0:00:00.000,0:00:00.250
"Your face is too dark

0:00:13.695,0:00:16.695
for our sensors to calibrate."

0:00:35.344,0:00:39.344
for our sensors to read."

0:00:28.591,0:00:30.390
"Bitch, I'm black and I'm proud."

0:00:30.390,0:00:30.781
"Tell your sensors to calibrate that."

0:00:30.781,0:00:31.051
"I have no reference for "black."

0:00:31.051,0:00:31.301
"Whoa. Of course you don't."

0:00:31.301,0:00:10.672
In our hyper-connected world,

0:00:32.952,9:59:59.000
where most of us carry around handheld devices

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that keep us connected to the world at all times,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and tech companies monitor our behavior

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and purchasing habits constantly,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
a game in which you harness that technological web

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to disrupt the schemes of powerful corporations

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
makes perfect sense.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But with 2014's Watch Dogs,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Ubisoft failed to turn this premise

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
into a compelling game.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Watch Dogs 2 makes some meaningful improvements

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
on its predecessor.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It gives us a more memorable hero

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and supporting cast,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and a San Francisco that exudes a

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
bit more more personality

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
than the first games' setting did.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Unfortunately, Watch Dogs 2 still fails

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
where it matters most:

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
trotting out a series of crushingly-repetitive

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
missions that never come close to making you feel

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
like a hacker extraordinaire.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Nearly every main story mission

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
has you infiltrating some heavily-guarded facility

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
or another, in order to steal something,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
or hack something,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and once you find a strategy that works for you,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
it's very easy to fall into a pattern of approaching

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
all of these missions in more or less the same way.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Your character, Marcus Holloway,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
can't take much punishment,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and the environments are filled with enemies

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who will immediately fall for more reinforcements

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
at any sign of trouble --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
so you're discouraged from relying on the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
all-out, guns-blazing approach.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This makes sense in a game that wants you

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to use your hacker abilities to tackle

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the situations you're faced with,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but because failure in this game can be

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
so punishing,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and send you back so far,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I tended to complete most missions

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
by using the same tactic;

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the core of my strategy was hanging back,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
hacking into the building's security systems,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
picking off the enemies who could call

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
for reinforcements one-by-one,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
by forging criminal records and having police

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
come in and arrest or kill them.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It was passive and often tedious,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but it got the job done.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Of course, sometimes it's a strength

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
when a game punishes you for failure.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In games with precise combat,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the prospect of a significant setback

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
can raise the stakes,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
encouraging you to master the mechanics,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and making your victories all the more rewarding.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But Watch Dogs 2 is no such game.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This is no Dark Souls.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This is a by-the-numbers, open world game

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
with mediocre gun play and systems that interact

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
so erratically, that all you can do is try to

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
manage them well enough to complete

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
your objective and get out alive.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
As shabby as the mission design is,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the game deserves some credit for its

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
obviously well-intentioned efforts to acknowledge

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the existence of structural racism.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
At one point, the young black protagonist, Marcus,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
discusses the racial profiling tactics that

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
tagged him as a criminal risk.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And his brother-in-arms, Horatio,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
whose day job is at the Google stand-in, "Nudle,"

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
comments frankly on the racism and

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
condencension he experiences as one of the only

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
people of color in an

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
overwhelmingly-white company.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"You haven't experienced

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
corporate life until you're the only brother

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in a meeting and have to represent

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
all of blackdom."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"Jesus!"

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The presence of Miranda, a black trans

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
councilwoman who does what she can

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to help Marcus and his colleagues

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in the hacker collective known as "DedSec"

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
is also welcome.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
On the other hand,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Latinx people in Watch Dogs 2 are

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
primarily represented as the most clichéd

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
kind of gang members imaginable.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
As important as it us that games give us heroes

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and supporting characters that break from

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the long-established molds,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
there's more to great characterization than

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
simply ticking off a few boxes

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
on a diversity checklist.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And Watch Dogs 2 falls short here.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Its characters relate to each other more in

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
geek, sci-fi references and cheesy one-liners,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
than in anything that actually reveals to us

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who they are,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
or what makes them tick.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So it's hard to get invested in their struggle

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and their relationships with each other.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"Come on, Wesley Crusher! Launch waits!"

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"Bitch, please. I'm clearly Sisko."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"Jake Sisko?"

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"CAPTAIN Sisko."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The San Francisco setting of Watch Dogs 2

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
is recognizable but doesn't feel authentic --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
despite being packed with landmarks

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and familiar landmarks,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
including San Francisco's greatest treasure

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the sea lions down at Pier 39.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It's great to see Pride flags flying in

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
certain parts of the city,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and Watch Dogs 2 makes no effort

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to minimize or deny SF's queer community.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But for all that, the game's concerns

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
feel oddly detached from the real issues

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that face San Francisco today.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Graffiti that reads

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"ARTISTS USED TO LIVE HERE"

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
poignantly speaks to the fact that

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
entire communities are being driven out of the city

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
as tech companies make life here unsustainable

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
for so many.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And the occasional passerby may make mention

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of the gentrification that's taking place:

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"Super gentrification! It's wretched!"

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So why isn't DedSec using its power

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to stand up for marginalized communities?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Why isn't DedSec fighting for affordable housing,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and against the police injustice

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that specifically targets people of color?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Why not confront the things that are really happening here?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The things that really matter?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The people who call San Francisco home?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Perhaps the strangest thing of all

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
about Watch Dogs 2, though,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
is its uneasy relationship with power.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Ostensibly, DedSec is all about

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
waking up the populace,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
getting them to understand

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
how power is abused by politicians,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
tech companies, and government agencies

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to limit people's freedom

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to act and think for themselves.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But what DedSec never does,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
is turn that questioning lens on its own use

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and abuse, of power.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It was never lost on me that,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
playing as a young black man

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who had been profiled as a likely criminal

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
because of his race,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I then harnessed the power of techonology

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to force criminal records for dozens and dozens

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of innocent people,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and watched them get marched off

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
by the cops themselves.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But hey, what was I gonna do?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I had a mission to complete.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"We will not stand idle while that happens."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"DedSec is given you truth.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Do what you will."