Watch Dogs multiplayer explained in 9-minute developer walkthrough video

Open-world action game Watch Dogs launches next month, and though developer Ubisoft has kept relatively quiet about the game's multiplayer mode, that silence is now over. Ubisoft today released a 9-minute trailer that goes into depth about Watch Dogs' ambitious multiplayer mode.

As you'll see in the video above, Watch Dogs' multiplayer component takes a number of forms. One mode is an Assassin's Creed-style cat-and-mouse variant where you must take out your human-controlled enemy before they get to you.

In another mode, one player uses the free ctOS app for iOS or Android to control hackable items in the game world like helicopters and police, while the other player (on a console or PC) attempts to drive through checkpoints before time runs out. The mobile player can thwart their opponent's efforts by making the police chase after them or exploding steam pipes.

A third Watch Dogs multiplayer mode, called Competitive Decryption Combat, pits teams of players against each other as they try to obtain and decrypt a special digital file. Once a team acquires the file, they need to stay alive long enough to decrypt it. Enemy teams can interrupt the decryption process by hacking the environment to distract them, or by storming them and shooting them dead.

Watch Dogs launches May 27 for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PC. The Wii U version, which is definitely not canceled, is coming sometime later. You can read more about Watch Dogs through GameSpot editor Shaun McInnis' recently published preview. Be sure to check back later this week for even more coverage of Watch Dogs, including our thoughts about its multiplayer mode and campaign.