Watch Dogs 2 Gameplay Trailer and Official Announcement

Ubisoft has finally revealed its flagship title for this year: Watch Dogs 2, after numerous leaks over the past few days. Thanks to the leaks we already knew that Watch Dogs 2 will feature a new protagonist as well as taking place in San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area. We also now know it’ll be releasing on November 15th this year for PS4, Xbox One and PC.

The new protagonist, Marcus, will hope to be more interesting than the older, grumbling Aiden of the original. Once again, Marcus is a hacker; he grew up surrounded by racial profiling and police brutality so joined forces with the anonymous hacking group, DeadSec. Marcus also comes with his own personal “Jumper”; no, not the piece of clothing – a controllable RC Car, as well as a flying drone which will be accessible at any time.

The director of Watch Dogs 2 acknowledges the problems people had with the original and is hoping to improve the sequel in every way. The new setting, San Francisco, promises to be two times larger than Watch Dogs’ Chicago and looks to have much more colour and personality to it. The director also promises that the world is “more hackable” which allows for every single car and phone to be hacked either for your use or to create a distraction. The shooting and driving (considered to be one the poorest areas of the original) have also been worked on and refined and both movement through vehicles and parkour looks to be more arcadey and fluid rather than focused in realism.

Not much has been said of the original’s multiplayer sections – which were praised by some – but co-op has been promised. In fact, you can now run into other players around the city just while playing and apparently the entire game can be played co-op if wished.

Little has been said of Watch Dogs 2‘s actual story but it will generally focus on Marcus moving up the ranks of DeadSec by gaining followers. While at the beginning of the game Marcus will just be dealing with small jobs such as redoing billboards or advertisements, as he moves up the ranks, he’ll be expected to carry out much bigger jobs. The game also promises to have larger skill trees with new unlockables compared to the original.

Overall, as Ubisoft’s flagship title this year, Watch Dogs 2 certainly seems to be getting much attention, and from the below gameplay trailer looks to be much improved. While the original received mixed criticism when released, it certainly had potential, and the new, stylish area, along with a more interesting protagonist and a heavier focus on “fun” may be exactly what is needed to turn the potential into a great game.

More information on Watch Dogs 2, along with more gameplay will be revealed at Ubisoft’s E3 panel next monday and remember to stay tuned to GameSpew for all next weeks E3 announcements!