The two minutes and thirty one seconds long trailer is a substantial introduction to Watch Dogs 2, for those who have yet to check out the game. It gives protagonist Marcus a bit of background, provides a premise of conflict for the game, shows off the hacker culture style that’s pervasive throughout, and of course, highlights all of the open world action players will immerse themselves in. For a trailer less than three minutes long, it builds much needed hype rapidly.
Almost all of the content within the trailer has been gone over before in prior marketing, though in different ways. Ubisoft has already gone in-depth regarding protagonist Marcus, for instance. The setting of San Francisco has also been delved into. What’s perhaps more interesting is what’s missing. PvP content is nowhere to be found within the trailer, which could potentially be a major selling point of Watch Dogs 2. The Season Pass might also be worth mentioning, but maybe not in a launch trailer for a $60 game.
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A priority for the launch trailer seems to be general interactivity with the open world. That is to say, there’s a lot of time spent showing off features like police chases, parkour over rooftops, NPC diversity, and enemy interaction. There’s also a good amount of in-game cinematic content being teased, showing off the diversity of the cast — all of which are unique characters — including a handful of very threatening villains.
Like the original Watch Dogs, there’s also plenty of politically-charged references and content as shown in the trailer. Marcus and his DedSec hacker crew are obviously rather anti-establishment, fighting against what they see as a modern for of oppression in the digital age. Fighting the police and politician while doing bad things for a good cause positions Watch Dogs 2 toward a different audience than Grand Theft Auto’s general focus on anarchy might. For better or worse.
Watch Dogs 2 is scheduled to launch on November 15 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, followed by a PC release on November 29.
