Watch Dogs

 PC
User Score
6.4

Mixed or average reviews- based on 5182 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,662 out of 5182
  2. Mixed: 913 out of 5182
  3. Negative: 1,607 out of 5182
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  1. ruediger
    Oct 19, 2014
    3
    Overhyped piece of donkeysh*t. Unoptimized gameengine, unoriginal and tedious gameplay are just a death sentence for any game. I'm glad I got that game for free in a hardware bundle else I would have felt like Ubisoft dropping a big fat deuce on on my face.
  2. t3hp3trock
    May 28, 2014
    3
    Watch Dogs:
    Pros:
    Fun, engaging at the start, unique hacking concepts. Cons: Car chases are lack luster, story line is very short, numerous glitches, everything is made out of toothpicks. My main issue is the E3 demo to the actual game. Aside from the complete degrade of graphics, Watch Dogs doesn't support AMD drivers! I've noticed a few graphical issues and frame drops that my    Watch Dogs:
    Pros:
    Fun, engaging at the start, unique hacking concepts.
    Cons:
    Car chases are lack luster, story line is very short, numerous glitches, everything is made out of toothpicks.

    My main issue is the E3 demo to the actual game. Aside from the complete degrade of graphics, Watch Dogs doesn't support AMD drivers! I've noticed a few graphical issues and frame drops that my Invidia counterparts have not. This really infuriates me. If AMD was able to get the code to optimize the game, I'd give the game a 6/10 for PC.    … Expand
  3. KebabuTurka
    May 27, 2014
    3
    So. Hype of this game was reaaalllyyy big. But, gameplay is awful, physic is awful, gameplay is good and graphics ... Well, GTA V on x360 have better graphics (maybe everything ?) than this game on PC. Only story is rather good.
  4. Wolfgrin
    Jun 5, 2014
    3
    Sadly a very boring game after you played if for a hour or two, it almost feels like that's when the developers also gave up on the game and just used copy and paste to finish it. Worse game so far I have bought from Ubisoft, feels like a EA game with all that comes with that......
  5. saris1
    Jun 1, 2014
    3
    For console users this probably is a great 'open-world' game, but, for the PC... No. Even Daggerfall (Elder Scrolls) was much more open and alive than this title and that game was released nearly two decades ago! The system requirements are absurdly high and even if you meet or exceed them you will still experience glitches, lag, stutters and who knows what else. Oh, and the A.I is stupid,For console users this probably is a great 'open-world' game, but, for the PC... No. Even Daggerfall (Elder Scrolls) was much more open and alive than this title and that game was released nearly two decades ago! The system requirements are absurdly high and even if you meet or exceed them you will still experience glitches, lag, stutters and who knows what else. Oh, and the A.I is stupid, really stupid. You would think with a requirement of SIX GIGABYTES of RAM that the A.I would do something with it.… Expand
  6. MetalDude185
    Jun 29, 2014
    3
    Let's start with the bloody obvious. The state of the PC version is a joke. The lighting is hideously flat and a filthy monochrome in most scenes, as opposed to what we saw at E3 two years ago. It has hideously outdated particle effects and shadows. Yes, the water looks great, but that doesn't count when there is no setting in the entire game that makes it run at at least 60fps on myLet's start with the bloody obvious. The state of the PC version is a joke. The lighting is hideously flat and a filthy monochrome in most scenes, as opposed to what we saw at E3 two years ago. It has hideously outdated particle effects and shadows. Yes, the water looks great, but that doesn't count when there is no setting in the entire game that makes it run at at least 60fps on my high-end PC. In some places I felt like I was playing GTA IV. The pop-in in the open world is so terrible that it interferes with gameplay, especially when driving at high speeds. Weeks after its release there's still no patch out.

    Now for the gameplay, the hacking is has turned out to be a gimmick that becomes tired in the first few hours you actually get to play with it. There are some interesting things you can do with it but those become boring after you've seen them a few times and most things you do with it are executed by just holding down a button for a second. Other than that, there are serviceable driving mechanics in place, but there's very little to do with it, as everything in the gameworld just has nothing interesting to offer you, not to mention that the graphics are so bad that it doesn't even have the entertainment value of just looking at the scenery, like you could do if it was just a boring game with great visuals.
    Also it has semi-cover-based shooting mechanics, but there's just no punch to it and it's usually just frustrating to "play", especially when the framerate runs like a turtle.

    The story is clichéd and the main "character" is not even just unrelatable, he's boring and hasn't got a single sign of a personality or character trait, but it's not presented in any way in which we could roleplay as our own. The game clearly thinks it's got an interesting character loaded with personality and a heavy emotional story, but it just falls flat on its face, because there is no character or actual strong emotional development to any of it.

    This game would have been a huge dissapointment, if I would have been invested in the hype, so at least it didn't hurt me there, but what we have is still a hugely boring and noticeably overhyped "Triple-A" game, with a terrible PC version.    … Expand
  7. syldoc
    May 27, 2014
    3
    Lot of bugs and freeze on AMD video card
    Impossible to put ultra spec with 3Go video card, crossfire not available
    Ubisoft Montreal continue the worse work I ever see on a game, after FirCry3, AC3&4 and let the pc gamer on the side to consider the console gamers. When I play WD I feel I had a non finished game. Far away from what they present us to the E3 2013, impossible to find the    Lot of bugs and freeze on AMD video card
    Impossible to put ultra spec with 3Go video card, crossfire not available
    Ubisoft Montreal continue the worse work I ever see on a game, after FirCry3, AC3&4 and let the pc gamer on the side to consider the console gamers.
    When I play WD I feel I had a non finished game. Far away from what they present us to the E3 2013, impossible to find the same visual effects I saw
    Don't buy the game, wait for the (habitual) ubisoft infinity patch    … Expand
  8. aj587
    May 27, 2014
    3
    Probably the most hyped game in the past year aside from Titanfall. The graphics are a 7/10. A lot of characters have the same faces, same glasses (particularly a copied black female and a white blond girl). The vehicles in this game are a joke. It feels like I'm playing Mario Karts with slightly better Payday 2 graphics. I have an average of 30-40 fps in the cities on high with a GTX 680Probably the most hyped game in the past year aside from Titanfall. The graphics are a 7/10. A lot of characters have the same faces, same glasses (particularly a copied black female and a white blond girl). The vehicles in this game are a joke. It feels like I'm playing Mario Karts with slightly better Payday 2 graphics. I have an average of 30-40 fps in the cities on high with a GTX 680 and i7. Fps dips randomly and often.

    Escaping cops is too easy. All you have to do is hold W for about a minute and a half. Somehow you can hack the entire city and know everything about a person, yet the law enforcement with a similar or same system can lose track of you. The cameras in this game are pointless. Sure, you can hack them but you can literally wave your gun at the camera and there will be no alarms/criminals/cops at your location unless they actually hear or see you in person.

    You can crash into 40 walls before destroying vehicles. You can floor your motorcycle into a building head-on and 90% of the time you will somehow stay on your bike. I was bored within an half-hour of free roaming. Everything seems like it was copy-and-pasted or are inhabitable or useless.The campaign is boring and there is no life to the characters. The city is lifeless. Wow, press Q to hack. Game over.

    Another reason why you should not pre-order video games. Hopefully, there will be mods in the future that can save this game. Season pass... lol. Outfits and a hillbilly to play as. Awesome $20. Surprised Ubisoft didn't charge $50 for it.    … Expand
  9. austerus
    Jun 14, 2014
    3
    After playing a finishing the game, I return to "fix" my previous rating of 7. This is definitely not a 7.

    I don't really understand how people can say this is a different kind of gameplay. The Watch Dogs (all platforms) gameplay is nearly identical to GTA V or Assassin's Creed. You have the same "main story" structure, about the same actions to perform and same side-quests/minigames.    After playing a finishing the game, I return to "fix" my previous rating of 7. This is definitely not a 7.

    I don't really understand how people can say this is a different kind of gameplay. The Watch Dogs (all platforms) gameplay is nearly identical to GTA V or Assassin's Creed. You have the same "main story" structure, about the same actions to perform and same side-quests/minigames.

    The main difference is that this game contains a much more annoying forcible push to multiplayer but in modes that are unimaginative and repetitive. They get really old and really fast and are much worse than the also repetitive single player "side quests".

    The city isn't breathing life, it's idiotic. Shoot a person? Police are on to you and you lose "street cred", ok. Run over a civilian? No police but you get a drop in reputation. Cause an accident killing tens of civilians or intentionally push a car to crush pedestrians? Nothing.

    Civilians behave idiotically following accidents. Often they remain in burning cars or sit around burning cars waiting to explode. They don't tend to each other, no police goes on the scene and no ambulances come as well, no matter how many dead.

    The story is bland (although not as predictive as some say), the world isn't immerssive (nowhere near Assassin's Creed for example), the characters are stereotypical cardboard and some are downright annoying.

    Also, Aiden is unable to jump over stuff. Sure, he can vault over obstacles, but he can't jump over a half a meter pit to get from a railing to a roof (the kind of jumps they breeze through in Assassin's Creed).

    I am willing to disregard technical issues but the failing in storytelling and gameplay I can't forgive.    … Expand
  10. Shelledfade
    Oct 3, 2014
    3
    Pros:
    -Visually stunning world, rich in small detail.
    -Movement feels good. Cons: -Lifeless and disconnected world. -Guns sound like toys. -No "contacts" like GTA 4, you are 100% alone in this game. -One-button hacking gets extremely old fast. -Cannot shoot a gun while driving. -Cars have really bad physx and drive like unstoppable tanks. -All clothing stores are identical, all    Pros:
    -Visually stunning world, rich in small detail.
    -Movement feels good.

    Cons:
    -Lifeless and disconnected world.
    -Guns sound like toys.
    -No "contacts" like GTA 4, you are 100% alone in this game.
    -One-button hacking gets extremely old fast.
    -Cannot shoot a gun while driving.
    -Cars have really bad physx and drive like unstoppable tanks.
    -All clothing stores are identical, all gun shops are identical.
    -Little to no reason to explore the rich world.
    -There really isn't any loot in the world at all, think gta 4 city but much less lifelike, it feels dead, and crafting components are so inexpensive it just kills exploration.
    -Every single mission is the same. It either involves chasing someone by foot or by vehicle, or killing enemies that roam specific paths in a small area. The one-button hacking doesn't even add anything to the gameplay. If the hacking was removed it would essentially be the same game with little difference. You are not going on interesting missions like gta 4 where you would rob a bank or anything like that at all.

    -Digital trips: It adds some interesting game modes that have absolutely nothing to do with regular gameplay but it almost feels like the developers were aware of how lifeless and boring the main gameplay was so they added these digital trip game modes like driving a tank-spider and blowing crap up, and it does add some variety but I just wish the variety was in the main gameplay itself and its not, at all.    … Expand
  11. Denial
    May 27, 2014
    3
    This game really tests your nerves and patience. Firstly i downloaded the game through the ubisoft launcher, which then totally eats up all bandwidth and shuts everything else off on your computer (I have a 60mbit/12mbit line). When the game is finally installed i first get the black screen after ubisoft logo, verify files then repair files, then finally get to see the menu, start up a newThis game really tests your nerves and patience. Firstly i downloaded the game through the ubisoft launcher, which then totally eats up all bandwidth and shuts everything else off on your computer (I have a 60mbit/12mbit line). When the game is finally installed i first get the black screen after ubisoft logo, verify files then repair files, then finally get to see the menu, start up a new game and the game freezes at 80% of loading a new game. Verify files and repair game AGAIN. After that i finally get into game, but nooo this isn't enough, the game now freezes all the time 3-5 seconds, but the sound continues to run like nothing happened - This is just one more game in the line of MANY games that is being released without being tested properly. This is starting to be a really bad trend to release buggy games and after that just release patches as they see fit.

    Now for the actually review of the game;

    As we all have seen in the intros, this game should be very sophisticated and have great AI, but it doesn't. You spend a lot of time driving in this game so you would think that the driving would be a great feel, but its not. every time you get into a car and hit the throttle the whole screen shakes like its starting an earthquake, i mean wtf? The handling is very clumsy and you use more time watching for things you can hack while driving rather than watching the road, which makes for some random accidents A LOT.

