Progression in Watch Dogs 2 is not tied to story beats or to set locations (like towers) which you must take over/climb/hack/scan/set on fire/delete as Ubisoft game appropriate. It's tied to your count of virtual followers, which you collect like a kind of XP as you complete activities and make discoveries in San Francisco.
"Players start with a few followers in [hacker group] DedSec but pretty soon you realise you're going to need more if you want to pull off big operations. So you start free-roaming," Morin continues.
"Every time you get followers, it's like you're unlocking the DedSec hivemind. You're also unlocking new knowledge, new operations, new co-op missions. And then organically you hit those end-game milestones."
Without a focus on slow geographic progress across the city, and without the necessity to engage in a drawn-out campaign of story missions, the idea is for your San Francisco to feel more free.
"You can barely touch the story," Morin added. "You have many different operations which give you followers, which guide your progression." Within the story there are three "milestones" to hit which finish the game's narrative, he added, "but mathematically you can unlock everything else through co-op or free-roam".
