I have been trying to catch up with my Steam Library and have just finished Watchdogs.
Clunky in controls and has its flaws. But the city design, the content, and the story are superb. Some of the side missions and glimpses into peoples lives are proper dark.
Watchdogs 2 in contrast looks a bit cartoony and lazy. I would have liked another Aiden Pearce versus Dedsec who sold out to the corporate world to frame Pearce as head of Dedsec or something.
Currently playing watchdogs 2 and from memory I dont feel the difference between the first one and this bar the added gadgets etc. The gameplay does not feel massively different. I do find the randomly spawned online missions quite annoying, when someone tries to hack my character etc. Not sure if there is a way to turn them off (except disconnecting from internet). Some missions are extremely easy to do once you unlock further skills.