    The AI in this game was advertised as being really good, however the way it is, is something really different, ie. if you get the police after you, they don't really care what you did, they just want to see you dead, whatever the cost may be (Shoot first, ask later), which gets annoying after a while.

    The whole hacking thing gets really old, really fast and the switching of traffic lights is often a burden rather than a help since you most of the time start a traffic accident/jam in the middle of the road. Also walking around can be quite tedious, because every time you pass someone it automatic lock onto them due to the hacking part.

    The side missions is just annoying after you've done them 5-10 times, i mean you spot some potential crime because you hack a phone and read the texts, thats already far fetched, on top of that you follow that person and intervenes right as the crime is about to take place, which leaves you often running after the criminal and just plain gunning him down.

    One of the positive things i've tried (There is some!) is the mini games, even though they are a bit misplaced in the game they are actually quite enjoyable and different.

    I give this game 3 in score simply because its a game that was released with massive bugs, the list is huge on the ubisoft forums. Also because this game was advertised to be way more than it actually is, which is a shame, its good fun for some hours but after that you just get tired of doing the same things over and over again. If the game just had better driving mechanics i think this game would be a lot more enjoyable. I would not recommend buying this game at full price, not even half price, i luckily only paid half price of retail, but would have loved to pay way less.    … Expand
  12. jonnyvonny
    May 27, 2014
    3
    This game is an awful, unfinished piece of garbage.

    - Terrible AI
    - Worse dynamic lighting than GTA IV
    - Static shadows
    - Hacking mechanics are stupid and unrealistic
    - dumb moral system
    - glitches EVERYWHERE

    Also, the last boss is a QTE. 2 stars above minimum for effort
  13. DaveDxx
    May 27, 2014
    3
    Here we go, the gameplay is fun and the story starts promising, so be ready for the backstab. Thats it, what else?
    Well, also there is :
    - No car customization - No weapon attachments - No blood/gore - No melee combat system - No shooting while driving - No realistic driving and physics - No character customization besides the same clothes with different colors - Mediocre story    Here we go, the gameplay is fun and the story starts promising, so be ready for the backstab. Thats it, what else?
    Well, also there is :
    - No car customization
    - No weapon attachments
    - No blood/gore
    - No melee combat system
    - No shooting while driving
    - No realistic driving and physics
    - No character customization besides the same clothes with different colors
    - Mediocre story with terrible ending
    - Bad use of the great side characters
    - Repetitive(boring) missions
    - Not a good game to have fun around the city for hours like GTA, Sleeping Dogs, Saints Row, AC...
    - No replayability
    - Dont even think about buying this just because it has a boring multiplayer mode.

    Conclusion, you should play this game and make your own conclusions, but right now its just not worth the full price, the experience is ok, but you'll want to erase this from your memory quickly when you complete it.    … Expand
  14. static1990
    May 27, 2014
    3
    Sadly this game is really unplayable at this stage,it is very bad optimized i have a high end rig and i got 15-35 fps on ultra and like 45-50 fps on low and even then it sutter.
    PS: Intel i5 Haswell 2.8ghz,gtx 780 and 8gb ram yea...shame ubisoft.
  15. Loyen
    May 27, 2014
    3
    plain boring, forced mouse acceleration and plenty of unoptimization issues, Uplay sucks and the graphics are nowhere near what they showed at E3, just a pile of garbage.
  16. Klockwork
    Jun 3, 2014
    3
    OK this is my 3rd (re)review of this game, and I'm pretty sure all hope is lost for me as far as stuttering goes. High res textures causes stuttering no matter what I put the other settings to. The only way to play this game with zero stuttering is by setting medium textures.

    TL;DR - Skip this game on PC and play Sleeping Dogs instead; better graphics and overall better game.
  17. pez
    May 27, 2014
    3
    I'm very disappointed. The side-by-side graphical comparison with what was shown at E3 2012 are ridiculous- it appears that Ubisoft was faking the footage as the real game doesn't look nearly that good. The campaign is boring. The online features are a joke- hacking invasions sound like an awesome idea but in reality they're not fun at all. The driving physics are about on par with GTA 3.I'm very disappointed. The side-by-side graphical comparison with what was shown at E3 2012 are ridiculous- it appears that Ubisoft was faking the footage as the real game doesn't look nearly that good. The campaign is boring. The online features are a joke- hacking invasions sound like an awesome idea but in reality they're not fun at all. The driving physics are about on par with GTA 3. I should never have trusted Ubisoft with a preorder.… Expand
  18. Moradil
    May 28, 2014
    3
    Yes, I played this game.
    Why?
    1. The whole game is like GTA 3.5 - ok, not a BIG problem.
    2. Bugs? Ok, it's 'normal' ...
    3. Camera - where is dynamic camera?
    4. Collision system.. really?
    5. Crowd system control - I thought after all ACs this would be mastered to perfection.
    6. Physics?
    7. Mechanics?

    and so many other 'little' things...
  19. Mamurai
    May 28, 2014
    3
    Ubisoft didn't bother optimizing this game for PC at all, which means it will poorly at the moment on any system. Combine that with graphics which do not look next gen when it comes to PC and you have an overhyped game that is a GTA clone with better graphics, yet runs poorly. It certainly doesn't look better than Battlefield 3 for PC and that game is hardly new anymore. Uplay doesn't workUbisoft didn't bother optimizing this game for PC at all, which means it will poorly at the moment on any system. Combine that with graphics which do not look next gen when it comes to PC and you have an overhyped game that is a GTA clone with better graphics, yet runs poorly. It certainly doesn't look better than Battlefield 3 for PC and that game is hardly new anymore. Uplay doesn't work very well either and you will find yourself wishing you didn't have to go through that program to play a singleplayer game.

    The game is overhyped, but seems to be an ok GTA clone if they can sort out all those optimizing issues. Unless you have a high-end PC then stay far away unless they fix any of the current issues, and you want a modern GTA clone.    … Expand
  20. Hornet
    Sep 16, 2014
    3
    Abysmal release on PC. More technical glitches than you can shake a powerful gaming rig at, and even that won't help. As usual, Ubisoft gives zero f***s about the PC community and hasn't done any significant patch work (not excusing the horrible release state in the first place). Let's not forget that, once again, Uplay was a disaster at launch.

    The technical problems are shocking - I    Abysmal release on PC. More technical glitches than you can shake a powerful gaming rig at, and even that won't help. As usual, Ubisoft gives zero f***s about the PC community and hasn't done any significant patch work (not excusing the horrible release state in the first place). Let's not forget that, once again, Uplay was a disaster at launch.

    The technical problems are shocking - I can't believe how horrible the driving physics are considering Ubisoft has proven once before that they can do a good driving game (Driver: San Francisco).

    Aside from that, the on-foot traversal is clumsy, the shooting mechanics mediocre, the hacking elements asinine, and the storyline and characters completely lacking. Only minimal fun can be eked out in short bursts before the tedium sets in.

    Just about the only thing that can be said is that the environment artists did a fair job of detailing the city, but this is let down by a poorly optimised graphics engine.

    Sadly this generated massive sales for Ubisoft and this is apparently all they care about, so we can expect more dross like this in future. I won't be foolish enough to fall for it again.    … Expand
  21. Hodor
    May 28, 2014
    3
    it's kinda "eh"...

    from a base-rating of 9/10: -1...Graphically it's looking "okay"-ish, but definitely nothing revolutionary that deserves getting my high-end graphics-card up to 85-90 degrees celsius on "high"-settings (typically i'm at about ~65...~70 with witcher 2) with random framedrops, which implies incredibly poor optimization...other than that, it doesn't look that much    it's kinda "eh"...

    from a base-rating of 9/10:

    -1...Graphically it's looking "okay"-ish, but definitely nothing revolutionary that deserves getting my high-end graphics-card up to 85-90 degrees celsius on "high"-settings (typically i'm at about ~65...~70 with witcher 2) with random framedrops, which implies incredibly poor optimization...other than that, it doesn't look that much better than say Sleeping Dogs, and that was released 2 years ago...

    -1...Also there's absolutely no resemblence (graphics-wise) to the 2012 "gameplay" trailer..even at ultra-settings, so here's your bit of false advertisement...

    -1...Gameplay-wise it controls sluggish as all hell...the first time you point a gun (in the "tutorial") it felt like having to move your arm with 10 bricks strapped to it (upping the mouse sensitivity only helps marginally) and that pretty much affects the driving-controls as well...only THEY are MUCH worse, you accelerate as if you're sitting in a rocket and afterwards it feels like driving on ice...in the end, it takes a bit to get used to (if you force yourself, you can get used to everything after all) but it just doesn't "feel good" (it's like you're constantly thinking: "okay, can this stop now?...please, let this stop")
    All of this indicates that the controls are pretty much meant for controllers (which, again, is a horrible testament of inaptitude to make a proper pc-port) but even when playing with a controler, it has a very heavy, sluggish feel to it...it's just uncomfortable to play...

    0...The Story is basically a typical run of the mill revenge-thriller story mixed with open-world gameplay...Assassins Creed had that already and it's really nothing excitingly new, even the side-missions feel very much like a "been there, done that" kinda deal and the whole hacking-shtick doesn't offer enough variety to to make it stand out of the utter mediocrity that is the main-game...it's not "bad" but also not particularly "good"

    -3...and at the very end, probably the most offensive thing a game can do...it's plain boring...from the intro-sequence it pretty much goes downhill to an unnecessarily drawn out plot (all the things that are supposed to make us "feel" something for Aiden just didn't do anything but waste everyone's time...judging by his blank stare and monotone voice, even Aiden doesn't seem to give a sh*t) with a completely dull main-character and a city that does anyhing but "live and breathe" (it's pretty much a static chicago with a few people strewn about here and there, which you can sometimes hack and get some randomised unnecessary bit of useless information...or money) it's utterly boring and tedious to play

    My advice? if you want a fun open-world game with lots of things to do and a somewhat passable story (let's be honest, in most cases the stories are rather similar anyways, but it's interesting, engaging characters that make a seemingly generic story "special") then go get the likes of Sleeping Dogs, GTA V or Saints Row 3...if you just want an open world to f*** around in, buy Just Cause 2 or Saints Row 4...but for a pricetag of 60-70 bucks and the massive overhype this game had before release, Watch Dogs seriously doesn't deliver and just feels like no one actually put any effort into making or giving this game something, anything special....overhyped mediocrity at its best...

    3/10    … Expand
  22. Piratoz
    May 28, 2014
    3
    Let me start by saying I wanted to love this game, I really did.

    As far as game design goes watchdogs is a solid game but fails to make many innovations. The hacking in this game is undercooked and oversimplified and the combat plays out like any other typical third person open world shooter. The story is decent and many of the characters have fleshed out dialogue and colorful    Let me start by saying I wanted to love this game, I really did.

    As far as game design goes watchdogs is a solid game but fails to make many innovations. The hacking in this game is undercooked and oversimplified and the combat plays out like any other typical third person open world shooter. The story is decent and many of the characters have fleshed out dialogue and colorful personalities.

    If there were no other problems with this game I would recommend it. Sure, the hacking mechanics that were supposed to set it apart from other GTA-esque games were rather lacking and some strange design features such as other players being able to intrude on your single player session were incorporated. But at the end of the day this is a solid game with a decent story and interesting characters. However the thing that makes me not reccommend this game are the frustrating and clunky controls, constant crashes, poor optimization for PC, and game breaking bugs that occur constantly.

    As soon as I started playing it was evident how clunky the controls in this game felt. Mouse acceleration makes aiming difficult and slow. It is a constant fight with the game to make Aiden use the right object as cover. No, I do not want to crouch on the side of the vending machine as cover, I want to crouch behind it. The UI in this game was clearly designed for controllers, everything from the inventory wheel to Aiden's smartphone interface is very clunky to use with a mouse and keyboard. There is also a gamebreaking bug that when more than one directional key such as 'A' and 'W' are pressed when aiming at a target with your weapon, your character will not stop moving in that direction after you stop aiming which results in a retarded looking jog into walls and enemies resulting in a death. This bug occurs constantly in combat.

