With the May 27 release date fast approaching, Ubisoft is preparing gamers for its upcoming open-world action/adventure game, Watch Dogs. A video released today gives us our best look yet at the way players will hack, drive and fight their way through a near-future version of Chicago.

Players will control Aiden Pierce, a hacker with a violent past that lead to a tragic event that took his family. Aiden’s hacking skills grant him to access the resources of the CTOS, a Big Brother-like system that controls every aspect of the city and monitors its residents constantly. Hacking CTOS allows Aiden to control traffic lights, shut down communications, black out the city, or access personal information from any resident of Chicago. With over 60 hacking skills, Aiden should make for a formidable cyber-warrior.

He’ll use these skills to disrupt the criminal underworld by tracking criminal activity, stopping illegal convoys, and even infiltrate criminal groups to bring them down from the inside. Of course, Aiden won’t be forced to always walk the straight-and-narrow, and can choose to ignore crimes or even commit them. Actions like these will be reflected by the player’ good/evil meter, which will affect the way the city sees you.

Aiden’s partners are detailed here, including Clara Lille, a seductive hacker, T-Bone Grady, an anarchist pyromaniac, and Jordi Chin, a charming rogue who makes problems go away. This ragtag group will face off against criminals like Iraq, a deadly cyber-terrorist, and Dermott “Lucky” Quinn, the leader of Chicago’s underworld.

Watch Dogs’ multiplayer suite will feature several familiar game types, like Free-Roaming and a capture game called Decryption Combat, but will also include the ability to invade another player’s game. Invading players attempt to hack the system of the host while the host tries to find their assailant and put them down before they can crack their encryption.

The mobile companion app, a real-world app for iOS and Android, will allow players to hack into their friends’ games and challenge them to an interesting race mode. In this mode, players run from the cops, controlled by the app user, who can change traffic lights, raise roadblocks, and control a police helicopter.

The in-game phone apps are even more impressive, offering diversions like poker and chess, as well as gameplay challenges like Cash Run. The phone will also provide Digital Trips, apps that change the city into virtual reality experiences that change the game completely.

Watch Dogs is one of the most highly-anticipated titles of the year, and the trailer shows why. If the finished product can live up to the expectations, Ubisoft is sure to have a massive hit on its hands.

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