I'm not going to talk about all of the positives and negatives, there are a fair amount on both sides. The game is fun, if not completely disjointed. There are people who will love this game, much like there are people who love Assassin's Creed.
I'm not one of those who loves either game, but i do like them, i just cannot get past how Ubisoft handles side quests.
This may seem petty and ridiculous to some, but for me, i like long RPG's with integrated side quests and freedom. Watch dogs and Assassin's Creed both make the auxiliary quests almost meaningless. There is no integration into the core game, if you want to take a break from the cut scenes and chaos of the main story and go take care of all those other things the games tout, you are left a little disappointed imo.
What did i gain from doing all the investigations? or the fixer contracts, convoys? at least watch dogs gave some skill points for doing the hideouts, but the stories in the side quests, barring the human trafficking, left me wondering what exactly the point of these where? time-wasters? You can hold down x for a second and get more cash from a single person than doing a convoy or race. The unique cars and weapons weren't really that great. For side quests to blend seamlessly they have to have an inherit reason to exist. I don't think ubisoft gives us a good enough reason. The impact of doing the side quests has almost no bearing on the game itself, other than personal satisfaction of getting them done. I would just like to see ubisoft reward players more for doing the side quests, so that after they are done there isn't just a sense of accomplishment but something that affects the game in a positive way