Watch_Dogs™

ahh, the old ubisoft... with a decent story, good graphics, a weird control scheme and a beautiful gameplay; the game does not bore. npcs feel alive, side missions are fun but the main missions are gorgeous. one of the rare games where i do the side missions after i finish the game just to enjoy the mission design and the gameplay even more.

While i can recommend parts of it i can't exactly say it's worth 100%ing unless you're dedicated lmao.

Has a lot of the Ubisoft content bloat for check-listing but certainly none of it's worst and as someone who played it at launch it was a decent enough title but i think you'll be happy with just T-Bones dlc, i find him to just generally be a better character than Aiden any day.

Regardless, you do you with your money if you want to see the start of a series.

I just want to pay for what I enjoyed 10 Years ago. Back then when Ubisoft dare to do sht, eventhough the initial launch scam, its still good.

I loved this game when it came out, and I love it now. Truly a game that got WAY more hate than it should have. It is a really great game at its core. Aiden is a fun character, albeit a bit basic at times, still a good story that's fun to follow. The world activities and mini games are so enjoyable to play through. Plus, we get steam achievements now. highly recommend if you have not played before

Game with great mechanics. If you like other Ubisof games you should definitely play it

A fun game that delivers on it's sales pitch. You're an edgy hacker on a revenge quest with a whole lot of GTA style mechanics when you're not sneaking or hacking things.

Stealth and gun play are fun and smooth. I'm not super into the driving mechanics but they're not bad, just not my thing.

Overall a very fun game that knows what it wants to deliver and does it well.

In Watch Dogs you play as Aiden Pearce who is a hacker in the first smart city which is completely connected to one network, in Chicago. After a failed hacking job, Aiden lose his niece in a car accident which suppose to be targeted Aiden and now he wants to take revenge and learn who put the hit on him.

The premise of the game is really unique, as you get an open world map of Chicago and able to hack basically everything in it, from traffic lights, bridges to citizens. You can still do the usual city open-world type of things as well. The graphics is pretty good for it's time, the controls seems unusual at first but after some time you can get use to it. There are lot of side content for the game, which can easily make the play time twice as long. The overall story premise is good, has it's own twists and most of the characters are well written. Multiplayer is still active and playable till this day. Soundtrack is pretty alright.

One thing which really bothered me is the driving in this game, it's hard to get used to and annoying to control the vehicle. One other problem in the single player is the protagonist character. You get characters in the story who are decently written, but Aiden is a weird one to root for throughout in the story, especially if you take account what he does throughout the game. It does not feel right to like this guy. Finally, some of the side content has too many collectibles which does not make them unique, or the side content just simply not fun to play, for example the ctOS breaches, they are inconsistent.

But there are issues with the multiplayer aswell. There is a racing and decryption mode in the multiplayer and these are pretty much dead, has barely any players and the driving physics is still not good at this game. The modes where you can be invaded or invade others are active, however the game has no anti cheat system so you could find some cheaters in the game. They are somewhat uncommon tho, but it is annoying when you have to deal with them and you are aware that you have limited ways against them. The invading games modes are fun by the way, however they are unusual PVP game modes, so you have to understand how to play them, otherwise you will quickly lose interest and the game does not help you to understand how to play these as best as possibly can. Also, if you want to enjoy the single player it can be annoying to be invaded by others in your own session, but luckily you can opt to go offline in the settings if that bothers you.

To be honest, I did not expect Watch Dogs to be this great, because even though it has it's own problems and the multiplayer is basically a niche thing which only some can enjoy, the base game is pretty good. I can definitely recommend to pick this one when it's on sale.

game is unbearably boring even w the living city mod. just go play wd2 instead

The chemical reaction between Hackers and the Open World: Ubisoft's bold move ten years ago

 8/10

 Click here for my review of the DLC: Watch Dogs: Bad Blood 

Opening

At the E3 2012, the high-spirited Ubisoft wowed everyone with its stunning gameplay trailers of Watch Dogs. The graphics and gameplay were top-notch, and countless players were fascinated by it. Though the game, which was officially released in 2014, had a lot of cuts in graphics and gameplay, causing widespread controversy and dissatisfaction among players, Watch Dogs still archived good sales thanks to its unique and novel open-world hacker role-playing gameplay that is still not outdated even today. The protagonist Aiden Pearce, wearing a baseball cap, a flowing wind coat jacket, and holding a baton, has become a classical image in the history of modern video games, attracting countless players to follow suit. However, problems such as monotonous and repetitive game content, the extremely short main storyline, poor compatibility, and optimization, etc. made it difficult for Watch Dogs to make further progress, which ultimately became a pity.

