Watch Dogs 2 First-Look Preview: Welcome to San Francisco

Every component of Watch Dogs 2 spawned when the team at Ubisoft Montreal decided it had to take place in San Francisco. The game's protagonist, Marcus Holloway, was a kid raised in Oakland and incorrectly profiled by ctOS 2.0 – an updated version of the surveillance software from the original game. So, with the smarts and tech knowledge of someone who grew up around Silicon Valley, he's inspired to make his own unique brand of 'change' – hacker style.
From the get-go, this makes Watch Dogs 2 differ from the first game. Aiden Pearce's story was a very insular, anti-social revenge, where Marcus Holloway has banded up with DeadSec, a fairly 'cheeky' hacker organisation, to challenge notions of security, freedom and, apparently, gentrification. Even beyond that, though, the game's lead writer, Lucien Soulban, described Marcus to me as "charming" and "socially impactful," which is almost a 180 from Aiden Pearce's utter lack of personality. He also just has a more believable, warm design, with fashion inspired by Northern California, that real people might actually wear, rather than just a broody trench coat with a cap. I'm genuinely excited to learn more about him, and it seems like he'll be a likable companion throughout the journey of Watch Dogs 2, who comes with the added bonus of being able to do some very fluid-looking parkour to help you get around.

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The whole game seems like it might be a little more friendly, actually, and the series still doesn't intend to deal with any of the political themes in an 'editorialised' way. Instead of presenting a statement on security, Watch Dogs 2 hopes to encourage players to ask their own questions, and draw their own conclusions. While I think I'd personally prefer a game that makes a challenging or confronting statement, Watch Dogs 2 is centered around an "open structure" that probably prevents any serious commentary. Instead of getting XP for completing an 'Operation', you gain 'followers', who will ultimately allow you to have enough power to complete your end goal – whatever that may actually be. Aside from a few main story points, operations can be taken and completed in any order, including allowing players to shy away from things they aren't interested in to create their own narrative for Marcus. If you're presented with an operation that involves spying on someone, for example, your version of Marcus might be ethically opposed to that, so you don't have to do it.

The game evolves if you decide to play in co-op, too. The co-op is described as being "seamless" in a way that's very similar to the first Watch Dogs' brand of PvP. This time around, players who have co-op allowed will be spawned into each other's maps, and if they encounter each other, can accept to endeavour on co-op missions or get up to mischief in the open world. You can invite players from your friends list or be paired with strangers, and, though I couldn't get explicit confirmation on this, it seems like you might be able to finish the entire game in co-op. This means you'd miss the single-player narrative segments, but you'd still build up enough followers (with your co-op buddy) to pull off whatever grand scheme the end might revolve around.

If there's anything that's consistent in Watch Dogs 2, it seems to be player choice. You can finish the entire game non-lethally, and you might even be able to finish it without ever using a gun (which, by the way, can be crafted through 3D printing), leaving it up to you to decide if your version of Marcus Holloway is violent and unforgiving, or passive and stealthy. The hacking mechanics have evolved to promote choice, too. Instead of the original Watch Dogs' 'press 'X' to raise this' style of hacking, Watch Dogs 2 is set to have an array of things that can be hacked in totally different ways. For example, every single vehicle in the game can be hacked, meaning you could hack a car to run someone over, or have it move with you to provide cover, or have it drive toward you to help with a quick getaway. Marcus is also equipped with a drone and an RC 'Jumper', both of which can help you scout out locations, distract enemies and presumably more, which we're yet to see.
The world itself is a sort of 'theme park' version of California's Bay Area, with specific landmarks and iconic districts (like San Francisco's Castro and Mission districts) being featured and favored over a 1:1 scale map. Considering the size of San Jose (the Silicon Valley), for example, this seems like a pretty good idea, and the various parts of the Bay Area's cities that I did see looked like they captured the essence of those areas. San Francisco features the juxtaposition of successful tech start-up companies and homeless people sleeping on awfully littered streets, and, whether it ends up being accurate or not, the city absolutely looks alive, and dense, just as Chicago did in the first Watch Dogs.
I have my concerns about how engrossed I might (or might not) be able to get in a game that boasts such an open structure, but for the most part, it seems like Watch Dogs 2 corrected all of the first game's mistakes, and recognised and improved upon its strengths. I look forward to meeting you, Marcus Holloway.