    Watchdogs also suffers from extremely poor GPU optimization. My machine is getting old but with 2xHD6950's and an i5 2500k I expected at least smooth performance on medium-high. Instead on medium-high settings at 1080p resolution the game stutters along sub-30 fps in outside environments. When driving there are also extremely annoying instances where the fps will spike down to 10 or so every few seconds. In addition, Watchdogs randomly crashes to desktop every so often.

    If it wasn't for these extremely frustrating control issues, optimzation issues, and random crashes I would have recommended Watchdogs, but because these exist: please please please do not buy this game until these issues are sorted out. It will only result in hours of frustration.

    Without bugs and Issues: 7/10
    Final Score: 3/10    … Expand
  23. Imaculate
    May 28, 2014
    3
    Being a Gamer with a high end PC, PS3/4, and Xbox one. Having played Watch Dogs on the PC for 16 hours so far by the time of this review. What can I say? For a company that has released pretty great titles; AC, Ghost Recon, and Splinter Cell - I was hoping for something epic from this new IP. I think the problem is that UBI over hyped it and thus setting expectations so high and thusBeing a Gamer with a high end PC, PS3/4, and Xbox one. Having played Watch Dogs on the PC for 16 hours so far by the time of this review. What can I say? For a company that has released pretty great titles; AC, Ghost Recon, and Splinter Cell - I was hoping for something epic from this new IP. I think the problem is that UBI over hyped it and thus setting expectations so high and thus failing to deliver on many accounts. For most of you, it may be a great game. Keep in mind I am comparing it to all games. When you tote "next gen", you best deliver it and not fall behind on things. Here are my issues I saw with WD on PC.

    Graphics/Physics

    1. Reflections are fake
    2. No water ripples if you shoot at water. (bad physics)
    3. Car and world damage detail lacking/unrealistic
    4. Driving had a large learning curve.
    5. Pedestrians are oak trees. You can't move them from their positions
    6. Graphics are not next-gen in comparison to many new AAA titles launched this year on PC. Looks good for consoles but that is what they're expecting in comparison to what they're used to previously. FWIW, my modded GTA: IV ( A damn PC port from 5 years ago!) on PC still looked more amazing than WD did.
    7. Dynamic shadows are piss poor.

    There are videos outlining the differences in GTA: iv and WD if you search for it on YouTube.

    So yes, the game looks "prettier" because it takes advantage of new graphic technology and power, but as you can see, UBI developers were slacking off when it came to details.

    Gameplay.

    1. Hacking is a cool approach. I like that. Thumbs up for that.
    2. Hacking got repetitive and old after 1-2 hours of game play. The inability to hack a laptop or other electronic devices found in the usual world is just out of place for this techno thriller.
    3. I like the fact I can go guns blazing or be stealthy. But my stealth tools are again limited for something this powerful. Why can't i just stop a car with my cool special phone? Why can't I lower my wanted level by sending misinformation to police cars? Why can't i send cops to that Gang area and have the cops deal with them or be a distraction?
    4. the amount of activities you can do vs other similar titles is far less.
    5. Missions are engaging. Side quests are not. It's just Aiden narrating and you go do it. Most Side quests are repetitive.
    6. AI isn't that smart.
    7. If someone calls the cops on you, cops "magically" know your location even you're hiding. Yet, you're unidentifiable from CTOS and any camera hooked up to it....

    I've played all of UBISOFT'S big name titles. This game has the reused driving mechanics of Driver, the reused animations from Assassin's Creed, stealth mechanics from Splinter Cell, with hardly any originality. I just feel UBI was lazy in this IP. Saving cost of development to dump masses of it into marketing (which they did very well). Thus you have a poor product. For gamers like me, you'll notice the difference. For everyone else, you'll fine a decent title to enjoy - especially those who only play console. PC gamers... save your hard earned cash. UBI didn't work hard enough to earn it. This game has potential, but they need to put more work into it to make it "Next Gen" as they're claiming it should be. Sorry UBI, you've fell short on that in too many places in this game.

    PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Do not go lazy on The Division.    … Expand
  24. insanexyz
    May 28, 2014
    3
    It was inevitable that this game would be compared to GTA.

    While the game presents many possibilities and an open world, it fails enormously at letting the player experiment with them. You are guided through every step of the way, never having room for the imagination. Adding to that is the "meh" music selection. But as we all know, driving is half of what makes a sandbox game fun.    It was inevitable that this game would be compared to GTA.

    While the game presents many possibilities and an open world, it fails enormously at letting the player experiment with them. You are guided through every step of the way, never having room for the imagination. Adding to that is the "meh" music selection.

    But as we all know, driving is half of what makes a sandbox game fun. This is where Watch Dogs hits the ground and smashes its face hard.

    While driving, you will be frustrated to the point that you will prefer walking or even turning the game off. Every mission that has driving as a major component will be an excruciating experience that will leave your fingers hovering over "Alt+F4". Thankfully, a lot of these missions aren't compulsory, so you can avoid them.

    GTA IV should be taken as the standard for a driving mechanic with games such as this. It simulated realistic handling and car physics, which might have made it a little challenging for someone inexperienced with racing games or actual driving, but after a while anyone with half a brain mastered it and enjoyed driving even after the game's conclusion.
    In Watch Dogs, you will spend the whole game trying to keep the driving time to the absolute minimum so as to avoid tossing the DVD out of the window.

    I applaud anyone who can go from A to B in Watch Dogs without either
    - smashing their face into the keyboard
    - bouncing around like a rubber ball
    - crashing into pedestrians (which is especially annoying as it lowers your reputation which leads to constantly getting chased by the police and killing more pedestrians in the process)
    - crashing into a car or thirty (not really a problem as cars in Watch Dogs are made of kryptonite)
    - spinning the car out as you try to take off
    - choking on the Watch Dogs DVD

    Riding a motorcycle is especially amusing as they seem to superglue Aiden's butt to the seat every time he gets on one.

    All in all, the driving mechanic completely destroys this otherwise alright game. As I've said before, driving is half the game and receives a 0/5 from me, the rest of it I'd give a 3/5 based on the predictable story and oppressive and unimaginative but otherwise OK gameplay.    … Expand
  25. thegamewarrior
    May 28, 2014
    3
    Decided to rent the game on Xbox One to give it a try. Aside from the loading screen issues and driving which makes the game annoying and nearly unplayable, there isn't much to talk about. There is nothing to say positive or negative about the game. It is just bland. The hacking isn't interesting, the characters are boring, and the plot is too basic. Multiplayer is a repetitive bore withDecided to rent the game on Xbox One to give it a try. Aside from the loading screen issues and driving which makes the game annoying and nearly unplayable, there isn't much to talk about. There is nothing to say positive or negative about the game. It is just bland. The hacking isn't interesting, the characters are boring, and the plot is too basic. Multiplayer is a repetitive bore with missions that seemingly have no value.… Expand
  26. Arsonist420
    May 29, 2014
    3
    Please be warned about any of the review sites giving this game high marks. Ubisoft gave Every reviewer a ton of free **** along with their watch dogs copies. A 500 $ nexus phone along with a ton of other free stuff to get high reviews. Not to mention all the ubisoft review bots making positive post.

    Lets talk about the game. Is it next-gen? Nope not even close. This game has so many    Please be warned about any of the review sites giving this game high marks. Ubisoft gave Every reviewer a ton of free **** along with their watch dogs copies. A 500 $ nexus phone along with a ton of other free stuff to get high reviews. Not to mention all the ubisoft review bots making positive post.

    Lets talk about the game. Is it next-gen? Nope not even close. This game has so many glaring bugs and inconsistency's I dont even know where to begin.

    Bad AI. AI goes full retard when you hack traffic lights its the worst thing I ever seen.
    Bad Physic's No ragdoll, barely any visible dmg to cars or things around you.
    Lighting is terrible. Gta5 had better lighting.
    Hacking not as cool as you would of hoped. Pretty much go here press a button good job you hacked!
    Horrendous PC controls. Worst mouse acceleration in history.

    The list of minor bugs is too long to list it would take me a hour. Everything from fallng through the world to **** just plain not working or glitching out.

    On top of everything the game runs like absolute **** and it doesn't make any sense. The games graphics are lackluster at best. So for this game to run so **** bad is mind boggling. Even when you get the game to a manageable frame rate the FPS drops are so insane that it ruins your gameplay.

    Run from this title. Run far    … Expand
  27. LeFred
    May 29, 2014
    3
    Buy the game for what it ''might be''
    Ubisoft have lied to his consumers once again. Created a massive hype for a game that is....ok at best. Gets repetitive after 4 hours. Full of PC bugs and slow downs. Don't believe the 8 and the 9's there is a reason why user score are 4.4/10 overall.
  28. AdamK
    May 29, 2014
    3
    Highest dissapoint of the year :( Very strange PR action in view of frustrated result. I tried find any good at the gameplay, but actually ... very hard to say any nice words about this game. Sori Ubisoft.
  29. sapuramura
    May 29, 2014
    3
    No physics!
    Fake dynamic lights!
    Poor/fake reflections in mirrors/glass!
    Boring story!
    Cardboard city and npc's(trying to look alive but it's fake)!
    Too repetitive!
    Hacking in WD isn’t really hacking! More like 80's movie about hacking, witch is just a joke to what hacking really is!

    But good overall concept(poor execution) and fun DRUG missions.
  30. templar2143
    Jun 1, 2014
    3
    Poor optimization
    Stupid AI
    Boring gameplay
    GTAV with one button hacking and without flying
    And Where the **** is the multiplayer in singleplayer without loading screens?

    A huge disappointment i was really looking forward for this "next gen" game.
  31. jstq
    Jun 2, 2014
    3
    Another piece of trash from ubisoft. No physics, no logics, no realistic features that provide depth to gameplay, boring story, bad engine, tons of different bugs. Not worth the time, not worth the money, not even worth to pirate. Loosing to GTA4 by any parameter. Loosing to any gta by most of parameters.
    The only positive moments is as side chess missions and spider drug (for the first    Another piece of trash from ubisoft. No physics, no logics, no realistic features that provide depth to gameplay, boring story, bad engine, tons of different bugs. Not worth the time, not worth the money, not even worth to pirate. Loosing to GTA4 by any parameter. Loosing to any gta by most of parameters.
    The only positive moments is as side chess missions and spider drug (for the first couple of hours). Lets see what **** will make in watch_dogs 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, etc.    … Expand
  32. hendrick2k6
    Jun 2, 2014
    3
    Basically (Hitman Absolution + bad stealth) + (Assassins Creed +Saints Row ) - everything that made it cool and awesome. This is like if Tiger Electronics and LJN would come back from the dead and partner with Ubisoft. The lag makes driving and shootouts impossible ,the stealth is crap, "hacking"? more like using an app called ihack. Ubisoft made this game with hacking to test the playersBasically (Hitman Absolution + bad stealth) + (Assassins Creed +Saints Row ) - everything that made it cool and awesome. This is like if Tiger Electronics and LJN would come back from the dead and partner with Ubisoft. The lag makes driving and shootouts impossible ,the stealth is crap, "hacking"? more like using an app called ihack. Ubisoft made this game with hacking to test the players skills , skills with what ? The skill to keep pressing the damn "Q" button? Even the missions seem overused in other games totally unoriginal . More disappointing than Virtual boy, probably the most hyped game of ubisoft, story totally overused , I mean you know a guy whose a vigilante the gets the most important people in his life messed with, then one dies then he seeks out for revenge. I think that story line is very overused totally unoriginal . They even force you to go to next gen computers to fully enjoy the game, its like they want us to go straight to the hi-tech stuff and upgrade our pcs and if you dont have the next best pc your gonna have a crappy experience.Ubisoft better redeem themselves wit h and not repeat this again in Assassins Creed : Unity {also this is my 4th time to submit this cause everytime i try to submit the net crashes}… Expand
  33. Tzikas
    Jun 4, 2014
    3
    Caveat: My PC runs Watch_Dogs without crashing, and it runs it at good graphics with a good frame-rate, so this is not a "technical review".

    In other words, the low score is because the game brings nothing new to the table. Walk/run/drive around, shoot people, do random/disconnected side-missions, press a button whenever you're in the vicinity of a bridge, door, phone, grate, vent, sign    Caveat: My PC runs Watch_Dogs without crashing, and it runs it at good graphics with a good frame-rate, so this is not a "technical review".

