Watch Dogs 2 revealed ahead of E3 with cinematic trailer

Ubisoft give us gameplay details and a release date

E3 doesn’t begin until June 14th but already we’re seeing lots of exciting reveals – and the latest is Watch Dogs 2 from publisher Ubisoft.

The first title in the series, released in 2014, placed players in the shoes of brooding baseball cap-wearing Aiden Pearce, a hacker with a score to settle who could get into anything with a power supply. Watch Dogs was reasonably well received, though many were disappointed by the hacking mechanics and their limitations. In a livestreamed announcement accompanied by a cinematic trailer, Ubisoft seemed keen to emphasise that the sequel will offer some big improvements.

Watch Dogs 2 will take players away from Chicago and Aiden Pearce, instead starting afresh with an all new protagonist called Marcus Holloway in San Francisco. So if you haven’t played the original there doesn’t appear to be any reason to worry.

New hero Marcus is described as being a brilliant young hacker who’s forced to go off the grid after being accused of a crime he didn’t commit. Marcus isn’t going it alone, though; as a member of hacktivist collective Deadsec he can hack “everything” from vehicles and phones to satellites.

Just as Chicago was in the original title, San Francisco will be a smart city controlled by the extremely hackable and exploitable ctOS.Ubisoft seems to be aiming to make San Francisco a character in itself, calling it the “Wild West of technology” and promising that it will feel alive, with non playable characters interacting with and reacting to each other as well as the protagonist.

Like any hero worth their salt in a modern open world game, Marcus will parkour his way through the city facing enemies that range from gangs and corporations to other hacker groups. It’s up to you whether Marcus will take a lethal all guns blazing or a non-lethal stealthy approach to achieving his aims, as Ubisoft promise the game will support “all different types of play.” No matter what your style of play is, Marcus will have a gadget to help including a quadcopter drone for scouting out enemies and 3D printed weapons for taking them on.

As far as multiplayer goes, players will appear in each others’ game worlds as fellow Deadsec members and as allies they’ll be able to approach each other to join forces.

Ubisoft will undoubtedly reveal more about Watch Dogs 2 at their E3 conference but the game itself isn’t all that far away, with a scheduled release date of November 15th on Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC.