Also...another thing Ubisoft!... WHY CAN'T I USE MY BATTON ON ORDINARY PEOPLE!! MUST I BE IN COMBAT MODE EVERY TIME IN ORDER TO USE MELEE!! THAT IS NOT COOL. yea guys..the melee or F-key only works in combat mode. (cops after you..guards shooting etc). basically..not in hostile territory..no melee... Yea

Onto the driving...ohh god..the driving.. The driving is excellent...for a racing game... WE NEED AN INKOGNITO DRIVING MODE! AND RIGHT NOW UBISOFT! We're using stealth everywhere...EXCEPT...when getting into a car...then its just COME AND CATCH Me suckers!!!! WHEEEEE (200 miles an hour EVERYWHERE) yea...nice....god...smashing into everything..killing people all the time. SUper nice when trying to be the good guy. God

Overall...the game is a mess, boring, poor content, linear actually due to all the stuff you CANNOT do which reminds me... I WANT TO BE ABLE TO KICK PEOPLES DOORS DOWN..not just walking into their doors...huh..can't go there....next door...nope same...can't go there either..

Its like. Gunshop...yea....clothing shop... yea...hideout..yea.. bars...yea... your sisters house..yea... mission areas..yea....AND DONE!! THATS IT!! EVERYWHERE IS JUST OFF LIMITS! NOT COOL. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO IMMERSIVE MYSELF INTO THIS...!! I CAN'T! Even a hacker would find this boring! Hell...they might just hack you guys Ubisoft just to get more fun out of this experience!

About the clothing... There is ONLY ONE SINGLE OUTFIT DESIGN. The only thing that changes is the color of it .Nothing else. NOTHING! THE LAMEST CUSTOMIZATION EVER! Ubisoft..you may as well have denied us that because this is just an insult.

I heard from an Angry Joe interview that one of the developer guys or so said you would be able to invest hundreds of hours into this... (laughing maniacally) yea... I have invested more time than I'd like to think about in order to be able to review this...but hundreds...I would have to be on antidepressants in order to go that far.

I want my money back...thats all I have to say which I'm not gonna get because Steam sucks... 4 out of 10. A bad and boring game. Not worth people's money. This is just more Next-Gen BS... Running around, hacking for money and (baton to the face missions) and nothing else.

A good open world game that unfortunately did not live up to all the hype

[alishahmohd · 8/10 · 11 June 2014]

Watch dogs was one of my most anticipated games of this year, I am a huge fan of open world games and am also a fan of Ubisoft's Assassin Creed and Far Cry series, I was really hyped up for this game.

Watch dogs does have unique elements, you can hack everything use that to your advantage which makes for innovative game-play. You can hack grenades, steam pipes, traffic lights, cell phones and find out the names, occupation & income of all the civilians. The civilians are also extremely realistic in the activities they do in this game, and their phone conversations are always fun and interesting. The missions are fun, specially the ones which allow you to play the game anyway you want, MSG style by silent head shooting enemies or taking them them down. Or you do not even have to enter the premises just hack cameras and then hack into the place. Or obviously you can go all guns blazing where you can still make things explode around enemies and blow the grenades that are on them. The gun-play is still pretty basic but mixing it up with hacking makes it unique. And the RDR/GTA V weapon wheel is a welcome addition. Car chases can be fun with you disabling cars through blockers, steam pipes. The upgrade is system is extremely well designed and does change the game-play.

Missions however that force you to go all guns blazing or forcing you to go through it without being detected can get annoying, if you put all your points into hacking and crafting, and you end up in a obligatory gun fight you are screwed why these restrictions during certain missions? Missions overall tend to get repetitive, car chases, hideouts, enemies surrounding the area. Only a few are unique like guiding your friends to stealth past the enemies. Driving in this game is not good, it is hard to make turns and control the car specially at high speed and off-road.

The side missions are even more repetitive. Gang Hideout missions, go to a hideout, knock out the boss, just at different locations, convoys, either knock out the target or kill him. There are 40 fixer contracts with only 4 variations, same goes for crimes, all these activities start out fun but eventually get repetitive & boring. The mini-games like Poker and Chess are fun. Cash Trail and Alien invasion are OK. The Spider Tank digital trip is just fantastic, Alone is also good. The investigations also get repetitive, they had some interesting aspects like human trafficking and murder investigations but it was all squandered by forcing you into another redundant side mission at it's conclusion. For example the final mission of the human trafficking investigation is like any other convoy mission. Poorly handled.