    In other words, the low score is because the game brings nothing new to the table. Walk/run/drive around, shoot people, do random/disconnected side-missions, press a button whenever you're in the vicinity of a bridge, door, phone, grate, vent, sign (etc) to "hack" it. Oh, and the vehicle physics is horrible and makes you feel like Bambi on ice.

    It feels like someone tried to make a game, but couldn't quite decide if they wanted it to be GTA, Infamous or Assassins Creed. Then they realized they needed to make it unique, so they added "hacking". True, not all hacking is as simple as clicking a single button. For some of it you actually have to play a mini-game where you, by clicking a single button, rotate breaker switches to lead electricity from A to B.

    Gimmicky, boring, and after haven given it three serious attempts (which have taken me about 5-6 hours into the game) I find absolutely nothing that makes me want to boot it up again.    … Expand
  34. DragonBall89
    Jun 5, 2014
    3
    The game is a major disappointment and although i can't say that there aren't any things that i like, those are nothing comparing to those that i dislike.

    I can't shot from either car or motorcycle, the driving is..... it's hard to get use to it, if its even possible. If you're playing in multiplayer and the other player has a controller you are doomed. You can practically fly    The game is a major disappointment and although i can't say that there aren't any things that i like, those are nothing comparing to those that i dislike.

    I can't shot from either car or motorcycle, the driving is..... it's hard to get use to it, if its even possible.

    If you're playing in multiplayer and the other player has a controller you are doomed.

    You can practically fly through the entire game with a silenced pistol.

    and other smaller things like crashes and so on.

    I won't get into the story but let's say it really ain't worth the money, i bought watch dogs but no way in wherever that i buy any dlc, actually i just finished the story part of the game 2 days ago and didn't even touched the game since.    … Expand
  35. DatTriple
    Jun 6, 2014
    3
    Repetitive, extremely dumbed down and over all boring game. "Hold X to hack"? Could they at least have made a mini-game sequence like in the Mass Effect series? The game is full of clichés and uninteresting characters.
  36. Susken
    Jun 15, 2014
    3
    Don't play it, don't buy it. The game is just bad, its repetitive you will have the same gun fights over and over again. It does not matter if you play stealthy or go in guns blazing. Its the same thing. Just get into the red zone and kill anything on sight there are no consequence's, well ok maybe the cops will come but that is it. And you can do this all the time in any mission justDon't play it, don't buy it. The game is just bad, its repetitive you will have the same gun fights over and over again. It does not matter if you play stealthy or go in guns blazing. Its the same thing. Just get into the red zone and kill anything on sight there are no consequence's, well ok maybe the cops will come but that is it. And you can do this all the time in any mission just repeating the pattern all the time. There is not much to do, well yes the city is huge but the misions are all the same. And the graphic is realy nice i must say but i dont think there is much diference in Low settings and on Ultra plus it does realy not matter because the frame drop is the same. It happens all the time and is anoying as hell. The story is boring as hell. The ending sucked. I was realy looking forward to this but it was only hype.… Expand
  37. GenericBob
    Jun 21, 2014
    3
    Released with a ridiculous number of bugs and terrible optimization driving is nigh impossible without a controller. game was delayed for 8 months already the end result is unacceptable.
  38. McHagge
    Jul 2, 2014
    3
    So basically it is just GTA with a hacker theme.
    The online modes it provides are:
    -Checking the city with your friends (no objectives and stuff, so basically you have nothing to do) -Hide'n'seek -Hide'n'seek (just a little bit different) -Car Race -Team Coop I played the game for two days and got bored of it pretty quick. Alot of things in the game doesn't make ANY sense at all,    So basically it is just GTA with a hacker theme.
    The online modes it provides are:
    -Checking the city with your friends (no objectives and stuff, so basically you have nothing to do)
    -Hide'n'seek
    -Hide'n'seek (just a little bit different)
    -Car Race
    -Team Coop
    I played the game for two days and got bored of it pretty quick. Alot of things in the game doesn't make ANY sense at all, not just lorewise but technically (Yeah I hack the phone of my sister, she stands right next to me and she sounds like she is talking trough the phone, there is no 2nd voiceover for her while standing next to her - NPCs attack you but ignore passengers, for not a damn reason and so on.)
    The missions seem pretty repetativ and so does the gameplay.
    I would not recomment this game to anyone, expect people who LOVE GTA games. But even though there are much better games.
    What bothers me the most is the schedule they got and the game is still buggy and stuff. (So it was just for marketing reasons as far as I assume)    … Expand
  39. ImFarza
    Jul 4, 2014
    3
    It's fun to play for a few days but after that it's nothing more to do.
    The missions get you stuck, The side missions are almost all the same.
    I won't buy this now. Maybe if they add some DLC's or more updates

    Negatives:
    NPC calling 911 system fails (Too OP)
    Nothing to do in the city (Only A few games)
    Not so many cars
  40. iansarmy1
    Oct 25, 2014
    3
    A terrible, broken, downgraded PC port that Ubisoft simply walked away after only a paltry effort of trying to fix it. Even it runs smoothly on your system you're really just buying a very mediocre GTA clone. Don't reward Ubisoft for dumping this clunker on PC gamers.
  41. domadordepollos
    Jul 13, 2014
    3
    THIS LOOKS AMAZING! in the trailer ;)
    Graphics are sincerely dreadful, unfinished edges, unpolished textures... lacking detail.
    Its true that you can hack, but its not worth for the 60 bucks you spend on it.
  42. chazmire
    Jul 15, 2014
    3
    I got a quest to stop a villain. I was told I would get extra credit for not killing him. I thought to myself "This is an advanced game, surely it has some kind of advanced body targeting." I shot him in the calf...he kept running completely unhindered...I shot him in the calf again...he fell over dead. I stopped playing the game. Just one example of unrealisticness that ruins games forI got a quest to stop a villain. I was told I would get extra credit for not killing him. I thought to myself "This is an advanced game, surely it has some kind of advanced body targeting." I shot him in the calf...he kept running completely unhindered...I shot him in the calf again...he fell over dead. I stopped playing the game. Just one example of unrealisticness that ruins games for me. Add to this all the other bugs and lameness and you get a pretty lame game....but I guess hacking was kinda cool for the first 4 minutes.… Expand
  43. gwolf14
    Sep 14, 2014
    3
    The theme of this game showed so much promise but fails to deliver on a number of levels. The hacking mechanic was interesting but soon lost its appeal after the 100th time of pressing X. The characters and story were uninteresting and cliched but worst of all was the playability of the whole thing.
    The game does look amazing with everything turned up to ultra, but good luck playing it    The theme of this game showed so much promise but fails to deliver on a number of levels. The hacking mechanic was interesting but soon lost its appeal after the 100th time of pressing X. The characters and story were uninteresting and cliched but worst of all was the playability of the whole thing.
    The game does look amazing with everything turned up to ultra, but good luck playing it with those settings. The game is poorly optimized for the PC (if you can call it optimized at all) and is truly unplayable with the settings.

    I have an i7 4770K, GTX 780 and 16Gb and experienced stutter even on the lowest graphics settings. This is after doing everything in my power to fix the issues and speed up the game. Changing the settings to medium caused game breaking lag and on ultra my entire system was brought to its knees.

    If you have a top end system (and I mean seriously top end) then give this game a go. Otherwise, give it a pass. It's not worth the time or the hassle to try and play.    … Expand
  44. JadeRegent
    Oct 20, 2014
    3
    --The Characters--

    Watch Dogs is a game full of wonderfully creative characters with interesting motivations and backgrounds, unfortunately the main character isn't one of them. Attempting to get away from the whole "dead wife and kids" theme that many games that feature male protagonists that have lost someone go with they really didn't hurt anything going instead with "dead niece".    --The Characters--

    Watch Dogs is a game full of wonderfully creative characters with interesting motivations and backgrounds, unfortunately the main character isn't one of them. Attempting to get away from the whole "dead wife and kids" theme that many games that feature male protagonists that have lost someone go with they really didn't hurt anything going instead with "dead niece". Iraq is an Iraq war vet who took what he learned and brought it back to his neighborhood, turning a group of average gangbangers into a well trained army. Lucky Quinn is an aged Mob Boss who clawed his way to the top. Despite being well into his late 70's he isn't afraid to get his hands dirty when work needs to be done. Aidan Pierce is a hacker with a niece who died entirely because of him, who blames everyone else instead of himself (the person actually responsible) for her death.

    --The Story--

    The story is pretty generic, man with lost loved ones begins searching for those responsible but along the way is faced with a moral dilemma about whether he's doing the wrong things for the right reasons and whether or not at the end of the day he's the bad guy but it's livened up by a pretty interesting cast of supporting characters.

    --Gameplay--

    The gameplay was really hit or miss for me, the combat works really well and while the inclusion of a bullet time ability a little disappointing the ability to use hacking with it helped get me over it. I really enjoy the way the enemy reacts when you fire off some rounds, move to a different location and they'd still be looking for you at that old position, it really made the whole experience feel very organic. Unfortunately, the same thing cannot be said for the driving mechanics. With most cars its like the roads were made of ice most of the time with the way the car's back ends would just go spinning out whenever you'd turn at anything faster than a slow jog. Not sure if this happened to anyone else very often but if the car is moving at anything other than a dead stop, when you get out you'll be doing a combat roll out of the car moving slower than people on the sidewalk, more than once Aidan decided to dive out of this incredibly slow moving car directly into an oncoming garbage truck.

    I say thing about every sandbox game that takes place in a city but its really disappointing how many buildings I can actually walk into. In the Chicago metropolitan area I can walk into MAYBE about one in every 15 buildings. Maybe instead of making the game look so pretty, we work on actually having places to go into.

    Finally the hacking, while an interesting concept most of the time you'll forget about interacting with the environment via hacking unless the game is forcing you to. Why hack the streetlights or a bridge when you can just use the Jam Comms ability and prevent the police from even being called in the first place. Why use environmental explosives when I have a pump action grenade launcher.

    --Summary--

    Watch Dogs plays like a cross between Grand Theft Auto and Assassins Creed with the little hacking gimmick thrown in. Unfortunately the various pieces of this game do not coalesce into anything more than mildly entertaining. It gets boring a few hours in after you've tried most of the hacking tricks out a few times and realize how shallow the system actually is.    … Expand
  45. HuntingArt
    Nov 18, 2014
    3
    Do you want to be a cool baddass hacker like the ones you see in the movies?
    Did you buy this game to feel like an awesome hacker with 1337 skillz where you can be cool and even do what the government chooses not to do in order to be a great vigilant?
    Or even to just do whatever the **** you want, and feel like you've got power on the tips of your fingers? Yeah me too. What I described    Do you want to be a cool baddass hacker like the ones you see in the movies?
    Did you buy this game to feel like an awesome hacker with 1337 skillz where you can be cool and even do what the government chooses not to do in order to be a great vigilant?
    Or even to just do whatever the **** you want, and feel like you've got power on the tips of your fingers?
    Yeah me too. What I described sounds awesome. Too bad what you're really going to get is Magic Button to Steal (worthless) Money From People, pointless and barfed up car chases, mixed in with killing people from afar that you need two serious patience through boredom for.

    Somehow this game was not as I expected it would be after I saw the breathtaking E3 footage. Nnnnope. This game, had I known how completely-and-utterly boring it would be, I'd have only purchased it for $15 USD. Like, yeah! Yeah this game sure is fun! But you know what's more fun? Nintendogs. At least currency in that game actually worth something. Yeah, you heard me.

    Hacking in this game is nothing more than pressing A to Jump. That is to say, hacking isn't hard. Hacking isn't interesting. Hacking is so easy that it actually feels kind of pointless. There's a couple of things you can do to hack in this game; press button to steal money, press same button to listen in on phone call, press same button to create a distraction, press same button to explode a transformer, press same bu- do you get it? In five minutes, you've gotten enough money to buy every gun in the game. You are not a cool hacker, either. You're just a person who times somebody stepping on a pipeline before making it go off but not in a cool I'M A HACKER way but in a "I pressed jump before I got to the goomba" way. When you finally do get to hack into a computer sort of thing- you get presented with what I must conclude is their attempt at a "puzzle". Most of them are timed but... as long as you don't click anything you get to stare at it for as long as you'd like until you get it. If you don't get it in time, then you get to start over. So it's POINTLESS. It's not even complicated either. It's like one of those old pipe games where you move the pipes so water goes through. Not exactly a puzzle...

