History YMMV / WatchDogs

** The UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 version at one time had ''severe'' audio bugs and constant game-freezing. It's definitely much better now, though.
** Many had hoped that the heavily-delayed UsefulNotes/WiiU port might be a PolishedPort that made use of the system's (somewhat) improved graphics capabilities compared to the [=PS3=] and UsefulNotes/Xbox360. Instead, the resulting port had graphics that were noticeably degraded even when compared to those two systems (to say nothing of their successors), and frame rates that struggled to keep up with the older two consoles even in simple cutscenes, while tanking to near-unplayable levels in the open world. This was essentially the last straw for third-party development on the Wii U, with virtually no major third-party titles released on the system for the remainder of its lifetime.

** [[SouthernFriedGenius Raymond "T-Bone" Kenney]] is a genius software engineer hired by [[MegaCorp Blume Corporation]] to create Central Operating System (CTOS). When Raymond learns of the corporation's plan to use CTOS to spy on people and control their lives, he hacks CTOS to show everyone the dangers of relying it, causing the [[BeenThereShapedHistory Northeast blackout of 2003]] and the deaths of eleven people. Going into hiding in Chicago and taking the alias Theodore "T-Bone" Grady, Raymond allies with Aiden Pearce, helping him rescue his sister from Damien Brenks, dismantle Lucky Quinn's human trafficking ring, and shut down CTOS when Brenks hijacks it. Upon learning that JB Markowicz, aka Default, has sent fixers to kill Raymond in the "Bad Blood" [[DownloadableContent DLC]], Raymond tracks him down and turns Default's own trap against him, killing Default. Resuming his crusade against Blume in [[VideoGame/WatchDogs2 the sequel]], Raymond goes to San Fransisco and recruits Marcus Halloway and his friends to his cause while tasking them with dangerous missions to gain more followers, turning them into a genuine threat to Blume and allowing them to expose the corruption of their Chief Technology Officer, Dusan Nemec, leading to Nemec's arrest.

** [[SouthernFriedGenius Raymond Kenney]] is a genius software engineer hired by [[MegaCorp Blume Corporation]] to create Central Operating System (CTOS). When Raymond learns of the corporation's plan to use CTOS to spy on people and control their lives, he hacks CTOS to show everyone the dangers of relying it, causing the [[BeenThereShapedHistory Northeast blackout of 2003]] and the deaths of eleven people. Going into hiding in Chicago and taking the alias Theodore "T-Bone" Grady, Raymond allies with Aiden Pearce, helping him rescue his sister from Damien Brenks, dismantle Lucky Quinn's human trafficking ring, and shut down CTOS when Brenks hijacks it. Upon learning that JB Markowicz, aka Default, has sent fixers to kill Raymond in the "Bad Blood" [[DownloadableContent DLC]], Raymond tracks him down and turns Default's own trap against him, killing Default. Resuming his crusade against Blume in [[VideoGame/WatchDogs2 the sequel]], Raymond goes to San Fransisco and recruits Marcus Halloway and his friends to his cause while tasking them with dangerous missions to gain more followers, turning them into a genuine threat to Blume and allowing them to expose the corruption of their Chief Technology Officer, Dusan Nemec, leading to Nemec's arrest.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Some believe Aiden Pearce to be a FlatCharacter while others argue he's a [[VanillaProtagonist perfectly fine one but lacks depths]]. A third faction, however, believes that Aiden may actually be a {{Deconstruction}} of traditional TheAtoner AntiHero protagonists by pointing out he's a raging {{Hypocrite}} for being a vigilante while associating with career criminals as well as doing similar crimes himself. Likewise, he claims to be doing his vigilante work for his family but, in fact, is endangering them worse than ever. [[http://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-subversiveness-of-aiden-pearce.html Indeed, this later motivation has even generated some blog posts dedicated to the subject.]] Later, this fan theory was confirmed via WordOfGod. Which just shifted the debate to whether Ubisoft was pulling a ParodyRetcon.

* EpilepticTrees: You could argue the game is a StealthSequel to ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag'', as not only did they release under a year apart, one established a villain capable of manipulating technology and the other established a world where EverythingIsOnline. While Ubisoft has denied that they a part of a SharedUniverse, they both include enough references to each other to put the claim to question.

** Defalt being called a ''Rat Kid'' may be a reference to a Latin American stereotype based on a Simpsons episode. Kids or pre-teens playing M-Rated games online, displaying immature behavior are called ''nños rata'' (literally, Rat Kids) in these countries. Defalt fits this stereotype.

