Even though he and his vigilante hacker gang, Dedsec, are a little obnoxious and petty about their crusade against the Orwellian surveillance state this version of America has become, they’re generally relatable.

Aside from a few cringe-inducing jokes, I like Marcus a lot more. Ubisoft listened and left Pearce in Chicago, picking up in the Bay Area with the much more personable hacker vigilante Marcus Holloway, who is motivated not by blind revenge but by a philosophy and doesn’t always take himself seriously. One of the chief complaints about the original Watch Dogs was that its “fixer” hacker protagonist, Aiden Pearce, is a bland and unlikeable character. This is a significant improvement over the original Watch Dogs in nearly every way.

I’m conflicted about the tone of its story and characters, but I had a great time exploring its Bay Area map. By expanding on a lot of what the first game and its expansion got right and mixing action, stealth, and puzzle gameplay with handy remote-control drones, Watch Dogs 2 impresses with open mission designs with multiple ways to reach your objective and some great toys to find them with.