    You're expected to ""hack"" when you're infiltrating buildings, but by that I mean; you need to kill everyone in an area, and conveniently people are standing around a lot of explosives that you can "jump the goomba" on. They also expect you to shoot people here though. I go for the sniper. Granted, if it didn't take so much patience and annoyance on top of that, this would probably be fun for me. I explode who I can, and then I snipe out the rest. It is all rather tedious though.

    Then after that you have these Car Chase Scenes!!!1!1!11 They are completely unimpressive. They expect you to hack while you're doing these car chases? But with the exception of making draw bridges go up or turning green lights red and a few others, you can't really have the control to hack. I don't even understand what it wants me to do when it tells me to press my jumping goomba button. Like what am I doing? Granted if I could drive while looking behind my car, it would probably make sense, and I could understand why their car blew up; but I can't as it is. If you don't go to international waters, then these chase scenes are long, and their boring, and they're INCREDIBLY redundant. Actually the hacking and sniping is redundant too but.. this is more so.

    These are the two main game play things we get in the game. "Car Chase, Hack/Snipe, Car Chase, Car Chase, Hack/Snipe, Car Chase, Car Chase", UGH.

    The plot though... is awful. Like it really is. But not as awful as our really bad main character. Lackluster plot aside, our main character is not just "morally gray", he's downright **** After his sister's daughter dies because of HIM (why they didn't kill him instead of his neice who ****ing knows) she asks him to stop all of this **** because it got her daughter killed and it's going to get her and her son killed! He's all "But vengeance!!!!" and then wouldn't you know it it literally puts his sister and her son in danger. Again like why don't these people just kill this dude instead of "punishing him through people around him"? Ah right game devs are incompetent and don't know how to motivate characters, right. Anywho- I'd be fine playing a really **** character if the game I was playing them in didn't KEEP MAKING THEM OUT TO BEING HEROES. Cause this guy? He's despicable. He doesn't care about ANYONE except his reputation! Like, hope you weren't planning to get mugged today! This guy doesn't care and even though he knows you're getting mugged he wont lift a finger until you're already ****ed over. You're welcome! ..literally that's in the rules. If you save the person too soon you're penalized.

    This game could have been something great but instead it's just churned out old and tired tropes and gameplay.    … Expand
  46. UND34DxTR41T3R
    Jan 19, 2015
    3
    This game has an interesting idea of what it wants to be but it failed massively

    my PC can run this game no problem but it sometimes crashes my PC no patch has ever fixed this! The story is stupidly short and the ending is terrible Its filled to the brim with glitches like falling trough the map the game not loading properly and its not only on PC my friend has a ps4 and it    This game has an interesting idea of what it wants to be but it failed massively

    my PC can run this game no problem but it sometimes crashes my PC no patch has ever fixed this!

    The story is stupidly short and the ending is terrible

    Its filled to the brim with glitches like falling trough the map the game not loading properly and its not only on PC my friend has a ps4 and it crashed alot of time and fell through the map 5 times

    the open world it empty with nothing to do i fell into the hype and i was sad once i bought the game

    it feels like an boring gta game this costs too much and you should just buy gta    … Expand
  47. BigBossReviews
    Feb 3, 2015
    3
    Another piece of overhyped trash released by UBISOFT, I made the mistake of preordering this game, and threw my $60 dollars down the fu*king drain. This game is a prime example of terrible PC ports, since this game is an avid supporter of console parity, although, this being the PC, modders are in the works, trying to fix this game, and yet Ubisoft is putting out patches to wipe these modsAnother piece of overhyped trash released by UBISOFT, I made the mistake of preordering this game, and threw my $60 dollars down the fu*king drain. This game is a prime example of terrible PC ports, since this game is an avid supporter of console parity, although, this being the PC, modders are in the works, trying to fix this game, and yet Ubisoft is putting out patches to wipe these mods out. FU*K THIS GAME, AND FU*K UBISOFT!… Expand
  48. DevinTakkar
    Apr 1, 2015
    3
    This game is just a big disappointment.
    Yes, the core idea is good and yes, the hacking is the best part of the game...but that's the only thing that's actually fun and it's just not enough to carry this game. The gameplay besides hacking is clumsy, the controls on pc are annoying, driving feels wrong and the gunplay is awkward..
    And yes, the story is boring and the main character not    This game is just a big disappointment.
    Yes, the core idea is good and yes, the hacking is the best part of the game...but that's the only thing that's actually fun and it's just not enough to carry this game. The gameplay besides hacking is clumsy, the controls on pc are annoying, driving feels wrong and the gunplay is awkward..
    And yes, the story is boring and the main character not interesting, so no way I'm going to finish this.
    Don't bother with it.    … Expand
  49. MaxmilianKohler
    Jun 6, 2020
    3
    Very poorly optimized for PC. In 2020 you will still need a high-end PC to run this game well, and keyboard & mouse function is very poor. It also takes a really long time to open, and the quality of graphics for the FPS cost is poor.

    Dynamic FOV is annoying. Open world/free roam gameplay. I didn't find most of the mini games and side quests appealing. The spider one is pretty cool    Very poorly optimized for PC. In 2020 you will still need a high-end PC to run this game well, and keyboard & mouse function is very poor. It also takes a really long time to open, and the quality of graphics for the FPS cost is poor.

    Dynamic FOV is annoying.

    Open world/free roam gameplay. I didn't find most of the mini games and side quests appealing. The spider one is pretty cool though. The default graphics are pretty washed out and lacking shadows/shading, so had to install mods to improve it. But the mod makes trees and grass really pixelated.

    I don't like driving from cops. It's boring. Thankfully you can mostly skip those side missions.

    Most of the vehicles aren't really fun and don't handle that well.

    Most of the music is pretty bad, so I turned it off.

    I craft items and they disappear. Missions disappear even though it appears that the game still registers me as in a mission.

    Missions bug out. The first forced Online Contracts. I completed everything, now it wants me to access the Online Contracts App but it says it's unavailable during missions... After watching a walkthrough it appears that the "Online Contracts App" never actually shows up, and I was thinking what they wanted me to access is the "Fixer contracts".

    The "fix" I figured out was to click "monitoring network" instead, which opens the "online contracts" menu/map, which you can get stuck in. And the fix for getting stuck in that is to click every single option on the map, and one of them should eventually work. For me, "online hacking" was the one that worked. Then "request hacking target". Then I went into the game menu options -> online -> online invasions OFF.

    Fills up your screen with information to read while you're getting shot. And then after you dismiss it so you can not get killed it's difficult/impossible to find. An easy fix would be if the game paused during those pop up messages, like pretty much every other game does.

    The mouse accel makes the combat really frustrating, especially when there are lots of enemies. It even makes the map frustrating to use.

    Lots of annoying and buggy things, such as completing an area and then enemies respawn right away. Or completing one section of a mission and then enemies spawn right on top of you and kill you immediately, resulting in you having to do everything again, including the unenjoyable hacking mechanism. Plus you have to go through unskippable cut scenes over and over. Missions frequently bug out and make you lose everything you earned during the mission. Because the only way to get out of a mission is to erase everything since the beginning of it. Crazy.

    Sometimes you can't use the same key that you used to open a menu to close it. Can't scroll out far enough on the map. You have helicopters chasing you and you have to do actions on them or attack them, but it locks your camera so you can't even look at the helicopter. There's no mechanism for getting out of boats normally/easily. The upgrades are super "meh".

    This is the kind of game where you're thankful when it's over.    … Expand
  50. Gilaras
    Sep 2, 2020
    3
    when they call reinforcements, they just suddenly teleport the area :( and we die so quickly.
  51. F3T1W
    Aug 27, 2021
    3
    A more interesting craft like GTA, at first it is interesting, then you feel the lack of a soul
  52. Zhriver
    May 31, 2014
    2
    Lets start with the obvious. In it's current state the game is downright broken. No matter how insane a machine you've got you will suffer from debilitating stuttering.
    On to the gameplay, the driving is utterly **** The cars feel very floaty. Even a small bump will send it flying. Often you can drive straight through oncoming cars as the collision detection doesn't work. You can even    Lets start with the obvious. In it's current state the game is downright broken. No matter how insane a machine you've got you will suffer from debilitating stuttering.
    On to the gameplay, the driving is utterly **** The cars feel very floaty. Even a small bump will send it flying. Often you can drive straight through oncoming cars as the collision detection doesn't work. You can even drive your motorcycle upside down without falling off the bike.
    The voice acting is some of the worst I've come across as well, some of the voice actors can't pronounce common words correct. The dialog is downright painful in some cut-scenes.
    You can find plenty of write ups as to how boring the storyline and gameplay is so I won't go into detail about this.
    We're a group of 5 who often game together, picking up the new releases to have some fun. There isn't a single one of us who still has this game installed on our computers. I paid 100USD for this game and I've clocked more than 20hours to give it a fair chance, but I just can't stomach this game.
    I can't recall a game where I've wanted a refund more than this stinker.    … Expand
  53. BlameBot
    May 28, 2014
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Tried to run this on my computer, but failed utterly. Crossfire is not supported, and from what I've read, AMD cards just gets screwed for even trying to run the game. Even on lowest settings, the game stutters horribly. NPC conversations are repetitive. You can walk down the street and hear the same repetitive conversations, the cars don't take any sort of crumple damage, you know, something that GTA 3 (you know, that game that came out over a decade ago?) could do.

    There are a few cool parts, like the Spidertank, but even that gets bland quickly. Not worth the money, and I'm going to be asking for a refund.    … Expand
  54. Kamikaze211
    May 28, 2014
    2
    Well, I can say I get disappointed when I get my hands on this game. First of all, I have a good computer for that and I can't play on medium or even high. Game is dropping on few frames only and I repeat it's not because of my computer. So I completed first mission and I can say that: This game has nothing with hacking, it's trash like EA does these days. Riding car seems more likeWell, I can say I get disappointed when I get my hands on this game. First of all, I have a good computer for that and I can't play on medium or even high. Game is dropping on few frames only and I repeat it's not because of my computer. So I completed first mission and I can say that: This game has nothing with hacking, it's trash like EA does these days. Riding car seems more like swimming in water, horrible. Graphic looks awful, worse than GTA IV or some old games. Hacking with one button? Well, this is not hacking at all! What is different on this game than other's? Definitively bugs, more than any game what you have played. I'm going to run this game on xbox 360. I know, graphic will be much worse but at least I can play it. If you have AMD graphic, forget about this game, luckily I don't. Don't waste time with that game, it's completely trash.… Expand
  55. Shady_Glen
    Jun 2, 2014
    2
    The game uses UPlay ... which is a huge problem in and of itself. The game has a story line which is both bland and boring .... very, very, very repetitive missions. Driving using a mouse and keyboard sucks. Poor car control, poor speed control, and poor tire traction results in very poor driving dynamics. Graphics and physics worse than GTA 4, Hacking into other peoples personal dataThe game uses UPlay ... which is a huge problem in and of itself. The game has a story line which is both bland and boring .... very, very, very repetitive missions. Driving using a mouse and keyboard sucks. Poor car control, poor speed control, and poor tire traction results in very poor driving dynamics. Graphics and physics worse than GTA 4, Hacking into other peoples personal data was interesting .... for about the first half hour or so .... then got boring as hell. This game is a huge letdown ... I would not buy it again ... save your money for something good.… Expand
  56. GridironCJ
    Jun 12, 2014
    2
    Quick rundown:

    - Horribly optimized for PC
    - Even at max settings, it's rather underwhelming for a PC release
    - Generic sandbox gameplay that doesn't go beyond what GTA V did
    - Poor story
    - Poor AI
    - Poor physics
    - Did not live up to the hype and not worth the way

    You're better off waiting until GTA V is released on PC, which has finally been announced.
  57. carlbme
    May 30, 2014
    2
    TERRIBLE

    The story isn't bad. That's the ONLY reason I gave it as high of a score as I did.
    Boring city, terrible driving, terrible graphics, NPC's are on par with GTA3, terrible code causing terrible graphics to slow down a machine that can handle much better. The supposed freedom that comes with these style of games is severely lacking.
  58. reecej
    May 27, 2014
    2
    This clunky GTA clone has the most painful driving physics i've experienced since The Getaway (2002) I cannot believe that a game so unbelievably hyped could turn out to feel so cheap and pointless to play, the game world is lifeless and has no personality. All round cheap game which feels as if it should come free with something else. I am angry about paying the full price for this pieceThis clunky GTA clone has the most painful driving physics i've experienced since The Getaway (2002) I cannot believe that a game so unbelievably hyped could turn out to feel so cheap and pointless to play, the game world is lifeless and has no personality. All round cheap game which feels as if it should come free with something else. I am angry about paying the full price for this piece of garbage.… Expand
  59. nebz
    May 27, 2014
    2
    I don't recommend this game. It was nothing but average and over hyped. Ubisoft sure know how to **** people off with their DRM. I have no idea why I even bothered buying this on steam, when I have to use Uplay too, what a friggin joke! The driving controls are so god damn sensitive I feel like I am in a damn car with schizophrenia. The movement controls are so clunky and thisI don't recommend this game. It was nothing but average and over hyped. Ubisoft sure know how to **** people off with their DRM. I have no idea why I even bothered buying this on steam, when I have to use Uplay too, what a friggin joke! The driving controls are so god damn sensitive I feel like I am in a damn car with schizophrenia. The movement controls are so clunky and this optimization is a total farce! If you can't help yourself and must play this, pirate it. Don't give them a cent more.

