When Watch Dogs launched earlier this year to good-to-average reviews, many people considered it to be a failure in the sense that it didn’t deliver on what was expected. Although given the fact that Ubisoft’s Orwellian open-world title succumbed to a pair of delays not to mention accusations of graphical downgrades, it ultimately failed to escape the smothering shadow of hype that had preceded it.
But peel back the generic story and bland, uninteresting characters and you’ll find a solid foundation lurking beneath the hacking title, and its one the studio hopes to iterate on with Watch Dogs 2.
Speaking to GamesTM, the game’s Creative Director Jonathan Morin touched upon Ubisoft’s approach to the sequel, and how he wants to focus on the content that the players enjoyed and continue to “carry out risks.”
We want to allow [fans] to play with a very different state of mind, not wrap up concepts for them. Players loved the idea of other players who create an alternate reality in their games and, knowing that, now opens up a lot of new possibilities of what online can do.
I don’t think Watch Dogs is perfect in any way and there’s a lot of room for improvement. But you don’t always see this when you ship a game. We deliver what we believe the brand should be at the time.
Given how well Watch Dogs performed financially, it was almost a bygone conclusion that Ubisoft would push ahead with a sequel. In fact, late last year Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot revealed that the new IP had sold close to 8 million copies, and that it is now widely considered to be a whole new franchise in the company alongside the likes of Far Cry and the annual Assassin’s Creed.
Tell us, what would you like to see from Watch Dogs 2? Let us know in the comments section below.