Watch Dogs Series Guide: Hacking Gameplay and Every Game Explained

Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs series asks a simple question: what if a whole city could be hacked? Each game is set in a version of a real city — Chicago, the San Francisco Bay Area, and near-future London — where an operating system called ctOS links traffic lights, cameras, phones and infrastructure into one network. The player character can tap into that network, turning the city itself into a weapon, a hiding place and a puzzle.

Across three main games, the series has shifted dramatically in tone, from a grim revenge story to a colorful hacker-collective adventure to a dystopian experiment where you can recruit almost anyone on the street. This guide explains each game, how the hacking works, and where to start. It focuses on the single-player campaigns; story details are kept to setups.

The Watch Dogs games at a glance

The first two games were developed primarily by Ubisoft Montreal; Legion was led by Ubisoft Toronto with support from other Ubisoft studios. The three games share a universe and some characters, but each has its own self-contained story.

How ctOS hacking works

Hacking is the series’ central verb. In every game you carry a phone or similar device that lets you interact with the city’s networked systems, usually with a single button press when you look at a hackable object.

Common hacks across the series

• Cameras. Jump from camera to camera to scout areas, tag enemies, and even complete objectives without entering a building.
• Distractions. Ring a guard’s phone, overload electrical boxes or trigger alarms to pull enemies away from their posts.
• Traffic. Change traffic lights, raise road blockers, or lift bridges to stop pursuers.
• Infrastructure. Burst steam pipes, cause power outages, or set off explosive junction boxes.
• Personal data. Profile pedestrians to see snippets of their lives, and in some cases access their bank accounts or messages.

This makes Watch Dogs a stealth game as much as an action game. Many missions can be completed by hacking from outside a restricted area, avoiding guards entirely. The series’ police and pursuit systems also lean on hacking, as our guide to wanted levels in open-world games explains: you can block civilians’ calls to the police, and use the city to escape once a chase begins.

Watch Dogs (2014): Aiden Pearce in Chicago

The first game follows Aiden Pearce, a hacker and “vigilante” whose niece is killed in an attack meant for him after a job goes wrong. Aiden sets out to find who was responsible, using his ability to manipulate Chicago’s ctOS network. The tone is dark and serious, with a focus on surveillance, privacy and revenge.

Gameplay highlights

• The Profiler. Aiden’s phone shows information about every pedestrian, from their income to personal quirks, and reveals predicted crimes you can intervene in.
• Focus. A slow-motion ability for shooting and driving.
• Infiltration through cameras. Several missions encourage you to complete hacks entirely through linked cameras.
• Driving and chases. Car chases built around triggering hacks at the right moment are a highlight of the game.
• Reputation. Your actions shift public perception of Aiden between vigilante and criminal, affecting how civilians react to you.

The Bad Blood DLC puts you in the shoes of T-Bone Grady, a hacker from the main game, with a remote-controlled car and a shorter story in Chicago.

Watch Dogs launched to strong sales and generally positive reviews, though some players felt Aiden’s personality was flat compared with the game’s ambitious systems.

Watch Dogs 2 (2016): Marcus and DedSec in the Bay Area

Watch Dogs 2 changes tone completely. You play Marcus Holloway, a young hacker wrongly profiled as a criminal by ctOS 2.0. He joins DedSec, a hacker collective, to expose the tech companies and institutions abusing data. The San Francisco Bay Area setting, from Oakland to Silicon Valley, is bright and satirical, full of tech-industry parody.

Gameplay highlights

• Drones. Marcus has a remote-controlled jumper and a flying quadcopter drone, which let him scout and complete many objectives without risking himself.
• Mass hacks. Hacks can affect several systems or people at once, and you can call police or gangs on enemies to stir up chaos.
• Non-lethal options. Marcus’s melee weapon, a billiard ball on a cord, and a taser support a non-lethal approach.
• Followers. Completing missions and activities increases DedSec’s follower count, which unlocks research points and story progression.
• Parkour. Movement is more agile than in the first game.

Marcus is surrounded by a memorable DedSec crew, including the masked engineer Wrench, the artist Sitara, the shy programmer Josh and Horatio, a developer at a tech giant. Their banter and friendship are a major part of the game’s appeal.

