GamingPickz
Game vs game · side by side

Assassin's Creed 2 vs Watch Dogs

Assassin's Creed 2 is an action-adventure open-world game from Ubisoft Montreal (2010) while Watch Dogs is an action-adventure open-world game (2014).

Quick answer: Assassin's Creed 2 rates higher, 8.1 to 7.3 on the GamingPickz Score.

Assassin's Creed 2

2010 · Ubisoft Montreal

8.1GamingPickz Score

$19.99

Steam: Very Positive

Watch Dogs

2014 · Studio not listed

7.3GamingPickz Score

$19.99

Steam: Very Positive

What each one is

Assassin's Creed 2 is filed under Action-Adventure and Open-World. In contrast, Watch Dogs under Action-Adventure and Open-World.

Assassin's Creed 2

An epic story of family, vengeance and conspiracy set in the pristine, yet brutal, backdrop of a Renaissance Italy. New low price!

Description from its Steam store page

Watch Dogs

In today's hyper-connected world, Chicago operates under ctOS, the most advanced computer network in America.

Description from its Steam store page

Story, characters and reception

Assassin's Creed 2
Plot

Following the events of Assassin's Creed , Desmond Miles ( Nolan North ) is rescued from Abstergo by undercover Assassin Lucy Stillman ( Kristen Bell ) and taken to a safehouse, where he meets her team, consisting of historian and analyst Shaun Hastings ( Danny Wallace ) and technician Rebecca Crane ( Eliza Schneider ). They have constructed their own Animus, which they intend to use to train Desmond as an Assassin through the "bleeding effect," which… (Wikipedia)

Reception

Critical reception Reception Upon release, Assassin's Creed II received universal acclaim on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 with generally favourable reviews on PC. Review aggregator site Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version a score of 91 and the Xbox 360 version a 90, making it the highest-rated game in the franchise on the site. In an exclusive review by Official Xbox Magazine , Assassin's Creed II scored 9/10. (Wikipedia)

Watch Dogs
Plot

The Watch Dogs games take place in fictionalized versions of real-life cities that have implemented ctOS. Watch Dogs is set in the Chicago area , Watch Dogs 2 in the San Francisco Bay Area , and Watch Dogs: Legion in Greater London . While the first two games take place during modern times, Legion is set in the "near future" (circa 2030), depicting significant advancements in technology. (Wikipedia)

Reception

Watch Dogs received generally positive reviews despite criticism aimed at certain technical issues, the discrepancy in graphical quality between marketing and the real game, narrative, and protagonist. It sold more than 10 million copies by the end of 2014. Watch Dogs 2 received generally positive reviews upon release, with critics generally regarding it as an improvement over the original game. (Wikipedia)

At a glance

Assassin's Creed 2Watch Dogs
GamingPickz Score8.1/107.3/10
Steam ratingVery Positive (89%, 61,327)Very Positive (80%, 52,443)
Critic aggregate86/10077/100
Price$19.99$19.99
Install size—25 GB
Steam Deckplayableplayable
Released20102014
DeveloperUbisoft Montreal—

Prices and Steam ratings are read live and move over time.

Assassin's Creed 2 vs Watch Dogs, point by point

Each facet side by side. A round is marked won only where a figure settles it; feel and "which is better" carry no mark, because no number we hold decides them.

  1. Genre and premise

    Assassin's Creed 2Action-adventure open-world game
    Watch DogsAction-adventure open-world game

    What each is filed as. Each game describes itself in full above; we do not judge a premise.

  2. How it plays

    Assassin's Creed 2Action, Open World, Parkour
    Watch DogsOpen World, Hacking, Action

    The tags players apply most, in order of votes. A read on feel, not a verdict.

  3. Reception

    Assassin's Creed 2 ✓Score 8.1 · 89% on Steam · 86 critic
    Watch DogsScore 7.3 · 80% on Steam · 77 critic

    The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment, critics and popularity, computed the same way for every game.

  4. Content and scale

    Assassin's Creed 261,327 reviews
    Watch Dogs52,443 reviews · 4 add-ons · 25 GB

    Reach and footprint, not quality: more reviews or a bigger install is not a better game.

  5. Price

    Assassin's Creed 2$19.99
    Watch Dogs$19.99

    Read live from Steam and subject to change.

  6. On a Steam Deck

    Assassin's Creed 2Playable
    Watch DogsPlayable

    Valve's own Deck compatibility rating.

Assassin's Creed 2 takes 1 of the marked rounds to 0. That is only what a number can decide, not which you will enjoy more.

The two on the grid

Compare the whole catalogue

Assassin's Creed 2 and Watch Dogs on the axes the GamingPickz Score is built from, on the full 0 to 100 scale so each dot is its real position. Change either axis to compare them on any measure.

