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. Oliver404
    May 31, 2014
    6
    Throughout the game you take on the role of a hacker whose phone allows him to access a network that controls the entire city the game is based. While this set up to being an interesting and innovative game, watch dogs falls short of the mark; not due to glitches, bugs, down-scaled graphics or over-hype but poor design choices and poor development. Ultimately the games spectacular ideasThroughout the game you take on the role of a hacker whose phone allows him to access a network that controls the entire city the game is based. While this set up to being an interesting and innovative game, watch dogs falls short of the mark; not due to glitches, bugs, down-scaled graphics or over-hype but poor design choices and poor development. Ultimately the games spectacular ideas and concepts are lost and in the end it doesn't quite compare to other games of its ilk.

    Now I say the design choices were poor because the ideas and concepts behind the game had so much more potential then what was given to use. For instance, the games world is constantly active with NPCs, objectives and missions but it never changes in any meaningful way, it never evolves or responds to what we do or whats happening in the story. The city at the start of the game is exactly the same as the city at the end of the game. There are also many other smaller annoyances like control frequently being taken away from the player, unresponsive scenes & controls, no save feature, tedious checkpoints that make the player re-watch long cut-scenes or dialogue, unskippable cut-scenes and dialogue and at times poor explanations, instructions or descriptions.

    However watch dogs all up is not a bad game, the plot is extremely interesting and it couples with the open world anarchy is the only thing that kept me plaything the game to its end. Multiplier is also a blast, I just wish the game would stop prompting me to play it every 2 minutes and let me get on with the single player. And while the world never changes there is a wealth of content and fun to be had in it.

    Overall I score this game a SIX out of TEN, its definitely a game I enjoyed and will spend more time in, but in the end I don't feel it has the replay value needed for an open world genre and in the end will sadly be left on my self to wait a couple of years before I could ever go back to it. And if anyone from ubisoft reads this I simply disappointed with the lack features you could have juiced from such a brilliant, interesting, unique idea and concept as watch dogs.    … Expand
  2. 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
  3. Machiavelli_Esk
    Oct 7, 2016
    4
    Beautiful city with nice hacking tools but after reaching ca. 4 hours of gameplay the euphoria is gone and there is less that keeps you in game. Just classie ubisoft tasks, like capturing an outpost(CTOS Tower) or defeating some gangsters, very repetitive and uninspired. Story is just disastrous.
    Story 2/10
    Graphic 6/10 Gameplay 3/10, too easy, at an early story point you got already    Beautiful city with nice hacking tools but after reaching ca. 4 hours of gameplay the euphoria is gone and there is less that keeps you in game. Just classie ubisoft tasks, like capturing an outpost(CTOS Tower) or defeating some gangsters, very repetitive and uninspired. Story is just disastrous.
    Story 2/10
    Graphic 6/10
    Gameplay 3/10, too easy, at an early story point you got already overpowered skills and really repetitive
    Sound 7/10
    Driving 5/10
    Atmosphere 5/10
    In fact i didn't remember particular parts of the story or other missions, so it wasn't waste of time but i hardly recommend to hear some good music(or other things, to have some distraction) while playing watch dogs.
    So the only thing that motivates you to end the bad story, is the city of chicago. But this isn't enough for a AAA title so 4/10 is appropriate.    … Expand
  4. MrMicrochip
    Aug 10, 2018
    7
    I liked this game! Obviously there are issues, starting from the failed promises the E3 Demo made. I played the game last year (2017) with graphical mods so I propably had a little better experience on technological wise than the gamers that played the game when it was released. Mouse is still terrible in this game, fortunately they fixed it for Watch Dogs 2.

    Anyway, the game was better    I liked this game! Obviously there are issues, starting from the failed promises the E3 Demo made. I played the game last year (2017) with graphical mods so I propably had a little better experience on technological wise than the gamers that played the game when it was released. Mouse is still terrible in this game, fortunately they fixed it for Watch Dogs 2.