There are also annoying restrictions like why cant you punch anyone in the game but the A.I can, that is just another mind boggling decision along with with No drive-by.

Chicago is a good looking city although some landmarks have been missed but many many hot-spots are highlighted telling you about the history of that place which is actually interesting. The city looks beautiful, attractive but unfortunately it is just too small in size. The graphics are excellent although downgraded from the E3 trailer, the animations are smooth, the character models are extremely detailed although their lip syncing needed more work, the weather environments also look good. Inooor areas have also had detail put into them along with civilians, there are transitions between game-play and cut-scenes but unfortunately there could have been more of them because loading screens really break the immersion.

The storyline had potential but it started out so slow that I lost interest, the second act was interesting and felt like that a major twist was going to be revealed, but that major twist was just cliché and poorly handled, putting a mob boss & politician at the center of everything. The characters are all actually good apart from Aiden Pearce, he has a cool look for a protagonist, thats about it, he is a hard guy to like, he just does what he wants, never listens to anyone, hardly showed a lot of emotion, plus I am confused about the moral high ground he stands on, in one mission he knocked out and killed several enemies to save someone he cared about after that he showed remorse, WHAT ABOUT ALL THE OTHER PEOPLE HE KILLED? (In Storyline Alone). That is why the ending choice also seems pointless because sparing someone is not something Aiden would actually do. Tbone is an excellent character and Damien is just a fantastic villain. Unfortunately the plot that surrounds these characters is pretty average. The voice acting is actually good, although I think Aiden's Voice actor just sounds robotic in many scenes.

The OST is good specially during missions, off mission OST is OK but the cop chase music is excellent, but the songs are poorly implemented they are not divided into radio stations like in most open world games and they are a very few of them some are flat out bad, some are repetitive, I only liked around 3-4 songs. Apparently this game hates it owns songs because they wont let you play them during any main or side missions only during free roam, another confusing decision.

Watch dogs overall is a fun open world game but was falsely advertised the the game-play in the E3 trailer is not even there plus the game has been downgraded in some ways and it feels apparent, but the game has many unique aspects going for it and does have a lot of lasting appeal and tons of things to do, even if those things will get repetitive after a while. But it is still a pretty good open world game but it just did not live up to all it's hype.

Rating: 7.5/10

This game is a best of all time...

[therockyroy · 8/10 · 11 June 2019]

I have played this and this game makes an amazing story ark. It good craters and villains what we need in the gameplay. Hats off to this 2014 Watch Dogs...

Absolutely fantastic!!!!

[Jacks4444 · 25 June 2014]

This is one of the best games I have ever played.

Chicago looks great (playing on ps4) and is good fun to explore. Loads of side missions to get through and keep you interested besides the main story.

I really liked the story. Maybe it is a bit clichéd but I really felt invested in Aiden and his need for revenge. I also loved T-Bone and Jordi too as they provide some great humour. Without giving anything away the villains are pretty hideous too so you want Aiden to bring them down.

I think maybe this game would not suit gamers who ignore side missions and just run from one main mission to the next, as the side missions provide a lot of character information in the form of Audiologs. They fill out the story nicely so you really need to do everything to fully appreciate the characters and the story.

The game is quite hard in places, but I think games should be. I can't believe one of the reviewers thought it was complicated - I am also a middle aged gamer and I had no problems. Anyone used to third person shooters should have no problem.

The online stuff is really good fun, especially hacking people from a good hiding place and watching them run around trying to find you. The races are great fun too.

I played this on normal and am now re doing it on hard. I think I will go for realistic in the end too. I have spent literally hours on this game as I like to platinum games and there is soooo much to do. I can honestly say I have loved every second of it.

Well done Ubisoft I can't wait to see what you do with the sequels.

disappointing

[fusion86 · 6/10 · 5 June 2015]

I don't write reviews normally but in this case i make an exception cause the rating of the game is so high that IT DOS NOT DESERVE. I had high hops for this one tbh ,trailer led it seem so unique and beautiful. but honestly shame on me should have know better...people that like gta(like me) would have fun white it but its far from it an that said it doesn't stand apart from it what is a shame it is just mindless going true missions till the end with very weak cut scenes . for the developers take a look at games like games like metal gear (or assassin creed and more..) there is contents in it that is almost movie wordie i don't say this game sucks but its not good either I give it a 6.5

Great action game!

