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E3 2016 Preview: Watch Dogs 2

Hacking, petty theft, car accidents, making friends and a little bit of murdering; it was a busy day in sunny San Francisco when I went hands-on with Watch Dogs 2 ahead of E3.

At a glance, Watch Dogs 2 appears to closely follow in the footsteps of its predecessor. As protagonist Marcus Holloway, your core objective is to infiltrate and takedown the Bay Area’s big brother surveillance system ctOS 2.0 – but that’s where many of the similarities end. Where Aiden Pearce operated as a lone wolf amongst the gloomy streets of an unnerving Chicago, Marcus can explore the festive side of one of America’s most culturally diverse cities; with a new co-op system, he doesn’t have to do it alone.

Anyone who has visited San Francisco will probably tell you it’s an amazing place to explore, but also a slightly odd locale. The rich techies in Silicon Valley seem to directly oppose the kale enthusiasts roaming the streets without shoes, and the majesty of the Golden Gate Bridge overlooking Alcatraz as the morning fog subsides is more prevalent on postcards than the influx of homeless people who ask for change on the walk to Fisherman’s Wharf. A glance at any of the aging buildings tells the tale of a city thriving in the era of rising technology, but still desperate to retain its historic identify. It’s this cultural diversity that makes it a hacker’s paradise.

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I only got to explore a small section of the sizeable world, and it appeared faithful to the San Francisco I know and adore as a tourist. The sunny streets were beaming with activity, which I soon put an end to by having some buddies converge on a woman from an opposing gang and running over an innocent bystander with a remotely controlled car. This nonchalant debacle all controlled from a smartphone arose as I experimented with Marcus’ skills as a more adept hacker.

He has a lot more options available to him, with all individuals and much of the environment vulnerable to his advances. The lively city streets lend themselves more to hiding in plain sight than lurking in the shadows, requiring Marcus to create distractions to slip through crowds and into restricted zones undetected. Sending a message to a guard’s phone is effective, but taking control of his car and watching him delve into sheer panic is much more entertaining – and yes, you have full control, but it will require skill to master precision driving using nothing but the four face buttons.

Getting behind the wheel yourself is another matter. Watch Dogs 2 has completely overhauled the driving mechanics to address one of the biggest issues the community sighted with the original game. Driver: San Francisco‘s Ubisoft Reflections has provided assistance as a driving specialist to ensure every vehicle feels unique and handles appropriately. It’s meant to be fun to joyride around such an intricately recreated open world, and between crashing into a clothing store and speeding away from the cops, I’m confident it will be.

Ubisoft is striving to offer a more connected experience in a game all about disconnecting. Whereas Aiden was a loner, Marcus is a social butterfly as a member of hacking group DedSec. While playing solo, other players will appear in your game that can be joined to engage co-op missions. Always playing as Marcus, other players will appear as his DedSec mates on your screen. The process was seamless (although I wouldn’t expect less on a local network connection), as we immediately buddied up and set a course to sneak into an enemy stronghold to steal a couple of USB sticks together.

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The activist hackers are encouraged to employ a stealth approach as they takes burgeoning control of a city shrouded in chaos. Armed with a drone and remote-controlled car camera, as well as having access to all of the city’s security cameras, there’s really no excuse for running into the unknown. But there’s a time and a place for a more aggressive approach, and in my mind, that time was now. We run into the compound guns blazing, picking off goons with head shots and eventually beating a fat man to death to steal his USB. The cover system and gunplay feels familiar, and the new parkour system makes it easy to traverse the building-rich landscape and escape the gaze of baddies. Enabled with the right stick, think Assassin’s Creed but slightly less athletic.

Abandoning my co-op companion was just as easy as meeting him, and while that concluded the demo, Senior Producer Dominic Guay assured me there’s a greater element of player choice in Watch Dogs 2 (keep an eye out for our full interview soon). Whereas Watch Dogs 1 essentially forced linear progression in an open world, Watch Dogs 2 gives you more freedom over what to do. The line between main and side quests has bee blurred, and it’s up to you what and when you’ll play.

With a release set for November, Watch Dogs 2 is going to be scrutinised to follow the same course as Assassin’s Creed 2 – taking a solid concept and tweaking the mechanics and characters to allow it to flourish. As a fan of the original Watch Dogs, I accepted many of its limitations, but didn’t really know how I wanted them improved. Having had a taste of the what’s to come, Watch Dogs 2 has surpassed my expectations with an expanded hacking system, a new city that enables (but doesn’t force) co-op play, and genuine driving mechanics. Now we need to learn more about Marcus Holloway and his support cast, and see how varied the missions really are, for Watch Dogs 2 to reach its full potential.

Ubisoft used its E3 press conference to announce a continued relationship with Sony that will bring Watch Dogs 2 DLC to PlayStation 3 a full 30 days ahead of Xbox One.

Stevivor was flown to E3 2016 as a guest of Ubisoft to cover the entire event. This relationship does not prevent Stevivor from covering other publishers’ titles, nor does it impact the E3 2016 opinions of any of our authors.


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About the author

Ben Salter

Ben has been writing about games in a professional capacity since 2008. He even did it full-time for a while, but his mum never really understood what that meant. He's been part of the Stevivor team since 2016. You will find his work across all sections of the site (if you look hard enough). Gamertag / PSN ID: Gryllis.