    Anyway, the game was better than I expected. Graphics are nice (with "E3" mods) , story is weak, but not annoying at least. Gameplay is the best part of the game, there could be more ways to hack etc but for the most part gameplay is just what can be expected, it is the first game of the series after all.    … Expand
  5. andermaan
    Aug 24, 2014
    9
    Многие говорили что игра не оправдала своих ожиданий но я щитаю что игра получилась очень хорошей , тем более чего вы еще ожидали графика есть ,мини игры , взломы, открытый мир, да согласен что сюжет можно было зделать интереснее но все остальное классно получилось!Многие говорили что игра не оправдала своих ожиданий но я щитаю что игра получилась очень хорошей , тем более чего вы еще ожидали графика есть ,мини игры , взломы, открытый мир, да согласен что сюжет можно было зделать интереснее но все остальное классно получилось!
  6. Theblackhawk658
    Dec 14, 2016
    6
    PRO:-Good mechanic(the hacking is suprisingly good)
    -Good gameplay
    -The city is full of stuff to do -Some of the minigames are pretty cool -NPC that walks around actually have personality with the hacking system -Good animation CON:-Poorly optimized -Main Character is uninteresting and boring -Many of sidequest is pretty much the same -Graphics look good but nowhere near the E3    PRO:-Good mechanic(the hacking is suprisingly good)
    -Good gameplay
    -The city is full of stuff to do
    -Some of the minigames are pretty cool
    -NPC that walks around actually have personality with the hacking system
    -Good animation
    CON:-Poorly optimized
    -Main Character is uninteresting and boring
    -Many of sidequest is pretty much the same
    -Graphics look good but nowhere near the E3
    -Story isn't that good, it's actually rather boring
    -Lack of interesting character to make you feel care    … Expand
  7. wootwoot
    Jun 1, 2014
    9
    Excellent game. I dont understand why the people hate it. Is amazing, inmersive, good sound, excelente open world full of life, and the graphics are fantastic. Please, dont hate, give a try a this good game.
  8. Zhael
    May 28, 2014
    10
    Tully amazing game! I've played it all day and am constantly impressed with the diversity, imagination and attention to detail. Worth every penny I paid. The best thing about this game is the immersion.
  9. reichmeister
    Jun 2, 2014
    9
    I must be playing a different game to most reviewers. All settings maxed out on ultra, 1920x 1080 and getting 75/80fps, no lag. Using 2 Wind force OC3 GTX780 in SLI and 16gb ram with I5 4670 running at 4400.Graphics and controls are excellent, maybe the game has been updated since launch. Buy the game and draw your own conclusions !
  10. XenozViews
    May 27, 2014
    8
    Game is fun and graphics are beautiful. Packs more fun than the latest two main GTAs. Although it's not perfect, like any game out there, it has potential to be a great franchise. For a first entry in a franchise, I think they did a great job.

    Car driving should be improved. I agree it's **** right now. Feels I'm driving with a d-pad rather than analog. Runs fine on my hardware too.    Game is fun and graphics are beautiful. Packs more fun than the latest two main GTAs. Although it's not perfect, like any game out there, it has potential to be a great franchise. For a first entry in a franchise, I think they did a great job.

    Car driving should be improved. I agree it's **** right now. Feels I'm driving with a d-pad rather than analog.

    Runs fine on my hardware too. Some people are upset because they don't know how to adjust the settings of the game to suit their machine and have good performance. They think adjusting = everything ultra + should run @ 60FPS. I've seen even people with low end machines complaining they cant play at max settings with 60 fps... smh.

    Go play on consoles then, the experience will be worst by a far margin.

