Can you remember anything from the first Watch Dogs? Maybe you recall the sterile Aiden Pierce and his lack of conviction, the drearily depressing Chicago open world, or potentially how Watch Dogs managed to efface most of its qualities behind a hilt of empty promises and a by the numbers open world- in any event the debut of Watch Dogs was a disappointment. The sequel contains a wealth of its predecessor's most notable and prolific assets, carrying them forward with aplomb whilst addressing the biggest bugbears of the first game, nailing the criticisms levied towards personality, setting, characters and empowerment- but not only does Watch Dogs 2 run over these complaints, it barrels right through them, slamming on reverse and hot-wheeling back and forth over them to make sure they are nothing more than molecular fragments wallowing on the tarmac.
Immediately the differences smack you in the face,brushing you into a bright and beautifully majestic rendering of San Francisco replete with a deluge of landmarks and attractions to explore and become familiar with. Feel free to whip out your phones and take many smug photos of yourself standing next to and in front of the many visual treasures you'll come across like a jet-lagged nocturnal pill-popping tourist. The spaciousness you are afforded is elegant in this modern urban sprawl, so much so you could spend most of your time playing photographer, but let's not get ahead of ourselves here because what Watch Dogs 2 has under its veneer is worth plundering into.
Gangster might be the best way to describe the new persona adopted in Watch Dogs 2. Graffiti embellishes the inner walls of the Hacker Spaces, (underground DeadSec operation bases) the propaganda art bleeds rebellious spirit, and there are 5 key characters who you will consult throughout the game and they all have their own distinctive personalities. Protagonist Marcus Holloway's swagger and unabashed confidence is refreshing, but his willingness to trade comical jibes and exchange banter with his crew makes Watch Dogs 2 interesting, inspired and harmonious. DeadSec look out for one another and it's easy to garner a familial connection with your cohorts because they never tell you to participate as you all do your share to help each other out.
This lax alternative to the common henchman for hire role certainly gives off a free flowing aura, which injects itself in Marcus' missions with unforgettable verve and excitement. Missions where you are hacking from outer space and controlling a mechanised spider are exhilarating highs; heck the first main operation where you steal a hot ride from a film set is outlandish in the coolest ways imaginable. The charisma exuded from the missions make you as the player feel like the most elite and powerful hacker in the world, so this nonchalance makes sense because you've got most of San Francisco's bank accounts and phones down pat.
The operations in Watch Dogs 2 are deftly handled. Main operations are the story related sections where you conduct audacious hacks into various large organisations such as Nudle, Invite and Tidis to swindle data and desynchronise the unjust workings within them to take down an infamous fraudster named Blume. On top of this there are rival hacker groups who impede your progress and threaten to reveal DeadSec's identity, attempting to compromise their operations thus putting them out of business. Street and foreign gangs are also bungled into the latter portion of the game, generating the feeling of a global war against rogue corporations but are inserted a little too late into the story to make them integral parts.
Immediately the differences smack you in the face,brushing you into a bright and beautifully majestic rendering of San Francisco replete with a deluge of landmarks and attractions to explore and become familiar with. Feel free to whip out your phones and take many smug photos of yourself standing next to and in front of the many visual treasures you'll come across like a jet-lagged nocturnal pill-popping tourist. The spaciousness you are afforded is elegant in this modern urban sprawl, so much so you could spend most of your time playing photographer, but let's not get ahead of ourselves here because what Watch Dogs 2 has under its veneer is worth plundering into.
Gangster might be the best way to describe the new persona adopted in Watch Dogs 2. Graffiti embellishes the inner walls of the Hacker Spaces, (underground DeadSec operation bases) the propaganda art bleeds rebellious spirit, and there are 5 key characters who you will consult throughout the game and they all have their own distinctive personalities. Protagonist Marcus Holloway's swagger and unabashed confidence is refreshing, but his willingness to trade comical jibes and exchange banter with his crew makes Watch Dogs 2 interesting, inspired and harmonious. DeadSec look out for one another and it's easy to garner a familial connection with your cohorts because they never tell you to participate as you all do your share to help each other out.
This lax alternative to the common henchman for hire role certainly gives off a free flowing aura, which injects itself in Marcus' missions with unforgettable verve and excitement. Missions where you are hacking from outer space and controlling a mechanised spider are exhilarating highs; heck the first main operation where you steal a hot ride from a film set is outlandish in the coolest ways imaginable. The charisma exuded from the missions make you as the player feel like the most elite and powerful hacker in the world, so this nonchalance makes sense because you've got most of San Francisco's bank accounts and phones down pat.
