Hack to the Future

What it feels like to be let loose in UBI’s San Francisco as we hack our way to revolution in Watch Dogs 2.

- Louise Blain

So you’re in the City by the Bay and have clearly been up all night hacking your way into a super-powered evil corporation that’s selling people’s data – and therefore freedom – to the highest bidder. What’s the first thing you do? Go for coffee of course. In the most painfully hipster brewhouse you can find. You need caffeine and you need it served by someone with a beard, top knot and a strictly vegan diet. Please and thank you. 

And this is exactly what we do when we land in the sprawling technicolor of Watch Dogs 2’s San Francisco. All that’s missing as new hacker-in-town Marcus Holloway wanders into the brightly lit but absolutely not Starbucks joint is a quirky sandwich board to upload to Instagram. You’ll probably find that just down the road. We’re not in Chicago any more, Toto. Gone are the empty, trash strewn streets of the original Watch Dogs. After spending just seconds in this new, offensively bright world of graffiti and emoji, it’s clear that Ubisoft have learned the harsh lesson of Dullsville: population Mr Dull, a.k.a Aiden Pearce. San Francisco, in contrast, is big, beautiful and busy and we’re here to play in its tech-packed sandbox.