Watch Dogs 2: A Quick look at the World Premiere

In the build up to E3 it is not unusual for some games to be revealed pre-emptively to build up anticipation and so, in immense style, Ubisoft have revealed their sequel to their 2014 game Watch_Dogs and, honestly, it looks fantastic. And so, with much anticipation, I will be running through what I liked about the Watch_Dogs 2 World Premiere.

A new game, a new protagonist.

A lot of criticism towards the original game was centred around the main character, Aiden Pearce. The game centred around Aiden’s desire for revenge following the death of his niece and while revenge tales can often be interesting, Aiden was primarily known as being a bit of a boring lead as he grumbled from beneath his cap in his sullen, brooding way.

Watch Dogs 2, clearly addressing this, features a new hero in the form of Marcus Holloway. As a young man from Oakland, he found himself charged with a crime he did not commit forcing him to have a cynical view of the authorities. While this might sound like yet another serious character, everything else we see of Marcus looks like a complete contrast to former Mr Grumpypants, Aiden.

His youthful attitude makes him rebellious while still maintaining a sense of fun. Comparisons to Infamous: Second Son’s Delsin instantly came to mind. While faced with an important job and an overwhelming new ability, both characters appear to be having fun. The trailer often gave Marcus and his hacking abilities an aura of celebration and partying. As people danced wildly at a party, Marcus projected the groups ensignia across a skyscraper.  

The developers were also eager to explain how Marcus’ youthful attitude will translate to his hacking career. As a home-grown hacker, he uses makeshift technologies and equipment to confront his enemies and, when making a statement, he’s not afraid to have a laugh. His hacks are juvenile, drawing inspiration from the ways of the internet through memes and trolling.

Marcus, unlike Aiden, looks to enjoy what he’s doing and that makes for a much more thrilling lead as the freedom, rebellion and general awesomeness of the world of hacking can be explored by the player through his eyes.

The Golden Gate

At the end of the first game it was implied that the cTos system would be implemented in other cities across America. The reveal event confirmed this theory by moving the setting from the original game’s Chicago to San Francisco.

While I have never been good at geography, or know much about the city outside of seeing the Golden Gate Bridge being destroyed an infinite amount of times in movies, based on footage shown during the reveal event San Francisco looks to be an interesting and diverse city. With its many distinct areas it should make for a much more diverse location than Chicago.

Again, the developers jumped on the opportunity to explain how the game’s atmosphere will benefit from the new city. Known as being a generally cool city to live in full of even cooler people, San Francisco is lively and, if the developers are to be believed, should make for a realistic, seemingly alive city to explore as NPCs wander the streets, living their lives and interacting with one another. While this might just be overhyped developer nonsense – remember that time Peter Molyneux told us we could plant a tree in Fable and it would grow naturally over time – games like Grand Theft Auto 5 show us that it is possible to create a city that feels like a real, functioning city.  

Hacker’s Creed

If you’ve played any Ubisoft games over the past 10 years or so, you know as well as anyone that they like to bring mechanics over from other games. The original Watchdogs, at its most basic level, felt very much like Assassin’s Creed in terms of its mechanics but one noticeable omission was its parkour. While you could hop over a low wall or occasionally scurry up to reach a ledge, the original Watch_dogs had a much more grounded approach to its traversal as Aiden Pearce was hardly the kind of man you would expect to be leaping off the top of churches as an eagle squawked loudly in his ear.

Marcus, however, is much younger meaning he is a much more agile character and while the parkour shown in the new trailer never reaches the excessiveness of the Assassin’s Creed games, he is able to pull off some pretty sweet manoeuvres.

Watch_dogs 2’s approach to parkour is very grounded in reality, featuring believable movement while still taking advantage of Marcus’ youthful energy. Using real-world parkour based on motion capture performed by real people you can sprint through the streets leaping over low walls, doing some flips and scaling walls while never quite pushing yourself to the city-spanning and tower climbing of Altair or Ezio.

While your main means of transport will still be to drive using a host of cars and motorcycles, the increased focus on free-running gives a grounded, yet fun way to explore the city.

Hacking your way to the top

The original Watch_dogs introduced gamers to the world of hacking in an exciting way allowing you to use security cameras, hack into people’s phones or shut down the city’s power. While it never quite lived up to the initial promise of the developers, hacking was a unique means of confronting your enemies.

Watch_dogs 2 looks to go some way to trying to meet expectation and, in some cases, defy it. As Marcus, you are welcomed with a load of new abilities to try out. You can control vehicles remotely, hack multiple people at a time or even use mobile-controlled drones to scout the area. The game looks to expand your arsenal in new and exciting ways, allowing you to hack more equipment than the original game. The developers even go so far as to suggest that, rather than only being able to hack predetermined characters, you can now hack every NPCs phone in the game’s world. The developers also promise that, as well as new hacking abilities, there will be a whole range of new equipment to use including hackable explosives and craft-able weaponry.

With so many new tools at your disposal, players can choose their way to play. If you want to use cameras to take out enemies without ever setting foot in an area then you can or if you want to go in, all guns blazing, then you can use new deployables to overpower guards. I, personally, cannot wait to try out all of these tools for myself and find my favourite way to tackle a situation.

A Connected World

Watch_dogs was known for boasting about its integrated multiplayer, allowing players around the world to jump into your game at any moment. Unfortunately, this resulted in a frustrating tendency to get caught by another player just as you had set your heart on completing another mission or objective. While thankfully it could be turned off, the original game’s multiplayer never quite lived up to the praise that the developers themselves gave it.

Watch_dogs 2 looks to be trying something new with its online functionality, focusing on what appears to be a cooperative experience. As you wander through the city, you can join other people online and explore the city together. While I’m not 100% sure what the cooperative experience entails, whether it be multiplayer-exclusive missions or just a free roaming mode, the trailer hinted at players being able to combine different hacks in tandem to take out enemies in more intricate and crazy ways. One could focus on support, disabling alarms and taking out sentries while the other mans the assault, reversing cars into people and triggering explosives.

Playing with a friend should make for an insanely fun time as you use your own style of hacking to work together, whether it be in a firefight with cTos guards or just causing a bit of mindless mayhem.

So there you have it, my look at the reveal event for Watch_dogs 2. With a release date of November 15th, I cannot wait to run through the city of San Francisco as Marcus and find out what kinds of trouble I can get up to.