Watch Dogs 2 is a sequel to Ubisoft's first open-world hacker-vigilante simulator Watch Dogs. The player becomes Marcus Holloway, a young man living in the sunny San Francisco, allied with DedSec to take down ctOS 2. 0, the successor of the invasive operating system known from the previous game.
As a third person shooter, Watch Dogs 2 PC offers a variety of options for both non-lethal and lethal resolutions of challenges offered to the players. New city Watch Dogs 2 takes place in San Francisco, a sunny city bursting with life. The iconic locations of San Francisco look authentic and easily recognizable to everyone familiar with the city.
Authenticity extends to recreated neighborhoods, all of which have their atmosphere faithfully captured. Apart from the city itself, the action will take you to a more rural Marin County, the Stanford campus in Silicon Valley, the technological paradise of Nudle, Oakland, and even to Alcatraz. The locations are bursting with life, from tourists, to street performers, to street vendors.
Every NPC has procedurally generated flavor information to make them appear even closer to life. Improved hacking gameplay Watch Dogs 2 improves on the hacking systems known from the previous episode. Thanks to ctOS 2.
0 installed in Chicago Marcus has more toys to play with than Aidan ever had. Even simply scanning other people on the streets gives a number of new options. Paint them as a criminal or a gang member for police or rival gang intervention, steal their money, or just recharge you phone.
The available options are now easier to access, with more intuitive controls despite more complex functions. Some of the most potent options at Marcus' disposal are: the ability to hack into any car to control it to a limited degree, and transforming junction boxes into proximity mines at his leisure. New hero Replacing Aiden Pearce as the game's protagonist comes Marcus Holloway, a young man wrongly painted as a criminal by ctOS 2.
He decides to join DedSec in their efforts to take this system down for its invasiveness and threat to common citizens. His energy and positive attitude making a more approachable and enjoyable protagonist, suitable to the sunny San Francisco. He has three distinct playstyles supported by his equipment choices: Aggressor, Stealth, and hacking-focused Trickster.
Creative chaos The variety and number of tools at your disposal serve to make Watch Dogs 2 gameplay as welcoming to creatively induced chaos as possible. Traffic accidents, police interventions, gang activities and complete control over electrical systems. All of this makes Marcus a creator of chaos serving the right cause.
The Trickster branch of gadgets and options focuses on causing widespread and focused distractions while keeping Marcus away from trouble, controlling the growing chaos like a puppeteer.
Watch Dogs 2 looks absolutely gorgeous on PC. The game offers a rich sandbox, with plenty of fun missions, things to do and places to see.
Over the top hacking action combined with open world exploration, but with a social conscience and a very welcome sense of humor. [Issue#258, p.60]
Unlike the first game where multiplayer was kind of a mess, the sequel offers a pretty solid multiplayer experience. Playing Watch Dogs 2 co-op is definitely a blast, especially if you're experiencing the game with a friend.
Ubisoft once again fails to tell an engaging story, instead mixing a somewhat confused, even boring plot with bland characters. While Watch Dogs 2 is near-perfect PC port with lots of PC-specific options both for graphics as well as controls, the underlying game wastes a lot of potential. The beautiful rendition of San Francisco is a great background for some neat hacking tricks and fun missions, yet, aside from the shift in tone, Watch Dogs 2 isn’t the anticipated step forward for the series.
Watch_Dogs 2 is definitely a good game, especially compared to the first one which was a dull game. It’s got a lot of personality, especially in terms of the cast of characters, and humour is always welcome in open world titles. The missions may generally boil down to “go somewhere, sneak past/shoot guards, hack something, get out” but they cover fun subjects and are never less than entertaining. Nevertheless the online side is aggravating as all hell, the controls aren’t quite receptive enough particularly when driving or shooting, and being able to kill loads of people doesn’t really jive with the DedSec ethos.
Ubisoft Montreal almost made a GTA of their own. On the second try. For those who think that "funny" public group in social networks are actually funny. If you do not subscribe to the idea that you have to entertain yourself rather than be entertained in a video game, better stay in Los Santos.
For the second time the unfulfilled potential of an unconventional material. The very idea is grasped greatly, but that's all and the game itself is very sad story – again. [Issue #269]
March 29, 2017
Ubisoft changes its mind with the Watch Dogs 2 DLC & includes more free content. Read more