Watch Dogs 2

Did You Know?

• The game's plot is set in 2016, three years after the events of Chicago, with San Francisco installing the next generation of ctOS developed by Blume.
• Marcus Holloway joins DedSec, composed of Sitara Dhawan, Josh Sauchak, Horatio Carlin, and Reginald 'Wrench' Blechman.
• A sequel, Watch Dogs: Legion, was teased via Twitter a week before its E3 2019 announcement and was released on October 29, 2020.

Gameplay

Watch Dogs 2 is an action-adventure game with stealth elements played from a third-person perspective as Marcus Holloway. The open world is set in the San Francisco Bay Area, more than twice as large as the Chicagoland setting from Watch Dogs, and consists of San Francisco, Oakland, Marin County (including Sausalito), and Silicon Valley. Players navigate on foot or by vehicles such as cars, trucks, buses, cable cars, motorcycles, quad bikes, and boats. The driving mechanic was overhauled for accessibility, and players can shoot while driving. Marcus has improved acrobatic skills and can parkour. Missions can be approached aggressively with 3D-printed guns, explosives, or a melee weapon, or stealthily with a taser. Environmental hacking, such as electrifying an A/C unit, is emphasized. Police attempt to arrest the player if crimes are witnessed. Upgrades are divided into Ghost, Aggressor, and Trickster categories and can be customized.

Development

Ubisoft executive Tony Key stated at E3 2014 that the brand would become a long-running franchise. Creative director Jonathan Morin said the first game aimed to establish the brand, and risks were taken with the sequel rather than polishing the previous game. The team read reviews and studied player feedback on forums like NeoGAF. Priorities included a believable environment, player freedom, and a new protagonist with a different personality from Aiden Pearce. Primary developer Ubisoft Montreal worked with Ubisoft Toronto, Paris, Bucharest, Kyiv, and Reflections. Ubisoft Reflections, developer of the Driver series, overhauled the driving mechanic. Ubisoft assured no graphical downgrade like the first game because Watch Dogs 2 was developed for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One from the start. Consultant hackers validated scripts and mechanics for authenticity. Propaganda for DedSec was influenced by animated GIF culture, glitch art, and 1940s comic books. David Maynor served as hacking advisor. Content director Thomas Geffroyd gathered information from hacktivists including Violet Blue. Real-life Project Chanology was fictionalized in a mission.

Release

Ubisoft revealed the game on June 8, 2016, for release on November 15, 2016, for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in six editions. Enhancements for PlayStation 4 Pro were announced in September 2016. The Windows version was delayed to November 29, 2016, for optimization. The game appeared on the cover of Edge in August. Ubisoft and Samsung partnered to bundle a free digital download with purchases of SSDs or curved gaming monitors. Amazon Prime copies had early release, revealing multiplayer issues; Ubisoft said the feature was broken on release day due to lagging and crashing. Cooperative multiplayer was enabled a week after release. A three-hour free trial was released for PlayStation 4 on January 17, 2017, and for Xbox One on January 24. Pre-ordering the Gold Edition Collector's Edition included weapon skins, vehicles, drones, and a physical robot called Wrench Junior controlled by a mobile app. The Deluxe Collector's Edition excluded the season pass. The Zodiac Killer mission was exclusive to pre-orders. Amazon and Twitch Prime members received free content. ScoutXpedition, a PS4 pre-order bonus, became free in January 2017. The game was released on Amazon Luna on November 23, 2020, and Google Stadia on December 9, 2020. Five DLC packs were released, all timed exclusives for PlayStation 4.

Reception

Watch Dogs 2 received generally favorable reviews on Metacritic. Technical issues on consoles were fixed with Update 1.04. Destructoid's Zack Furniss praised the tonal shift and protagonist Marcus Holloway's charm, and found the hacking component compatible with non-lethal play. Driving was lauded as improved, but glitches and low frame rates were noted. EGM's Matt Buchholtz called the game a beautiful immersion into the San Francisco Bay, with setting, characters, and story as refinements, though murder felt inconsistent with the character. Game Informer's Elise Favis enjoyed prioritized hacking and smoother driving, but saw inconsistencies in protagonist actions versus personality and found supporting characters too obnoxious. She experienced low frame rates on PlayStation 4.