* GameBreaker: The Fast Charge upgrade in ''Bad Blood'', which makes your battery charge so quickly that you'll almost never have to worry about running out ever again. Once you've got this bad boy, the battery slot upgrades just grant you more overkill, and if you've got one of the Sony releases and also have the Season Pass or the right pre-order package, the extra battery slots ''those'' give you on top of it means that you can rapid-fire hack to your heart's content and your battery will start to recharge ''before you've even spent it all''. What truly pushes it into full-on Game Breaker status is that you get it after completing just ''one'' Fixer Street Sweep mission, and the rewards you get for completing more of them are just laughable in comparison.
** The fact the game refills all your weapons to max every time there's a loading screen without mods is hillariously broken in normal gameplay but once you get your hands on a grenade launcher and the Destroyer, the fact you don't even need to worry about buying ammo for them completely breaks the game as Aiden can instantly destroy any vehicle and quickly take down even Enforcers with their massive damage unless the player intentionally holds themselves back.

** Speaking of pausing, it becomes laughably easy to beat the Shell Game simply by pausing once the cups have finished shuffling around. The pause menu puts a digital outline effect on everything on the screen, ''including the ball'', making it clearly visible through the cups.

** The DLC trip "Conspiracy!" also gets into this territory later on, since you'll usually have around 10 or more cyborgs to profile in a relatively small area, which means it's incredibly easy to get spotted before you've gotten a chance to profile them all. Once you are spotted, they tend to rush you all at once, and while you're dealing with the 7 or so coming at you from the front, that last one you didn't get to profile will usually flank you while you're not paying attention, which results in [[OneHitKill "BOOM!"]]. And if it's one of those rounds where they put out a news report on you? Have fun evading both them and ''every single pedestrian in the area'', since if one gets out a successful 911 call, every single cyborg goes on alert, which more often than not pretty much means you're dead.

** The fact the game refills all your weapons to max every time there's a loading screen without mods is hillarious broken in normal gameplay but once you get your hands on a grenade launcher and the Destroyer, the fact you don't even need to worry about buying ammo for them completely breaks the game.

* VindicatedByHistory: At launch, the game was marred by quality downgrades and technical issues, especially compared to much-beloved ''Grand Theft Auto V''. However, over time the game's reputation has increased and its heavy emphasis of stealth, coherent action series plot, and the hacking mechanics were seen as welcome variation to what had started to become a stale genre. After ''VideoGame/WatchDogs2'' came out, a lot of people also retro-appreciated that while its plot wasn't the best, it at least took itself quite seriously with a down-to-earth aesthetics instead of being ReferenceOverdosed and having punk aesthetics dominating the game, which made the second game going DenserAndWackier. Looking at Steam reviews for both games, it becomes quite clear that ''Watch_Dogs'' stood the test of time, and was rewarded. Less flak has also come to the game's simple hacking mechanics when critics realized that they'd be much better than providing anything even slightly realistic, which would ruin the pacing. The game's police AI is also considered good enough to influence the creation of a GameMod meant to improve that of ''Grand Theft Auto V''[='=]s, [[https://www.gta5-mods.com/misc/police-pursuit-behaviour-improved Dispatch & Tactics Enhancement]].

* VindicatedByHistory: At launch, the game was marred by quality downgrades and technical issues, especially compared to much-beloved ''Grand Theft Auto V''. However, over time the game's reputation has increased and its heavy emphasis of stealth, coherent action series plot, and the hacking mechanics were seen as welcome variation to what had started to become a stale genre. After ''VideoGame/WatchDogs2'' came out, a lot of people also retro-appreciated that while its plot wasn't the best, it at least took itself quite seriously with a down-to-earth aesthetics instead of being ReferenceOverdosed and having punk aesthetics dominating the game, which made the second game going DenserAndWackier. Looking at Steam reviews for both games, it becomes quite clear that ''Watch_Dogs'' stood the test of time, and was rewarded. Less flak has also come to the game's simple hacking mechanics when critics realized that they'd be much better than providing anything even slightly realistic, which would ruin the pacing.

* BrokenBase: When the first trailer since September of 2013 appeared in early 2014, people noticed that the graphics had a noticeable downgrade compared to the 2012 and 2013 E3 footage. This caused people to doubt whether or not to buy the game. The [[http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=838538 revelation]] that the graphics shown in the E3 footage are ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bwd55NvmHW8 still in the game files]]'', even blatantly titled as E3 settings, stirred up the hornet's nest, causing three camps to rise: (1) You're pissed about the graphics and wanted Ubisoft to add the options in a patch. (2) You're on console, so it didn't concerned you, but you still express distaste at Ubisoft for doing it, or: (3) You don't give a crap about graphics and just want to play the damn game.

* AcceptableTargets:
** [[HumanTrafficking Human traffickers]]. In fact, there is an entire mission where you not only rescue the victims but kill anyone involved in this vile business.
** TheIrishMob, since they are represented in the game by the Chicago South Club.