    Running at max settings here @ 45 - 55 FPS, 1080p.    … Expand
  11. arkaram1990
    May 27, 2014
    9
    This game is great. Comparing it with GTA5 is a silly idea beacause these are two different games. Yes they both got sandbox in them and you can drive around and do things but you shouldnt forget that Watch_Dogs is more about the atmosphere and the story line. Moreover GTA5 is a bit of a silly/ funny game. Yes its fun to play but its not as serious as Watch_Dogs. Watch Dogs is more of aThis game is great. Comparing it with GTA5 is a silly idea beacause these are two different games. Yes they both got sandbox in them and you can drive around and do things but you shouldnt forget that Watch_Dogs is more about the atmosphere and the story line. Moreover GTA5 is a bit of a silly/ funny game. Yes its fun to play but its not as serious as Watch_Dogs. Watch Dogs is more of a mature game for mature players and GTA5 is more for school boys who want to have fun killing people, blowing stuff and etc. The game is great even with its minor bugs which will be fixed soon (optimization especially)… Expand
  12. 23skidoo
    Jun 2, 2014
    10
    I usually don't write reviews unless I feel strong about the consensus. That said, I think that Watch Dogs is amazing and has a great future ahead of it. The biggest complaints involving performance and graphics have not been an issue for me. I am running an I7-2600 and a 4 GBEVGA GTX 760, 8GB or Ram, Win 7 64. I mention all that because it would be considered a upper tier systemI usually don't write reviews unless I feel strong about the consensus. That said, I think that Watch Dogs is amazing and has a great future ahead of it. The biggest complaints involving performance and graphics have not been an issue for me. I am running an I7-2600 and a 4 GBEVGA GTX 760, 8GB or Ram, Win 7 64. I mention all that because it would be considered a upper tier system compared to most of the reviewers. I am running smooth with not glitches. Driving can be a bit wonky at times but is still fun. Hacking while not complicated is still enjoyable, I really like the building spying hacks.

    A lot of people compare this to GTA 4 but I cannot compare because I skipped GTA 4 since the story did not appeal to me. Even though it is light I like the subterfuge involved with Watch Dogs,the character is a criminal but a smart one.

    As for those complaining about performance it seems no different than years back when the Wing Commander and Ultima 7 came out and required a 386 processor. I remember a lot of people complaining back then but it drove people to upgrade so that other game companies could push their limits further. Anyway, while there are some people disappointed by broken promises of even more features, I am happy with the package that was delivered, and I am excited to see what kind of improvements are made in the future.    … Expand
  13. FlareFL
    Jan 16, 2021
    8
    It's a good game, not as good as GTA series games, but this is the Ubisoft game after all.
    I hope that in the following part of this game Ubisoft will improve physics of damages of cars, will make driving by more realistic, will work with shadows and reflections more carefully.
  14. ljpunksdad
    Jun 2, 2014
    9
    I really enjoy the game and have no technical issues, this is not an inflated score either. There were some hiccups in the beginning with servers but that is pretty much the norm lately. I also took my time and set up my settings so that I would get a beautiful and fluid game, and I am only using an i5-3570k (stock) with a gtx-760 ( current drivers). I enjoy the cars, the hacking, andI really enjoy the game and have no technical issues, this is not an inflated score either. There were some hiccups in the beginning with servers but that is pretty much the norm lately. I also took my time and set up my settings so that I would get a beautiful and fluid game, and I am only using an i5-3570k (stock) with a gtx-760 ( current drivers). I enjoy the cars, the hacking, and the multiplayer stuff that seems to work seamlessly for me.… Expand
  15. DN345U
    May 27, 2014
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Я сейчас не буду писать о том что игра забагованная, плохо оптимизированная, что физика плохая, интеллект плохой как пишут большинство нытиков. Вот про саму игру. Особо ее не ждал. И не сильно ждал крутости от нее. И конечно же первая часть не будет самой лучшей(Assassin's Creed I). Но это достаточно интересная игра. Несмотря что мне встречались глюки и некоторые баги играл я достаточно долго, потому что я встретил достаточно редкую возможность все взломать: счета, светофоры, отключение света и не только взломы. Игра достаточно живая с людьми. Можно наблюдать за их реакцией, какая у них жизнь, что они делают обычно. Некоторые из них обсуждали главного героя, в новостях его обсуждали и даже я умудрился нескольких фанатов встретить и сфотографироваться или они тебя(Делал много добрых поступков). Насчет оптимизаций я думаю это из-за контракта с Nvdia, я так думаю т.к. после 3 части AC 4 часть запускал в 720 пикселей. Ах да насчет взломов, я хотел бы посмотреть на ваши лица когда вам бы пришлось бы взламывать на различных программных языках в игре. Больше половины людей в мире не смогла бы пройти игру до конца) Подумайте это же единственная игра в которой ты можешь взламывать мобильником большинство объектов. Сюжет игры он одновременно простой и одновременно интересный, конец конечно не хэппи энд, но нормальный(кстати намеки на 2 часть есть). Не знаю как вам ребята, но для первой части достаточно хорошую игру смастерили, а значит есть надежда на то что 2 часть может быть шедевром. PS: 10 балов ставлю за все вышеперечисленное.… Expand
  16. jgr94
    Mar 26, 2016
    7
    Despite all the bad reviews I actually enjoyed the game, the story was great. Yes its not optimized wary well but I was still able to run it on high with about 60 fps with my 770. Assassin’s creed 4 was far worse. And I agree Ubisoft needs to focus more on optimisation WAY MORE. But still I think this game was great and it defiantly does not deserve a 0.
  17. Noolah
    May 28, 2014
    10
    It's Assassins' Creed meets GTA, with some Far Cry 3 and Deus Ex thrown in. Although it can't really be compared to anyone of these on their own.

