It finally happened. Watch Dogs 2 was officially unveiled by Ubisoft during a livestream event, after what felt like a thousand years of leaks.
As you might expect, said livestream revealed a slew of super interesting story and gameplay details, which I’ll share with you now (sharing is caring after all).
First up, our new protagonist. Watch Dogs 2 will once again put us in the shoes of a hacker, but this time we’ll follow the exploits of a chap called Marcus Holloway.
Set in San Francisco, Watch Dogs 2 centres around Holloway – who is an African American from across the Bay in Oakland, where he witnessed racial profiling and police brutality for most of his life.
As such, he uses his hacking skills to right wrongs and fight for social justice. Kudos for Ubisoft for not shying away from relevant issues.
Watch Dogs 2 has more of a focus on community and being part of a team than the first Watch Dogs, which was a relatively lonely affair.
Holloway is a member of the hacker group DedSec, and will often find and team up with other hackers in the Bay Area. No doubt this will lead to all kinds of side missions and interesting sojourns.
Creative director Jonathan Morin spoke of the differences between Holloway and the first game’s hero, Aiden Pierce:
Marcus is much more expressive, both in his behavior and in his fighting style. He’s going to feel completely different than Aiden. There’s a different flow to his approach.
Of course, Marcus Holloway will also have plenty of new toys to play with, including a quadcopter scout drone and a remote-controlled car – you can check out the full reveal event below if you missed it.
Watch Dogs 2 has also been described by the developers as having a “fully hackable world”. Whereas the first game only allowed you to hack certain objects, apparently the sequel let’s you hack everything.
You’ll also be glad to know that Watch Dogs 2 will introduce cooperative play. Exploring San Francisco will often lead to meeting other players that can help with different missions – you can play the entire game with friends, if you so choose.
Senior producer Dominic Guay discussed how the team were looking to create a more believable world this time round:
We looked at high level things we could address from the first game, but also minor aspects that we could fix. Driving was one of those things. We’re going for less of a simulator feel this time. We want you to want to drive around this massive world.
While it all sounds very promising, the original Watch Dogs never delivered on nearly as much as it said it would – the game launches on November 15 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Let’s hope they really get it right this time.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.