 Strength 

Players will be in a cold and dull Chicago, which is highly connected to the Internet of Things through the CTOS system and has no privacy at all. The various forces here are intertwined. The protagonist Aiden Pierce is a vigilante-like grey hat, who gradually uncovers the true face of the city and past events on his journey of revenge for his niece, and eventually reflects on his own behavior and revenge. Watch Dogs also has a reputation system that changes dynamically based on the player's behavior. Whether it is doing evil or punishing evil and promoting good, it will have a direct impact on the player's gaming experience. The game's tasks mainly include driving, chasing, puzzle solving, infiltration, and gunfights. Some scenes are performed with excellent effects and a strong sense of immersion.

The hacking capabilities in the game are visualized as intrusion interactions with various high-tech smart devices and mobile phones, ranging from eavesdropping on calls, manipulating traffic lights and roadblocks, lifting bridges, disrupting communications, transformer explosions, city blackouts, and hacking into bank accounts to obtain funds. Though it is far from real-life hackers, Watch Dogs still brings players the pleasure of high-tech crime in this open game world, where they can do whatever they want and be omnipotent in an unprecedented way, could be considered one of the game's biggest highlights. Watch Dogs also has many game mechanic designs that are more favorable to players, such as highlighting collectibles in the scene when scanning; using intuitive route instructions to guide players' map marketers and mission objectives; calling vehicles at will, and having a short loading time and convenient map travel function. The game itself also has a rich number of mini-games and collectible items for players to explore. The online mode emphasizes tracking and invading between players, which is extremely interesting.

Weakness 

The game uses a lot of macro-blocked glitch art effects in the main menu and at the beginning, which has no artistic sense at all in that case. It looks poor to modern netizens and seems to be counterproductive. The game at the highest quality setting is quite good in terms of long-range performance, but the modeling is extremely rough and difficult to be appreciated by players nowadays. The movement of every character in the game is full of weird stiffness, and the enemy's AI logic is also relatively weak. Although most enemies can be killed with a single headshot, the game often has weird aiming deviations, which is extremely obvious in the NVZN mini-game. Driving is an important part of Watch Dogs game content and mission design, but the overall driving feel of the game is extremely slippery, the tires often slip, making it difficult to adapt, and the experience brought to players is a disaster. In terms of plot, the main quest of the game is too short, accounting for less than 50% of the game's content, and the plot progresses very quickly. The narrative and character creation are a bit perfunctory, and there is a tendency to be clichéd and mediocre. Even at the end the game plot still leaves too much blank, which is obviously paving the way for its sequel.

Watch Dogs itself is the most typical Ubification of cookie-cutters, filled with a large number of monotonous checklist tasks, collectibles, and map markets. These seemingly rich game contents are mostly filler and test the player's tolerance. As an important part of the game's collectibles element puzzle solving is mainly carried out by switching sights between cameras and searching for specific paths. They are often extremely hidden in Watch Dogs, and can only be reached through environmental facilities in the corners like forklifts. Though some of the designs can be said to be ingenious, they require players to climb up and down and strangely use their imaginations. Coupled with the time limit, the experience brought to players is terrible, with no fun or sense of accomplishment. The excessive number of puzzles further worsens the situation. In actual combat, players often still rely mainly on infiltration and gunfights, the bloodless hacker tactics have not been well integrated into the game.

Watch Dogs is also slightly lacking in some details. For example, players cannot shoot while driving, the perspective in the game will also prevent players from getting a clear aerial view. There is no pedestrian on a motorcycle in the game at all. The uses of funds in the game are extremely limited and are too easy to grab so they will overflow in large quantities in the middle stages, which is a slightly unsuccessful design; some completely random song collection for the achievement in the game is a major failure, in the PS era it was called "one of the worst trophies" by many console players already.