    THIS IS NOT WHAT YOU THINK IT IS MADE OUT TO BE. DO NOT BUY.    … Expand
  60. Synt0xx
    Jun 7, 2014
    2
    Just bugged, the game is nice, but you cant play infact of a bug which lets you stuck in the loading screen since release and ubisoft cant find that issue
  61. fabittar
    May 27, 2014
    2
    Game sucks. Buyer Beware! Stay away! Bargain bin material. Overhyped piece of c...

    NPCs are dumb. Car physics are moronic. Hacking is retarded. Story is stupid. Avoid! Seriously, the game crashes all the time, there's nothing to do in the "live, breathing city", and it's short. This game is awful.
  62. Mortvicr
    May 29, 2014
    2
    Foremost, before you buy this game I would like to warn you of the terrible car handling, as with most of these type of games from GTA, Just Cause 2 and Sleeping dogs the driving is one of the main part of the game. GTA driving mechanics weren't great, but Watch Dog are just awful, bordering unplayable.

    The cars slip and slid around like that the ice part in Zelda: ocarina of time, -    Foremost, before you buy this game I would like to warn you of the terrible car handling, as with most of these type of games from GTA, Just Cause 2 and Sleeping dogs the driving is one of the main part of the game. GTA driving mechanics weren't great, but Watch Dog are just awful, bordering unplayable.

    The cars slip and slid around like that the ice part in Zelda: ocarina of time, - Don't turn enough and the car doesn't turn, turn too much and its slips'n'slids and fish tails around like crazy, hitting every, lamp post, car, fence, wall, pedestrian and building, which makes those - Chase guy mission frustrating, or tail that guy and invade the goons are just plan unenjoyable. And there are loads of these, the main campaign is mostly tail this guy, chase those guys oh and the terrible sneak into the build or sneak out without been seen, and if they catch you it's right back to the beginning again.

    It take all the worst and annoying elements from other open world games, the parts that are just filling to add more packing to the game, Watch_Dogs is that, filler.

    This is a god awful game, and a nasty little PC port..    … Expand
  63. Silverqt
    May 27, 2014
    2
    That game - garbage! Cant even play it.
    Reasons:
    1. The framerate is absolutely **** it lags on the same place where 2 sec ago was stable fps without **** reason. 2. Why everything so stupid? That side missions are absolutely without motivation and clear reason. Its level of SEGA mega drive 1990 year. 3. Hacking looks like big **** joke for 15 years imbeciles and everywhere with that    That game - garbage! Cant even play it.
    Reasons:
    1. The framerate is absolutely **** it lags on the same place where 2 sec ago was stable fps without **** reason.
    2. Why everything so stupid? That side missions are absolutely without motivation and clear reason. Its level of SEGA mega drive 1990 year.
    3. Hacking looks like big **** joke for 15 years imbeciles and everywhere with that freaking phone like idiotic ****.
    4. Visuals Ok, but its not that level what we saw on e3 2012. And its about technical. Grand Theft Auto 4 better in details, like crush the wall, hydrant etc. Car physics cant even compare. In details gta better in 1000 times.
    5. So i cant even fight in game? or what the **** cant kick someone ass.
    Thats only 10% of my claim, cos game is really idiotic. They fool everyone once again.    … Expand
  64. BSim500
    Sep 26, 2014
    2
    Good Lord, where to start?

    Controls : Badly ported consolized controls (mouse speed all over the place & inconsistent from one menu to the next, 1 second laggy delay in all movements (compared to 0.3-0.6s in most fluid games), smartphone menu is a simulated analog stick, predictive targeting keeps jumping about, cannot crouch or jump without "contextual" actions, "uncovering" takes a    Good Lord, where to start?

    Controls : Badly ported consolized controls (mouse speed all over the place & inconsistent from one menu to the next, 1 second laggy delay in all movements (compared to 0.3-0.6s in most fluid games), smartphone menu is a simulated analog stick, predictive targeting keeps jumping about, cannot crouch or jump without "contextual" actions, "uncovering" takes a few seconds to "unstick" from a wall, combat feels massively clunky, sluggish aiming and poor "gunplay" in general.

    Driving : BADLY game-breakingly broken (long 1s delay in turning regardless of speed, brakes unresponsive, two speeds - stop and 80mph, can't shoot from vehicles, collision detection broken with oncoming traffic & objects), etc. Physics are a joke (everything either weighs 100 tons or is totally weightless and there's no sense of friction on the roads at all).

    AI : Police "rubber-banding" ruins fun of chases, AI characters/cars spawn & despawn 20 meters from you especially during chases, AI broken on crime quests (if you take down a mugger, NPC's will treat you AS the mugger), helicopter locks laser sight on you even when zigzagging at 80mph, side missions get spammed too fast. The city looks alive, but only as long as you don't interact with anything (you can't even talk to anyone), immersion breaking contradictory random tags "HIV positive blood donor", etc.

    Hacking : Nothing more than "Press Q to win" novelty which becomes boring after first 20mins and is nonsensical anyway (hack mechanical steam pipes?), hacking traffic lights ahead merely creates jams in the middle of the road where you want to drive (and pursuing enemies are so close they bypass it), hacking a bridge will simply cause police to "teleport spawn" the other side anyway after 5 seconds, trying to hack behind you (looking back) is impossible without crashing, super annoying hack puzzles.

    Nonsensical plot : Aiden is a "hero" who got his own niece killed whilst committing a crime (then blames everyone else) then since goes on a crime-fuelled rampage - to stamp out crime), Aiden keeps saying he needs to remain anonymous when the authorities and the media mentions him on the news all the time. Aiden doesn’t want to get arrested, so later on he gets arrested in order to break into prison to intimidate a witness there who can identify him even though the police already know who he is and are after him. Missions get ultra repetitive & tedious (I stuck with it for 8hrs up until Act 1 ("Not The Pizza Guy") then gave up out of sheer boredom as they're all the same recycled "meet contact and escape ambush" cut & paste sub-plots that are obvious padding to make the game longer than it should be,

    GFX : Texture pop-in, GFX texture quality low and massively dumbed down from E3 footage (ie, blatantly false & dishonest marketing), poor performance, chronic stutter, missing face texture bug, AMD cards run 20-40% slower than they should, lengthy unskippable cutscenes (made worse by lack of quick/manual saves), alt-Tabbing back & forward loses VSync & triple buffering requiring highly annoying switching from fullscreen to borderless and then back to fullscreen again to avoid 30fps lock in rate (and usual D3Doverrider fix doesn’t work due to game being 64-bit), some building sign textures are low-res & have visible JPEG artifacts.

    Everything else : Dual DRM (Uplay + Steam), no quicksave or multiple save slots (see +300 pages on Ubisoft support forum about game-breaking save-game corruption for why this is important), Some journalists were openly bribed with a free Nexus 7 'gift', long load times, final boss QTE, all that "city scale freedom" and you still get “You are leaving the mission area” messages, people’s metadata feels contrived and on an obvious "random number generator" algorithm after 20-30mins of play, overheard phone conversations reused over & over. 95% of the Skill Tree makes little difference to gameplay, 90% loading screen bug, unbalanced weapons (pistol more powerful than grenade launcher). Ludicrously inefficient (3GB VRAM required for ugly textures complete with JPEG ringing artifacts?)

    Overall : A nasty little PC port of a game that falls way short of what could be great potential. Maybe a sequel will fix what's broken, but this is one wildly over-hyped train-wreck.    … Expand
  65. rudiedirkx
    Aug 9, 2014
    2
    The 'hacking' is horrible, the health/hurt is horrible, the driving and cars are horrible. After a while, everything's the boring same. The AR mini games are fun, thank god for those, but only once or twice. The problem isn't just not living up to the enormous hype, it's just not a good game. The story is ridiculous and I can't help but HATE the very self absorbed, annoying main character.The 'hacking' is horrible, the health/hurt is horrible, the driving and cars are horrible. After a while, everything's the boring same. The AR mini games are fun, thank god for those, but only once or twice. The problem isn't just not living up to the enormous hype, it's just not a good game. The story is ridiculous and I can't help but HATE the very self absorbed, annoying main character. Zero replay value.… Expand
  66. pioslik
    May 27, 2014
    2
    Doesn't look very good (it's not even close to 2012 version, maybe except water), has really poor optimisation (but not as much as AC 4)- and no, I don't have the Bitcoin edition. It's 2014 for god's sake, PC development tools has really improved and yet, there are Ubisoft which can't make a proper game.

    The whole game makes an impression of being unpolished, NPCs are really dumb, whole    Doesn't look very good (it's not even close to 2012 version, maybe except water), has really poor optimisation (but not as much as AC 4)- and no, I don't have the Bitcoin edition. It's 2014 for god's sake, PC development tools has really improved and yet, there are Ubisoft which can't make a proper game.

    The whole game makes an impression of being unpolished, NPCs are really dumb, whole game world feels very repetitive. I don't know how much publisher has paid to press for all those great reviews. Oh, and you (and NPCs too) can't shoot while driving a car or motorcycle. Yeah... And many other restrictions. Welcome to the Next-Gen.
    So many promises, so little fulfilled...    … Expand
  67. yY2
    Jun 6, 2014
    2
    One of worst games i ever played:

    -Story is dumb
    -Side missions have 0 creativity and are all the same
    -Gameplay is boring

    +Only interesting thing was hacking, but it got old very fast too.
    DONT BUY THIS
  68. Dralidan
    Aug 1, 2014
    2
    There's hardly anything good about this game. The AI is absolutely horrid, the hacking isn't even all that interesting, and nearly all of the missions are the same. It's kinda fun for about 2 hours, but then things get repetitive. The city isn't that interesting and doesn't look that good either. It's a good game to pick up if you manage to find it for $5 or less.
  69. Cepheid46e2
    May 27, 2014
    2
    i7 4930k OC 4.6
    780ti OC 1300 on Water
    ASUS Black motherboard 32GB 2100 RAM Now if you'll note my computer specs above you'll see that I am WELL above what's recommended for the game and yet it's still unplayable. On a single monitor FPS drops down to 20-30FPS (major hitching, game looks like **** even with these low FPS and unable to connect to any multiplayer functions) which is    i7 4930k OC 4.6
    780ti OC 1300 on Water
    ASUS Black motherboard
    32GB 2100 RAM

    Now if you'll note my computer specs above you'll see that I am WELL above what's recommended for the game and yet it's still unplayable. On a single monitor FPS drops down to 20-30FPS (major hitching, game looks like **** even with these low FPS and unable to connect to any multiplayer functions) which is sad because consoles (with lower specs) get 30FPS. All I can say is that I will NEVER, ****ING EVER buy a Ubisoft game again. I was even looking forward to the Snowdrop engine and "The Division" but it's obviously smoke and mirrors the same as Watchdogs. Ubisoft is apparently competing with EA for worst software company in the world. This must be their DRM tactic, make games unplayable so nobody will pirate them. Good riddance.

