Ubisoft’s recent games have had a tower synchronization gameplay element that enables players to get a lay of the land but that won’t be the case with Watch Dogs 2. The creative director Jonathan Morin has confirmed that Watch Dogs 2 is ditching Ubisoft’s tower gameplay element because the idea is to make players explore the world instead of offering them a game where they open their map and everything’s there.
“It’s not a game where you open your map and everything’s there. There are no towers. You just explore the world,” Morin said in an interview with Eurogamer.
Ubisoft introduced tower synchronization with Assassin’ Creed, players had to scale large structures or monuments to unlock an area of the map. Once it was unlocked, all story missions, side missions, landmarks, and other activities were immediately displayed on the map. Players could then easily progress through the game as they saw fit.
It used variations of this gameplay element in many titles including Far Cry, additional Assassin’s Creed games, The Crew, as well as in the first Watch Dogs game. Ubisoft is dumping it for Watch Dogs 2.
That’s because progression in Watch Dogs 2 is not tied to completing story missions and moving through set locations. It revolves around the number of follows protagonist Marcus Holloway collects.
Every time you get followers, it’s like you’re unlocking the DedSec hivemind. You’re also unlocking new knowledge, new operations, new co-op missions. And then organically you hit those end-game milestones,” Morin explains.
Ubisoft is going to release Watch Dogs 2 later this year on November 15th for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.