Conclusion

Beneath the hacker surface, Watch Dogs is still the most typical Ubification core. The design of every aspect of Watch Dogs makes it difficult for players to play it again, the game's constant compatibility issues on the modern Windows operating system make it extremely difficult to have a smooth experience. Even today, Watch Dog's optimization is still average. Despite this, Watch Dogs still has its unique highlights. For many people, it has a unique sentimental blessing. It would have been absolutely amazing when it was released. Looking back, Ubisoft has produced so many creative and eye-catching games, but now they are becoming more decadent and heading towards destruction. It may be difficult for us to see a work like Watch Dogs being born again, but at least it is still here.

It is necessary to mention that due to the forced output of 5.1 surround sound, the overall volume of the game will be extremely low. The game also may be random crash without any signs. Most importantly, the Steam version of Watch Dogs cannot access the online functions, requiring players to purchase the game again on Uplay or contact Ubisoft service for one. However, the response efficiency of it is extremely low, with no substantial progress in half a month for me. Players who don't want to waste time on these could consider choosing the console version or the Uplay version of the game.

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i love the gameplay, and dont forget to buy the game with Bad Blood DLC

I first played this game in 2015 on Xbox. It was a truly legendary game but its so sad Underrated game now :(

Nice game with good graphics and story))) I really enjoyed it from the beginning till the end. Will play definitely now Watch Dogs 2!!!

This game is timeless, I played few years ago and then i play it again it feels the story still relevant. Play this game because I love strategies and the gameplay. Try this and you always have good memories in Pawnee

All time classic, will always love come back every few months and completing a run through of this amazing game

gameplay make me feel like im ina james bond movie and the story was cool too

This game is so underrated and unique with the focus on all sorts of hacking options within the game which brings refreshment,really good story and development!

Excellent story and gameplay.

Big game, sadly some a third of the features are not active anymore because of the servers not bein active anymore. I came to it too late. There is a lot in this game, mostly playing a hahcable city, viggilanty agaisnt gangs and mob bosses. Has many features, everything is driveable which is awesome, the crafthing and gunplay are really well done. Stealth is an option, which in such a largely populated game is really well done. Interesting story with a lot of warning about such a future... I do reccomend the game, however a third of in games are unavailable sadly.

A Legacy of Blackouts

Undoubtedly one of the most infamous games of the 2010s, Watch_Dogs was the start of a promising new IP for Ubisoft, revealed at a time when the company was arguably at its peak in terms of game-making quality. Its initial showcase not only presented an intriguing, pervasive computer system concept that continues to age better with time, but showcased graphics which were simply beyond comprehension within that era. It certainly got me on board, hyping up young Drill to the point of preordering the collector’s edition, which I’ve still only done a handful of times to this day. And while it may have disappointed a lot of people when it released, I remember having fond memories of it, from the character of Aiden and the world of Chicago, to the unique online modes and neat side activities. After replaying the game more than ten years since I first completed it, I have found my opinion to be largely unchanged; I still believe it is one of the better open-world experiences you can play today, and one of Ubisoft’s best games in general.

Playing as the gruff, no BS, uncle-turned-vigilante Aiden Pearce, you immediately have the goal of seeking revenge on those who harmed his family, which just so happens to tie into a Chicago-wide conspiracy involving an omnipresent computer system, a couple of well-established crime gangs, and a blackout that impacted the entirety of Northeastern America in 2003. This is a narrative that’s more driven by the strength of its characters than its various plot beats, as the mystery is largely your standard crime affair with a bit of a hacking spice mixed within.

Whilst many found Aiden to be a boring, generic revenge man, I’ve always been fond of his personality, deciding to take matters into his own hands out of perceived necessity, fully morphing into a vigilante who loves what he does as the story moves along. There’s a solid supporting cast too; Jordi’s a wise-cracking fixer who steals every scene in his limited number of appearances, T-Bone radiates experience and a drive to make up for the mistakes of his part, and the main antagonist of Damien becomes progressively more unhinged as Aiden does what is asked of him, but not in the way he was asked to. Ubisoft certainly could have gone further with thematic depth here, but this is undoubtedly one of their stronger narrative efforts.