    Game is also very boring with predictable and dumb AI.

    /goodbye Ubisoft    … Expand
  70. peterf28
    Oct 31, 2014
    2
    Stupid and boring game. I start to hate Ubisoft. The open world is limited and does not feel real .They dont make good games, very boring . I also hate other ubisoft games .
  71. Beatlejuice
    May 30, 2014
    2
    This game looks horrible, it freezes up and it seems the online component is broken. This could be sure to everyone having problems. I am running a 4670k, 6870 hawk OCd, 8 gbs 1600 mhz ram. My video card is old sure but it still works well in bf4. Running 60 fps at high/med settings. And even at those settings bf4 looks great.

    Now with watch Dogs. The highest the game will allow    This game looks horrible, it freezes up and it seems the online component is broken. This could be sure to everyone having problems. I am running a 4670k, 6870 hawk OCd, 8 gbs 1600 mhz ram. My video card is old sure but it still works well in bf4. Running 60 fps at high/med settings. And even at those settings bf4 looks great.

    Now with watch Dogs. The highest the game will allow the card to run is medium textures. This makes the game look like Gta vice city on my Galaxy Note phone. This is a horribly bad running game. Then after playing about 10 minutes. It starts freezing every 5 seconds. This causes frame rates to drop to 10 or so requiring me to restart the game.

    Far as the game play. I could not use a mouse and keyboard. It almost forces the use of a controller. The game play seems okay. I would have preferred a less arcade driving system but I guess they wanted cars to feel like that so okay then. The gunplay seems good. I like the way they control. Good aiming and recoil feel for a 3rd person game. The little I played seemed okay. I am guessing it is nowhere close to the scope, quality and feel of GTA 5 but I guess this is the closest we have. This score is solely based on the horrible visual quality and stutter problems the game has.    … Expand
  72. keitaro202
    Jun 3, 2014
    2
    Worst driving mechanics in the world. This game is boring from the beginning. Nothing innovative about hacking...just press Q. It's basically GTA without the ghetto and less of an open world. Boring. Graphics are scaled waaaaay down in comparison to the E3 preview. It's just an overall ugly experience.
  73. Hnedokneznik
    May 27, 2014
    2
    Not funny at all. Some bugs and stupid AI. Very repetitive. Minigames is... just not fit in the game. Hacking is "hacking" by button. Im sorry, but this is not good game.
  74. Ulysse
    May 27, 2014
    2
    A des années lumières des promesses faites à l'E3 2012, en plus d'être assez moche, le jeu est injouable sur PC, que celui ci soit puissant ou non. Le gameplay est finalement assez basique : un GTA like avec un bouton A pour pirater et influencer un peu l'environnement. Le scénario est aux fraises chantillis et n'a finalement rien pour lui, seuls restent les bruitages et le doublageA des années lumières des promesses faites à l'E3 2012, en plus d'être assez moche, le jeu est injouable sur PC, que celui ci soit puissant ou non. Le gameplay est finalement assez basique : un GTA like avec un bouton A pour pirater et influencer un peu l'environnement. Le scénario est aux fraises chantillis et n'a finalement rien pour lui, seuls restent les bruitages et le doublage anglais d'assez bonne facture.
    Rien que le fait d'avoir menti aux joueurs me déçoit énormément d'Ubisoft, mais le jeu n'est au final meme pas fun a jouer et c'est encore plus regrettable, dommage car l'ambiance et le trip des premières annonces avait de quoi faire un jeu phénoménal/    … Expand
  75. spedeer2007
    May 27, 2014
    2
    Very bad game..

    -very bad optimization
    -a lot of bugs
    -bad driving system
    -bad shooting system
    -you cant not squat when you want
    -boring optional mission
    -hacking? You just press one button.
    Game on low details works and look worse than gta IV on medium/high.
  76. FolkenVIII
    May 27, 2014
    2
    Boring ... Repetitive ... A game without a soul.
    Here are the missions :
    1 - Go to a ramdom grey building
    2 - Hack a machinethinguberprotected without being spotted
    3 - Hurray !
    4 - Repeat.
  77. matzy911
    May 27, 2014
    2
    Totally not worth its price.. we can all agree that we've seen this kind of laziness way to often now.. It almost feels like the developers aint that interessted in making a good product, they just want their quick buck as soon as possible for a minimal development cost...
  78. semperfi1503
    May 27, 2014
    2
    All in all, this is a freaking abomination. The graphics looks nothing like the 2012 trailer, with all the poor texture and visual effects. Hell, they said that this game's engine got some parts of Assassin's Creed IV and FarCry 3's visual combined, but I'd rather play FarCry 3 or Assassin's Creed IV for better visuals. Also, the driving mechanic is a huge train wreck that I'd rather walkAll in all, this is a freaking abomination. The graphics looks nothing like the 2012 trailer, with all the poor texture and visual effects. Hell, they said that this game's engine got some parts of Assassin's Creed IV and FarCry 3's visual combined, but I'd rather play FarCry 3 or Assassin's Creed IV for better visuals. Also, the driving mechanic is a huge train wreck that I'd rather walk or run most of the time. The acceleration and turning performance is super sensitive that it's so hard to drive straight. And the cover system, I love that I could stick myself to any piece of cover I could find and then switch cover quite easily. But press C to enter cover and press V to leave cover?? What the hell is that? Ubisoft has released many games utilizing cover mechanic, and some worked really nicely and here I thought they would have taken adventage of that, but no. And the main event - hacking is needless to say, disappointing. All you have to do is press and hold one single button on your keyboard and "boom!", whatever you were aiming to hack is taken care of. No deep hacking mechanic whatsoever although it was the one thing Ubisoft has been talking about a whole lot. And performance is also a pain in the ass. When I first played this game, it reminded me of Total War Rome II on its release. It's just so bad...all around.… Expand
  79. Weiker1
    May 28, 2014
    2
    Tris game is broken. Is not normal with a pc gamer with hi specs the FPS goes 15 on ultra. Many people with 780Ti with 6gb vram watch dogs runs 20 FPS.

    Very bad optimization. The last game that I buy from Ubilol. Never again.
    Que te den Ubilol.

    Sorry for muy poor english.
  80. Rewind84
    May 28, 2014
    2
    Fast Facts about Watch Dogs:
    1st- CONSOLE PORT !
    2st- you can not drive with out game pad
    3st- plot is average
    4st- The game is unoptimize for PC's
    5st- Gta IV can beat watch dogs !
    6st- Its not A NEXT GEN game is an old gen game !
  81. Drivolis
    May 28, 2014
    2
    Lost 13 hours of gameplay. Can't use my phone to hack, can't play multiplayer, need to start over again? For 60€ for real? Yea... for real. The mouse handling is terrible, the menu is a joke. The gameplay itself is awsome... but so many bugs, graphical also gliches. Optimalisation? Never heard of it. I play it sometimes like a comic book. I have i7 4770k + 280x gaming edition 8 GB ram.Lost 13 hours of gameplay. Can't use my phone to hack, can't play multiplayer, need to start over again? For 60€ for real? Yea... for real. The mouse handling is terrible, the menu is a joke. The gameplay itself is awsome... but so many bugs, graphical also gliches. Optimalisation? Never heard of it. I play it sometimes like a comic book. I have i7 4770k + 280x gaming edition 8 GB ram. What's wrong with Ubisoft these days?… Expand
  82. rebornyama
    May 28, 2014
    2
    I can't believe I bought the hype.

    - Nvidia Gameworks. Yeah, let's be competitive with AMD by screwing them customers. - Horribly unoptimized for pc. Frame dropping everywhere. You'd thought that having Nvidia Gameworks would make this game great for NVIDIA's GPU? Well you're wrong. Apparently even two titans won't be able to get stable fps on 1080p. - Driving mechanics : WTF were    I can't believe I bought the hype.

    - Nvidia Gameworks. Yeah, let's be competitive with AMD by screwing them customers.
    - Horribly unoptimized for pc. Frame dropping everywhere. You'd thought that having Nvidia Gameworks would make this game great for NVIDIA's GPU? Well you're wrong. Apparently even two titans won't be able to get stable fps on 1080p.
    - Driving mechanics : WTF were they thinking.
    - Uplay : Still sucks. Paying customers are locked out of their games on the 27th while pirates are free to do what they want.

    10/10 won't recommend this game to my friends. Unless you can get this cheap; cheaper than the other dog games that is Sleeping Dogs.    … Expand
  83. Mel2387
    May 28, 2014
    2
    - Stupid AI
    - Basic shadow
    - Poor graphics
    - Bad shooting system
    - Hacking system not interesting
    - Game full of bugs
    - Copycat of GTA
    - Just boring !
  84. monxide
    May 28, 2014
    2
    So, i bought PC verison of Watch Dogs, but i barely able to launch it on high-end spec - uplay connection issues, multiple crashes to desktop within first 10 minutes of play, weird tooltip symbols while using localization - that game simply is not worth it.
  85. Monstrum
    May 28, 2014
    2
    This game is absolutely garbage! Its not on the graphic levels they sold everyone on at E3. The game play is boring and simple. The main character you play is boring and uninspiring. I think this shows how much the mighty have fallen in game culture. I can't believe "Game Journalists" are giving this game anything over a 6.0 or 2 stars depending on their rating system. I've already tradedThis game is absolutely garbage! Its not on the graphic levels they sold everyone on at E3. The game play is boring and simple. The main character you play is boring and uninspiring. I think this shows how much the mighty have fallen in game culture. I can't believe "Game Journalists" are giving this game anything over a 6.0 or 2 stars depending on their rating system. I've already traded this game in for the new version of Tomb Raider. Can't wait for the Witcher 3!… Expand
  86. Hurricane
    May 28, 2014
    2
    Ubisoft lied to us all the time. So much hype about this game, and what we've got?
    -Bad Graphics
    -Lags and freezes
    -Car physics from saints row
    2 points for hack idea and Chicago
  87. lurch
    May 30, 2014
    2
    A bad game at absolute best. I was bored from the first moment I started playing this game. The controls just feel sluggish and clumsy, the graphics are laughable and the story is a huge yawn. The whole game just feels like a sloppy mess.
  88. Atlars
    May 31, 2014
    2
    Before the release of Watchdogs, Ubisoft released videos on Youtube showing friends hacking each other, and other cool hacking features amongst friends in multiplayer. The only problem, this was a lie - a scam if you ask. VERY few of the promised features are actually available.

    The multiplayer part is DEAD - yes DEAD! Do not buy this game is you expect a multilayer feature! OK - the    Before the release of Watchdogs, Ubisoft released videos on Youtube showing friends hacking each other, and other cool hacking features amongst friends in multiplayer. The only problem, this was a lie - a scam if you ask. VERY few of the promised features are actually available.

    The multiplayer part is DEAD - yes DEAD! Do not buy this game is you expect a multilayer feature!

    OK - the single player campaign. Had loads of moments where I though to myself, what the F am I doing right now, and why? The all over story is a bad parody of only god know what high school play. Copied contend from famous tv-series. A total lag of originality.

    Why a score of 2? The hacking part is new! Well semi new! And its cool!

    All over! This game is a VERY bad attempt to make GTA clone.

    DO NOT waste your money on this game!    … Expand
  89. MiatWarp
    Jun 1, 2014
    2
    All i want - it's co-op. There is nothing close to this.
    All i got:
    - Multi-monitor (NVidia surround) problems (no multi-mon support & wrong FOV in 2014!!!) - Low FPS (just because game can't handle 4085x1024 on GTX 770 4GB) - Game doesn't support game wheel (game have 1st person view in cars) - i need use x360 emulator to make the wheel work - Many ubisoft connection problems - Too    All i want - it's co-op. There is nothing close to this.
    All i got:
    - Multi-monitor (NVidia surround) problems (no multi-mon support & wrong FOV in 2014!!!)
    - Low FPS (just because game can't handle 4085x1024 on GTX 770 4GB)
    - Game doesn't support game wheel (game have 1st person view in cars) - i need use x360 emulator to make the wheel work
    - Many ubisoft connection problems
    - Too easy and short campaign (even on "realism" difficulty)
    - Small world, less then world in GTA SA!

