History VideoGame / WatchDogs

* KickTheSonOfABitch:
** The majority of [=NPC=]s tend to have some hack-derived detail to damn them by, ranging from possessing stolen property or missing parole to {{Felony Misdemeanor}}s like frequenting fetish websites.
** This goes double for the mercenaries guarding [=ctOS=] server sites or gang members. Profiling them reveals all sorts of nasty things from abusive backgrounds to "killed a dolphin." (Seriously.) Sometimes goes into YouBastard territory, as the game will note the guy you're about to beat senseless or shoot in the face may, for example, have serious mental health issues.

* BottomlessMagazines: Downplayed as while your ammo is nominally finite -- you'll see it diminish when you use it -- but the limits are atstronomical compared to what you're likely to use in a given firefight. And any time you go through even a brief loading screen (dying, sleeping, starting a mission or side game, fast travelling, and so on) all your ammo gets refilled. The only exception to this rule is the grenade launcher, which carries no more than 8 ammo, plus up to four in a grenade launcher (though, because of how the game counts bullets, if you have both grenade launchers, their magazines will both be filled as well). Running out of grenade launcher rounds in a fight is entirely possible. On the other hand, the grenade launcher will one-shot most enemies and knock enforcers off their feet and kill them with just a couple shots.

The game was previously to be released as a launch game for UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 on November 15, 2013 but was delayed until May 27, 2014, when it was finally released on PC, UsefulNotes/PlayStation3, UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, UsefulNotes/{{Xbox 360}}, and UsefulNotes/XboxOne. The Wii U version has been confirmed to be [[http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/02/10/watch-dogs-coming-to-wii-u-later-than-other-systems releasing later than the other versions of the game]], instead launching on November 18, 2014 for North America, and November 21 for Europe. An UpdatedRerelease of the game is available on UsefulNotes/Playstation4, UsefulNotes/Playstation5, UsefulNotes/Xbox360, and UsefulNotes/XboxSeriesX as part of the ''VideoGame/WatchDogsLegion'' Season Pass.

* PuzzlePan: Not exactly a puzzle, but one of the missions has the camera pan to a ramp which, if you decide to drive off of, lands you on some elevated tracks that you can cruise along and escape the police cars after you much more easily.

* BigBadDuumvirate: [[spoiler:Lucky Quinn]] and [[spoiler:Damien Brenks]], as it turns out they've plotted several of the crimes that occur in the game, including the assassination of [[spoiler:Clara]].

** Playing without an Internet connection, or don't want to be invaded while attempting to do things? There's a story mission which ''requires'' you to play an online match - or at least, you have to ''attempt'' it; Aiden will complain about his connection to "the Grid" being down, and how he really ''wants'' to do one, but he'll just have to wait.

* TheFixer:Aiden's main source of income is 'fixing' problems in the underworld. Fixer car missions involve stealing the right car(s) to prepare a heist or acting like a drunken douchebag so that the police force isn't fixated on the heisters. Assassination missions usually equal Aiden versus a small army. Since fixers can also be defined as criminal engineers/hackers, any thug with a decent hacking skill is now called a fixer in Chicago. In multiplayer, you fight against player-controlled fixers.

* GameplayAndStorySegregation:

* GameBreakingBug: Around the first month that the game was out, there was a bug that had a random chance of either permanently deleting all of your currently-held weapons or corrupting your save file where loading it got it stuck at the 90% mark (thus leading to it being called the 90% glitch) if you were killed while invading another player's game. If you didn't wait the patch out that fixed your save file, your only option was to start over from scratch.
* GameplayAndStorySegregation: Several side missions have Aiden indulging in illegal activities that go beyond those he justifies via his own vigilantism. Stealing cars for clients for example is a recurring fixer contract type. They are rather at odd with the main story of the game, where Aidan is portrayed as a vigilante with almost obsessive desire to punish criminals. (However, it's slightly [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in the fact that these are the only missions in which you earn money on completion, implying that he's only doing it for the paycheck.)
** In the mission "Role Model" Aiden always says "I killed all of them" even if you knock out every enemy.
* GangUpOnTheHuman: Rather annoyingly, sometimes civilians can call the cops on criminals shooting at you, but the cops will prioritize you instead of the people who are most likely in a large group, causing most of the chaos. This is especially egregious in the random "Crime Detected" events, where after Aiden non-lethally takes down a gunman, the cops, if they successfully scan you, will reign hell on you even after you just saved somebody's life.
* GenreDeconstruction: In an InUniverse example, some of the ads ingame were vandalised with subvertising messages meant to harshly critique the fictional companies and individuals in question.

* CanonWelding: Averted. References to [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreed Abstergo]] are littered throughout the game, with the implications being that the two games share the same universe. However, Ubisoft said that while they considered it, it was decided that it wouldn't go beyond references or minor cameos. [[spoiler:''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedOrigins'', however, retroactively confirmed that it is the same universe, with a CCTV screenshot showing Aiden shooting [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag Olivier Garneau]], something that does indeed happen in the game.]]

