HACK THE WORLD. OR IN THIS CASE...
A CONDENSED SAN FRANCISCO. $69 | PC, PS4, Xbox One | www.watchdogs.com
In keeping with an emerging pattern in Ubisoft’s open-world games (hi, Assassin’s Creed), the first
Watch Dogs was a much-hyped disappointment, opening the way for its sequel to expand and make good on the original’s promise.
Departing from the earnest proselytising of the first game (“technology is evil, look how evil it is”), Watch Dogs 2 plays out more like a lighthearted millennial edgelord simulator. You play as a talented hacker newly indoctrinated into DedSec, the US’s premier celebrity hacking group. You’re helping to gain ‘followers’ for the group, which would allow it to gather enough resources to… take out some bad guys. Many laughed at the marketing material for
Watch Dogs 2, anticipating a multimillion-dollar publisher’s lame attempt to ingratiate itself with some hip tech counterculture. And it can be cringeworthy at times, with its protagonists’ over-eager efforts to pigeonhole themselves, but as an open-world stealth sim set in a barely-fictionalised near future, Watch Dogs 2 is actually very good. The hacker-chic veneer lends it a unique aesthetic sorely lacking in its predecessor: Ubisoft’s San Francisco is full of neon, garishly fluorescent graffiti and spectacularly speckled skylines. It’s a very pretty game, if not as detailed as something Rockstar can pull off. After playing the likes of Dishonored 2 or
Deus Ex, the stealth in Watch Dogs 2 can feel rudimentary, but like those former games it also prizes gadgets and big thinking. You’ll probably want to opt for the path of least resistance on most occasions, because while it’s totally serviceable, the combat doesn’t have the bite of a Gears of War or Metal Gear Solid. That said, Watch Dogs 2’ s themes clear the way for set pieces you’re unlikely to find in the competition: ever wanted to hack into a game studio’s offices and leak a trailer? Well, you can do that.
In a packed holiday season, Watch Dogs 2 has some stiff competition, and it’s hard to avoid the reality that, if you’ve played one open-world Ubisoft game, you’ve played the lot. But as a casual Sunday arvo game with some neat ways of eliciting a laugh, Watch Dogs 2 is fine. Not a masterpiece, but worth a look.