    This is not a game that I waited. And its overpriced.    … Expand
  90. ROBerttt7567
    Jun 4, 2014
    2
    Watch_Dogs would be a pretty cool game if it was made around 2006. The game needs to be run with Ubisoft's terrible Uplay system. The visuals aren't impressive and you get terrible performance with nothing to show for. The story is boring and uninteresting. There is barely anything to do after you finish the campaign. This is a pretty big disappointment after seeing the e3 2012 gameplay.Watch_Dogs would be a pretty cool game if it was made around 2006. The game needs to be run with Ubisoft's terrible Uplay system. The visuals aren't impressive and you get terrible performance with nothing to show for. The story is boring and uninteresting. There is barely anything to do after you finish the campaign. This is a pretty big disappointment after seeing the e3 2012 gameplay. But then again, it's Ubisoft.… Expand
  91. SadMaskSalesman
    Jun 8, 2014
    2
    I have to say, verisimilitude is not the strongest part of the game, manly if we talk about physic, everything broke with a single touch... Beside that the history is not so interesting... The game play is not so revolutionary... I think that, if the Ubisoft had not overrated so much this game, would be probably more accepted by the public
    When I bought the game I was with the feeling    I have to say, verisimilitude is not the strongest part of the game, manly if we talk about physic, everything broke with a single touch... Beside that the history is not so interesting... The game play is not so revolutionary... I think that, if the Ubisoft had not overrated so much this game, would be probably more accepted by the public
    When I bought the game I was with the feeling "Oh, I certainly will finish the game 100%"... Well, today I just want to finish the game as soon as possible to trade for a game cube game to my old video game collection : D    … Expand
  92. phillipseiffert
    Jun 9, 2014
    2
    It is the 5th of June 2012. Ubisoft holds a press conference on E3 2012 and announces the game Watch_Dogs by showing a glimpse which stuns gaming enthusiasts with its graphics and features.
    //
    It is the 26th of June 2014. Ubisoft is not able to prevent people from playing before release. As a consequence of that Ubisoft servers are constantly down, what slows down the ability to play the    It is the 5th of June 2012. Ubisoft holds a press conference on E3 2012 and announces the game Watch_Dogs by showing a glimpse which stuns gaming enthusiasts with its graphics and features.
    //
    It is the 26th of June 2014. Ubisoft is not able to prevent people from playing before release. As a consequence of that Ubisoft servers are constantly down, what slows down the ability to play the game on release day. A lot of gamers have problems with uPlay, Ubisoft's own client. All in all: Release day was a mess. On my side, however, I was able to download it one day before release day, but were not capable of playing because the game crashed when being on main menu. One day later, it worked with redownloading it.
    I was able to play Watch_Dogs two days long until a loading screen bug hit me on 28th May. I enjoyed playing Watch_Dogs since it was fun to explore the whole world, main and side missions. Indeed, the game has been dramatically changed since E3 2012. These two years changed everything so that you can see E3 2012's glimpse as a betrayal regarding the gameplay we actually got. Of course changes have to be made during development, but these were so radical.
    The reason why I give Watch_Dogs two points is simply that I wait for an official announcement of a patch for two weeks now. This is unacceptable when considering that so many people are affected. Ubisoft missed to care about their customers, Ubisoft missed to patch the game early, Ubisoft missed to get rid of a Beta bug. There is no excuse for this mess.
    Watch_Dogs release is even worse than DICE+EA's Battlefield 4. And that, ladies and gentlemean, says a lot.

    -ps    … Expand
  93. A_Darker_Prince
    Jun 15, 2014
    2
    I'm going to be slightly generous in this review. This game can definitely be fun. Hacking people's phones (even if it's one-button pressing) is a unique spin, as is hacking traffic lights, road spikes, road blockers and all that. I also really enjoyed some of the stealthy missions, I enjoy stealth games.
    But that's about as far as the good stuff goes. Here comes the bad. Now, I had to    I'm going to be slightly generous in this review. This game can definitely be fun. Hacking people's phones (even if it's one-button pressing) is a unique spin, as is hacking traffic lights, road spikes, road blockers and all that. I also really enjoyed some of the stealthy missions, I enjoy stealth games.
    But that's about as far as the good stuff goes. Here comes the bad. Now, I had to install this game onto a USB, so that may be the reason for some of these problems, but still, I had to install this game three times, with 45 minutes per installation. You could understand my immense anger in doing that, it shouldn't have had to happen. Also, the game locks up on me. A lot. I've had it lock up on me eight times, each time being on a bridge. And now I'm on a mission where I have to take down an idiot in a firetruck. Who goes onto a bridge. It locks up on me every time, giving me an Error screen...
    But, those are the glaring technical issues. Other issues are as follows:
    - WHY can't I shoot from my vehicle, and WHY can others shoot me from theirs!?
    - The Enforcers...I hate them, they soak up WAY too much ammo to drop, but they can kill you in a matter of seconds?!
    - Skill tree. Another cliche in gaming.
    - Revenge. Another cliche in gaming.
    - While Aiden is bearable, he's kind of an ****

    If the technical issues didn't occur, or if they don't occur when the game is installed onto an XBox 360 Hard Drive, I'd immediately give this game a 7 out of 10, but as it stands, this game is unplayable.    … Expand
  94. V1rTus
    Jun 16, 2014
    2
    The game came out quite crude and uninteresting. Ubisoft is nothing new except the towers can not think. In each game, stupid tower. How much can you? In Far Cry 4 again will probably tower. Stupid and miserable NPC control. In general, the game - dog ****
  95. SvenEdt
    Jun 19, 2014
    2
    I found the game to be a general letdown. The story was refreshing, although dry and hard to follow. The biggest flaws aside from graphics is the Mission Design and the Game Controls. The 3rd person game-play barely functions, and vehicles feel like bumper cars on ice. I purchased the game and would like to finish it but am finding the game generally unplayable.
  96. tadashii1004
    Jun 29, 2014
    2
    Watchdogs = only GTA with Hacker's theme... Graphics are good, story correct but gameplay is awful. Driving is painful, especially when you need to drive like a mad to avoid police car or winning a race but you also need to avoid killing civilians with a limited time to do the mission... the stealth part is just useless, just take a gun and shoot people... disappointing
  97. Kittensausage
    Jul 20, 2014
    2
    This game is the reason nobody should trust the hype. The game could have been so much more, but it turned out to be simply awful. Here's why :

    The game looks like a AAA game from two or three years ago. Some people often compare it to another GTA-like with a neat but underdeveloped gimmick that also happens to have "dogs" in its name... And that also happens to look better. However,    This game is the reason nobody should trust the hype. The game could have been so much more, but it turned out to be simply awful. Here's why :

    The game looks like a AAA game from two or three years ago. Some people often compare it to another GTA-like with a neat but underdeveloped gimmick that also happens to have "dogs" in its name... And that also happens to look better. However, the optimization was left to two starving interns to do and the game suffers from every optimization problem you could imagine : a whole lot of input lag, a huge memory leak on most configs, lots of stutter, terrible FPS even at the lowest settings, no DX9 support...

    The game itself is an average GTA-like built around a gimmick that is very limited in use. Whereas the game could have been an open-world Hitman with lots and lots of ways to get around an enemy or kill them directly using your environment as a weapon, most of the hacking is either mandatory or unnecessary (because a run and gun approach is just much simpler). You can't use a combination of hacks to kill an enemy (say, reversing the escalators time and time again to make him panic before he decides to take the elevator that you then proceed to drop a few hundred feet). It just ends up feeling like an other way of killing civilians when you get bored looking at the amazing trench coats physics.

    It's overall a very shallow game with a badly integrated gimmick that is just gonna end being a dumb franchise that will slowly die off.    … Expand
  98. KAOS661
    Sep 4, 2014
    2
    This game is just awful.All there is to it is a guy hacking traffic lights. What a terrible game. A waste of time and money. Worst game of the year without a doubt!
  99. Gawee08
    Nov 25, 2014
    2
    Watch_Dogs had a lot of potential but Ubisoft managed to somehow mess up Watch_Dogs in a way they have never done before (Including Unity, which was a great game but it had bad optimization). I love Ubisoft (Even if they make terrible PC ports) but Watch_Dogs is a terrible game that no one should have to play, even on PC. It was filled with glitches, poor optimization, missing featuresWatch_Dogs had a lot of potential but Ubisoft managed to somehow mess up Watch_Dogs in a way they have never done before (Including Unity, which was a great game but it had bad optimization). I love Ubisoft (Even if they make terrible PC ports) but Watch_Dogs is a terrible game that no one should have to play, even on PC. It was filled with glitches, poor optimization, missing features that they showed at E3 and bad graphics compared to today's standards.

    Watch_Dogs follows Aiden Pearce, a man who's niece was killed which made Aiden Pearce go on a quest to find the man who murdered her and take revenge. Aiden Pearce is a hacker who uses his phone to hack objects such as traffic lights, transformers, street pipes and generally most electronics in the futuristic city of Chicago.

    Gameplay for Watch_Dogs was average, but hacking was terrible. The hacking puzzles were mediocre and unoriginal, the normal hacking was just hold Q to hack and the shooting was.. meh.

    Aiden Pearce is the blandest character Ubisoft has made, he is more bland than Connor from Assassin's Creed 3. Aiden Pearce does not have any personality, his story is filled with cliches and he never shows any signs of emotion. Aiden Pearce is not likable or relatable due to the fact that he shows no signs of emotions or any personality.

    Watch_Dogs has many bugs, poor optimization, bad graphics, average gameplay and a terrible story. No one except for diehard Ubisoft fans should play Watch_Dogs as it is just not fun to play and the ending is a major let-down. I recommend you don't play this game unless you really want to. Ubisoft showed many great things at E3 but in the end, they downgraded graphics and took out many features that would've been great.    … Expand
  100. Loskutorr
    Oct 1, 2016
    2
    Unplayable. There is no FOV slider, there is no way to turn OFF mouse acceleration. Game feels uncontrollable. Character automatically "sticks" to the walls when you do not want to. Mouse feels laggy, unresponsive. Menus are made for gamepads and consoles. Car physics is a joke. Graphic is mediocre. Game is not worth even downloading from pirate bay. Played on i5, 16Gb RAM, GTX 1060. PlayUnplayable. There is no FOV slider, there is no way to turn OFF mouse acceleration. Game feels uncontrollable. Character automatically "sticks" to the walls when you do not want to. Mouse feels laggy, unresponsive. Menus are made for gamepads and consoles. Car physics is a joke. Graphic is mediocre. Game is not worth even downloading from pirate bay. Played on i5, 16Gb RAM, GTX 1060. Play Witcher 3 instead of this crap.… Expand
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Awards & Rankings

2
#2 Most Discussed PC Game of 2014
20
#20 Most Shared PC Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
77

Generally favorable reviews - based on 18 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 18
  3. Negative: 0 out of 18
  1. Pelit (Finland)
    Sep 3, 2014
    79
    Ubisoft's flagship title has a really, really repulsive protagonist. The entire storyline feels like it was cranked out of a automated story generator. On the positive side, Watch Dogs looks really good on PC, especially after modding the graphics to match the visual splendor of the early E3 demos. [Aug 2014]
  2. PC PowerPlay
    Jun 29, 2014
    70
    There are some strong gameplay elements in Watch Dogs, but overall it's merely an adequate open world game. [July 2014, p.46]
  3. GameCritics
    Jun 23, 2014
    80
    Nothing could have realistically lived up to the immense level of hype that Ubisoft stirred up for this game, and while I value strong narratives and envelope-pushing technological advancements, I place just as much importance in the ability to enjoy the gameplay that's being offered to me. Watch Dogs is one of the more exciting sandbox games of the last few years, and if this is to become Ubisoft's next big franchise, I'm excited to see where they take it.
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