Black Hatting

What most surprised me when comparing the gameplay of Watch_Dogs to the marketing was how similar they turned out to be. Considering this was one of Ubisoft’s first cracks at a GTA-inspired title, it’s impressive how satisfying the gunplay is. Weapons have a decent amount of recoil, and the sounds are very weighty, so not only do they feel great to use, they demand precision aiming for gunfights to be successful, especially when the challenge of this game and intelligence of the AI is above average, even on Normal difficulty. It strikes a great balance between arcadey and realistic; mindless running and gunning will only get you killed.

But the star of the gameplay show is of course the contextual hacking system, which serves to maintain the unique identity of Watch_Dogs all of these years later. Various objects in the environment can be activated to give you the edge during a combat encounter; you can create cover, overload pipes to stun your foes, set off explosives, or even cause a mini-blackout to completely throw your enemies off. Stealth also benefits greatly, allowing you to survey any environment covered by security cameras and help plan your course through a tough encounter. My favourite area to use this system is actually the various car chases you’ll get into, as it gives you numerous routes to fight back against your pursuers if you know where and when to best use the city as your weapon, an especially crucial asset here as you’re not able to fire out of your vehicle. The implementation of hacking is ultimately a straightforward but highly flexible system that gives every player the freedom to express themselves game beyond the limits of your typical shooting, stealth and driving scenarios.

All of these areas are put to full use within the mission design of the main campaign, which is consistently varied and entertaining all the way through. The design of the combat spaces makes going loud or stealth equally viable options, with plenty of unique hacking opportunities to make use of and give missions a standout identity. There’s one where you have to infiltrate a prison with a limited gear set, forcing you to focus on stealth and hacks to make it to your target unseen. On the other end of the spectrum, what would be a typical ‘defend an objective’ mission is completely augmented with the hacking system, as the game throws dozens of enemies at you, forcing you to use all of your tools smartly to overcome the odds. They saved the best till last though, as the final mission is an absolutely mental chase across much of central Chicago, relying on the hacking knowledge you've gained to make it through unscathed; it’s one of my favourite missions in any game, period. Of course, there’s plenty of your typical Ubisoft open-worldy content if you can’t get enough of what’s on offer here, but it’s pleasing that so much thought was put into this quest line.

It's also worth mentioning the unique multiplayer modes, the main of which allows a random player to infiltrate your instance of Chicago to hack you, leading to a game of hide and seek in a concentrated area of the map. These don’t happen too often, but they are always tense and enjoyable, and end up being a nice diversion from your planned activities. The servers were a bit dodgy when trying to join specific people, but it still works surprisingly well after all these years.

Less Than Meets The Eye?

Where the marketing completely fell flat compared to the final product is graphics, which were certainly fine back in 2014, but have not aged as gracefully as the rest of the package. Character models are not very realistic, environments look okay but lack detail when it comes to textures, even at max settings, and the lighting in particular feels very flat during nighttime. There are various mods which bring the visuals closer to the original demo, but that doesn’t change that the execution of the base game in this area left a lot to be desired, especially when compared to other equally ambitious titles of that era.

I don’t hold this too much against the game though, as the design of the world of Chicago more than makes up for it. Each district has a distinct visual identity and story to tell; the central area is densely populated and lively, while the south is a run-down industrial district with gives off a completely different vibe, and the north-west is a mini countryside space that achieves at being intentionally disconnected from every other area on the map. This of course leads to diverse gameplay spaces, but also a world that is simply great to drive about and explore, even without a specific goal in mind. Nonetheless, there are a fair few interesting diversions which are worth dipping into during your downtime, including poker, a tricky drinking game, and some nice chess puzzles.

Verdict

I don’t have too many bad words to level at Watch_Dogs. Even more than a decade after its release, it still has elements that sets it apart from many other games on the market, including its fantastic open world, fun hacking mechanics, and unique multiplayer modes. It certainly failed to deliver on its graphical promise, but by my money, it succeeded at nearly everything else it needed to, and then some. Though I am left wondering what a remake would look like, if only to realize that original vision we saw all the way back in 2012.

9/10 - Excellent

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Seems like with new drivers, far-off objects flicker often and there is frequent stuttering.
Mods are also generally difficult (or broken) to install.
In my short experience the premise is pretty good -- though I have a hard time bearing it when children are victims of crime. A lot of the 'cool' factor definitely feels like it came from the time this game came out. Not a bad thing, just very slightly aged.