[adamski-16-365647 · 9/10 · 1 June 2014]

The main reason why I brought this game was the City. Because I like Chicago, and I was tired to play games that are all set in New York or San Francisco. Ubisoft manage to create great looking city that is also very interactive. However, Polish Americans are the largest European American ethnic groups in the Chicago. It would be interesting to see some Polish characters, also replacing some of the pizza restaurants that can be found on almost every corner in Watch Dogs with some polish shops or restaurants wouldn't harm this game.

Watch Dogs is a perfect combination of hacking, driving and shooting. It's like combining all the previous games published by Ubisoft such as Assassin Creed, Splinter Cell and Driver. Driving mechanic is very similar to the one from Driver San Francisco. Cockpit view is something very unusual in games of this type, but developers decided to put this feature in Watch Dogs. I find the cockpit view very useful especially during high speed chases. People are criticising driving model in this game, but for me it's perfect I found it more realistic then driving model from GTA V or Sleeping Dogs.

After short period of time with this game, I was feeling like Jack Bauer from TV show 24. Just like him we are forced to do bad things in a good mater, because no one else is willing to do them. We are also doing them in similar techniques that Jack Bauer is using. I don't want to go deep in to the storyline either include some spoilers that would destroy your fun, but the storyline is not perfect and it could have been much better. But overall it is a good story of a vigilante undertaking law enforcement without legal authority.

Multiplayer is something that I love about this game, mainly because it's not scripted. You will play this game to see how other players are panicking while you try to hack them. I love to wait for the perfect moment to hack them; the best way to successfully hack someone is to wait until the player rich the highest crowded places. You can hide behind the object, stand in the crowd or hide in the car. I personally like to use all of these methods and switch places to the ones that player have already examined. Finding someone who is hacking you is not rally that difficult you just have to stay calm.

In term of graphic, I play on Ultra settings and graphic is good enough for me. Some people say that graphic in this game look worse than in GTA IV but I would suggest them to play GTA IV again because it's not true. City look beautiful and cars look more realistic than in any other games of this type. Of course you cannot compare these cars with the one from Gran Turismo 5 or Forza Motorsport. I give this game strong 9/10 because I had allot of fun with it, and I will definitely come back to explore the city even more and do some online hacking.

An excellent next gen experience.

[matthewberry10 · 10/10 · 28 May 2014]

Simply the greatest modern day open world ever created. The hacking mechanic is fluid (unlike what some people say) and the writing is spot on. Some reviewers have knocked the driving mechanic a bit. I disagree. The driving mechanic is different - sure, but I'd say its more realistic than other games as each car has its own handling and stopping distances. This takes time to get used to, but its really good when you know how to handle each car. Besides this, the streets are much more populated with cars and people than anything I've ever seen before. GTA doesn't come close to anything like this.

Besides driving, IGN particularly described Aiden as an 'empty trench coat'. That's unfair. Ubisoft use nightmare sequences and flashbacks to really fill out his personality and how he feels about the circumstances surrounding the start of the game.

He could have been filled out more - sure - and they could have talked about his past (before he started hacking) a bit more, but they did a really good job with his personality and this helps make sense of some of the gameplay (e.g. why he helps save other people).

The other gameplay mechanics - such as stealth - are interesting and in a way, similar to splinter cell - although this works out well in the context of the open world.

Interestingly, some reviews have really played down Aiden/the player's hacking skill in the game. For example, some people have said that at the start of the game, a friend of Aiden's triggers a blackout. This is wrong. Aiden rings a friend to find out information about the blackout and how to trigger one as he's in a rush to escape from police and the player hacks the system and you trigger the blackout yourself.

The city itself is very large. Its larger and much more denser than Los Santos, giving Chicago a realistic feeling of size. This realism is added by the dynamic events in the city, really good animations and realistic AI. It truly is the most realistic open world ever created.

The supporting cast are also shaping up to be really interesting characters themselves, adding another level to how good the game is.

On the negative side, the PS3 version occasionally gets shaky graphics and the occasional pop in when travelling in cars, although this is unnoticeable unless it is being specifically looked for. I'm sure this will be fixed in future - and there is no problem with this on the next gen consoles. Besides this, the PS3 version has two multiplayer modes missing (because the console couldn't handle it). In addition, the fact that you can't invade and hack people on your friend list (as targets are chosen at random) has proved slightly disappointing. However, with the single player so vast, dense and full of life, these are minor disappointments in comparison and are entirely forgivable. These aren't major drawbacks given how good the game is.

