Frequently Asked Questions
The most-asked questions about Watch Dogs.
What is Watch Dogs?
Watch Dogs is an open-world action-adventure video game series created by Ubisoft, centered on skilled hackers who use their digital abilities to infiltrate systems, disrupt corrupt institutions, and fight back against mass surveillance. The franchise blends stealth, shooting, and puzzle-solving within sprawling, fully explorable city environments.
Who is Aiden Pearce?
Aiden Pearce is the protagonist of the original 2014 Watch Dogs game, a brooding former Chicago police detective turned vigilante hacker. He operates through the city's ctOS network, taking down criminals and corrupt officials while hunting the person responsible for his daughter's murder.
Who is Marcus Holloway?
Marcus Holloway is the lead character of Watch Dogs 2 (2016), a young San Francisco hacker who joins the underground collective DedSec. His story follows the group's escalating campaign to expose and dismantle the city's surveillance infrastructure.
What is ctOS?
ctOS (Central Operating System) is the fictional city-wide surveillance and control network that serves as both the central antagonist and the player's primary tool in the games. Every camera, traffic light, phone, and electronic device in the city feeds into it, and hacking it is the core gameplay mechanic.
In what order should I play the games?
The recommended starting point is the original Watch Dogs (2014), followed by Watch Dogs 2 (2016), and then Watch Dogs: Legion (2020). Each entry is a standalone story with a different protagonist and city, so there is no strict narrative dependency between them.
What is DedSec?
DedSec is a fictional hacker collective that appears throughout the series, loosely inspired by the real-world hacktivist group Anonymous. In the games they function as a decentralized network of activists who use technology to expose corruption, and the player character is typically a member or close ally of this group.
What cities are the games set in?
The first game takes place in a fictionalized Chicago, the second in a stylized San Francisco, and Watch Dogs: Legion is set in a near-future London. Each city is rendered as a fully explorable open world with its own districts, side missions, and hackable infrastructure.
How does the hacking gameplay work?
Players can scan and interact with nearly every electronic device in the environment—traffic lights, security cameras, phones, drones, and more—to create diversions, disable enemies, or solve puzzles. The depth of the hackable world is the series' signature mechanic, encouraging creative and often non-lethal problem-solving.
What makes Watch Dogs: Legion different from the earlier entries?
Watch Dogs: Legion (2020) shifts the setting to a dystopian London controlled by the authoritarian Albion Party and introduces a squad-based recruitment system where the player builds and commands a rotating roster of citizens with unique skills. It is the first entry to let you grow your own DedSec cell from a single member into a full resistance network.
Is there a Watch Dogs movie or other media?
A live-action film was announced in 2018 with a script credited to Simon Kinberg, but it has not entered active production or received a confirmed release date. The franchise remains primarily a video game series, though Ubisoft has released comic-book tie-ins and promotional short films around each game's launch.