![]() ![]() ![]() The DedSec crew is what truly strings the game together. Wrench and Sitara, the two remaining crew members, feel a little more generic in their characterisations, but they still have their highs across the game. Another DedSec member, Josh, is a hacker with autism, however, his condition is never used as a storytelling point or pejorative – rather, it’s just a character feature that helps flesh out the universe. One scene at Watch Dogs’ Google Campus equivalent sees the two characters deriding the lack of diversity in Silicon Valley with equal parts charm and rancour. As the only other black member of the group, Ratio and Marcus’ shared race maintains a constant point of attention throughout the game. Horatio, with the all-time great hacker name of “Ratio”, is consistently cracking jokes and lightening up the group. Marcus’ crew helps set the tone for the game. Watch Dogs 2 feels in tune, and modern to today’s culture. For a game about tech and hacking, Watch Dogs felt stodgy and uncool. It’s such a small feature that fills in such rich detail on both the world and Marcus himself, making him feel far more charismatic and likeable, whilst simultaneously feeling modern and in-tune with popular culture. Rather than just taking regular landscapes, however, the camera defaults to a selfie cam, with a dedicated button for pulling faces and poses. One collectible in the game, a four-square style check-in app, requires Marcus to take a photo of various landmarks across the San Francisco area. Marcus, young, black and tech-savvy has a larrikin attitude and approach, making playing as him far more enjoyable than your average protagonist. What makes this relatively rudimentary story work is the fun interconnectivity between the different characters that make up DedSec. The level of vibrancy and detail throughout the city is mind-boggling. The Bay Area is lovingly recreated in Watch Dogs 2, and is a true joy to explore. When Marcus and his crew discover that ctOS 2.0 is being used for nefarious purposes and to arrest people for crimes they haven’t committed, they decide enough is enough and they’ll take down the system. Following on from the events in Chicago in 2013, ctOS has been rolled out across San Francisco, integrating a single, city-wide operating system across anything with a wi-fi signal and a microchip: Traffic lights, gas lines, security cameras, the lot. Thankfully, Marcus Holloway and his DedSec hacker crew are bursting with personality and charisma, filling the desperately required void left from before. When compared to Aiden Pearce of the first Watch Dogs, a bucket of wallpaper paste would be a more enjoyable lead character. However, by wisely choosing to wholesale abandon almost aspects of the original in terms of tone, style and location, Watch Dogs 2 at least had a fighting chance. ![]() Creating a successful sequel seemed to be a Sisyphean task for any developer. A grey city festooned by brooding, unlikeable heroes and convoluted, half-baked mechanics left a sour impression at the start of this console generation. On both a personal and critical level, the original Watch Dogs was disappointing. Is it possible to love a game, or even like it, if it feels like your preferred way of playing is completely in contrast to that of its creators? What if you felt they did everything right, bar one or two design decisions you could overlook or play around: can you truly recommend someone else play it? I’ve been conflicted after finishing games plenty of times in the past, but I don’t know for my gaming career I’ve ever been as conflicted as I am since playing Watch Dogs 2.
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