Ubisoft has officially breathed fresh new vivacious, raw life into the Watch Dogs franchise, culminating in a stylishly comedic open-world game that's completely different from the mournful original.
Today Ubisoft announced Watch Dogs 2, showing off a game that hardly resembles the grim, downgraded port we were given in 2014. The sequel has a distinct youthful spirit of its own, and while AIden Pearce's story left a bad taste in our collective gaming mouths, I for one am starting to get an appetite for Watch Dogs 2. From what we were shown today, Watch Dogs 2 combines a sense of youthful anarchy that sharply contrasts the serious tone of the original, and there's a distinct punkish style that seems to combine Mr. Robot with a modern hipster's style and the devil-may-care, let's-watch-the-world-burn attitude of a punk rocker.
Ubisoft has published three huge videos with pretty much everything you need to know about the game, but we have a nice bullet list of the particulars below for your perusal. Watch Dogs 2 is confirmed to release November 15, 2016 on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
Watch Dogs 2: Ubisoft teaches an old dog new tricks
- You can hack everything: every car, person, and connected device in the game can be hacked
- The sequel stars Marcus, a brilliant Oakland-born African American who decides to fight back against the system after being profiled and accused of a crime he didn't commit
- Parkour is now part of the game in a big, big way
- Marcus uses homebrew weapons and gadgets, including a billiard ball on a oaracord lanyard to make a brutal sling
- Other homebrew weapons include 3D printed guns
- There are tons of little crafted devices to use in-game, including IEDs to hack objects
- Players can choose their own style of play--full-on gunplay, stealth, or hacking
- Marcus has new gadgets including a camera-equipped RC jumper that can hack objects and press buttons with an extendable arm, and a flying drone that can drop off supplies
- Watch Dogs 2 features "seamless" online co-op and multiplayer, allowing users to team up on-the-fly
- You can hack in-game vehicles like cars, cranes, drones and more to your tactical whim
- The sequel takes place in the heart of Silicon Valley in San Francisco
- There are multiple gangs and factions to battle against across the different regions, including downtown and uptown
- The game has a distinct "in your face", "F*ck you!" rebellious kind of style "Watch Dogs 2 is stylized, it's edgy, it's underground, it's raw"
- Ubisoft promises the open world will feel alive even when you stand still: NPCs will not only react to you, but other NPCs as well
- There are multiple DeadSec members each with their own personalities