    The story is rather generic, but that can be forgiven in place of game play. Yes the hacking is simplistic for the most part. But how much more annoying would it be if you got dropped into a mini-game every time you clicked the hack button    It's Assassins' Creed meets GTA, with some Far Cry 3 and Deus Ex thrown in. Although it can't really be compared to anyone of these on their own.

    The story is rather generic, but that can be forgiven in place of game play. Yes the hacking is simplistic for the most part. But how much more annoying would it be if you got dropped into a mini-game every time you clicked the hack button to empty someone's bank account. The driving seems to be about the same as in other games of this type E.G. Saints Row. Something I've never really gotten the hang of. I expect there's going to be a fair amount of repetitiveness too, but when isn't there in an open-world game like this.

    I can't comment on any of the technical problems that some seem to be having as I'm working fine at 60+ fps on an i7 with a sing GPU. Although U(don't)play wasn't working last night it didn't stop me loading the game in offline mode. It seems there are a fair number of complaints from people running 32bit OSs that didn't pay attention to the requirements.    … Expand
  18. forceinfinity
    Jun 12, 2014
    9
    The ridiculously low score has nothing to do with the actual quality of the game itself. Only people who cannot play it and are having issues which Ubi are addressing.

    I am giving a review score based on THE GAME ITSELF, NOT THE BUGS AND ISSUES this game has, unlike almost everyone else. The game itself is pretty good. I have no complaints about it besides they rushed it out the door    The ridiculously low score has nothing to do with the actual quality of the game itself. Only people who cannot play it and are having issues which Ubi are addressing.

    I am giving a review score based on THE GAME ITSELF, NOT THE BUGS AND ISSUES this game has, unlike almost everyone else.

    The game itself is pretty good. I have no complaints about it besides they rushed it out the door without much testing which is unfortunate.

    Aside from the stuttering frames, being forced to play in 720 with low-medium settings on a decent AMD rig, the loading issues, and the occasional bug, it's a great and fun game. This is a great idea for a new IP and was pulled of very well.

    It's a big turnoff that they offer day 1 DLC and the game is unplayable on day 1. day 1 DLC sucks ass.    … Expand
  19. saadrehman
    May 27, 2014
    8
    Everyone cares too much about the graphics and although they are not what looked like at E3 they are certainly not horrid as everyone suggests, It looks nice, the gameplay is where it is at, the stealth system is great that along with the hacking possibilities make it very fun, the online is very good too. I had been really looking forward to this game for the past 2 years and now that itEveryone cares too much about the graphics and although they are not what looked like at E3 they are certainly not horrid as everyone suggests, It looks nice, the gameplay is where it is at, the stealth system is great that along with the hacking possibilities make it very fun, the online is very good too. I had been really looking forward to this game for the past 2 years and now that it has come out, I am NOT disappointed, not including the campaign, there is a lot to keep you entertained, it seems as though people now a days have very short attention spans and things have to be flashing in front of their faces for it to count as entertainment. One thing however that I don't like are the driving physics, that's the only thing that let me down, the cars feel like they have no weight whilst being indestructible, you can easily plough down telegraph poles. All in all it is a very nice game that needs some tweaks in terms of performance but that CAN be patched, the campaign is solid, the online is satisfying and the city feels alive.… Expand
  20. Wyzak
    May 28, 2014
    8
    Bare through the game for the first 20-30 minutes and you'll be rewarded richly.