The operations in Watch Dogs 2 are deftly handled. Main operations are the story related sections where you conduct audacious hacks into various large organisations such as Nudle, Invite and Tidis to swindle data and desynchronise the unjust workings within them to take down an infamous fraudster named Blume. On top of this there are rival hacker groups who impede your progress and threaten to reveal DeadSec's identity, attempting to compromise their operations thus putting them out of business. Street and foreign gangs are also bungled into the latter portion of the game, generating the feeling of a global war against rogue corporations but are inserted a little too late into the story to make them integral parts.
The side-ops are nuggets of fascination and are worthy complements to the main story. Some of them tie into the larger arc of the main narrative, tasking you with anonymously collecting intel via hacking individuals of interest. Others cut to the core, having you eliminate trolls and perverts to make the internet a safer and more secure place for young and vulnerable browsers. Then there are all the addictive, entertaining and comical ATM hacks, letting you toy with the bank accounts of unsuspecting people. Playing puppeteer in this regard tempts you to swallow away an ignorant businessman's cash to charity or trigger sirens to distress a chatty woman distracted by her mobile phone. Encounters via the ATM are little nibbles of hilarity because you control the chaos and seeing randomers freak out is a riot.
Marcus isn't short of gadgets as he is a tech-savvy pro, learned in the arts of cyber sleuthing and swindling, filching credit card money, decrypting and deciphering nodes and playing voyeur, gaining access to people's homes and playing puppeteer with their bank accounts- all vital parts of his trade. When conducting hacker business you are open to a myriad of technical delights by accessing Marcus' mobile phone and laptop. Using your phone you can bypass security systems, distract patrolling guards by tapping into their phones, and can access audio files, private e-mails and listen in on conversations. The laptop is vital for you to morph into and take control of vehicles like cranes, forklifts and moveable lifts. The laptop is also required for your drone and quadcopter, the former is utilised to reach places Marcus can't such as small vents on walls and can leap over wired fences and gates provided you have the relevant upgrades. The multitude of ways you can freely mess with technology might seem familiar to you from the original, but the new gadgets create diverse avenues for hacking into buildings and finding inscrutable access points, making stealthy traversal much more invigorating and challenging. Security bypasses and the collectibles dotted on the map such as research points, money bags and artificial modifications for clothing and weapons sometimes demand intricate awareness of systems and how to get to the top of buildings for you to perform hacks on junction boxes. These can be off putting as you might have to perform more legwork than is necessary to reach one of these trinkets- hacking a crane solely to get one measly collectible is both inconvenient and time consuming, and the collectibles in general again show Ubisoft's penchant for superfluous content in their open world games-the fact you can teleport to the Hacker Spaces and miscellaneous places like diners detracts from the open world feel, weakening and undermining the importance of exploration. Lastly the upgrade system is perhaps too familiar to the first game with an organism of abilities to choose from, some are fresh like adding mods to your drone and quadcopter but others such as temporarily draining the San Fran's power supply show there is some need for expansion and inspirational implementation. Botnet upgrades are excessive padding and the ability to recruit gangsters to take out a target might seem great at first, but their MO is to take out one person, not a group- so is fairly useless. These nags and knitpicks are merely niggling criticisms, ones you can very easily overlook because there is so much to love elsewhere.
Such is the case in real life, Marcus does most of his communicational activities on his phone besides triggering calamity with it. There are a litany of apps at your beck and call which make the world of Watch Dogs 2 as accessible as you'd like, enabling you to receive information and get where you want to go swiftly. Using the Deadsec app keeps you posted on available operations for instance, the Scout X app helps you to track down attractions and take self-indulgent photos with them in the background, and the song sneak app is utilised as it notifies you of new songs, encouraging you to click a button to save it to an internalised playlist for you to select the music you want making you feel like a roving song abductor as you obsessively pluck them into your library. Watch Dogs 2 is simply obsessed with the modern frenzy of smartphone usage and the quickness to which you can pull up and select an icon so you can progress to where you want to go and what you want to do.
Multiplayer factors into Watch Dogs 2 like an optional playground, integrating itself into the open world for you to have fun with whenever you want. Missions include downloading a player's data, where the person being hacked has to find the other player whilst he or she moves around a coloured zone urgently trying to avoid detection- a quick but cool little mode, simple, straightforward but relatively bland. Another mode has you trying to gun down or escape fugitives on the run, causing much mayhem as you try to avoid or trigger the various hack traps at yours and your opposition's disposal. Performance can chug from time to time in multiplayer but when it's integrated with the main open world, then flaws can be forgiven for frolics.
