Watch Dogs 2 exclusive: Ubisoft reveals new information about anti-hero Marcus Holloway

When Watch Dogs was released in 2014, the game didn’t quite live up to some players’ sky-high expectations.

But as their E3 presentation made clear, Ubisoft are hoping to really deliver with Watch Dogs 2 in November.

Among the criticisms of the original game was that central character, hacker Aiden Pearce, wasn’t the most charismatic of leads – and new protagonist, Marcus Holloway, promises to be a lot more interesting.

Although little is known about the game’s(anti)hero, Ubisoft Montreal’s Dominic Guay revealed some brand new information about the character in an exclusive interview, also touching on the controversy of the perceived graphical downgrade and mixed reception to the first game.

What can you tell us about Marcus Holloway that we don’t already know?

Marcus goes by the handle Retr0 due to his love for the classics: classic hip hop and R&B, classic electronics and old-school hacking culture. He’s a big fan of the scene’s legends. He’s also into ancient horror and science fiction movies, which clicks very well with [hacking collective] DedSec.

What new features are in Watch Dogs 2?

We pushed hacking gameplay depth and scale. You can now hack any character, any car, as well as many other electronics within the city. You can now hack them in multiple ways where in Watch Dogs you only had one function for each.

We added more powerful manipulation hacks, like changing people’s profile to have them arrested. We are offering two different drones (flying and on wheels) that you can use in missions, and to explore the open world. Also, you now have an ability called Network Hacking that allows you to hack through the environment, find gameplay opportunities and explore the world “through the eyes of a hacker”.

We also have a much more open game structure. Your goal is to accumulate followers for your hacker group, DedSec, and you are free to engage in different “quests” and activities.

The seamless online feature has been one of our big focuses. A player’s world can be populated by other players and you can join seamlessly them to form a coop team.

What is the biggest difference between this and the first game?

We changed the perspective we are giving players on our universe: this time you play a hacker within a Hacktivist group fighting a corrupt establishment.

The setting of San Francisco, the new characters, the greater power of hacking gameplay, the tone of the game, the seamless coop gameplay: all of these choices and creations are rooted in that change.

Are you happy with the first game? Why do you think it received mixed reviews?

The team is proud of the first opus. The game was a new IP and, before it shipped, different people had different expectations of what it would be. Some gamers loved it, others did not have all their expectations met.

We listened to that feedback carefully. The good news is that most of these pushed us in a direction we also wanted to take. As a result, we pushed the importance of hacking gameplay, we improved the driving, we centred our storytelling and characters on the topics we always wanted to explore. We pushed seamless online, we created a less player-centric world and we opened up the structure of the game.

What were your thoughts on the graphical downgrade in the last game and how has this been addressed this time around?

One thing to remember is that the first showing of Watch Dogs came in summer 2012, before anyone knew what the Next Gen of consoles and hardware would be. We did our best at the time to predict what that would be and always were forward that this first showing was running on a very powerful PC.

For Watch Dogs 2, we are in a much more predictable context. We have been developing the game on our target platforms from the beginning.

What graphics engine does this game use? Will it be better looking than before?

Watch Dogs 2 uses an evolved version of the first opus technology. With many years passing doing R&D on this hardware generation, we were able to expend the game’s graphics significantly. The San Francisco Bay area is a great place to have long view distances with high detail and atmospheric effects. The lighting and effects are more realistic and the world much more detailed and dynamic.