    The hand-holding tutorial is a bit too much and you aren't given any time to adjust your settings without missing some parts of the story which caused me to have to restart the campaign. Which meant I had to sit through the entire unskippable intro movie one more time than I would have liked, but    Bare through the game for the first 20-30 minutes and you'll be rewarded richly.

    The hand-holding tutorial is a bit too much and you aren't given any time to adjust your settings without missing some parts of the story which caused me to have to restart the campaign. Which meant I had to sit through the entire unskippable intro movie one more time than I would have liked, but fortunately it was only one time and not with every save/load.

    The driving takes some getting use to, it is different from what I would have expected. I crashed into everything at first but after 30 minutes or so I was weaving through traffic like a pro.

    The story is better than I expected so far, and I'm enjoying it.

    The in-game minigames are awesome fun - especially the carmaggeddon and spider tank games. I also enjoyed Alone.

    The multi-player is amazingly fun. I still remember the feeling when the first person invaded my game. The ensuing panic was just epic! Couldn't wait to return the favour.

    There are some issues with the game however. The vehicle damage model doesn't update properly in the event of a major collision. If I crash head-on into a truck the car should be totalled, not just have a tiny scratch. The game definitely supports more collision models as your car will look really bad after a few minutes of crashing into things, but it needs to jump to this state faster for bigger collisions.

    There are still some framerate issues as well which I hope they resolve soon. I was using the Watch dogs ready drivers from Nvidia.

    The graphics looks really good and I am spoilt for choice.

    Current review is 8, but I will make it a 9 once the frame rate issues are resolved and the collision models jump sufficiently on a high magnitude collision.    … Expand
  21. Eide
    May 28, 2014
    8
    As always the community is much more negative than the game deserves. It's quite a solid game, if overly simplistic in its approach to hacking.

    The game revolves around the main character using his magic phone to get around in the city of Chicago. As said, the approach is very simplistic but still fun as you walk around, learning tidbits, watching along with camera's a learn the secrets    As always the community is much more negative than the game deserves. It's quite a solid game, if overly simplistic in its approach to hacking.

    The game revolves around the main character using his magic phone to get around in the city of Chicago. As said, the approach is very simplistic but still fun as you walk around, learning tidbits, watching along with camera's a learn the secrets the city has to offer. Movement, combat and usage of the phone feels solid and well developed. Driving however is woefully undeveloped and can't even stand in the shade of GTA or Saints' Row. The driving aspect of this game in reality needs to a rework and deserves to be patched asap.

    The city feels ok. People are less extreme than they are in GTA but in my opinion they reflect reality better than GTA pulls that off. To continue with the obvious comparison to GTA, story progression is similar with different " acts", each with a set of missions. WD offers missions along the side like its competition. Do jobs for fixers, prevent crimes etc and do mini-games. The mini-games are hit or miss. You like them or never look at them. The side jobs feel fine, have bearing to what the main character us doing and preventing crimis does feel rewarding.

    There's a lot of complaints about performance. On my AMD Athlon 3Ghz, ATI HD7770 and 8Gb Ram setup the game runs flawlessly on medium settings. I haven't tried running it higher but considering my system is quite outdated I was pleasantly surprised by the game's performance.

    Conclusion
    It's not as huge or polished as GTA V, but Watch_Dogs is a good game in it's own right. It does al sorts of stuff very, very well but is held back by the underdeveloped driving aspect and simplistic approach to hacking, both in terms of gameplay as in terms of ethical considerations.    … Expand
  22. xMayoRx
    May 29, 2014
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Сool game about hackers, but shooting is clearly unnecessary. I liked more is not the plot, but additional tasks for hacking. A graphics and light game for me went to Plan 2… Expand
  23. Venari
    May 31, 2014
    9
    Notice how 9 times out of 10 the first thing these negative reviews mention is the game's graphics? The answer to this is simply that everyone is super "butthurt" about the "downgrade" in graphics compared to E3 2012. I've seen people claiming that it looks like Saints Row 2 on high, are you **** kidding me? WD on max settings is easily one of the greatest looking games of all time, fromNotice how 9 times out of 10 the first thing these negative reviews mention is the game's graphics? The answer to this is simply that everyone is super "butthurt" about the "downgrade" in graphics compared to E3 2012. I've seen people claiming that it looks like Saints Row 2 on high, are you **** kidding me? WD on max settings is easily one of the greatest looking games of all time, from the lighting, textures, rain, smoke and wind, to the gorgeous explosions and the astounding character models, this game is absolutely gorgeous, it's still pretty damn good looking even on low settings as well. When hacking cameras I often thought I was looking at real life, especially when spying on the character Iraq, he looks like a real person. Now that I've addressed the elephant in the review, let's get to the actual game.

