Watch Dogs got a lot of hate back in the day for not living up to the expectations set by its E3 reveal. Looking at it now, I honestly think it's one of those games that has aged really well, especially considering the direction the AAA industry has taken over the last decade.
The best way I can explain it is this: Sleeping Dogs feels like the natural successor to GTA IV, and Watch Dogs does the same for Sleeping Dogs. Not because it's trying to be bigger or better, but because all three games share something that's becoming increasingly rare: open worlds that feel cohesive, immersive, and genuinely enjoyable to simply exist in.
I first played it back in 2014 and recently decided to replay it, this time with the T-Bone DLC. One memory that always stuck with me was driving around The Loop while Confidential Liar by Vannatica played on the radio, behind the wheel of what is basically Ubisoft's version of a Subaru Impreza WRX. It only took a few minutes to remember why that moment stayed with me.
The world is fantastic.
Chicago feels alive in a way that many modern open-world games still struggle to achieve. It's not just the activities or collectibles. It's the random NPC conversations, people reacting to what's happening around them, the small dynamic events you run into while simply walking through the streets, and the overall atmosphere. The city actually feels like a place instead of just a giant map full of icons.
A random detail that I personally loved is that several of the additional voice actors also appeared in D. Wolf's One Chicago TV series. It's obviously a tiny detail, but if you've watched those shows, Chicago ends up feeling oddly familiar because of it.
Another thing that deserves a lot of credit is the fact that the online mode is still alive over twelve years later. I had never really tried it before, but I ended up having a lot of fun with it. The invasion mechanic, where another player hacks into your game and you have to figure out which NPC they're hiding as within a certain area, creates some genuinely tense moments. The same goes when you're the one invading someone else's game. Once both players start using hacking abilities against each other, everything quickly turns chaotic, stressful, and surprisingly fun.
The story is basically your typical government conspiracy thriller. You could probably swap in the name of almost any Hollywood action movie and it wouldn't feel out of place. That isn't a criticism, though. It's a solid, darker story that stays interesting throughout, even if it never reaches the point where you're blown away by huge plot twists.
One thing that deserves more credit is the audio logs. They add a surprising amount of context to both the characters and the overall plot, making the world feel much richer. I can also understand why some players skip them entirely, especially if they just want to finish the main story without chasing collectibles or achievements.
The T-Bone DLC, unfortunately, is the complete opposite.
I found it incredibly forgettable. It feels like fan service for the sake of fan service, with a story that's difficult to care about. It's only ten main missions followed by a bunch of repetitive contracts, and it never comes close to matching the quality of the base game.
Another thing people used to criticize was Aiden himself, saying he was unlikeable. After replaying the game, I couldn't disagree more.
Aiden is cold, distant, and emotionally closed off, but everything he does revolves around protecting what's left of his family. I don't really see him as an antihero because the game itself never tries to frame him as one. If anything, by the end he's left with regret rather than becoming more consumed by revenge. I wouldn't even call him a vigilante. He's not driven by some higher moral code. He's simply a man chasing revenge, leaving destruction behind while slowly realizing that none of it will actually undo the damage that's already been done.
What really disappoints me is that we never got a prequel showing how Aiden and Damien first met, how they started working together, or how Aiden became one of the best hackers in the first place. There was a lot of interesting backstory left unexplored.
Honestly, it's not hard to see why Ubisoft put the Watch Dogs series on ice after the later entries underperformed. But replaying the original reminded me of something I'd almost forgotten:
There was a time when Ubisoft made genuinely great open-world games.
