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Watch Dogs 2: Refinements mean the game is much closer to the franchise’s first E3 reveal

Ubisoft today released a twenty minute open world walkthrough inside Watch Dogs 2, showing that the franchise is much closer to the hacker’s delight first teased back at E3 2012.

The video below was recorded using the game’s Gamescom build, which Stevivor had a chance to play earlier in the month in Cologne, Germany.

As explained in the video, Protagonist Marcus has far more tools at his disposal when compared to Watch Dogs‘ Aiden. While you’ll still be able to use your hacking tool to identify citizens — alongside their sometimes creepy quirks — you’re able to track signals to open up new side-quests, or even just be a jerk and order a random hit on whomever you’d like.

Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.

Quick hacks open up a bunch of new gameplay possibilities, providing Marcus with easy escape opportunities from electrifying floor panels to a quick hijack of a vehicle (they always pull to the right when you do that, by the way). Two different drones open up a number of different opportunities in both stealth and assassination, and their variety means you’ll take to the air with one, and hug the ground with the other. In our playthrough, the drone hacks actually went awry, but in all the right ways — we used a floor panel to blow up our first target’s car, yet he didn’t quite die. Our second drone distracted guards as it sped over to the wounded enemy, giving us the chance to sneak in and put a couple well-placed bullets into the second target’s head.

As you can also see in the video above, everything Marcus does has the chance to gain him all-important followers, fittingly functioning as Watch Dogs 2‘s XP system. Talk about likes for likes, eh?

We previewed Watch Dogs 2 back at E3 2016, but check back soon for a closer look at the game’s new Bounty Hunter mode.


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Steve Wright

Steve's the owner of this very site and an active games journalist nearing twenty (TWENTY!?!) years. He's a Canadian-Australian gay gaming geek, ice hockey player and fan. Husband to Matt and cat dad to Wally and Quinn.