Watch Dogs 2 is often considered the series’ high point, praised for its personality, its sandbox of hacking options, and its willingness to let players avoid violence.

Watch Dogs: Legion (2020): play as anyone

Legion jumps to a near-future London. After a series of bombings blamed on DedSec — actually orchestrated by a rogue hacker group called Zero Day — the British government hands law enforcement to a private military company, Albion, which turns the city into a surveillance state. The London branch of DedSec has been crushed, and you must rebuild it.

The play-as-anyone system

Legion’s big idea is that there is no single protagonist. Instead, you can recruit nearly any non-player character in London and play as them.

• Recruitment. Each person has views on DedSec. To recruit someone, you usually complete a mission for them, sometimes after helping with a personal problem that changes their opinion.
• Unique skills. Recruits’ abilities come from their background. A spy may have a silenced pistol and a gadget-equipped car; a builder may use a large cargo drone and a nail gun; a hooligan may be able to call friends for a fight.
• Disguises. Operatives who work for certain organizations — for example, an Albion employee — can walk into restricted areas more freely.
• Upgrades. Shared tech points unlock improved gadgets and hacks for the whole team.
• Permadeath. An optional setting makes operatives who die or are arrested permanently lost. If you lose your whole team in permadeath mode, the game ends.

The system is technically impressive and makes every playthrough different. Its downside, which many reviewers noted, is that procedurally generated characters can lack the personality of a written protagonist. Legion received more mixed reviews than its predecessors as a result.

The Bloodline DLC, released in July 2021, is a prequel set several months before Legion’s main story. It brings back Aiden Pearce and Wrench in ten new story missions, giving fans of the earlier games a direct link to their characters.

What connects the games

The three games share a universe defined by ctOS, the Blume corporation that created it, and the hacker collective DedSec. Some characters cross over:

• Aiden Pearce, the first game’s protagonist, returns as a playable character in Legion’s Bloodline DLC.
• Wrench, introduced in Watch Dogs 2, returns in Bloodline.
• DedSec, a background group in the first game, becomes the protagonists’ organization in Watch Dogs 2 and Legion.

Each main story, though, can be understood on its own. You do not need to play Watch Dogs to follow Watch Dogs 2, and Legion introduces a new cast.

Where should you start?

• Watch Dogs 2 is the most commonly recommended starting point. It has the best-loved characters, the most flexible hacking, and a strong sense of humor.
• Watch Dogs is the place to start if you want a darker tone and the series’ origin story, and if you plan to play Bloodline later.
• Watch Dogs: Legion suits players intrigued by its recruitment system and London setting. Consider turning on permadeath if you want each operative to feel valuable.

Playing in release order lets you see the series’ evolution and appreciate the character cameos, but it is not required.

Common mistakes for newcomers

• Treating it like a pure shooter. Gunfights are possible, but they tend to escalate alarms and reinforcements. The games are designed around hacking first and shooting as a fallback, and missions are often far easier when approached that way.
• Ignoring upgrades. Many of the most useful hacks — mass distractions, vehicle control, better drones — must be unlocked. Spending points early on stealth and hacking tools changes how the whole game plays.
• Losing operatives carelessly in Legion. Even without permadeath, arrested or injured operatives are unavailable for a while, so it pays to keep a varied roster rather than relying on one favorite.

Tips for playing like a hacker

• Scout first. Before entering a restricted area, use cameras and drones to tag guards and find objectives.
• Use distractions. Hacking a guard’s phone or a nearby device can clear a path without a fight.
• Escape with the city. In chases, plan your route past hackable traffic lights, blockers and bridges.
• Mix approaches. The games reward combining stealth, hacking and occasional combat rather than sticking to one style.

Watch Dogs also offers an interesting contrast with other urban open worlds. Where Insomniac’s Spider-Man games, covered in our Spider-Man order guide, make movement the main pleasure, Watch Dogs makes information and control the core of its city.

Sources

• Watch Dogs (series) — Wikipedia
• Watch Dogs: Legion — Wikipedia
• Watch Dogs — Ubisoft official site