Watch Dogs 2

Defeat a tyrannical corporation? There’s an app for that

- Bentyrer

There’s a moment in nearly every open-world game that inadvertently deflates the power fantasy. Say you spot a car that’s tickling your fancy at traffic lights. In most sandbox playgrounds, dashing towards it sees the object of your brief obsession pull away into the distance. For Marcus Holloway and his superphone, however, this is when the real fun truly begins.

Where the original Watch Dogs struggles to deliver on a vision of an entirely hackable world, its sequel does not. Almost everything you see in the day-glo hum of new city San Francisco is a toy for your whims. The car that’s speeding off? A quick tap of o sees it stopping and reversing towards you. Not quite the shade of blue you’re after? Well, you can force the hapless vehicle to swerve to the side or propel it forwards and put it to other uses. When you’re fleeing from the po-po along a busy street, every unfortunate motor nearby becomes a potential distraction or impromptu wrecking ball for your entertainment.

MR. WOAH-BOT

While plenty of returning tricks will amuse and entertain, two tiny little creations are the most essential to the sequel’s deeper pleasures. The Jumper and Quadcopter are remote-controlled devices that you use for scouting restricted areas, distracting guards, solving environmental puzzles and, well, whatever you can think of. Easy to handle and providing greater freedom when you’re remote hacking (especially the drone-like Quadcopter), the action almost turns into that of a god simulator. Hovering above despairing goons as you manipulate them by shocking them through their phones and triggering explosive traps is a power trip unique to Watch Dogs.