Watch Dogs Reviews
Polished to a mirror sheen, and bursting with content, Watch Dogs is a great looking game with a thriving open world and an empowering premise. It suffers from being an amalgamation of every other major Ubisoft game, to the point where it doesn't feel as fresh as it deserves to, but it's still a varied, rich, thoroughly dense experience.
Watch Dogs is an unmitigated triumph, that's for sure. Considering the game is a new IP, it does a lot of things incredibly well and lays the foundation for a franchise that has the makings of being a potential Assassin's Creed beater. Despite a few puzzling design decisions and an almost glacial start to the campaign, Watch Dogs is worthy of your time. There's no doubt about that.
The fact that Watch Dogs has come out as second-best against the juggernaut that is the Grand Theft Auto franchise doesn’t mean it’s a bad game; it’s quite the opposite. It’s quite a great achievement for a brand new IP to come out and be as good as it is and to also try to do some new things on such a large scale. Its multiplayer is by far one of Watch Dogs‘ stand out components and this is where you’ll start to see some great videos floating around online from the community as they invade your game. Watch Dogs has dozens of hours of content and will certainly keep you entertained its world and what’s on offer.
Watch Dogs is here and it's good but not great.
Watch Dogs is a solid game, but I feel it falls short of the mark Ubisoft set for it. The single-player experience is a decent length and there's plenty to do around town, it's just too bad I never know what the game wants me to focus on. Aside from that, the game's world is rich in fascinating points of interest for you to explore. Throw in some decent multiplayer that works somewhat seamlessly with the single-player and it's an overall solid game. Too bad Aiden is just such a cardboard prop.
Watch_Dogs delivers on all fronts providing the player with intense gameplay mechanics and an intriguing mission structure.
Watch Dogs doesn't have the depth you'll find in a Grand Theft Auto title, but it does have a unique gameplay experience through hacking abilities, a gorgeous gaming environment to play in and enough added content via side quests and online play to make it worth your time.
Watch Dogs satisfactorily fulfills its premise but not quite its promise. It is not a game-changer by any means, but it is well-crafted, high-quality, adult entertainment.
It's probably one of 2014's most hyped games, and it delivers on some levels. It is just let-down by the fact that Watch Dogs promised so much two years ago when it was revealed.
Fundamentally that's the overriding feeling of Watch Dogs. It's a game that has so much to offer and so many things to do that it can't fail to engage you as a player. But eventually you'll realise it's not all good and what you find interesting is done. There's little to compel the player to finish in terms of the way it does things, aside from that square button which allows magical occurrences to happen. With this introduction to the world of hacking Ubisoft have created a behemoth of an IP, one that promises much. Like its predecessor though, we'll have to wait for the tighter and more focussed second iteration, removing what didn't work and improving that which did, to realise that full potential.
Ubisoft Montreal should certainly be applauded for trying something new within the bounds of the genre - hacking in Watch Dogs is genuinely innovative, despite the threat of gimmickry - however, Watch Dogs has ultimately failed to live up to its hype. It's good, but it could, and probably should, have been great. The underlying irony of Watch Dogs is the fact that the game itself suffers a bit too much from an identity crisis.
Imaginative, cleverly integrated online play helps to bolster Watch Dogs' less exciting single-player offering, which fails to capitalize on its ambitious hacking concept in any truly memorable way.
Watch_Dogs has its up and downs. The game was designed to put control into the player's hands and it succeeded. I thought the concept was incredibly epic and it didn't leave me with that "I wish I could do this" feeling I get from some games. The power to play the game how you want is also a bonus. Also, if you're looking for a game with a ton of replay value, Watch_Dogs will definitely do it. While I figured Watch_Dogs would have been a more sophisticated version of GTA, it isn't. It can be frenetic at times and sometimes, that's all you need to have some fun.
Watch Dogs might not be the defining next-gen experience that Ubisoft has claimed it would be, however, being able to hack your way through Chicago might be one of the must fun open-world experience I've had to date, save for Saints Row 4 of course.
2014 will have better games, stronger ideas and more visually impressive spectacles, but none of this stops Watch Dogs from being another very fine offering from Ubisoft Montreal, a studio that has a commitment to both quality and narrative that should always be admired.
All in all, definitely one of the most unique and creative games of this genre I've played. Great voice acting, excellent cut scenes, damn decent dialogue, and lots of replayability.
What you can walk away with is, like Assassin's Creed before it, Watch Dogs has walked into a genre otherwise owned by one of the most popular and rewarded developers in the industry and holds its own. The question will always be "is it better than GTA?" and at this stage the answer is invariably no, but it's early days for a game that builds on the strengths of its core marketing line, while balancing itself out on various fringe areas. It fails to expand upon its own principles though, and as a result remains slightly out of line with its potential. But damn, what potential it has.
Watch Dogs isn't just another open-world game. It redefines what is possible in the genre and sets new standards which the competition will be hard pressed to match. Here's hoping that this is just the first chapter in the story of ctOS and vigilante hackers, and that Ubisoft can find a convincing way to continue the series in the future. The first piece of DLC, another single-player campaign, has already been confirmed. Chicago is a pretty big place and could still be concealing all kinds of interesting characters we've yet to meet.
Watch Dogs is a fantastic entry in the free roam genre. Not without areas to improve, Watch Dogs is a unique base that Ubisoft will build a new franchise on.
What Watch Dogs does hint at is bright idea with an even brighter future. Once the shackles of the previous-gen have been wrenched free the potential is there to make a truly groundbreaking title.