Watch Dogs 2

Watch Dogs 2 follows hacker Marcus Holloway and DedSec in a fictionalized San Francisco Bay Area, where they work to expose the harms of ctOS 2.0. The open-world action adventure blends network hacking, remote-controlled gadgets, stealth, combat, missions and a follower-based progression system.

Watch Dogs 2 is set in a fictionalized San Francisco Bay Area where connected devices and city infrastructure operate through ctOS 2.0, a system used to monitor and influence residents. Marcus Holloway, a young hacker wrongly flagged by the system, joins DedSec, a hacktivist collective that wants to demonstrate the consequences of that surveillance and expose the people profiting from it. The campaign follows the group’s effort to build public attention around its operations as it targets institutions and corporations tied to ctOS. The region spans recognizable parts of San Francisco and surrounding communities, including Oakland and Silicon Valley. Missions send Marcus into offices, industrial sites, public spaces and other controlled locations, while the open world provides streets, connected systems and civilian activity that can be observed or manipulated through his phone and hacking tools.

Hacking is the central way to interact with that world. Marcus can scan people and devices, use nearby cameras to inspect a location, and issue contextual commands to connected objects. Phones can be manipulated for distractions or to gather information; vehicles can be remotely moved, and city infrastructure offers further options for disrupting or redirecting an encounter. These actions draw from a regenerating Botnet resource pool, so repeated hacks compete for available capacity. Hacking civilians’ phones can replenish the pool, while research upgrades increase its capacity or reduce costs in certain areas. The system makes each guarded location a set of linked opportunities: a camera can reveal a guard, a distraction can draw that guard away, and a remote interaction with a device can open a path or create a diversion before Marcus enters the space.

Marcus also carries two remote-controlled devices that let him work at a distance. The Quadcopter drone provides an aerial view, can scout an area and remotely interact with hackable targets from above. The compact RC Jumper can slip into tight spaces, reach points of interest and operate certain mechanisms while Marcus remains hidden. Both gadgets help reveal the layout and offer alternatives to crossing a guarded threshold in person, though their usefulness depends on access and the unlocked abilities available to them. Missions can often be approached through remote hacking, stealth or direct combat, and these methods can be combined as circumstances change. A player might use the drone to tag threats, send the Jumper toward a device, then move Marcus through a route opened by those actions.

Progression ties the campaign’s activities to Marcus’s reputation within DedSec. Completing missions and other activities earns followers, which drive the campaign forward and represent the collective reach of the group. Research points unlock skills through the Research app, with upgrades covering areas such as hacking, vehicle control, social engineering and tools. Some upgrades require particular research data in addition to points, so exploring and reaching restricted information sources supports a more specialized build. The skill choices change practical options: Marcus can expand Botnet resources, improve his remote devices or gain additional ways to manipulate people and infrastructure. This progression gives the player a reason to mix story operations with the region’s activities, while the follower total marks DedSec’s growing visibility and expands what Marcus can do through the network.

Infiltration spaces are designed around information and access. Cameras can function as observation points that link to other devices, letting Marcus move his view across an area before choosing a route. Access keys and networked controls may be placed behind locked doors or inside secure rooms, which turns some objectives into small spatial problems: identify the right connection, send a remote gadget through a narrow opening, and use the device or key to reach a protected system. Guards, alarms and restricted zones make direct entry risky, but distraction hacks and environmental devices can change where people look or how they move. Marcus’s parkour and cover movement then carry him through the physical space if the operation calls for it. The player alternates between remote reconnaissance, puzzle-like access work and on-foot movement rather than treating hacking as a single button that completes a mission.

The Bay Area also supports driving, side activities and optional shared play alongside DedSec’s campaign operations. Cars and other vehicles provide transport across the connected urban region, while vehicle hacks can redirect traffic or create openings during a pursuit. Co-op and adversarial multiplayer connect to the wider Watch Dogs experience, but the main story remains centered on Marcus and DedSec’s effort against ctOS 2.0. DedSec’s original campaign follows that effort through operations across the Bay Area, while the separately sold story content adds missions beyond those central events. The repeated cycle is to gather information, choose a target, exploit the network around it and complete an operation in a way shaped by the player’s skills and approach.