Ubisoft’s E3 conference was “disrupted” by “DedSec”, an in-universe Anonymous analog, that players will join in the upcoming sequel to 2014’s Watch Dogs: the subversively titled Watch Dogs 2. The Max Headroom style disruption notably features a plea for the common citizen to download and install DedSec’s app instead of the allegedly corrupt one and a logo that wouldn’t look out of place as a Team Fortress 2 spray.
This time around, we’re heading to San Francisco, where players will take on the character of Marcus Soloway, a “brilliant young hacker” who, according to the gameplay footage, also has legendary skill with any firearm and explosive device he happens to find on the bodies of his victims — I mean, his enemies. Parkour, the urban sport of free-running, is heavily featured, and the curious ability to wirelessly “hack” into what appears to be every nearby electronic device makes a return, although, just like the first game, it appears that what Ubisoft means by hack is more akin to magic than reality.
The gameplay footage showed Marcus storming a building that had just been the site of a local senator’s campaign party using his drones and super powered yo-yo, as well as some judiciously applied bullets that are presumably “hacked” into the bodies of enemies. Marcus displays some world-class hand-to-hand combat skills as well, subduing some people who purportedly represent a threat to democracy. Having “hacked” a DedSec screensaver and ringtone onto the televisions in the building, Marcus flees by sliding with the aforementioned yo-yo down what appears to be about thirty stories worth of steel cable, bypassing police cars, a helicopter, and even another DedSec logo projected onto a nearby building.
After a cringe-worthy hacker-as-gangster power pose from the Dedsec crew, including some ski goggles with emoticons on them, it was announced that Watch Dogs was a major success in spite of a 4.6 user rating on Metacritic. Due to Ubisoft’s partnership with Sony, a Watch Dogs film is in the works and Playstation owners will get Watch Dogs 2 DLC thirty days before other systems.
If you want to pre-order the limited edition of Watch Dogs 2 and contribute to AAA gaming’s decline, you’ll get a remote control robot. Make sure you get your money to Ubisoft before November 15th, 2016, because that’s when the game launches on Xbox One, PS4, and PC.
This article was written by a past writer, Daniel Giroday.
