Watch Dogs 2 is the latest title from Ubisoft Montreal, and it looks very promising.

Watch Dogs (2014), the original game in the franchise, introduced an exciting hacking mechanic to open-world sandbox gameplay. The game featured a decent story and serviceable acting, but ultimately fell flat due to a very boring open world that had little to offer once the main story was completed.

In a blog post that accompanied the live-stream announcement of Watch Dogs 2, Ubisoft promised that they have taken all player complaints from the original game into consideration; which will hopefully result in a much more dense, fun-packed, and less boring open world game.

The first game was based in the windy city of Chicago. This time around, however, Watch Dogs 2 is taking the franchise to San Francisco, the birth place of the tech revolution and the home of Silicon Valley. Players will assume the role of Marcus Holloway, the game’s new protagonist, who is described as a brilliant young hacker and the latest member of Dedsec – a hacktivist group that helped Aiden Pierce in his adventure in the first game.

The premise of the new game is simple: Marcus has been accused of committing a crime that he did not commit. Thus, he must join forces with the infamous hacker group in order to take down “Big Brother”, which is represented as the omnipotent CtOS 2.0 operating system that controls just about every technological aspect of daily life. Ubisoft describes the world of San Francisco in the game as being so alive that players will find it difficult to not be immersed in the world they have created, a world that continues to function irrespective of whether players actually do anything or not.

Unlike in the original game which had limited hacking opportunities, players in Watch Dogs 2 will be able to hack almost anything in the world, as long as it has some sort of technological component. Everything from mobile phones to vehicles like cars, trucks, helicopters and forklifts; to entire computer networks and even satellites are hackable in the new game. Marcus will also have an entire inventory of nifty 3D printed goodies, like firearms, improvised explosives, and even a small remote controlled drone that will serve as his ‘eyes in the sky’.

Ubisoft have also stressed that players will be able to play Watch Dogs 2 in their own way, because no two gamers are alike. As such, Marcus will be able to do things entirely stealthily and non-lethally, or tackle his obstacles head-on and go all guns-blazing. The choice is yours. However, only time will tell if Ubisoft will be able to deliver on these ambitious elements.

Watch Dogs 2 will be out on 15th November 2016 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC. More information about the game is expected at E3 2016.

[Sources: Ubisoft, Kotaku]

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Junior Editor at Vamers. From Superman to Ironman; Bill Rizer to Sam Fisher and everything in-between, Edward loves it all. He is a Bachelor of Arts student and English Major specialising in Language and Literature. He is an avid writer and casual social networker with a flare for all things tech related.