Marcus isn't short of gadgets as he is a tech-savvy pro, learned in the arts of cyber sleuthing and swindling, filching credit card money, decrypting and deciphering nodes and playing voyeur, gaining access to people's homes and playing puppeteer with their bank accounts- all vital parts of his trade. When conducting hacker business you are open to a myriad of technical delights by accessing Marcus' mobile phone and laptop. Using your phone you can bypass security systems, distract patrolling guards by tapping into their phones, and can access audio files, private e-mails and listen in on conversations. The laptop is vital for you to morph into and take control of vehicles like cranes, forklifts and moveable lifts. The laptop is also required for your drone and quadcopter, the former is utilised to reach places Marcus can't such as small vents on walls and can leap over wired fences and gates provided you have the relevant upgrades. The multitude of ways you can freely mess with technology might seem familiar to you from the original, but the new gadgets create diverse avenues for hacking into buildings and finding inscrutable access points, making stealthy traversal much more invigorating and challenging. Security bypasses and the collectibles dotted on the map such as research points, money bags and artificial modifications for clothing and weapons sometimes demand intricate awareness of systems and how to get to the top of buildings for you to perform hacks on junction boxes. These can be off putting as you might have to perform more legwork than is necessary to reach one of these trinkets- hacking a crane solely to get one measly collectible is both inconvenient and time consuming, and the collectibles in general again show Ubisoft's penchant for superfluous content in their open world games-the fact you can teleport to the Hacker Spaces and miscellaneous places like diners detracts from the open world feel, weakening and undermining the importance of exploration. Lastly the upgrade system is perhaps too familiar to the first game with an organism of abilities to choose from, some are fresh like adding mods to your drone and quadcopter but others such as temporarily draining the San Fran's power supply show there is some need for expansion and inspirational implementation. Botnet upgrades are excessive padding and the ability to recruit gangsters to take out a target might seem great at first, but their MO is to take out one person, not a group- so is fairly useless. These nags and knitpicks are merely niggling criticisms, ones you can very easily overlook because there is so much to love elsewhere.
Such is the case in real life, Marcus does most of his communicational activities on his phone besides triggering calamity with it. There are a litany of apps at your beck and call which make the world of Watch Dogs 2 as accessible as you'd like, enabling you to receive information and get where you want to go swiftly. Using the Deadsec app keeps you posted on available operations for instance, the Scout X app helps you to track down attractions and take self-indulgent photos with them in the background, and the song sneak app is utilised as it notifies you of new songs, encouraging you to click a button to save it to an internalised playlist for you to select the music you want making you feel like a roving song abductor as you obsessively pluck them into your library. Watch Dogs 2 is simply obsessed with the modern frenzy of smartphone usage and the quickness to which you can pull up and select an icon so you can progress to where you want to go and what you want to do.
Multiplayer factors into Watch Dogs 2 like an optional playground, integrating itself into the open world for you to have fun with whenever you want. Missions include downloading a player's data, where the person being hacked has to find the other player whilst he or she moves around a coloured zone urgently trying to avoid detection- a quick but cool little mode, simple, straightforward but relatively bland. Another mode has you trying to gun down or escape fugitives on the run, causing much mayhem as you try to avoid or trigger the various hack traps at yours and your opposition's disposal. Performance can chug from time to time in multiplayer but when it's integrated with the main open world, then flaws can be forgiven for frolics.
Watch Dogs 2 is a bolder, bulkier and better all-round videogame than the first Watch Dogs. The personality has been given a facelift, the story is more engaging, the missions are far more off the wall and exciting, and most crucially of all- is better connected. There are several gripes to bemoan like the generic upgrade system and Ubisoft's continuing penchant for littering its games with meaningless collectibles, but the problems are easily offset by how detailed and mesmerizing Watch Dogs 2 can be when everything clicks. Hacking is much improved and feels like the solar plexus of the experience, so much so that you can't escape from it with the apps and the hacker vision incorporating themselves into every element of the gameplay bar the shooting and stealth. When Watch Dogs 2 excels it does so majestically with several stand-out main operations you'll be truly in awe of as you witness them unfold and the swagger and temperament of how they are pulled off is truly radical. All told Watch Dogs 2 is everything the first game should have been and then some, this is truly a hacker's delight.
STORY: 7/10
GAMEPLAY: 9/10
PRESENTATION: 9/10
LIFESPAN: 8/10
SCORE: 9/10
By fundamentally improving and expanding the hacking mechanics and adding a much needed jolt of vibrancy and charisma, Watch Dogs 2 manages to become an exemplary open-world game you can ably hack to pieces at your leisure. Top dog.