REVIEW

Watch Dogs 2 Review

by Rob Pritchard, November 5th, 2016

When Ubisoft released the original Watch Dogs back in 2014, the general consensus was that although the game had plenty of potential, there were several problems which prevented it from being a classic. The team has since looked to fix a lot of these problems with the long-awaited sequel. Watch Dogs 2 is definitely a major improvement, and quite possibly the magnum opus that the original game aspired to be.

Watch Dogs 2 takes place an undisclosed amount of time after the original game, and has moved the setting from the windy city of Chicago to the vibrant streets of San Francisco. After being wrongly arrested for a crime that he didn’t commit, a young hacker named Marcus Holloway decides to join the San Francisco branch of DEDSEC, a rogue group of hackers who are working to bring down the ctOS 2.0 system that controls nearly electronic device in the city. After passing his DEDSEC initiation by deleting his user profile from the system, Marcus is now ready to take down the Blume corporation, who are the original creators of the system.

Like the first Watch Dogs, this sequel is a traditional action adventure sandbox game that will be familiar to anyone who has played Grand Theft Auto or Saints Row franchises. Your primary objective is to complete various hacking missions, known as operations in order to proceed through the narrative. You can also choose to drive around the city at your leisure, hack various electronic devices such as traffic lights and steam valves to cause public disorder. It is also possible to complete side missions that give you small bonuses that cannot be found during the main storyline. The earlier missions of the game are relatively low on the difficulty meter, but once you progress past the tutorials, there is a consistent level of variety and challenge which keeps the game from becoming stale or repetitive.

Unlike the first game, the tone of the storyline is much lighter, and offers several moments where you laugh out loud at the reactions of several characters when they discover they’ve been hacked. Another positive aspect is that the level of cultural representation is relatively diverse, with several ethnic minorities and a character with autism playing a major role in the narrative.

Upon completing each mission, you will gain “followers”, also known as the number of people who are downloading the DEDSEC app. This Twitter inspired mechanic provides the traditional experience points system for the game, and feels completely natural to the current trend of social media providing groups with the means to succeed. When you level up by gaining a set amount of followers, you can unlock research points which can be used to give you enhanced hacking techniques through a Mass Effect style ability progression tree. For anyone who is unfamiliar, a progression tree allows you to unlock minor abilities at the beginning of the game, and as you gain more abilities, you will be able to reach stronger ones that are further up in the hierarchy. While the progression system has been used hundreds of times before, the abilities on offer through this method definitely enhance the game, rather than being an aesthetic change which offers little or no practical use.

As well as the typical gun arsenal you would expect from a modern sandbox game, there are a number of new gadgets on offer to help Marcus and DEDSEC complete their hacking missions with ease. As well as the obligatory mobile phone which can open security doors, you are now able to use a drone and a remote control car which can help you to perform some of the minor tasks from a safe distance. These new gadgets offer you several different ways to complete each mission, as well as allowing you to enter spaces that would be inaccessible to Marcus, such as ventilation shafts and rooftops on buildings which cannot be climbed.

As in the original Watch Dogs, the ctOS 2.0 system monitors every piece of personal information on the people who live there, from phone numbers to personal conversations. The player can use this to their advantage, by wiring money from their personal bank accounts. By upgrading your phone using the research points, you can alter practically every piece of information on the city’s residents, which can result in them being distracted or even arrested if you play your digital cards right.

An optional online multiplayer mode is also included, where you are able to play two separate games which offer slightly different experiences, but retain the goal of eliminating your opponent. The first mode, Hacking Invasion, relies on you finding another player in the game world and downloading as much data as you can about them before you caught or eliminated. The second mode, Bounty Hunter, places you in the role of a literal bounty hunter who can earn large amounts of money by eliminated opponents who have a high criminal rating. Both modes worked well in practice, and thanks to the updates that have pumped in since launch, there were very few times where the connection to the server became unstable.

From a graphical perspective, Watch Dogs 2 is one of the best looking games I have seen from this genre. The detailed textures of the environments, and the equally accurate character models and animations create a believable virtual world, and there were very few traces of slowdown or frame rate drops anywhere in sight. The soundtrack is highly competent, with several original compositions and licensed tracks playing on the car radio stations offering a unique blend which complements the protagonist’s urban city lifestyle. The voice acting is also of a high standard, with the voices of Marcus, Josh and Sitara being some of the standout performances from the cast.

Overall, Watch Dogs 2 is one of the best examples of a sequel that I have seen for several years. The new missions offer a distinct level of challenge, the online multiplayer modes feel well designed and the new gadgets that assist your hacking endeavours give you several new ways to attempt each operation you undertake. In other words, the musical legend Gerry Rafferty was right when he said, “If you get it wrong, you’ll get it right next time.”