Watch Dogs PC Special Edition with DLC

Didn't think I'd be able to afford this yet, standard UK prices totally unreasonable. Was dubious because it's such a discount, but I instantly got the working code. Typing in a code is something you often have to do even if you have a physical copy (Windows?), so that's not a big deal, and I prefer my games downloaded instead of DVD's.*

Just bought a game from here and got the code very quickly had to jump through a few hoops but it was all worth it for the price.

Unlike alot of people I was uninterested when GTA:V was rolling round, I had no intention of buying it but playing it at least to see what the crack is and I have to say I was deeply disappointed with the content I had seen. So to clarify that, this review is coming from someone who quite frankly despised GTA:V for the fact of it's hype was overboard. Big time. Watch_Dogs gets compared to GTA:5 alot and to be honest, I had a MUCH better time with Watch_Dogs over GTA, one due to the hype wasn't as huge, or perhaps I was living under a rock who knows! But that said my expectations weren't as high for this title as the likes of GTA and in result rewarded me with an brilliant game and an excellent experience. With that said lets jump in to universe of Watch_Dogs!

You play Aiden Pierce, A hacker that had experienced a devastating aftermath after a failed hacking job regarding a hotel called "The Merlaut" with his partner Damien Brenks. In result a hit was placed on both Aiden and Damien. Watch_Dogs is set a few months after the devastating accident with Pierce, at this point you are a Vigilante, seeking justice to criminals and those that will harm you or your loved ones. While this is the route Pierce takes, Damien isn't so eager of calling quits on hacking just yet...

With the story set without any spoilers! Lets get into the type of game Watch_Dogs is, if you haven't discovered it yet. This is an Open World Action-Adventure game with a Third Person perspective. You are located in Chicago under the surveillance of whats called ctOS. Taking a step from ctOS for now, there are many things to do in Watch_Dogs. Explore the vast map of Chicago, complete Fixer/Criminal contracts which have you running from the police or stopping criminal convoy escorts, stopping local crimes from happening etc. On top of this there has to be mentions of the Digital Trips you can have! From a Horde wave like game with alien like enemies to reeking havoc in a huge Spider Tank! That's right, you heard me! A huge freakin' Spider Tank! Absolute madness, not quite something I have experienced anything before in a game like this.

What sets Watch_Dogs apart from the rest? Hacking. This tool is huge amounts of fun, hacking street light, blockers and rupture pipes, these hacking abilities help you stop your pursuers whether it be the Police or Fixers (Watch_Dogs hired Guns basically). But it doesn't stop there. You will have missions to infiltrate areas in which you will require Camera's to be your eyes on the inside, this can also be used to help you see whats ahead and cause distractions if there are applicable resources in sight to do so, creating a path of opportunity to slip past or take your enemies down. On top of this some missions will require you to hack a certain module but those are not as easy as just pushing the button prompt, no you are greeted with a mini-game to complete the hack. A fun twist to hacking but do so fast, depending on your position you may be discovered by a patrolling guard as you are incapable of moving while hacking. To add a fun fact into this I had some tasks that involved hacking modules in a complex, all I did was pull up in a car in range with a camera on site, killed the engine and hacked away from the seat of my car. Freaking. Awesome.

Next is the multi-player, in which I can't say much as I only really interested in playing the single player to this game, however that does not mean you are safe... I was reluctantly invaded by another player "hacking" my game. This gives you the opportunity to hunt them down if you so wish, while they have no effect on your overall progression in story it's just a little bit of fun. That's the most I've come to play with the multi-player aspects however you will get notifications and opportunities to join an online sessions via contract requests notified in-game.

Graphics... There's been alot of commotion about driver issues for this game, one being that AMD drivers are completely un-optimized or even incapable of playing Watch_Dogs. Myself I have a GTX650 1gb GDDR5 paired with an AMD Athlon II X4 750K and was able to run this game surprisingly at Medium settings with playable frame-rates though I did experience lag spikes every now and again. To comment on graphic quality as I intended to be playing on Low settings, I have seen the Low settings and I'll be honest the game does look quite ugly on Low but if your on board with PC gaming chances are you'll have a better rig to be running this on higher settings. I have read on several articles that the consoles are to be the equivalent to that of the High settings on the PC, whether this is true or not I do not know however with the Hardware that you can obtain with desktops these days, you can make this game look damn pretty. Just an added note I thought I'd add.

Now to the negative side of things, which aren't too bad but things I think need fixing and the reason why I give 4 stars. I had issues with frame-rate now and again (drivers no doubt), that's the only complaint with how drivers are still being currently tuned for Watch_dogs. To do with the game itself, I constantly had issues with camera while hacking, there would be some camera's "Out of range" making them unable to be hacked and would hinder me on progression or view points within the mission yet after attempting and failing the mission, the second time round the camera's are now in range. Odd and needs to be fixed! The next issue is unrealistic AI, there are several missions where you MUST play stealth and I have been detected in the unlikeliest fashions possible. An recent and notable example for myself, I was playing a mission where you can't be discovered by the patrolling police units, I rallied my car off a ramp to get on to the highway. I landed with a thunderous thud behind a Police road block, had no interest in me what so ever. I start driver away down the highway, spotted immediately... A very irritable moment.
Last but not least the checkpoint system. Sometimes I would find the checkpoint system too forgiving. In the events of escaping or killing to end the missions (which gets repetitive might I add) if I had died during that potion of the mission sometimes I would be placed near the exit of the complex making an easy escape or even outside the complex making for an effortless and disappointing escape. Sometimes even the enemies would despawn letting me walk out! Wasn't too happy when this problem arose. Fortunately it wasn't common but could happen making it too easy.

Overall I think Watch_Dogs is a great game, with a fantastic story in my opinion, it caught my interest and made me want to play on unlike GTA but I'll stop the comparison. Great gameplay with a few hicups with frame-rate issues and various bugs but I still found this much enjoyable, a nice change to play for a change at least for me personally not to mention the new ideas Ubisoft bring to the table an open-world game like this. I believe it's a great game worth the look as one of the most highly anticipated games of 2014 and from the guys over at Ubisoft.

This is my second purchase from CDkeys and I'm very pleased with this purchase, easy and fast with no issues. CDkeys has been bookmarked and will easily become somewhere I'll check first for new upcoming games. Highly recommend! Keep up the great work!

*Note, Ubisoft Servers upon release was not factored into this review at all due to the overhaul any game has upon release and perfectly understandable for Ubisoft to have issues. Stop giving them a hard time! :)*

Ive played a few missions and wow its good, just wondered ehy i dident get the blume agent pre order bonus ?, on all other sites they did but apart from that this games kick ass

what the hell are you talking about Projekts

First time purchasing on this website.

I had one issue which was my fault, but the staff were helpful and responded in under an hour!

I've got the link to the page that will display my code once it's available, so I'm so happy!

Thanks.

Glad I've pre-ordered this game, saw the reviews and gameplay and it looks great.

I have played this game over and over for the past 4 years and it is amazeballs ty ubisoft luv u