    The campaign is not the longest, but it's considerably longer than most games nowadays. I beat the game in 45 hours of gameplay on my first playthrough, and a lot of that was side stuff and free roam, I'd say the campaign by itself is between 17-23 hours or so, give or take.

    Gameplay is fun as **** gunplay is fluid, animations are excellent, stealth is incredible, better than Assassin's Creed's by far. Hacking is definitely the highlight of the gameplay, hacking security cameras to get a better view of the situation, setting off traps, controlling the city at the tap of a screen, it makes you feel powerful and successfully executing a plan using hacking is extremely rewarding. Driving, in my opinion, really grew on me. It's different from most games and cars can be difficult to control, but once I got used to it I found that I was driving better than I was in GTA games. To top gameplay off, there is a difficulty mode called realistic mode, play on this, seriously. Enemies die in 1-4 shots without armor, you die in about 3-5 shots, it makes gameplay really tense and definitely rewards careful planning and stealth, and discourages balls to the wall shootouts, because your face will get shot up. Speaking of shootouts, I don't know specifically, maybe the animations, the fluid combat controls, parkour, just make it so fun to be in a shootout. Hacking isn't as complex as it could be, but would you really want anything more complicated? The way hacking is makes it very accessible and fun to use, anything more complicate and people would be whining about how it's too complicated. One complaint about realistic mode however is that armor is OP. You'll get hitmarkers with a Barrett if they're wearing bullet-proof vests. Armor is unrealistic in this game and realistic mode will become frustrating and a bit cheap later in the game, but that just made it more fun for me.

    The story may become confusing at times, and there are many anti-climactic moments, such as taking down couple of antagonists, some of them just end in an in game shootout, not very cinematic and a bit disappointing on that part, but there is one antagonist death that is just so **** cool and outside the box, I'll let you discover that if you get the game. Overall the story is good, combine the ridiculously good character models and graphics with the absolutely amazing voice actors and you get some very touching and emotional moments. Although, Aiden is by far the weakest character in the game, while his voice actor sounds nice, gravelly voice and all, execution of some lines lack emotion sometimes, kind of comparable to male Commander Shepard, Mark Meer, in Mass Effect, although nowhere near as bad. Aiden definitely doesn't lack the depth though, he has a great backstory and history. The supporting cast is really where they shine. From the French accent stereotypical young punk hacker girl with a partially shaved head Clara Lille, the charming, often hysterical and great guy Jordi and even your sister Nicole to the interesting and cold Iraq, the Deadmau5 wannabe Defalt and the manipulative monster "Lucky" Quinn, there is no shortage of lovable and incredible supporting characters and antagonists.

    In the open world there is a LOT to do, preventing crimes, criminal convoys, gang hideouts, fixer contracts, they add a lot of depth and variety to the game, and definitely do not get old quickly. Even after 50+ hours of gameplay I am still giddy when I get a gang hideout alert, those are my favorite. The game has a reputation system that can quickly change depending on your actions. You will either be a revered vigilante or a feared monster in the public's eyes, and this affects gameplay. If you're on the latter side of that spectrum you may walk into a store to find you're in a news broadcast on the TV in the back, making it difficult to complete a nice and legal purchase.

