In Watch Dogs 2 you unlock missions by building a social media following, not climbing Ubisoft Towers

Ubisoft's open-world formula has produced some top games, but has more recently started to become something of a running joke. Towers, a central component of the Assassin's Creed series that allowed players to unlock new missions and tasks in an open world, eventually crept into other Ubisoft series, including Far Cry, Watch Dogs and, more bizarrely, racing game The Crew.

Watch Dogs 2 will buck that trend however, replacing the infamous Ubisoft Towers with something else entirely. "There are no towers. You just explore the world," creative director Jonathan Morin told Eurogamer, then explaining that the open-world hack-em-up is still not "a game where you open your map and everything's there".

Replacing towers as a mean to unlock mission is a system that requires the player – as protagonist Marcus Holloway – to grow a social media following among the DedSec hacker group he's part of. "Every time you get followers, it's like you're unlocking the DedSec hivemind," explained Morin.

"You're also unlocking new knowledge, new operations, new co-op missions. And then organically you hit those end-game milestones."

Morin also revealed that it'll be possible to 'complete' Watch Dogs 2 without engaging much with the story. "You can barely touch the story," he said. "You have many different operations which give you followers, which guide your progression."

He goes on to explain that there are three "milestones" that need to be reached to complete the game's stories, but "mathematically you can unlock everything else through co-op or free-roam".

Watch Dogs 2 was announced the week prior to E3, later turning up at Ubisoft's E3 conference with an extended gameplay demo. The game is set for release on PS4, Xbox One and PC on 15 November 2016.

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