Regardless of the controversy surrounding its release or what others say - watchdogs provides one of the best games available to buy on any console and has something that appeals to gamers from all genres and backgrounds. Would truly recommend this game.

Overall, watchdogs offers a true next gen experience on any console - its unlike anything ever created.

Not better than GTA 5 though!

[shahrukh_28 · 10/10 · 27 May 2014]

Wow, the game really delivers what it promised for. Played it on the most superior platform for gamers which is my PC, and it's totally worth it preordering. You really feel like an unstoppable hacker where you literally kill everyone with your iPhone! Also, it even has more cars than GTA V, so I personally think this game is far more better! The graphics are pretty beautiful, beautifully crafted dialogues and memorable characters so I think the devs really put much thought into this. The driving physics really up to par with some driving simulator sims like Gran Turismo, and the combat is far more intense (and even better than Max Payne series!). Ubisoft never fails to make a good game! Buy this game, you won't regret it for the awesome adventure of chicago

Not what i had in mind

[koshdegr8 · 4/10 · 11 October 2015]

When i heard about this game i got little excited the concept was intriguing and i thought it sounded fresh to begin with. But after playing it in my simple word. If i wanted to a play a Grand theft Auto i would have played a Grand theft Auto. Even for that standard it feel bad like, The controls feel crooked the whole combat mechanics were not up to any mark and the technology in the game felt bit of a push over and forced on you to support the story. I played this on a PC so experience on a console might be better with a dual controller but from a PC perspective i could not even get engaged in the game when am killing 20 people on the road and knocking 2 bus-stop while just trying to do one mission.

Awesome gameplay with new ideas

[rawadk · 10/10 · 21 June 2014]

Watch Dogs has been announced in 2012. Since then, too much fuss was going on regarding its trailers and gameplay videos. When it was finally released, i was worried that it won't be as good as the trailers. But it turned out even better. It is an open-world game where the player can hack almost anything electronic. It has a great story that kept me interested and wanting to know what's next and how will it end. Great graphics for the Xbox 360. The driving was very acceptable with respect to other open-world games. There is a big variety of cars which you can steal or have delivered using the Car-on-Demand feature. People passing by a car you steal might call the cops. This was a nice feature in addition to the feature where enemies call reinforcements. All characters that Aiden Pearce meets were great which added more value to the game. The only think I disliked in the game was the auto-save during missions. Sometimes its frustrating when a big portion of the mission has to be repeated when you die during a mission.

This is the best game I've played in years and definitely worth a sequel. It can be a start of a series of games just like other Ubisoft game series such as Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell.

A game to remember

[jamesarooney · 10/10 · 8 March 2020]

This game is a masterpiece it's dark violent and bad ass Aiden Pearce a 40 year old hacker on the run for revenge after one of his family gets killed because of a hacking breach that happened in the murlot in 2012 I really enjoyed this game its very mindlessly dark the tone as well amazing I was 20 when this came out now 6 years later can't stop thinking about it

Love it!

[idalinneacaroline · 10/10 · 29 May 2014]

I love this game so much! I love that you are a hacker and I loooove the graphics. I don't get why some of you say that the graphics are bad? Anyway, when I saw the trailer of this I could't get more excited! And it's beyond my expectations actually. I love all the small things like the small missions, the online features and the hotspots, love all of it ;) I like this more than GTA, much more. I think GTA has become boring and all you do is going around and kill people haha, but that is my opinion. My little brother also love it. He thinks also it's better than GTA :)

I think Ubisoft have succeeded great with this game!

a good game with just a few hiccups

[collywaller-436-186357 · 8/10 · 6 July 2014]

this is a very good game i liked the story it was an average revenge story the voice acting was average and the story's length was somewhere around 40 hours the graphics are definitely better then they were suppose to be and the city feels very alive which helps you lose yourself in the game the side missions are fun at first but then become repetitive which is somewhat disappointing... there is a okay amount of weapons and vehicles the city map size is decent.. multi-player is pretty fun and is seamless for the most part... all in all it is a decent start to the series and many people will be happy with it i hope you are..... you be happy long time so i'm happy long time....