I refunded. Wish I could've had more fun with it but it's not worth the hassle when Legion exists which I've been enjoying quite a lot.

_Achievement-Review:

Difficulty: 3/10
Approx. time invest: 50h
MP-Achievements: Yes
Misc / Activities / Collectables: Yes - a lot
Missable Achievements: None
DLC needed: Yes - "Bad Blood"

Watch_Dogs was overall a pleasent surprise and fun to 100% - even though it overstayed its welcome with all the activities, that got repetitive real quick.

_Story
The story, aside from a few rare highlights, was rather forgettable and not particularly immersive. The protagonist, Aiden, tried too hard to be the edgy uncle—confronted with the consequences of his own choices, questioning himself—only for you to immediately return to the open world, shooting, looting, and killing.

In the end, it's a classic revenge story. The dialogue is decent but nothing special.

_Immersion:
The game attempted several innovative mechanics (for its time), which I appreciated—especially the consequences of killing too many civilians. The more reckless you are, the more civilians recognize you, and news broadcasts launch awareness campaigns that put your face everywhere, forcing you to hide.

Unfortunately, the first mission in the stadium was the only time I truly felt the power of being the "Hacking Superman of Chicago." There was no other moment that recreated this feeling on the same scale.

_Worst Achievement:
"Social Lubricant" - It is so damn boring!


_Recommendation:
Watch_Dogs is this action movie you put on, when you don't know what to watch.
It has its moments and is quite enjoyable.

Best open world game, the city feels so alive, the environment is so detailed, story is amazing, graphics are superb, there is action, driving is good not very good but atleast there is cockpit view for car. For me it's a game that i wanted for GTA to be. So if i have to choose between this and GTA 5. I'll choose Watch Dogs. Even it takes less space. And yes NPCs are like real life people. So, this is the best modern GTA like game you can get. For me it's better than watch dogs 2 and legion.

IM SORRY WHY IS THE ONLINE BROKEN. no im not fixing ubisofts game for them. people need to stop paying for their games if they dont work im reporting this game this is unacceptable. i allrady had to fix assassin's creed revelations dlc not working im not doing your job for you UBISOFT. GOOD DAY SIR

Just tried connecting to Ubisoft Servers and the servers don't work for the steam WatchDogs copy so the online achievements can't be got unless u spend weeks real time trying to get Ubisoft Support to fix the issue for you case by case server issues even when the Online Achievements should NEVER be apart of Steam due to player numbers being to low and the servers not working.

so in order to gain access to the Online Servers you need to own a Ubisoft Connect Copy then play up to the 3rd mission then join a random lobby online leave save game then reload the steam copy and try to access online play it should work.

This means that Ubisoft has Purposely Blocked Access to Online for Steam Users unless you buy 2 copies of the game that is trash and should not be allowed.

the steam copy SHOULD NOT have Online achievements due to this seem not everyone wants to use Ubisoft Connect as a Marketplace.

so it seems that the Servers for Matchmaking are pretty much dead due to Low Player Numbers seem Matchmaking for Races and other game modes don't work so if you are a achievement hunter DON'T BUY THIS GAME.

What any Good Game Company would do in this day and age is remove all Online Achievements for old games like this just so the game is better to 100% but the Morons who work at Ubisoft seem to think having Online Achievements for a Dead Game is a good thing.

its really funny to me seem Ubisoft shut down The Crew servers when that game had over 2000 or 4000 players on it at the 10 year mark yet they have NOT SHUT DOWN THE WATCH DOGS SERVERS after 10 Years even when its player numbers are below 300.

i'm just gonna say it WATCH DOGS for STEAM is just a BIG SCAM seem Steam users can't even connect to the online servers without needing a extra copy of the game on Ubisoft Connect Marketplace and Ubisoft and the devs have the balls to put Online Achievements on the public lists of achievements when the game can't even gain access to the online with just using Steam Copy.

