Connection is power. Everything is connected. Everyone casts his digital shadow. As Aiden Pierce use hacking, surveillance and sabotage to send a message across the city.
Not perfect at all, needs develop, really.
At the very least, I can say this game is something of a mechanical masterpiece aside from some of the sticky console mechanics that are all too obvious. You can't even completely turn auto-assist off.
The hacking is satisfying enough, allowing you to manipulate practically everything electronic in site. From being able to burst a small pipe aside a building to stun targets or a pipe beneath the streets to blast a multitude of cars into the sky, there are at least about a dozen or two different things you can deploy or implode to serve your needs.
Surprisingly the AI is extremely good, often flanking and working together for once. Even police, often not much more than fodder, are lethal and dogged pursuers you would do well to avoid altogether. Though the one issue with the game's world is how awkwardly forgiving and unforgiving it can be. For as much as police are deadly, unless they're summoned by a mission's script, you will rarely be able to catch their attention if ever; you can run over several pedestrians and a number of things on any given side walk without an ounce of heat gained.
Visually, it isn't as impressive as it was previously, even at maximum settings. The textures were clearly downgraded among other things. Another major issue in that department would be the extremely short load distance, allowing you only to see a couple hundred meters in front of you a whole bunch of objects phasing into the world and probably being the source of a great deal of lag when driving at high speeds. However the Worse Mod makes the game both look and run better. If you've got a super rig, you can make it look just as good if not better than it was at its E3 reveal.
The multiplayer modes are all quite good, allowing you to do a variety of things; racing, capture the flag(decryption), plain old classic coop world roaming with a limitation of eight players, among others including the 1v1 modes and so on. Granted Uplay is a terrible service, so if you really hate Ubisoft's DRM & digital store be aware the game will be based off of their ****** service.
Some would say the main character is the boring stereotypical badass protagonist, however I consider him perfect for the type of game this is. They provide just enough of a foundation of motive that allows the player to have whatever play style they prefer. Want to be silent and sneaky, saving people in the dark dank alleyways or kill lots of people and steal everybody's money? Have at it.
In the end, most problems lie in the performance department, aside from the previously mentioned awkward ludonarrative dissonance in the world's reaction to the player's actions. And on a general side note, guns feel pretty powerful, explosions aren't Hollywood pyrotechnic displays, making it a more realistic grounded experience in contrast to something like Saints Row or GTA.
The Vanilla version is medium to fine, but with mod it could be better
good game. every game gets graphic downgrade so dont be surprised.
It's not that great.
Seriously. Don't even look at those low ratings all because of "poor optimization" or "graphics downgrade" or all those stuff. IMO this game deserves more.
UPDATE: I just found out that the reason for the graphics downgrade was because the PS3/PS4/X360/XBONE couldn't handle it. In my opinion Ubisoft did the right thing, if the PC had superior graphics compared to the consoles those PC MUSTARD RACERS will think of themselves immortal and do nothing but bitch about consoles.
Watch_Dogs is in my opinion one of the best games I ever played. Even with the downgrade, the game manages to look better than most games these days. As I have finished the entire game, the story is just damn near brilliant.. At one point during ACT IV the feels just came to me like a wave splashing on my face. The game brings you through a dark, sad and brilliant story showing you the dirty secrets of Chicago.
The game mechanics are really really good, it's amazing. The "Focus" mechanic actually helps during the game, it makes your shooting better and while at low health it gives you a second to react. The "Take Down" mechanic helps in combat more than the guns itself. The many mechanics they added such as Blackout, Jam Comms, etc. And the skills feel amazing.
Some may think the hacking is too overused, but that's the purpose of this game. During each level the game will give you a different challenge, if you're going for a strategy to be undetected then it makes the game challenging, you have to carefully understand the enemy to take him down. But if you're going for the straight-away-shoot-everyone then the game will feel boring.
The game may have some slight flaws, such as when you first play the game the loading time takes FOREVER. And the game tends to freeze a lot, but the more you play it the more the freezing stops. And the story and gameplay may have some REALLY REALLY SMALL flaws, but I didn't mind them.
It's really good and is a MUST PLAY.
10/10 - Really well done Ubisoft.
Not a bad game, but side missions is very repetative and boring.
THIS GAME IS AMEZING
I believe the game was poorly optimized but after some tweaking and there you have it, pure awesomeness. It runs like silk and looks as good as it should. I'm pretty satisfy myself.
Watch Dogs is just like Assassin's Creed and GTA made a baby, It is alot like of gameplay of GTA, the stealth system from Assassin's Creed, and the disadvantage, is the guns are so very underpowered for the Enforcers, the heavily armored guys, however, a 50 cal. or any explosive can kill it, isn't it weird? And the guns are so overpowered when using it from Gunmen to Veterans, since one hit of a ACR, .45 ACP, M8-8M, or any expensive weapons can kill them instantly, or one shot, one kill, You cannot use helicopters, which is really cool when you can use them, and finally, the strangest thing, you cannot use media app during a mission, also there is no gore, which is unlike any mature gta-like games but that doesn't matter.
The story is great, Aiden Pearce seeks out revenge for his niece, just like when Ezio seeks out revenge for his family.