Watch Dogs Legion

A Bold but Flawed Vision of Revolutionary London

Game Introduction

Watch Dogs Legion by Ubisoft is a brave open-world action and adventure video game that challenges the limits of possible freedom of action in the game by including the ability to “Play as Anyone”. The game is located in the near future and tells about the dystopian London where the authoritarian government can be overthrown by the hacker troop DedSec, whose reconstruction the players need to accomplish by recruiting and guiding almost any NPC in London. Though its premise as a revolutionary game is spellbinding, in execution, Legion falls short of expectations, although it offers both curious and interesting gameplay and unimpressive gameplay.

Watch Dogs Legion Gameplay

There is nothing more characteristic of Watch Dogs Legion than its revolutionary recruitment system. In contrast to all the other open-world games where you can only choose one hero at a time, in Legion, you can hire any NPC that exists in London with unique attributes, perks, and even flaws, as well as simply switch between the characters. A hitman who is done with his duties might be a pro in gunplay but poor in hacking, whereas a street artist may have a drone but may not know how to use it in a fight. The system establishes emergent storytelling opportunities as the players develop an affinity towards their randomly created operatives.

The mechanic has limitations, though. Although the concept of hiring characters of various types is a thrilling one, most of the NPCs do not seem to wow mechanically, as they possess minor differences in the abilities department. The optional permadeath mode of the game introduces the tension, but the death of a well-leveled operative might frustrate instead of being effective.

The missions are based on hacking, stealth, and combat, as DedSec tries to bring down the privately owned military company Albion and its artificial-intelligence-based surveillance state. The loop of the gameplay moves around the actions of trespassing in the restricted area, controlling the drones, and participating in third-person shooters. The mechanics of hacking, a feature of the series, are still satisfactory, and the player can hack security cameras and disrupt the communication lines of their enemies as well as weaponize drones.

The hometown of London as an open world is quite a pretty place, reducing side activities to the point of bare-knuckle boxing, couriers, and AR puzzles. Nonetheless, mission design can become redundant at times–there are too many goals, something along the lines of “hack this terminal” or “get this data”.

Game Key Details

Release Date and Platforms

• Initially Release Date: October 29, 2020

Platforms:

• PlayStation 4 
• PlayStation 5
• Xbox One
• Xbox Series X and Series S
• Microsoft Windows (PC Games)

Watch Dogs Legion came out on October 29, 2020, on various platforms, including PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC Games on the Microsoft Windows platform. PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S next-gen releases also appeared with better graphics, shorter load times, and support for ray tracing.

Genre

• Open world
• Action
• Adventure
• Shooter

Watch Dogs Legion is a stealth/ hacking/third-person Shooter, open-world action adventure game. It comes through the idea of its predecessors, but can be defined by a radical aspect of its so-called Play as Anyone feature. The game takes its morality in the form of cyberpunk dystopias, like 1984 or Black Mirror, and reaches both political commentary and technological paranoia of the near future.

Developer and Publisher

Developed by Ubisoft Toronto (under the supervision of other Ubisoft studios) and released by Ubisoft, Watch Dogs Legion is an ambitious attempt to trade in a systemic approach to the game. But its flashiness can be the speed of its ambition, as is the case in Ubisoft’s open-world games.

Story: A Resistance Tale with Missed Potential

The game is based on the story of a civilian hacking group, DedSec, fighting the power of a private military group, Albion, which transformed London into a police state with a series of terrorist bomb attacks, hijackings, and accusing hackers as the culprits. The task of a player is to reveal the truth, weaken the reign of Albion, and free the city.

Although the premise is quite strong, the tale lacks a main hero. There is no character who is central character in the story, so an emotional scene may fail to work, because it could be any operative and they could die or be substituted; the situation is not personal. Important antagonists such as the cold-blooded Albion CEO, Nigel Cass, are not well developed, and some of the plot mechanisms are not well thought as most seem to fall into the classic tropes of structural resistance.

That being said, the world-building is fantastic. Audio diaries, broadcast news, and the environmental story take on a chilling shape of the authoritarianism that makes London feel like a character in itself.

Graphics and Sound

The appearance of Legion is a mess. It is a tediously modeled city of London, featuring such wonders as Big Ben and Camden Market, in amazing detail. The neon-lighted streets, rain-wet alleys, and dystopian propaganda form an amazing atmosphere.

Nevertheless, characters and animations may be seen as stale, particularly in scenes of dialogue. The next-gen version is better in textures, lighting, and ray tracing, yet certain scenes are not as refined as most AAA games.

The sound quality is more impressive, as an electronic beat lies alongside the hacking-intensive game. Voice acting is procedural, which means that there are performances that sound exquisite and those that are mechanical.

Replayability and Content

Legion offers substantial content, including:

• Main Campaign (~20-25 hours)
• Side Missions (Spy Ring, Clan Kelley, etc.)
• Online Multiplayer (4-player co-op missions, PvP modes)
• DLC (Including the return of Aiden Pearce from Watch Dogs 1)

The “Play as Anyone” system creates replayability, promoting an attempt to discover new team compositions. But there are no significant story outcomes attached to recruitment decisions, and so the mechanic becomes dull after some time.

Verdict

Watch Dogs Legion System Requirements