Ubisoft are just Scamming Steam Users whoa re Achievement Hunters just remove all Online achievements for all Watch Dogs,Assassins Creed and Far Cry games and none of this would be a issue.

you can't even use Achievement Unlocker seem Ubisoft has all achievements running off a Online Server so the achievements are Protected its so dumb seem if i could unlock the achievements for content no one plays online then all of this could be fixed

what i am planning on doing is contacting Gabe of Valve about this seem it seems like a SCAM being ran by Ubisoft here to boost Sales of the games that require Online Achievements seem i bet Assassins Creed Unity and Far Cry has the same online requirements for Steam Users and this is NOT something Gabe takes lightly when Steam Users are being mistreated by a Company regardless how big they are on Steam.

Steam Users SHOULD NOT have to Own 2 copies of the same game in order to play online and Steam Users should not be having so many issues getting Online Achievements compared to other platforms/Marketplaces this is not only stupid but unreasonable.

WatchDogs and many other Ubisoft games that have just got Achievements should all work and have Online fully working on Steam regardless of anything or the Online Achievements SHOULD BE REMOVED if Ubisoft are incapable of having the Online fully working for Steam Users.


out of almost 50 hours of active playing i have only had 5 players hack me and 1 player tail me this is how dead this game is in 2025 and there's no way to boost the Traced Achievement seem Ubisoft has stopped players from using friends to get the achievements with boosting.

A flawed ubicrap masterpiece. Amazing story, atmosphere, not so perfect gameplay and visuals which can be massively enhanced with the right mods. I absolutely love this game, played it on release, and did like 10th nostalgia playthrough at the time of writing this review.

The online seems to not work for the new players, you have to cry and beg for ubicrap support to give you a activator for your account. But from what i heard, there's not much to missout on anyway, other than maybe the coop mode in the dlc and the invasions.

I give this game 50 system keys/ 30 blackouts.

Unplayable thanks to Ubisoft Connect. Do not waste your money on it.

did two missions and took all the ctOS towers
then played the game like in gta would shoot people
steal kill gang hide outs rob the gun store
type shit good

It's a little awkward on some of the scenes but for its age it still has great graphics and a good storyline.

eh. port okayzinho com alguns problemas de performance que podem ser facilmente resolvidos com mods.

muito estranho que o online não funcione nessa versão específica do jogo, parece algo que poderia ser fácil de resolver, mas também não dá pra esperar competência da Ubisoft

Better pirate it because of the ass ubi launcher that doesn't have a proper offline mode and the game gets disconnected if you have unstable internet. F*** all launcher programers. Hope they all get laid off instead of actual game devs.

i got stuck on a part of a game where "bed bug" kept dying when i tried to hack into his router it is really annoying

I love this game, and have replayed it multiple times on different consoles. but for whatever godforsaken reason, the steam version does not come with a multiplayer license and will not let you connect to ubisoft's servers and can only be fixed by buying the standard edition again on ubisoft connect.
in short, if you bought it on steam and want the online features to be available you have to buy it twice. wonderful ubisoft. truly a revolutionary company.

I have been troubleshooting this game for 40+ minutes. I have not even passed the launching screen. For context, I have very good specs (rtx 4080, i9 14th gen cpu....). I think the problem comes from ubisoft connect's apps, why do I need another launcher to own/use software that is already in my steam library????

I will ask for a refund in the meantime.
Regards,

cant play this game since its owned by an account that doesnt exist anymore on ubisofts side, fuck ubisoft and their third party installer bs for an offline game that somehow requires an internet connection to play.

The game was amazing, the action scenes and the story were very good, I loved that the character never got tired while running :D Only the NPCs were very stupid!

Solid game, underrated. It had issues at launch and was downgraded slightly but nothing you can't fix on PC. I played this on a garbage PC back when it was released and didn't quite have a good experience. Replaying it now was far better.

You can tell they put a lot of effort in making this one, just needs some time to get used to the gameplay and slow start for the story, this isn't GTA. The main missions are all different for the most part. It does have some small issues though, as every game, like being a bit repetitive with the side stuff if you going for those but still has a lot of different ones and you can be creative using the world around and have different approach in all; for example one of the convoy side missions I blocked the road inside the tunnel with cars and the pedestrians were trapped there so i helped them escape by opening the door and I just realized the door can be used as cover shooting through the window and such, you won't be bored if you are creative that's the whole point. Also in some it makes you use your damn brain which is a good thing. Problem is, the side mission map icons are a bit similar to ones that are shops/minigames etc so the map ends up being quite confusing, you see all these icons and it is overwhelming so check those carefully and what each means by the progression wheel. The shooting kinda sucks but a bit depends on the weapon, just use silencer pistol and you're good, stealth is perfectly fine as it works a lot better so that's what I always go for, or use the environment/hack to attack enemies. The other issue is the driving, it REALLY sucks, it's as bad as Sleeping Dogs'. The bike handling somehow is fine. Either way you do get used to these stuff.

