It consists of four different areas: San Francisco, Oakland, Marin, and Silicon Valley. The game features an open world set in a fictionalized version of the San Francisco Bay Area, an area more than twice as large as the Chicagoland setting from Watch Dogs. Similar to its predecessor, Watch Dogs 2 is an action-adventure game with stealth elements and played from a third-person perspective as Marcus Holloway, a young hacker. A sequel, Watch Dogs: Legion, was released on October 29, 2020. Watch Dogs 2 had sold more than 10 million copies by March 2020. However, character inconsistencies, firearms, and frequent technical issues - later patched - were cited as imperfections. The game was released to overall positive reception from critics which praised the game for improving upon the original Watch Dogs in areas like the hacking, setting, characters and driving.

The original soundtrack was composed by Hudson Mohawke. Real hackers were consulted to validate scripts and game mechanics for authenticity and references to real-life hacktivism were fictionalized, like the Project Chanology protest. Ubisoft Reflections was responsible for overhauling the driving mechanic. Ubisoft Montreal studied player feedback from the first game to assess what could be improved in Watch Dogs 2 and the setting was researched by making frequent trips to California.

Cooperative multiplayer allows for competitive one-on-one combat and connecting with other players to neutralize a player who is causing havoc. There are multiple ways to complete missions, and each successful assignment increases the follower count of DedSec. Players control Marcus Holloway, a hacker who works with the hacking group DedSec to take down the city's advanced surveillance system known as ctOS.

Set within a fictionalized version of the San Francisco Bay Area, the game is played from a third-person perspective and its open world is navigated on-foot or by vehicle. It was released for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows in November 2016, and Stadia in December 2020. It is the sequel to 2014's Watch Dogs and the second installment in the Watch Dogs series. Watch Dogs 2 (stylized as WATCH_DOGS 2) is a 2016 action-adventure game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft.

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