2 games have both

01000100Players →Popularity →Watch Dogs

Players. The share of Steam reviews marked positive, pulled toward the catalogue average in proportion to how few reviews stand behind it. A game with 200 reviews moves a long way toward the average; one with 200,000 barely moves at all. Without this a title sitting at 100 percent on nine reviews outranks Half-Life 2 at 98 percent on 278,000.

Popularity. A blend of two things that are not the same. Audience is how many people wrote a Steam review, which is a floor on how many played it. Reach is how many language editions of Wikipedia document the game, which is cultural footprint rather than sales. A game can score high on one and low on the other: a huge free-to-play title has audience without reach, and a landmark console exclusive has reach without a Steam audience at all. Where both exist they are averaged; where only one does, that one carries it.

  • Multi-platform
  • PC

Every point links to that game's entry. The value map and the reception map are fixed views of the same data.

See the whole grid

How positions are decided

No paid placement, no favouritism, live third-party data
  • Placed by the published method, not by us. Every coordinate is computed from the axis definitions and weights printed on this site. Nobody moves a point. See the axes.
  • Nothing here is paid for. No sponsored placements, no promoted slots, no arrangement of any kind affects a position. If that ever changes it will be labelled and sit outside the ranking.
  • No favouritism, including our own. The 16 games we have written full reviews of are scored by exactly the same formula as the other 1,510, from the same third-party inputs, and they land where it puts them. Our own opinion of a game does not enter its coordinates.
  • A position is not an endorsement. It says how a game was received and what it costs, not that we recommend it. Where we do recommend something, it carries a written review with a name on it.
  • Fetched from live third-party data. Player sentiment from Steam, critic aggregates as published on store pages, prices checked hourly, attention from Wikipedia. Each figure carries its source and the date it was read, and we do not adjust any of them.

Which to pick, by what you want

  • The higher-rated of the two: Assassin's Creed 2 (GamingPickz Score 8.1)

What they have in common

Both are tagged by Steam players with:

ActionOpen WorldParkourStealthAdventureThird PersonSingleplayerAtmospheric

Where they differ

Assassin's Creed 2 is also

AssassinHistoricalStory RichGreat SoundtrackAction-AdventureConspiracy

Watch Dogs is also

HackingThird-Person ShooterShooterEpicDrivingCo-op

Tags players apply to one game and not the other.

Difficulty and who each is for

By the tags players apply, Assassin's Creed 2 is middle-of-the-road on difficulty. Watch Dogs is middle-of-the-road on difficulty.

System requirements, side by side

Assassin's Creed 2Watch Dogs
Minimum GPU—DirectX 11 graphics card with 1 GB Video RAM - Nvidia Geforce GTX 460
Minimum CPU—Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 @ 2.66Ghz
Minimum RAM—6 GB
Install size—25 GB

Can your PC run them? Check each against your own kit: Assassin's Creed 2 · Watch Dogs.

Accessibility features

Steam store pages declare 0 accessibility features for Assassin's Creed 2 and 1 for Watch Dogs. A declaration is a floor, not a review.

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Common questions

How different are Assassin's Creed 2 and Watch Dogs in scope?

Assassin's Creed 2 has drawn 61,327 Steam reviews. Watch Dogs has drawn 52,443 Steam reviews, ships 4 add-ons and installs in 25 GB.

Is Assassin's Creed 2 or Watch Dogs better?

By the GamingPickz Score, Assassin's Creed 2 rates higher (8.1 to 7.3). That is a composite of player sentiment, the critic aggregate and popularity, not our taste. "Better" also depends on price, length and platform, which the table above lays out.

Which is cheaper, Assassin's Creed 2 or Watch Dogs?

Assassin's Creed 2 is cheaper right now at $19.99, against $19.99. Prices move, so this is read live from Steam and can change.

Should I get Assassin's Creed 2 or Watch Dogs?

Assassin's Creed 2 rates higher, 8.1 to 7.3 on the GamingPickz Score. It also depends on what you want: the "which to pick" section above calls out which is cheaper, lighter on storage, better on a Steam Deck and the safer bet by weight of reviews.

Do you rank one above the other for a fee?

No. Neither game, nor anyone else, pays for placement or a verdict here. The order and every figure come out of the same public data the rest of the site uses.

All comparisons

How we compare, and what we will not do

The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment (adjusted for sample size), the critic aggregate and popularity, computed by the same code every ranked list on this site uses. The Steam rating label is Valve's own, reconstructed from the positive percentage and review count. Prices are read live. We do not write an opinion of which game is "better": we report the numbers and say which wins each measurable question above.

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