Also great online/multiplayer use, players being a fixer in Aiden Pierce's world (depending on player's session), the online hacking aka "hide and seek" is fun and everyone should try that, you might come across some cheaters but it isn't often. I wouldn't say the map design is like Chicago, it's a bit lame being an island like this but it's well designed on the ground and very detailed, as expected from Ubisoft.
8/10

You must be online in order to play this game. Last night internet went off and I tried to start the game. No dice. Now that the internet is back on Ubisoft Connect still believes there is no internet connection and refuses to allow the game to run. 91 hours in and I'm out of luck.

Just to twist the knife, exactly 0 of the online functions in the game have worked since I started playing. so the online requirement is baloney from the get go.

I waited for this to be on sale for so long to play it and i was so excited.
The story is good but not the best and Aiden kinda gets weird and not all mysterius like and smooth as in the beggingng. The gameplay was good could be better cause i encoutered some bugs. And the only thing is that i kinda gave up on 100% cause the servers are too dead and little active players but other than that everything was okay

Watch dogs is an enjoyable game to play. But you need to download "flawless widescreen" to play it with normal FoV. I set mine at 17.75 in that program and it worked/looked great.

If you only play the base game - this game will be enjoyable from start to finish, no matter if you grind all side content or not. Despite a few prolonged animations here and there - everything works really well.

The story is slighly above average. Voice acting is pretty good. The main character fits its role. It was a bit strange that even though you play as a hacker - you can carry and use the whole arsenal of an army (various shotguns, pistols, ARs, sniper rifles and even grenade launchers). Some missions can feel like those badass shoot-em-up movies from the 80s.

I find car controls arcade-y, but fun. You can feel the speed in this game. Police chases reminded me of the original NFS:Most Wanted and the chaos that you create with your hacking tools on the road were very reminiscence of Split Second game.

Hacking is very streamlined and you will use it mainly for cameras and for various puzzles. Other than that you will hack random people's phones for money and small missions. I find all the hacking stuff a bit too simplistic and not to deep, sadly. But it was ok anyway.

Gameplay is smooth. Movement felt similar to Assassins' Creed games from that time period, but the vaulting is a bit too limited. And you can't jump. So there is that.

Map is quite big, but most areas aren't very memorable. It's just a city for you to do predetermined things. I don't know why, but this game reminded me a bit of Deus Ex games. Has similar feeling/aura.

Side content is pretty good. I enjoyed doing the usual "checklist" of things to do like in every ubisoft game. Sadly, if you want to get all achievements, you'll have to do online stuff and good luck with that. If you don't have Watch Dogs on the ubisoft launcher - online will not work. Yep. And if you have, then you'll have to install the game there and run it at least once to be able to play online content through Steam. AAAANd even if you can - nobody really plays it. And if you manage to connect to some random dude - he will probably disconnect midway through stuff. Bleh. Abomination of a service.

As for the Bad Blood DLC... it's bad. Most main missions are nonsensical Rambo-like shootouts without any real story behind them. Side missions are also extremely repetitive and there are like 100 of those. Holy F. In some missions, good luck staying in one place near a computer while dozens of enemies, that can three-tap you, swarm you from all 4 directions at the same time while also throwing grenades at you every 10 seconds. Plus you have to talk with a police lady before and after every single side mission.... Every. Single. Time. With. The. Same. Repetitive. Lines..... F. THAT.
Overall the DLC package is not worth it. It's just sloppily made.

Base game is good and is still worth playing. DLC - avoid.

The story is great, you can easily put 50 hours in this game (maybe more) if you're an achievement hunter as myself. It is worth it to hunt them in this game, since you can watch interesting scenes, or do unusual side quests as well. But be aware there's a bug that I've encountered at the "Not a job for Tyrone" main mission!