** In one of the early missions, Aiden comments that he and Jorid are not really friends and if in any other situation, they will be hunting each other. [[spoiler:In the final mission, Jordi is hired by Damien to assassinate Aiden]].

* WeaponOfChoice: Aiden's smartphone, and his collapsible baton and (non-collapsible) gun. The game promotes using them in that order.

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: The Profiler can show you little hints about what a person is like. This can range from wanting to be a chain divorcer, a musician with quite the crime record, or someone who frequents fetish sites. One very dark example of this is an HIV positive blood donor.
* AntiFrustrationFeature:
** As long as you don't hit civilians or cause major damage while driving, the police will not come after you no matter how many traffic rules you break. They also don't respond when there are fixers trying to gun you down.
** Aiden's phone never runs out of battery charge outside of the battery cells you use to power hacks.
* AntiHero: Aiden Pearce is some form of this. How far he slides on the anti-hero scale is mostly up to the player. He'll never be a squeaky clean white knight, but you can do everything from using the city's crime detection network to protect the citizens, to stealing from peoples bank accounts and selling their cars to chop shops. In the first gameplay trailer, Aiden causes a roadblock to trigger to catch one of his targets - and when he's sneaking around the crashed cars, there are very clearly some dead civilians, thanks to wrecking their cars.
* AugmentedReality: Some of the minigames take place in some form of this: they're a game within Aiden's phone that lets him collect floating "coins" as he platforms around the place (Coin Rush) or shoot up space invaders ([=NVZN=]).
* AssholeVictim: The Profiler reveals that some civilians are deeply nasty people or indeed criminals, which makes hacking money from their bank accounts a little more palatable. Relatedly, many of Blume's security mooks have criminal convictions or suspicious entries on police databases.
* TheBadGuyWins: In a way, [[spoiler: Blume. By the end of the game, ctOS has shown to be vulnerable to exploits and hacks that have caused immense damage to Chicago, and most likely left dozens injured or dead. Not only is Blume able to spin all of this in their favor and get their PR lady appointed ''the interim Mayor of Chicago'', but also start spreading a new and improved ctOS to ''every city in the world.'']]

* BonusFeatureFailure:
** As fun (and frustrating) the Digital Trips can be, their only reward [[AndYourRewardIsClothes is clothing]]. They aren't even included in the game's completion rate thanks to being added in late in development.
** Most of the pre-order exclusive missions fall into this, with two notable examples being ''Breakthrough'', which is little more than a glorified Criminal Convoy, and ''Signature Shot'', which is your standard "tail the guy and then kill everyone at his destination" mission. At least the Biometric Rifle you earn from it can be a DiskOneNuke like the Spec Ops Goblin if done early enough (Unlocking Brandon Dock's ctOS center vs doing all the Weapons Trade investigations, which would have you do the above anyway.)

** Enforcers may count as this, as they take a ''lot'' of punishment, carry high-powered weaponry, and can't be taken down with melee without unlocking a 5-point skill. They typically only appear at most in pairs accompanying larger groups of lesser mooks. Later subverted with [[spoiler:Iraq]], who is classified as an Enforcer but is an actual boss.

* TheCracker: [[PlayerCharacter Aiden Pearce]], and others exist in the universe and might show up overall.
* CrowsNestCartography: It is one of the [[Creator/{{Ubisoft}} trope codifier's]] games, after all. In this case, the [=ctOS=] towers are used to reveal collectibles and fill in the map.
* {{Cyberpunk}}/PostCyberPunk: A more realistic variation on this theme compared to most, however.

* {{Deconstruction}}: According to WordOfGod, ''Watch_Dogs'' being set in the "real" world is meant to illustrate how utterly insane and misguided Aiden's attempts at revenge and playing Batman are. The role of his sister Nicky and his nephew are there to specifically highlight how nuts our hero is.

** Averted in the mission 'Role Model'.[[spoiler:Despite the game explicitly telling you that your knock downs are nonlethal, even requiring you to knock out gang leaders in this fashion, no matter WHAT you do in this mission, Jack will be terrified and Aiden will say that he killed everyone.]]

* TheDon: Lucky Quinn.

* GreaterScopeVillain: [[MegaCorp Blume Corporation]].

* HackTheTrafficLights: One of the things you can do in the game.

* HeroWithBadPublicity: Aiden is an outright wanted criminal who's trying to kill certain targets, but seems to be trying to do the right thing. Unfortunately, [[BigBrotherIsWatching his targets control the ctOS]]. Of course if you have Aiden take on extreme methods and do stuff like killing police officers and InnocentBystanders indiscriminately, you aren't giving the citizens of Chicago any reason to doubt that reputation.