    Over the past few years, I've learned not to trust user reviews anymore. From the less than 1 rating of Mass Effect to the whiny **** bashing this game, user reviews aren't to be trusted anymore, read the reviews of the people who are PAID to review games, please.    … Expand
  24. Dkorn45
    Jun 2, 2014
    9
    I liked the game, it had some kind of humour, and some kind of story, and I had a great feeling, with the opportunities of hacking electronic devices. But the gameplay was not very good...
  25. Blackstarhalo4
    Jun 6, 2014
    10
    Absolutely amazing! This game exceeds expectations, and I would definitely play the story again! Seems a bit like a GTA clone at first, but its totally unique! 10/10
  26. jrandolph1200
    May 28, 2014
    9
    This game is great! Game play is fun and extremely interactive. Can't wait for the patches to smooth things out. That is why I give this game a 9 and not a 10, is because of the technical sloppiness.
  27. whatever523
    Nov 12, 2014
    8
    First of all, this game requires an online activation and the servers were down on the release day. It was fixed after a few hours, but the Ubisoft servers are still not fully functional again, four days after release. Ubisoft doesn't have the server resources to launch such a game and Uplay sucks. Now, about the game itself. I need to add some text here, so metacritic gets the line breaksFirst of all, this game requires an online activation and the servers were down on the release day. It was fixed after a few hours, but the Ubisoft servers are still not fully functional again, four days after release. Ubisoft doesn't have the server resources to launch such a game and Uplay sucks. Now, about the game itself. I need to add some text here, so metacritic gets the line breaks right...

    Good:

    - Great visuals, with a few exceptions. Especially when it's raining (which is often, because it's in Chicago), the game looks ridiculously good.
    - World design. The city feels mostly authentic.
    - Interesting characters.
    - Engaging story, but with a few weak points.
    - Hacking of objects in the world is well implemented and makes the game, especially car chases, more interesting.
    - Driving physics. I actually prefer the WD driving to GTA5, because it's less floaty and cars stick properly to the road.
    - There's a lot to do in the open world (finished the story after about 50 hours and 100% after 70-75 hours).
    - Some very nicely done and fun mini games (poker, chess, shell game, mobile games).
    - Good interface design. Everything is easy to find.

    Bad:

    - Some graphic settings are badly implemented (Vsync, ultra textures/multisampling AA [directly related]) and need more performance than they should.
    - Some of the content is a little bit too repetitive
    - Bad hacking puzzles. Assassin's Creed is from the same publisher and has much better hacking mechanics... d'oh.
    - The driving camera sometimes adjusts too slow in corners and you have to use the mouse to readjust it.
    - Aim assist can't be disabled.
    - Drinking minigame is very boring and almost impossible with mouse/keyboard.

    Ugly:

    - Pretty bad mouse controls. If you put mouse acceleration in an action game in 2014, you have basically failed as a game developer. The game also has two or three different mouse speeds, depending on which menu you're in and it generally feels a bit sluggish.
    - AI is cheating. Enemies and cops always know where you are and police scans stop scanning when you're out of range, relocate you and then continue scanning. It's still easy to escape, but feels pretty cheap.
    - Your notoriety points are only saved if you have online invasions enabled at all times.
    - Multiplayer is easily hackable... quite ironic.

    Rating this game is difficult. I really enjoyed it, despite all the flaws, and it has a lot of good content. But once again, it also feels that Ubisoft released a rushed and unpolished game and I hate when games could be better and are released too early. Watch Dogs is good, but it could have been great with a little more development time and fixing of some obvious problems.    … Expand
  28. mileafly
    Jun 1, 2014
    8
    I think this have been the biggest turnaround in my opinion of a game ever. I first saw the footage of Watch Dogs on its press release and was totally blown away by how great it looked, it looked like one of the next truly next-gen titles. Right then it was a must play and I went into a "media blackout" of the title after that (I like to avoid seeing footage of a title I already know II think this have been the biggest turnaround in my opinion of a game ever. I first saw the footage of Watch Dogs on its press release and was totally blown away by how great it looked, it looked like one of the next truly next-gen titles. Right then it was a must play and I went into a "media blackout" of the title after that (I like to avoid seeing footage of a title I already know I will get so to not build up my hype to much)

    Now fast forward to the release date, I install the game and begin to play. Almost the first thing I notice is how bad the game looks compared to my expectations. The graphics feel sterile and the animation of characters and car physics feels very wooden. I almost give up on playing after an hour or so. I would probably score the game a 5 at this point.