THE BUG

BedBug just keeps dying when you try to hack in his house, reloading the mission or even the game doesn't fix that sadly!

SOLUTION

Just shoot a couple of bullets (or magazines) into BedBug's house, or just shoot randomly until not one NPC is around! That should help!

OVERALL

It is worth to buy the game, but the online part of the game is unavailable. I've read some articles on reddit that if you write a letter to ubisoft support they can make your online work, but I don't know if it's legit. The person(s) said that they fixed his (and other players) game in a MONTH!

What a joke... still the game has a amazing story, and a very good "hacker" atmosphere!

Will you be the next hero that we never needed?

Watch Dogs 1 is a masterpiece. The story was amazing. The graphics looks great. The gameplay is great. The music was so good. I do love background music, like police chase music. I like Aiden and T-Bone, they were the best characters in Watch Dogs Series. Well, also Wrench too in Watch Dogs 2. In this game, you can do others like side missions, investigations, collectibles, online, and mini-games. I don't think people still playing in online mode, because this game is 11 years old now. Side missions take too long to complete and collectibles are too long to collect them all for 100%. Complete this game for 100% was painful, but it was fun. Mini-games are cool and forgotten. I think this Watch Dogs Series is a masterpiece and underrated. Bad Blood DLC was great, but it was an underrated DLC. Well, Street Sweep was fine and grindy. Watch Dogs It's like GTA, but for hacking. 10/10

A standout open-world game with an engaging hacking mechanic and a well-crafted atmosphere. The story is average, but it offers fun side activities and sandbox-style gameplay. Driving mechanics feel a bit clunky, but the overall experience is enjoyable. If you like open-world games, it's worth a try.👍

Rating: ⭐ 7/10

aged like fine wine, id still argue this is better than the sequel and possibly better than GTA 5 if were comparing single player alone

Story is great but it's a little buggy I suggest getting Watch_dogs 2 if you are just starting out.

easily one of my favorite games to date. graphics still kinda hold up to your average game today. damage models are good enough. and the gameplay is good. playing on realistic difficulty adds a little more challenge which i like. you will very quickly die if you aren't paying attention. the story is decent, not my favorite part of it but its not inherently bad. 8/10 i highly recommend this game if you catch it on sale. can be as low as 2 bucks sometimes.

Although some of the missions flow well and use the hacking mechanics in a unique way, the majority of them feel like a bad ripoff of far cry due to the poor shooting mechanics (if they're done loud) or a bad ripoff of splinter cell (if they're done quiet). I honestly felt like I spent more time shooting then I did hacking during my playthrough, which wouldn't have been as much of an issue if the combat wasn't so atrocious. Some of the enemies mid to late-game are so bullet spongy I lowered the difficulty to easy and still had to dump dozens of rounds into them. Although the story has some odd plot holes and some stuff is either not explained or seems to contradict previous moments, overall it's an interesting sequence of events with interesting characters. I'm glad I ended up seeing it through, but damn was it painful at points.

bunch of bugs and glitches first time playing in awhile... guessing this game isnt supported or updated anymore

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☑ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma

---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☑ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data

---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☑ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☑ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding

---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☑ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life

---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☑ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond

---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☐ Worth the price
☑ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☑ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☑ 7
☐ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10

Even though this is an old game, I still enjoy it a lot! The ability to hack city systems adds a unique and exciting way to play. Definitely a great experience!

The game in general is good, the story is decent with good gameplay but it gets repetitive really fast. It has good graphics but makes my PC overheat because it lacks optimization. Soundtrack is OK at best, there are no radio stations but a personalized playlist, which means you can get the same songs on repeat over and over again. The DLC story is short and the other content are these really tedious side quests that you have to complete 60 times for 100% (you have to even repeat previously completed ones to achieve this, little variation), plus 29 driving missions that get really fucking repetitive and annoying. The Online gameplay is broken on the Complete Edition because it can't connect to the Ubisoft servers. This doesn't happen on the Standard edition bought from Ubisoft Connect, unacceptable.

Overall this game is a 7/10. Play it with background music or podcast and it will become more enjoyable. This game comes free with Watch Dogs Legion so buy that one instead when it goes on sale.