What? That doesn't excuse a poor game at all... Should we just stop demanding more from games? :/ Being a new IP shouldn't mean it gets judged on a scale - they had the chance to really do something different with the sandbox genre, but they went with the exact same formula every other game has used. You're really playing the wrong games if you're finding they all just get repetitive.
There's been plenty of games over the last few years that haven't ended up repetitive after a while, that've stayed captivating right to the end. Heck, the most recent example, I don't think I've been bored for a single moment of Wolfenstein: New Order.
I pretty much called Watch Dogs being every other Ubisoft game as soon as we saw real gameplay, that doesn't mean it's any less disappointing. No one wanted a gaming revolution, I think it's pretty safe to say that sandbox games aren't going to be the genre that provides that, but it's really not that ridiculous to hope for them to have followed through on some of the promise that the game had, especially with the concepts of hacking.
Man, this is all coming from the guy that's called Ubisoft one of the most boring devs on the planet. I might be cynical, but you guys seem to have given up all hope on innovation in video games.
I don't really see it as a poor game. But then again, maybe I'm just losing interest in video games all together. I still play State of Decay, GTA, Watch Dogs & a few other games from time to time, but in bursts like Stimpsham was saying.