Watch Dogs Image See the trailer
Ubisoft
Release Date:
Metascore
78
Based on
15 Critics
User Score
5.6
Based on
588 Ratings
Summary Back to top
In the modern uber-connected world, Chicago has the nation's most advanced and integrated computer system – one which controls almost every facet of city technology and maintains critical information on all of the city's residents. You assume the role of Aiden Pearce, a notorious hacker and former thug, whose criminal past lead to a violent family tragedy. Now on the hunt for those people who have hurt your family, you will be able to monitor and hack all who surround you while manipulating the city's systems to stop traffic lights, download personal information, manipulate the electrical grid and more. Use the entire city of Chicago as your personal weapon and exact your signature brand of revenge. Expand
Starring: David Baron
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Genre(s): Modern
Cheats: On GameFAQs
Rating: M
Critic Reviews Back to top
Positive:
11
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
90
Shacknews
May 27, 2014
Watch Dogs could've easily been Grand Theft Auto with tech equipment. But Ubisoft Montreal has managed to flesh out this experience as something more, making fantastic use of the technology and applying it just right to deliver a remarkably deep experience.
90
Gaming Nexus
May 27, 2014
With a deep storyline, plenty of side content, and a gorgeous rendering of Chicago to explore, Watch Dogs brings a lot to the table and truly unlocks next-generation graphics in a whole new way. Watch Dogs is a beautiful, mesmerizing title.
86
MondoXbox
Jun 1, 2014
Watch Dogs sports an extremely solid gameplay with a good stealth flavor and tons of things to do. It stumbles however in the story area, with an uninteresting plot and quite dull characters, Aiden included. Overall, however, it's a good package, even if it isn't the masterwork we were expecting, and it will undoubtedly be worthy of your time.
80
Destructoid
May 27, 2014
Despite the fact that Watch Dogs hasn't made any meaningful impact on the genre, I found myself having a ton of fun with it. Between the deep levels of customization and the sheer breadth of content, there's no shortage of things to do. If Ubisoft can take the game's core fun factor and marry it with an actual "next-gen" experience the next time around, they'll have something truly special.
80
Pure Xbox
Oct 21, 2014
If you were expecting Watch Dogs to take the genre in new directions then you’re going to be sorely disappointed. With that being said, Watch Dogs is still an engaging and often times surprising action game.
80
Digitally Downloaded
May 28, 2014
It is not quite the revolutionary title people were hoping for, but Watch Dogs is still an excellent game in its own right.
60
Giant Bomb
May 27, 2014
Even though I feel its story is often weak and its action isn't that different from other games in the genre, I still enjoyed my time with Watch Dogs. It turns out that the old stuff still works, and the strong-but-standard mission design kept me entertained, most of the time. It's rough around the edges, though, so if you don't settle for anything less than the best, you'll probably be disappointed.
User Reviews Back to top
Positive:
92
Mixed:
25
Negative:
33
10
boomfac3shot
May 27, 2014
amazing game. best looking open world game to date graphically. plenty of new game mechanics give a definite next gen fell. multiplayer online hacking surprisingly heaps of fun. heaps to do in terms of side missions/activites Expand
10
Quietlionmusic
Jun 5, 2014
Best open world game yet. This game never seems to have a dull moment. There are so many different things to do and you want to do them all. Multiplayer is very unique and merges seamlessly with the normal gameplay. There are tons of side quests, mysteries to solve and objectives in addition to the immersive story line.

My favorite aspect of the game is the fact that you can accomplish tasks in different ways. You can go in stealth and hack your way in, bring down your enemies with the environment or you can go in guns blazing (and there are many guns to choose from).

Graphically the game is beautiful. There is an absurd amount of detail. When you go to a fast food place you can read the menu. I have never seen an open world game with so much detail. This game was worth the wait and the extra time Ubisoft Montreal spent on it.
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9
wasteofmoney209
Sep 20, 2014
i bought thise game a couple of months after release because i heard it was bad but that was a huge mistake LOL.I at first did not like it but once you get used to things its a really good game.

i completed the game on the hardest difficulty setting and i did every contract "side mission" which for me is quite something as i never bother doing these in the gta series,i also hit max skill level for the 100g gamerscore.

good story,graphics,sound even multiplayer is fun.

if you have not bought this yet go out and buy it its about the best advice i can give someone also you get it now for less then half the price it released at.
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7
Agent-D
Jun 4, 2014
Watch Dogs is a game that carries a lot of hype about being a true next gen game for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. I feel it's nearly impossible for anything to live up to the level of hype this game received. It is my intention to review this title fairly without any level of hype or hatred for this game as I never got in to the hype and I do not hate Watch Dogs.

