I often think that I like the Watch Dogs franchise more than the average person. I will concede that the first entry failed to live up to the hype, but I still thought it was an enjoyable first outing and laid the groundwork for future games. Watch Dogs 2, on the other hand, was one of my favourite games of 2016. The San Francisco setting was beautiful and the more light-hearted tone along with the Silicon Valley antagonist all complimented each other perfectly.
When Watch Dogs 2 didn’t sell particularly well out the gate I feared that we may not see another entry in the series. So when Ubisoft announced Legion back in 2019 I was delighted. To then find out that the game would be set in a futuristic London was the cherry on top. I really appreciate the commitment Ubisoft show to their IP and they clearly saw the second game continuing to sell copies slowly but surely with great word of mouth and felt this was worth persevering with. Let’s break down both the good and the bad in this latest open-world romp.
Story & Characters
Much like its predecessor, Watch Dogs Legion manages to walk the line of having a serious story, but not taking itself too seriously. You start off as a James Bond wannabe on a mission that goes horribly wrong. The fallout of said mission results in DeadSec, the hacker group you play as, being blamed for a bombing in London. This forces the government to put Albion, a private militia group, in charge of the whole city.
DeadSec isn’t just going to take this lying down though. They want to free the oppressed, clear their name and have London rise up. To do this you first choose a base character. This will be your first recruit. From here the game opens up and lets you explore the entire map. Every character in the game is recruitable and this really adds life to London. It makes you notice the NPC’s and think before you recklessly trample them all down in the middle of the street.
Every character has their own weapons, abilities and traits. Having a diverse crew allows you to tackle missions in numerous different ways. I have seen some criticism about how your operative can feel underpowered, never they truly progressing as Aiden and Marcus did. However, I loved switching characters and recruiting new members. Each one opened up new possibilities.
The game does suffer from not having a main protagonist, but if you are willing to role play with the team you assemble the political themes the story hits on can be impactful. It shows the dangers of privatising the police and shines a light on how much information we give up through various online networks.
I have heard many say that the allies in the game are on the bland side but I enjoyed them for the most part. The star of the show for sure was Bagley, the DeadSec AI companion, who is never far from a smart arse response and is genuinely funny throughout. He pieces the story together well and helps flesh out different plot points.
As usual, Ubisoft has done an excellent job in creating villains that you can’t wait to dispatch. Each one has their own intertwined story-arc, with missions to work through towards the eventual goal of taking them out. Unfortunately, in proper Far Cry fashion, not all of these antagonists are used to their full potential.
Graphics
London looks amazing. The world is so detailed and you could have fun for hours just exploring Ubisoft’s futuristic take on a city we don’t see enough of in games. Its the London you know, but now covered in propaganda and crawling with surveillance drones. With the free upgrade to the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 versions, this is only going to improve as well. I have seen some short clips of the game with ray tracing on and it just looks incredible.
Unfortunately, character models don’t hit the same heights. There are reasons for this of course – the fact that every NPC in the game can all of a sudden be thrust into the heart of the story means that there is no place to hide for low-res background filler. The facial animation is made worse by some pretty bad lip-syncing. Again, this is almost certainly a casualty of the play as anyone mechanic, because the game will assign a voice to a character. It is very jarring though.
Upgrades
Upgrades are available and you unlock them by using tech points that you get for completing certain missions. You can also find them scattered throughout the world. These upgrades are all related to DeadSec as a whole rather than being tied to a specific character. Upgrading drones, guns etc can then be equipped on compatible characters. I liked the upgrade system in the game and having to source the majority of these tech points myself was another cool reason to explore the city.
Gameplay
I love the gameplay variation. You can attack a mission guns blazing, with gadgets and hacking so you don’t even physically set foot in the area or by recruiting Albion employees which allows you access to restricted areas. The latter is a new addition for Watch Dogs Legion and works similar to Hitman. You need to keep your distance from guards so that they don’t realise that you aren’t someone that normally patrols that area.
The sandbox nature of the game really is one of its main strengths. If you want things to be completely over the top you can play as a Grandma wielding a cane. However, if you prefer to keep the tone more serious then you can, with different operatives for specific situations. Being able to build DeadSec in your vision was cool.
At first, I really didn’t like the way cars handled. The steering felt way too sensitive and cars just gripped the road more than they should. After several hours though I realised that this was a conscious decision by the developers. As the roads in London are often very narrow, Ubisoft Toronto wanted you to have more immediate control and be able to weave in and out of traffic. Once you get used to it the driving is actually really fun.
Permadeath is also a great addition to the game. When starting a new game you can choose whether to enable it or not, but once you start this option cannot be changed. I decided to go for the full experience and put it on. It really adds to the suspense and tactical nature of the game. Some operatives are expendable and can be easily replaced. However, losing one with a special ability is a tough pill to swallow. Playing with permadeath off means that when an operative gets taken down they just either go to the hospital or police station and are unavailable for selection until they recover.
Bugs
As is the case with most open-world games at launch, Watch Dogs Legion is a bit buggy. I was pretty lucky that during my twenty-five hours with the game I only had one crash and it didn’t result in me losing any progress, but I know many that have had multiple crashes, characters disappearing etc. There was even a strange issue when you tried to share a screenshot. The game was automatically populating the hashtag #WatchDogs2 until the most recent patch fixed the issue. How does something like that even get through?
Patches are being released and so the game will become more stable and polished with time. There is a free next-gen upgrade, a season pass and also the promise of co-op, so Ubisoft has committed to this game for the foreseeable future and I would expect any issue of consequence will be addressed.
Trophies
It’s a similar list to Watch Dogs 2, minus the online trophies. There are no difficulty requirements and you are not forced to play with permadeath on. Instead, you can relax and enjoy your experience, picking up a decent amount of the trophies along the way. If you are so inclined you can then mop up what’s left for the platinum. Nothing is missable and so after the story is done you can fire up a guide and see what’s left.
Verdict
Watch Dogs Legion is a great game. London is an excellent setting and the gameplay variation makes for a really fun experience. The recruit anyone mechanic is an interesting idea that works well if you are willing to overlook the awful lip-syncing and some odd-looking characters. If you enjoyed Watch Dogs 2 and don’t mind a game that is a little light on narrative, you will enjoy this third entry in the series.
-Terry 🦊
A review copy of this game was provided by the publisher. This game was reviewed on PS4 Pro.
