GamingPickz
Game vs game · side by side

Saints Row: The Third vs Watch Dogs

Saints Row: The Third is an action-adventure open-world game (2011) while Watch Dogs is an action-adventure open-world game (2014).

Quick answer: Saints Row: The Third rates higher, 8.1 to 7.3 on the GamingPickz Score, and Saints Row: The Third is the cheaper at $2.49.

Saints Row: The Third

2011 · Studio not listed

8.1GamingPickz Score

$2.49

Steam: Overwhelmingly Positive

Watch Dogs

2014 · Studio not listed

7.3GamingPickz Score

$19.99

Steam: Very Positive

What each one is

Saints Row: The Third is filed under Action-Adventure and Open-World. In contrast, Watch Dogs under Action-Adventure and Open-World.

Saints Row: The Third

Get ready for the most out-landish gameplay scenarios ever seen as the Third Street Saints take on the Syndicate!

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

Saints Row: The Third
Plot

Three years after the events of Saints Row 2 , the 3rd Street Saints have merged with the Ultor Corporation to become a media and consumer empire with their own brand. While robbing a bank in Stilwater to promote an upcoming film about themselves, the Boss ( Troy Baker , Kenn Michael , Robin Atkin Downes , Laura Bailey , Tara Platt , Rebecca Sanabria or Steve Blum ) and the Saints' top lieutenants, Shaundi ( Danielle Nicolet ) and Johnny Gat ( Daniel Dae… (Wikipedia)

Reception

Saints Row: The Third reviews The game received "generally favorable" reviews, according to video game review score aggregator Metacritic . Some said the game did not try to be more than a good time, and described it as a variant of "ridiculous", "zany", or "absurd". In another way, others called it "juvenile". (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

Saints Row: The ThirdWatch Dogs
GamingPickz Score8.1/107.3/10
Steam ratingOverwhelmingly Positive (96%, 69,665)Very Positive (80%, 52,443)
Critic aggregate84/10077/100
Price$2.49$19.99
Install size—25 GB
Steam Deckplayableplayable
Released20112014
Developer——

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

Saints Row: The Third 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

    Saints Row: The ThirdAction-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

    Saints Row: The ThirdOpen World, Action, Comedy
    Watch DogsOpen World, Hacking, Action

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

  3. Reception

    Saints Row: The Third ✓Score 8.1 · 96% on Steam · 84 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

    Saints Row: The Third69,665 reviews · 20 add-ons
    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

    Saints Row: The Third ✓$2.49
    Watch Dogs$19.99

    Read live from Steam and subject to change.

  6. On a Steam Deck

    Saints Row: The ThirdPlayable
    Watch DogsPlayable

    Valve's own Deck compatibility rating.

Saints Row: The Third takes 2 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

Saints Row: The Third 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
  • Nintendo

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: Saints Row: The Third (GamingPickz Score 8.1)
  • The cheaper right now: Saints Row: The Third ($2.49)

What they have in common

Both are tagged by Steam players with:

Open WorldActionCo-opThird-Person ShooterThird PersonSingleplayerMultiplayerShooter

Where they differ

Saints Row: The Third is also

ComedyFunnyCharacter CustomizationSandboxOnline Co-OpGreat Soundtrack

Watch Dogs is also

HackingStealthAtmosphericParkourEpicDriving

Tags players apply to one game and not the other.

Difficulty and who each is for

By the tags players apply, Saints Row: The Third is middle-of-the-road on difficulty. Watch Dogs is middle-of-the-road on difficulty.

System requirements, side by side

Saints Row: The ThirdWatch Dogs
Minimum GPU320MB Video RAM GPU w/ Shader Model 3.0 support. NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800 seriesDirectX 11 graphics card with 1 GB Video RAM - Nvidia Geforce GTX 460
Minimum CPU2GHz Dual Core Processor (Intel® Core 2 DuoIntel Core 2 Quad Q8400 @ 2.66Ghz
Minimum RAM2 GB6 GB
Install size—25 GB

Can your PC run them? Check each against your own kit: Saints Row: The Third · Watch Dogs.

Accessibility features

Steam store pages declare 1 accessibility feature for Saints Row: The Third and 1 for Watch Dogs. A declaration is a floor, not a review.

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Common questions

How different are Saints Row: The Third and Watch Dogs in scope?

Saints Row: The Third has drawn 69,665 Steam reviews and ships 20 add-ons. Watch Dogs has drawn 52,443 Steam reviews, ships 4 add-ons and installs in 25 GB.

Is Saints Row: The Third or Watch Dogs better?

By the GamingPickz Score, Saints Row: The Third 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, Saints Row: The Third or Watch Dogs?

Saints Row: The Third is cheaper right now at $2.49, against $19.99. Prices move, so this is read live from Steam and can change.

Should I get Saints Row: The Third or Watch Dogs?

Saints Row: The Third rates higher, 8.1 to 7.3 on the GamingPickz Score, and Saints Row: The Third is the cheaper at $2.49. 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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