WATCH DOGS 2 PS4 Preview

Having a ball (on a bungie cord) in an open-world hacker playground

Acid-bright. Robust. A statement of intent. Fun. We can only assume these are the thoughts running through hacktivist protagonist Marcus Holloway’s head as we have him admire and don a pair of pink Crocs. They’re also the ones running through ours as we play. A far cry from the oppressive, paranoid darkness of Watch Dogs, Ubisoft’s sequel is a sunny, unselfconscious good time. Get ready to hack like nobody’s watching.

Watch Dogs' Chicago kept a stern eye on players, all surveillance and shadows, but WD2's San Francisco is basted in golden light and naughty neon DedSec graffiti. As we saunter down Pier 39, we get the feeling the city's winking and looking the other way. Snatches of music float out of passing convertibles; a man in a lobster suit kicks away litter; a nearby pedestrian calls the cops on two people fighting. For once, we aren't the centre of attention — life plays out around us. We're finally footloose and fancy-free.

PHONE IT IN

A chirp signals an incoming message, so we pull out our smartphone. It's had an upgrade from the last game, and is now able to hack anything even vaguely tech-related in our line of sight (a comprehensive pay-monthly contract, indeed). Waving it at doors and power generators and simply tapping m pops open an entry or a couple of fuses. Useful for grabbing a nearby guard's attention, we'll bet — but more options fan out. Keep holding m when hacking any stranger's phone, and it's also possible to "mass hack” others nearby to create a huge distraction.

But it's us getting sidetracked, not NPCs, when we discover the radial menu for cars, which lets us remote-drive some entrepreneur's offensively hued sports car very nearly into Marcus' kneecaps. We can't help but giggle as we leap out of the way.

ROFLCOPTER PILOT

Back to not-so-serious business. Our DedSec app notifications tell us we're needed at Coit Tower — there's something at the top messing with citizens' phones. We look over at the status symbol we've just dodged... and straight past it to a moped.

Much more Marcus' style. Blast the tunes.

A quick, essential pit-stop at a clothing store is irresistible. We rock up, clad in rubber clogs, to our destination. Activating NetHack view (think Assassin's Creed's Eagle Vision) reveals a point of glowing colour at the top of the tower in a fuzzy, greyscale world. Take the stairs? Nah. Marcus plops himself down, cross-legged on the pavement, and takes out a mini-laptop to use his quadcopter.

We fly it upwards to remote-hack the offending doodad, then pack up and head over the road to break into a building and steal some valuable intel from a computer. Phone out, we climb aboard a scissor lift and raise it up, stepping off onto the roof. Moving our viewpoint between the cameras with @ helps us figure out a way through the guards. A little explosion here, an EMP grenade there, and we're in.

Halfway through our surfing sesh, however, a stray guard peeps through the window. Crouching, tense, we manage to line up our sight and hack his phone. Your mum's calling, mate. He turns away while we sneak up a nearby ladder and hold i to free-run down the sloped roof, onto a ledge and into a dumpster. We're rolling on the sweet concrete again, undetected.

NON-LETHAL SHIZZLE

Backup's needed. Watch Dogs' integrated multiplayer returns afresh: another player waves us over to seamlessly begin a co-op mission. We're after hard-drives in an Oakland neighbourhood, and send in our drone to scope out our targeted house. Enemies tagged, our new buddy takes the hands-on approach: hands on throats, that is.

When he's overpowered, we roll our eyes, slap a sticky electroshock bomb on our RC jumper and take out his assailants from afar. Next, we reach into our weapons menu for a Nerf blaster and a yo-yo. They're actually a dinky orange taser gun and a homebrew pool-ball-on-a-string — called a thunderball — that moves at insane speed. This lot would be laughing if they hadn't just had the teeth knocked out of them.

We're grinning from ear to ear. So far, the sequel's shifted up into a higher technical and tonal gear, much like the second Assassin's Creed did. Hopefully, its “OMGLOLWTF” style won't wear thin, but it exemplifies the wonderfully liberating, sheer dumb fun we always wanted from virtual hacking. However you want to play it, Watch Dogs 2 will be there — with Crocs on.