Tap, Swipe & Hack: Watch Dogs 2 Review

Watch Dogs 2 is a joyous and immersive dive into a modern, realistic and reactive world. The sequel to the underwhelming 2013 title puts player in the shoes of a unique character, and cultivates a number of unique gameplay options. Variety, fun and visual pleasures litter the open world of San Francisco, and players are free to hack, click and tap their way to the center of a hyper-connected world. Let’s begin.

You’re Marcus Holloway, an ingenious young hacker with a bone to pick with the Blume Corporation. Blume produces ctOS 2.0, a “smart city” software system that monitors and analyzes virtually everything about everyday life. Following some good impressions with his intense hacking skills, the cyber group DeadSec takes Marcus under their goofy hipster wings. This is where the player comes in.

Gamers take control of Marcus and his amazing, albeit preposterous hacking abilities. With ctOS as the inner thread, players can tap into cameras, fuse boxes and even cars. The game gradually introduces you to the crazy potential that your handy, dandy smart phone can pull off. Watch Dogs 2 is excellent at introductions - be it a new character, gameplay ability or region of the city, the game gave us thoughtful impressions to every corner of the game and the game world. There are things to do and see around every corner, and activities that the Bay Area offers are fun and varied. Stylistically, the game rocks. Great music, vibrant colors, and plenty of engaging subjects.

Blume is interconnected with a number of high level tech companies in San Francisco and in neighboring Silicon Valley. Social networks, search engines and security tech firms all use (and abuse) ctOS and its powerful reach. It’s up to DeadSec to show the city and the country that the hyperconnectivity may be a huge benefit to society, but it is one hell of a slap in the face of personal privacy and individuality. From the beginning of the game, your teammates ask you to help them chip away at the structural integrity of ctOS. Sitara, rock of the Bay Area DeadSec often seeks to preserve the group’s image and follower-base. Wrench, a hilarious and eccentric weirdo usually has you hack the hell out of something, then wreak havoc on the yuppies running the show. Missions and interactions with other team members will make themselves available as you progress through the story, and seek out multiple interesting and diverse side missions.

Gameplay throughout this game is easy to understand, and very fun once mastered. The third-person control over Marcus, walking or driving, is fairly fluid. Jumping and climbing sometimes seems a little rigid, but is pretty useful for escaping police or traversing obstacles. Marcus can even hack lifts to reach rooftops for hacks that require his physical presence. Players can hack almost anything for information, strategic advantages or botnets. Botnets are an in-game currency that powers your more impressive hacks. The more botnets you have, the better your hacking abilities are. Players can also upgrade Marcus’ various abilities (drone control, combat and hacking) by collecting data across the vivid city. Want to change your clothes? SF offers a clothing store to customize Marcus' look at every corner. The detail of this colorful San Francisco is remarkable, and Ubisoft should be commended for the way they encourage exploration and interaction. Apps that let Marcus earn points by taking pictures of famous locations? Brilliant.

Watch Dogs 2 is without a doubt the most inclusive games we’ve ever played. While diversity is a struggling staple of video games, Watch Dogs 2 features a multicultural cast beyond any in gaming history. For one, Marcus Holloway is a young African American male, an identity that is so rarely a main or playable character. There’s even a transgender city councilwoman and an autistic hacker who becomes a cherished character. The game captures an excellent view of modern America as players observe the city’s comings and goings, or even indulge in the occasional petty hack to see what their lives are like. Normal people doing normal things (a.k.a. a lot of selfies). What the game captures best, however, is the voice of the young black man, an identity that has been one of great conversation for the past 239 years. The game does not hide Marcus’ “blackness” and it does a notable job of showing that Marcus would never hide it. Upon meeting Horatio, another black member of DeadSec, Marcus praises the very sign of “another brother.” Our favorite moment between the two is during an undercover visit to Nudle, a parody of Google. Horatio comments on the poor representation of African Americans working there, then proceeds to make a joke - “what do you call one black man surrounded by 1,000 white men? Mr President!”

Narratively, the characters and character traits we just discussed cultivate a wonderfully wholesome game. The bad guy isn’t a terrorist or evil mastermind, he’s just the Chief Technology Officer of Blume. Our heroes, including Marcus are just kids and they think about the hardships facing people due to the meddling of the over-informed Blume Corporation. DeadSec is really just a group of “hacktivists.” This brings us to our one major criticism. This is a review, after all.

The game isn’t perfect, but it does have a consistently pleasing feel. The one major set back is combat. Before we get ahead of ourselves, we should explain that we don’t mean the combat mechanics, rather the idea of combat itself. Marcus, Sitara, Wrench (especially Wrench) and the rest of the DeadSec gang are funny, optimistic and youthful. Not too mention skinny and nerdy. Why the hell would players have Marcus blast his way out of a police raid triggered by his hacking? Hell, why would he even kill private security guards while infiltrating a data farm? That’s just it, he wouldn’t. Marcus isn’t a killer! The game may give you the option to buy machine guns and craft explosives, but that does NOT mean you should use them. Watch Dogs the first was dark and players were fighting corrupt cops and mobsters. While there’s a chance to kill some gang members in Watch Dogs 2, the main opposition to DeadSec is the police force. The Blume Corp labels DeadSec as a terrorist group, but there’s no real way for you to fuel that dramatic and false narrative if you don’t shoot any cops.

You may be wondering “But Game Chop, how are we supposed to complete certain objectives that put us in positions in which we’ll be killed or taken by force if we don’t fight?” There are a few solutions to that very pressing question. Marcus has two primary and very effective methods of infiltrating, stealing data and some physical hacks: drones! Whether it’s your trusty RC car or the outstanding quad-copter, Marcus can soar or sneak past about 85% of the bad guys in this game. SFPD in pursuit? Just run and use your phone to hack traffic lights and cause non-lethal back ups. You can even hack gang member's phones and trigger conflicts between them. No guns needed, aside from the morally neutral stun gun. We highly recommend taking the non-lethal approach to this game. It makes more sense for the character, and it makes more sense for the overall narrative of the game.

To conclude, Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs 2 is a wonderful game, and a change of pace from high-octane shooters of the day. As we said, the whole game can be beaten without firing more than a few shots. Marcus is a fantastic character, and practice in exploring the various identities present in the great American narrative. One of 2016’s lesser known titles, Watch Dogs 2 gets a solid “B+” from Game Chop.