There are whispers that Watch Dogs 3 will be set in London.
You might name them leaks, however probably the most substantial proof exists in Watch Dogs 2 itself, which was up to date two years in the past to incorporate coordinates to Brixton in its ending. Given that the game has already been the platform for one surreptitious Ubisoft announcement, there’s no motive to doubt DedSec’s data a second time. As such, we’ve had an enormous ol’ take into consideration precisely what a shift from the capital of tech to the capital of the UK would possibly imply for the hack ‘n’ sprint collection.
Phish out of water
It’s simple to see why Ubisoft Montreal dropped Aiden Pearce for Watch Dogs’ second go round – Chicago’s growliest psychopath proved divisive, his grimdark revenge motive failed to attach with sufficient gamers, and that relentless self-obsession simply didn’t swimsuit the communal, hacktivist themes of the sequel. But the developer is prone to stick along with his successor, Marcus Holloway, whose anti-establishment power instilled the collection with a brand new sense of righteous enjoyable.
As far as we all know – and other than a short interlude at a Burning Man-style pageant in Watch Dogs 2’s late game – Marcus has by no means left the Bay Area, so there’s loads of leisure to be derived from the tradition shock of arriving in London. I need to see an airport retail assistant brazenly chortle at Marcus for not understanding which cash are which, the way in which I skilled it the primary time I travelled from the UK to San Francisco. Yes, I’m simply as bitter as Aiden Pearce.
What’s extra, as a younger sufferer of racial profiling via predictive surveillance tech, Marcus is completely positioned to channel native disillusionment with authority. Increased use of controversial stop and search techniques has seen London’s minority black inhabitants disproportionately affected lately. And in Watch Dogs 2’s prolonged ending sequence, two unidentified voices word that DedSec cells are bobbing up everywhere in the world in response to San Francisco’s Blume scandal. Maybe Marcus helps to get a London outpost up and working.
Going underground
It’s an apparent one, however Ubisoft will likely be loath to launch Watch Dogs Three with out giving us an opportunity to play with London’s largest toy prepare set, the Underground. The tube is stuffed stuffed with alternatives for each digital interference and social stealth.
Imagine holding a prepare 10 seconds longer with the intention to attain it whereas pursued by police, then mixing into the crush of commuters because it pulls away. And past the trains, there’s a complete world of forgotten underground places within the metropolis. The Subterranea Britannica lists greater than 100 factors of curiosity in Greater London, and it’s simple to think about DedSec establishing store at an deserted station, or in a former air raid shelter.
It’ll most likely be most satisfying, although, simply to remotely open a ticket barrier while you’ve forgotten your Oyster card.
The 1%
One of Watch Dogs 2’s best capabilities was as catharsis – for a technology whose each motion and intimate element has been captured, saved, or bought by Silicon Valley firms, irresponsible superpowers over whom they haven’t any recourse. This was a game that permit us maintain tech moguls to account, or not less than drive them for a second to really feel as uncovered as the remainder of us do on their platforms. Unlike, say, The Division, Watch Dogs 2 was a feelgood story as a result of it punched up.
Watch Dogs Three is prone to go the identical method, and London is the proper setting for it. Few cities are extra emblematic of the worldwide wealth divide – richer households in London are actually 24 times wealthier than poorer ones, thanks partially to astronomical property costs. Open-world games have lengthy been about jogging across the exterior of extraordinary buildings you’re not allowed into, and albeit that’s precisely what life in London is like.
Better nonetheless, Ubisoft might allow us to roam the empty houses of the oligarchs. In 2017, authorities figures revealed that greater than 20,000 properties in London had been unoccupied for over six months, and a bunch of squatters remodeled a Russian billionaire’s mansion right into a homeless shelter. Let us declare grand previous homes for DedSec.
The nice automobile soften
Some of Watch Dogs 2’s most entertaining sequences plucked their tales straight from the headlines. The facet mission through which you tricked a pharmaceutical CEO into shopping for the supposed single copy of rapper Bobo Dakes’ new album was very acquainted to anybody who knew the story of Martin Shkreli, who spent hundreds of thousands to solely personal the Wu-Tang Clan’s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.
For Watch Dogs 3, I’m holding out for a return of the twisting London skyscraper that melted a part of a parked Jaguar in 2013. Ubisoft Montreal has already created the mechanics for commandeering and steering large development cranes, and redirecting one to replicate gentle onto the journey of a deserving CEO feels like a superb time to me.
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