    I persist to play though and after a while the game really starts to grow on me. Now I honestly think this is probably my favorite "gta clone" out there if you don't count La Noire or The Getaway.
    The mix of sneaking and shooting in combat feels very fresh and it is imo the best combat system ever in a gta style game. I even started to get used to and like the car physics after a while.

    Now while I really enjoy the game at this point there are many things that needs to be improved if I would consider this to be a 9 or even a 10. My main gripe is that the world does not really feel like a real place. It all feels very artificial in a way, the people wandering the streets don't feel like real people. The way they talk feels very "comic booky" and unreal. When news are reported on the news and the people of the street are interviewed it feels extremely wooden and amateurish, almost like when you where young and found a tape recorded and starting to tape yourself and your friends playing you where doing a newscast.

    Also the game seems to have a major identity crisis and not really trust itself. The game is full of silly mini games that does not fit at all. You can play drinking games or "find the ball under the cup" and other silly things that does not add anything of real value or feel thought out at all. There is also a bunch of minigames where you shoot VR aliens or run around collecting VR coins. I will say that the more expansive mini games where you take some kind of drug that makes you hallucinate are quite well made (at least two of them), but they still feel a bit out of place.
    There is also a feeling the developers try to hard to be "edgy" with language and sex scenes in some places that just feel out of place and just feels like they try to put in to be "cool" and "edgy" but end up being just pathetic. Also the whole conspiracy thing and shell of the game feels very comic bookie and its hard to take any of it really serious.

    All in all despite all these things I really enjoy the game and the core game mechanics are very very enjoyable. I really think a sequel that takes itself a bit more serious and adress some of the major problems could be really amazing. Also I want to throw in as a last thing that I don't understand why more games don't use the Euphoria engine that Rockstar uses in all their games. This is an engine that make everything int he world, including the player have beliviable physics. A big reason other games feels so wooden after playing a Rockstar game is the lack of using this engine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphoria_(software)    … Expand
  29. Whity
    May 30, 2014
    10
    It may not be as good as people was waiting for, but it's a great game to put on the same level as Assassins creed.
    It has it's load of bugs but the story is great, the freedom feeling is great too. The multiplayer mode is truly immersive and innovative.
    I wish a few other game take example on their online mode (^_^)
  30. Gidein
    May 29, 2014
    10
    Watch_Dogs is a very different experience for each user, and many of the people writing these aren't realising that. I see that many of you complain about it not working - welcome to Ubisoft. All of their games have bugs and glitches when they come out, but that doesn't make the game bad. That makes it buggy. Also - the game requires a lot of machine power. You should probably check yourWatch_Dogs is a very different experience for each user, and many of the people writing these aren't realising that. I see that many of you complain about it not working - welcome to Ubisoft. All of their games have bugs and glitches when they come out, but that doesn't make the game bad. That makes it buggy. Also - the game requires a lot of machine power. You should probably check your system before buying the game, check steam for the requirements.

    Anyway - onto the actual review.

    I've not completed the game yet but so far the game has been very fun, there is lots to do and very little things holding you back from just doing what ever you feel like. I have to say the things such as destroying criminal convoys are completely out of the story life, but really fun with a 40,000 dollar grenade launcher. The main story, personally, is very good. Before I bought the game BETA critics were complaining that it's an over-reaction (the whole storyline) but I think that it really fits.

    The gameplay its self is also pretty damn awesome, the driving mechanics are a bit ... crazy. BUT are really fun to mess around with. The graphics in the game are amazing (I play on ultra). The game could do with a few more open buildings though to make the world even more open.

    The AI aren't the brightest bunch, I'll give you that. From reading 'sowingsadness's' review it seems that this person must of been previously playing minecraft and having some sort of finger increment. 'NPC' that's a non-player character. AI are the civis and soldiers that shoot at you, including the police. 'Woods cars' seems legit. The car's are a lot more sturdy than real life, but that doesn't really make a huge difference. etc... etc..

    I highly recommend giving this game a shot.    … 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

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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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