‘Watch Dogs 2’ Will Let You Hunt Other Players Who Cause Too Much Chaos

Watch Dogs 2 takes the series to San Francisco with new hero Marcus Holloway. While the single-player campaign is the focus of the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC action game, Ubisoft revealed some new online multiplayer features at Gamescom on Wednesday, such as the ability to hunt down other players that cause too much chaos in their game.

Ubisoft has confirmed three online multiplayer modes for Watch Dogs 2 that players can seamlessly jump into during a single-player game session. Players can join a friend’s session to tackle co-op missions, play an updated version of the Hacking Invasion mode from the original game, or play the hunter or the hunted in an all-new Bounty Hunter mode.

The co-op mode for Watch Dogs 2 allows one player to join another player’s session and wander into their world. It comes with a set of co-op specific missions that can be played repeatedly, but are not tied to the main campaign storyline. These are more challenging missions than the pure single-player ones and will result in gaining followers and an online score based on how you perform. Score high enough and players can earn low- or high-end cosmetic rewards.

Hacking Invasion debuted in the original Watch Dogs and allowed one player to sneak into another’s session to hack their data. The mode returns for the sequel and adds a few new tweaks. The delay from hack to data download has been removed and both now start at the same time. Additionally, Ubisoft touts the additions of drones as changing the fancy twist on hide and seek. Hiding on top of a building is no longer a safe bet as the targeted player can deploy a flying drone to drop a taser bomb on the attacking player, for example.

Bounty Hunter is the all-new mode, which shakes up Watch Dogs 2 and could actually be seen as a mechanic to encourage or discourage players to be destructive in their game worlds. A bounty can be triggered by causing a massive amount of chaos in a single-player session and cause the police to chase the offending player. The police will put a bounty on the player’s head, which invites other players to join in and hunt the player. Alternatively, a player can start a bounty on their own by going into the Contacts app on their character’s phone and hacking their wanted status.

The hunted is challenged to survive long enough to break their pursuer’s line of sight and escape. They can also choose to take the hunter’s on head on and kill them for potentially better loot. However, every player killed will be replaced by a new hunter and the hunted will still need to escape eventually to earn their rewards.

Playing as the hunted or the hunter in Bounty Hunter mode will earn a multiplayer score and new in-game followers. The number of followers in Watch Dogs 2 is the game’s equivalent of experience points and will unlock new missions in the game along with new abilities.

Note that players who do not want to participate in the Bounty Hunt online mode can opt out of it entirely. Watch Dogs 2 owners will be able to turn multiplayer off entirely or just the modes they are not interested in playing. So, a player could disable Bounty Hunt but still participate in Hacking Invasion and co-op.

The original Watch Dogs also had more traditional multiplayer competitive modes such as car racing and a four versus four multiplayer mode. It’s not been announced yet if Ubisoft will bring these competitive modes back or expand upon them.

Watch Dogs 2 is due out for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC on November 15, 2016.

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[Image via Ubisoft]