While the first Watch Dogs was a great core concept hurt by the dreary Chicago setting and insufferably morose main character, the sequel realises its full potential by taking itself much less seriously.
Blending Californian sun with some neon nineties hacker style, a touch of satire and all the hilarious carnage you can conjure, this is a game world that feels like a mix between Grand Theft Auto V and the the 1995 film Hackers. The Bay Area is incredibly well realised, even if it is a hyperreal version of itself. Street art covers the suburbs, hikers and tourists sit in wonder overlooking the bay, nobody bats an eye if you narrowly avoid them with a drone car and naked people draw amazing rainbow murals on the ground. Yes, the footpaths alone in Watch Dogs 2 show more character than previous protagonist Aiden Pearce could elicit during the entire original game.
![Bright and playful, <i>Watch Dogs 2</i> is a hacker's paradise.](/web/20170310103051im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/z/j/z/0/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gszm2e.png/1480389948035.jpg)
A small band of activist outcasts makes up the heart of the story this time, talented hackers looking to expose a big data company that's peering a little too far into the lives of all its customers. It's a likeable and genuinely funny group, and although the story and characters border on horrendously cheesy at times, it's self aware enough to get away with it.
Key to both the narrative and the main gameplay hook is the all-seeing and oppressive ctOS smart city system. Not only does this Big Brother control everything in San Francisco and its surrounds — from gas mains to cameras to traffic lights — but it also reaches into every internet-connected car, phone and screen in town, monitoring and automatically carrying out civic functions.
![Why use guns or fists to take someone down when you can get the police to do it for you with nothing more than a laptop ...](/web/20170310103051im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/z/u/l/3/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gszm2e.png/1480389948035.jpg)
For our heroes this means trouble — as owing to their race, past or place on the autism spectrum they've been profiled and denied a fair chance — but for players this means a fantastic playground of stuff to mess with.
The sprawling world — from the city to Silicon Valley and beyond — is filled with activities designed to raise awareness for your disruptive cause, and players are free to take on whatever tasks they like as they parkour around as Marcus and use his phone to tap into anything nearby.
In practice the hacking works intuitively and — assuming you suspend your disbelief that you can use the same network to steer a car or explode a sewerage pipe from a phone — it's a huge amount of fun.
Combining Marcus' athleticism with your ability to hack anything gives near endless solutions to many problems. Need to get up to a roof? Maybe you can remotely take control of a motorised set of stairs and drive it to your location, jump in and raise yourself up. Or maybe you don't need to get up there at all? Try sitting in the park and sending a little drone through the ventilation shafts to take care of your business on the roof for you.
![San Fransisco is not only a beautiful location, it also makes perfect sense given the themes.](/web/20170310103051im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/z/u/l/4/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gszm2e.png/1480389948035.jpg)
Part of the fun is that in many cases you don't need to be near an object to hack it. When it comes to dispatching enemies for example, you could run in and take cover as you take them out with a taser or engage in a full-on gunfight. But you could also hack a camera from outside the building, then jump from camera to camera until you get a good view of the baddies. Now you might set an electrical switch to make a noise and entice them all over, and hack the grenade on one of their belts to blow them all away without even entering the room.
As you complete impressive feats and gain followers you unlock new abilities — from remotely controlling any car to calling in a gang hit on any civilian you like — and when you factor in the ability to 3D-print equipment like guns or drones the city really does become a beautiful sandbox where you can do anything you like.
![Running from the cops is one thing, but sometimes in <i>Watch Dogs 2</i> the person you're running from is another ...](/web/20170310103051im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/z/u/l/5/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gszm2e.png/1480389948035.jpg)
Main missions see you driving, hacking and shooting your way through progressively ridiculous situations, but I found myself spending the majority of my time tooling around the open world and taking on side activities like building my wardrobe and music library, taking selfies at designated spots and outsmarting rival hackers.
One of the most impressive features is what Ubisoft calls "seamless multiplayer". In certain circumstances your game will be linked with that of another player somewhere in the world, without the need to move you to a lobby or interrupt your game in any way. Sometimes the other player will appear as a friendly hacker and you can tackle an objective together, but the more interesting interactions happen when two human players are pitted against each other.
Since all players take the role of Marcus, an enemy player will appear to you as an anonymous member of a rival gang, and that's how you'll appear to them. The player on offence might have to keep a low profile and attempt to blend in the with AI-controlled people as they hack their target. Nothing makes you paranoid like being told a rival hacker is somewhere nearby, but not knowing who or where they are.
Watch Dogs 2 is out now for PlayStation 4 (reviewed), Xbox One and PC.
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