* HollywoodHacking: Hacking is an important game mechanic, so some liberties are unavoidable. It's justified by Aiden not ''hacking'' per se, so much as using exploits and backdoors left behind when the [=ctOS=] was made.
** Notably, Aiden himself isn't much of a hacker; his phone includes features from [=DedSec=] specifically designed to make it easy for him to get into the [=ctOS=] systems.
* HumanTrafficking: Dermot O'Leary and the Chicago South Club literally kidnap young women from the streets to be sold to the highest bidder in a secretive auction that disgusts even Aiden Pearce.

* {{Hypocrite}}: Aiden is the Vigilante who targets professional criminals, kills Fixers, and considers himself a force of good. He's also best friends with a Fixer and does work for him which, bluntly, makes him a Fixer and professional criminal too. WordOfGod is this is deliberate.
** Aiden will attack and sometimes kill murderers and petty thieves. Meanwhile he steals cars off the street and hacks the bank accounts of random people, often the working poor, and may also murder security guards in cold blood simply because they work for a company that invades the privacy of ordinary people. He is also encouraged to invade those same people's privacy to "satisfy your curiosity".
* ISurrenderSuckers: Aiden faking surrender to cops before causing a blackout, knocking one out, shooting two others in the legs before taking off on a boat.
* IndecisiveParody: According to WordOfGod, Aiden Pearce is meant to be a {{Deconstruction}} of typical video game anti-heroes and a self-destructive hypocrite. A lot of gamers missed this, just assuming he was a FlatCharacter.

* InsurmountableWaistHighFence: Hacked (raised) bridges become this to AI pursuers. Almost any vehicle can make the jump between one end of the bridge and the other -- certainly any vehicle driven by pursuers -- but you can hack the bridge, speed up and over yourself, and be safe in the knowledge that they're stuck on the other side unable to come directly at you.

** The "Traced" achievement for getting Tailed five times. Tailing is very rarely done due to the greatly reduced Notoriety/EXP earned from a successful tail vs. a successful hack, making this a LuckBasedMission GoneHorriblyWrong. Even worse, because it's a hidden Achievement, there's no way of telling how many times you've been tailed, since unlike Hacking, you're never alerted that you're being tailed unless you try to start a mission (or you use one of the methods detailed in GoodBadBugs above). And to make it worse? Like Social Lubricant, it's a low level achievement (Meaning those values above also apply here).

* LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition: ''Five'' of them. There's even [[http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/xkwxuua59ymp7bnqcbce.jpg spreadsheets]] dedicated to tracking what editions come with what bonuses, and what retailers offer what PreOrderBonus.

* ParentalSubstitute: Aiden is confirmed by WordOfGod to have lived with his sister before the events of the game and helped raise his sister's children. In effect, they're closer to his daughter and son than niece and nephew.

* PoliceAreUseless: Unless they're coming after Aiden, Watch_Dogs gives new meaning to the phrase NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished. Aiden gets one aversion out of this by calling the police on [[spoiler: a human trafficking auction he just broke up]].

* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil[=/=]SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: [[spoiler: The moment that the South Club is selling women in the black market firmly puts them and their leader in irredeemable territory]].

* SequenceBreaking: During the final mission, there's a hack that's impossible to complete, forcing you to complete several other objectives to make the hack possible. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYLrqpYTZZw&t=45m5s Or you can just do the impossible hack on the first try.]]

* SoundtrackDissonance: During the game's credits, the song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02KPyZj8ej8 Wake Up Sunshine]] by the band Chicago plays, which as an oddly cheery tone since just seconds ago, you [[spoiler: were betrayed by one of your close friends, nearly killed them and shot the antagonist directly in the head.]]
* ShoutOut:

* StormingTheCastle: The final mission in Act III is a one-man assault on Rossi-Fremont, taking down the best the Black Viceroys have to offer and culminating in a rooftop battle with Iraq.
* StringTheory: Aidan has one of these set up in the hotel room he lives out of. Oddly, he only references it a few times and you can't interact with it in-game at all.

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: This was the game's aim as it's set in 2013, with only slightly futuristic premise. The delay into 2014 made it TwentyMinutesIntoThePast.
* UrbanRuins: ''Watch Dogs'' has the Rossi-Fremont tenement where Iraq and his Viceroys gang have set up shop. At least one building is collapsed and the others are extremely run down. One look makes you surprised that someone actually lives there.

* WideOpenSandbox
* WretchedHive: Rossi-Fremont. Not even the cops go there since the Viceroys have the whole neighborhood on lockdown. Hell, even Jordi won't go near the place, and Aiden only gets him to help by telling him he'll be assisting Aidan via sniper scope.

* EvilPaysBetter: A freelancer named Cr0w, after digging up some dirt on Aiden and discovering he had access to Blume's bunker, sells this information to Blume for this reason.

* BigBrotherIsWatching: The topic of intrusive and all-encompassing surveillance will be a big one in the game and taken UpToEleven in that other players can spy and intervene from security cameras.

* NiceHat: Aiden sports a ballcap. There's also a Mobster DLC outfit which gives him a fedora.