The narrative in Watch Dogs showed promise at first but quickly starts to fall apart and not just due to the cliche vigilante revenge story. Certain narrative decisions make it little to hard to believe that anyone would make that decision and Intelligent characters start acting irrationally at almost the on set of the Pearce family saga and many players will put together the entire story line about halfway through. It's not that it isn't a fun story, it's just painfully obvious.

A game I originally thought to have more in common with Assassin's Creed, Watch Dogs is in every way an open world game in line with Grand Theft Auto and like GTA it falls victim to some of the common issues in almost all open world games. While it is obvious the game is also running on some last gen tech, I do not count off for that due to that being something of the norm at the moment, but we need to move passed this phase. Even with that said graphically I feel that it is a mixed bag. The game looks simply amazing at times, only to fall off at others. I perfect example of this is how almost every character outside of Aiden and Clara looks in game. Nicole & Jackson Pearce look like they had been ripped straight from Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood graphically and placed in a game with a next gen version of Aiden and that not even getting in to how other non-important characters look far worse.

The city is very hit and miss as well, I am not 100% certain what version of Chicago this is but it isn't remotely close to the one I have visited. Look I am not saying we need this 1:1 ratio of the city, but things should at least be close. Chicago is graphically inconsistent as well. It has some real beauty at times then the quality suddenly drops to muddy/blurry textures and bad aliasing. I am a bit concerned about the lighting and shadows in the game outside of direct sunlight as many of the lights at night do not cast shadows. That said I think the game looks astonishing at night when it's wet from rain and no visible light source around, but that in itself is the problem as they are covering up their faults by adding a layer of water to a darker landscape. Reflections in this game are rarely ever even used and in almost every event they are faked out to try to add to the realism, the issue I take with this is that the reflections are almost 100% of the time not even close to accurate. You might be standing on a rooftop looking at a window of an intersection when in reality it is a city skyline. I have found myself on street level staring in to a building that shows a road running right through the city and in to the building I am looking at, I then turn around and find river and a bridge.

While the game is set at 30fps it has some frame rate issues on the PlayStation 4 (900p) and the Xbox One (792p). The drops are not considerable enough to cause a panic but should be noted after the game was delayed to correct issues like this.

The game controls well and has some good mechanics with the hacking but lacks any real combat. Melee combat is really non-existent outside of the a quicktime style take down and shooting is a very basic version of the mechanics found in Splinter Cell: Blacklist. It just always feels so subpar in combat driving scenarios. That leads to another issue, for a game that tries to allow the player so many options to achieve their goals the game tends to fall back on one of two things, firefights and car chases. Hacking was suppose to be the thing that makes it stand out, but then it falls back to being GTA kill everyone or escape and the hacking is a minute tool used to change traffic lights or raise barricades / bridges. most of the time it's not even needed as you can get away with little no no effort (until much later in the game). While on driving, the driving in this game takes the poor controls of cars in every other open world game and decreases handling to make them that much more of a chore. Motorcycles are almost flawless so I highly recommend using those or the special stealth car unlocked in 'uplay'.

The multi-player is unique and feels genuine, but is basically a trolling simulator The main quest will take one to two days to complete and the game offers enough side missions to make any 80 hour players scream with joy. The issue with those side activities is that once again like most open world games, they are very repetitive and lack any real diversity. Overall I think Watch Dogs is a solid game that everyone owes it to themselves to try, I feel that it is a very strong rental but not worthy of purchase
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6
DarrMunny
Jun 3, 2014
Terrible driving mechanics worst ive played its like they have chucked it in for the sake of it, meaningless police chases for whatever reason just annoying really.To me there is no structure in the storyline it seems very haphazard, it just put me off completely. Expand
5
JamesDeLuca
Jun 26, 2014
Lousy GTA clone + interesting concept = Watchdogs

Watchdogs offers some original content to the GTA clone genre, but its still just a lousy
GTA clone.

I would call the driving physics in WD awful, but that would be an insult to games with awful driving physics.

Not only do the cars drive like N64 but they look like N64. There is no texture, detail or appeal of any kind.

The cityscape is okay, but lacks realism. Overall, GTA 5 on 360 looks better than WD on 1.

The only exceptional aspect of this game is character and plot progression. Ubi Mtl always nails it.
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0
usualben
Oct 27, 2014
Once you have graduated from primary/elementary school you will have the required literary skills to quickly sound this game out as the most poorly written thing in the history of anything. You would have to be extreamly forgiving to suggest that this game in any way satisfies any of the basic requirements to make even a half decent story. It constantly contradicts itself and its awful dydactisism make Aiden Pearce the most reprehensible moral dullard ever conceived by man. Some games, in their playability or design, make up for poor writing but this game does not - its plainly terrible. Expand