Watch Dogs Reviews
Check out Watch Dogs Review Scores from trusted Critics below. With 18 reviews on CriticDB, Watch Dogs has a score of:
“Watch Dogs makes up for a snooze-worthy story with heaping amounts of smartly designed diversions scattered around its gorgeous open world.”
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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. The hacking component doesn’t offer a lot of depth despite it being such a big theme in the game, but there are plenty of moments where it adds a refreshing spin on a few of those same old, open-world tropes. It’s well-crafted, highly polished and a very strong debut for a new franchise. We’re going to be seeing a lot of Watch Dogs in...
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Watch Dogs was probably never going to be the ground-breaking “next-gen” experience many had envisioned back in 2012. It’s hardly run-of-the-mill but at the same time only makes a few genuine attempts to break the mould. However, in these areas – such as the online multiplayer – there are genuine glimmers of innovation worthy of merit, and if you look anywhere else, players will still find an open-world game backed by a unique premise and solid core gameplay.
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The core gameplay of Watch Dogs is very entertaining (and relatively unique), but the overall package is harmed by numerous detractions.
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Ever since its announcement and reveal back at E3 2012, Ubisoft's Watch Dogs has ironically been held under close inspection. A sandbox adventure with a focus on hacking, it's an ambitious game that's chocked full of ideas and mechanics taken from some of the publisher's other properties and various open world titles. If you took Assassin's Creed and mashed it together with Splinter Cell before adding a hefty dollop of Grand Theft Auto, you'd essentially end up with Watch Dogs – but is this Chicago-based romp better or worse than the sum of its parts?
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Watch Dogs on PS4 executes fresh gameplay ideas with aplomb, marking one of the first games of this new generation of consoles to innovate within its genre. It's a slower, smarter sandbox shooter with an astounding degree of content, but despite resonant themes of technological overbearance, its poorly handled story likely won't grip you.
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Watch Dogs is an origin story of sorts for a vigilante killer. Aiden Pearce is to Chicago what Batman is to Gotham, or more a more apt comparison would be to describe Pearce as more of a high-tech Punisher. The story is adequate to pull players through to the end and you can play much of the game approaching situations in your own, non-violent way, but the campaign forces extreme gunplay more than we wanted.
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It's been a long time since any game caused so much controversy before its premiere as Watch_Dogs. We take Ubisoft's sandbox to the workshop and check whether unleashed dogs really deserve such frothing at the mouth.
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One-button hacking might be overly simplistic, but it does give you abilities that make playing through Aiden’s story feel powerful and fun. Doing side missions and multiplayer as you make your way through the dark and lengthy story makes it feel like a huge adventure, and stealth options let you play smart if you prefer. Car chases aside, Watch Dogs is fundamentally very well made, and has more than enough unique ideas to make it a great and memorable open-world action game.
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Watch Dogs shines when it relies on its own ideas, but is ultimately held back by its more conventional approach.
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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.
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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.
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Although reluctant to make comparisons with the Grand Theft Auto series, the fact that Watch Dogs doesn’t quite match the same free roaming open-world standard quickly becomes an obvious elephant in the room. 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 pro...
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The appeal of Watch_Dogs is obvious. It promises to take the open world of Grand Theft Auto, relocate it to Chicago and spice it up with near-future tech and a completely networked, entirely hackable city, all while sprinkling some of the variety and flow of Assassin’s Creed.
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