Watch Dogs: Legion

Plot

In the near future London is facing its downfall - unless you do something about it. Build a resistance and fight the opportunists who have seized power. But sit down and have a cup of tea first. After all, you're not a bloody monster.

Cast

Oddly featuring the voice of Smallville star Kristen Kreuk and dreadful excuse for a "Musician" Stormzy.

Verdict

The original Watchdogs was panned initially because the visuals didn't match the original footage, the second Watchdogs kind of came and went with minimal fanfare, praise or criticism then Watchdogs: Legion was pretty much panned across the board.

But why and is it fair? Well yes and no, I think people senselessly got on the hate bandwagon with this one but make no mistake the flaws are pretty blatant.

The first thing you notice are the visuals, they're not great. They look a bit pixelated, the environments are rather gritty and dark (But I suppose that was intentional) and nothing looks particularly polished.

Then the combat, it's not bad it's just very generic and in places more than slightly clunky.

The plot? Over convoluted like the other games.

The mechanics? Well this is why the game both strives and fumbles as it's so incredibly ambitious but fails to meet the expectations it imposes on itself.

You see Legion doesn't have a set protagonist like most games, the world is your oyster and you can acquire pretty much anyone in the game. That old lady? You can play as her. That punk in the alley? Go get him. That soldier? Easy peasy. As you walk the streets of this open world game you can acquire anyone for your team and different people have different skills and weapons.

Incredible right? Well it works, and yet at the same time it doesn't quite meet its potential. The differences are fairly nominal, the threat of losing team members is pretty non-existent and it just never feels as impressive as it sounds.

Watchdogs Legion is a passable enough entry to the series and promises great things, what it delivers is less than impressive however.

Rants

Something that is driving me crazy in the industry right now (And is not much better in the movie one) is the sheer unadulterated rampant negativity. Do you have any idea how much damage this is doing? Entire studios are shutting their doors over games that are DOA before they even hit the shelves. We're in a hate bandwagon culture where people are told something is bad so they think it's bad as well for no reason other than that. Games like Saints Row and Kill the Justice League weren't great games for example, but they also were nowhere near as bad as the average person off the street would tell you (Most of whom haven't even played them) and in doing this foolishness the studios suffer and very possibly ending them altogether. Video game studios are not as financially secure as movie ones and often can't afford even a single high profile bomb. It needs to stop or the choice people have will wane, you don't have to like everything but you also don't have to get on bandwagons either.

The Good

Some fantastic ideas City isn't terrible

The Bad

Some of the ideas just don't meet their potential Distinctly average combat "Stormzy" Mediocre multiplayer.

Watch dogs is a huge improvement from watch dogs 2 the beautiful Open world of future London makes it more unique because the developers took the time to significantly study the culture of London from the landmarks to piccadilly london to the eiffel tower. The gamplay is awesome and its hand to hand combat the resistance has saved 2020 again they use Martial Arts hand to hand combat which is insane

Watch Dogs: Legion is about as good as you'd come to expect from this series. It's not a bad game however, it is just really lazy and underdeveloped.

Gameplay wise, it is very much identical to Watch Dogs 2 however it implements new features such as multiple playable characters (known as operatives) and these characters will have their own routines that they will live out (or so it feels like at first glance). To recruit an operative, you can just go up and talk to them (help them with a problem or liberate a borough if they don't like DedSec) and they will give you a mission - usually go and collect an Ambulance or protect them from an assassination attempt. They will then return the favour and join your cause. Beforehand, you can check these operatives skills and abilities (for example hitmen can carry lethal weapons and are generally more maneuverable in combat, and doctors and police officers can give you access to restricted areas) However, once you upgrade your skills from the main menu, you will only need to use certain operatives throughout most of your playthrough. Making this mechanic interesting, but underdeveloped.

The game's main setting is London, the cultural capital of the world - home to many different walks of life. Which has unfortunately come to disarray after a planned terrorist attack occurs and is blamed on DedSec (the main protagonist faction of the Watch Dogs series), and the group soon disbands. It is up to you, and your operatives that you recruit and play as, to conquer London from Albion - a private, corrupt military group run by Nigel Cass (who soughts to bring down DedSec) and find out who set up DedSec for the terrorist attacks.

Just to mention in this review, the voice acting in Watch Dogs: Legion is on par with Bethesda games such as Oblivion and Fallout 3. And it feels that there are even less varieties of voice actors than in those games - most of my operatives speak with an Irish accent, and there's another large group that speak in Jamaican accents. Not to mention the dialects sound too over-exaggerated for a proud member of the British Isles, such as myself.

Additionally, the music in this game is nothing really to mention - it's primarily made up of UK Grime / Rap and Punk Rock. Again, not much in terms of variety.

If you ask me, I'd recommend this game only to people who are interested in the Watch Dogs series, sandbox games, open world environments. The recommended value of this game is around £20 - £25.

This is a refined, well tuned experience that could make watch dogs one of Ubisoft's most popular franchises. But there is one thing, pretty important. Youtuber Ubicentral talked about this in his final impressions video. The story is dark, maybe darker than the first. But with play as anyone (which is amazingly exicuted) comes a problem. If you play as a group of grannies, or have characters with bad voice acting, the story will NOT be good. But that's my only complaint with play as anyone. No matter how much I miss the characters that made the first 2 special, it's amazing to think that a game, that was considered Ubisoft's no man sky, has made such a powerful entry into the open world shanath arena to compete with the other open world games

Edit: here are some more things I didn't have time to say. Dying feels like it has some actual weight. Even without permadeath it's still more impactful to die here than your companions in far cry 5 because you play AS these characters. The amount of fan service in this game is just the right amount. Things like default which we all expect to Aiden, wrench, a assassins creed character, and a Iana looking chick as DLC. Can't wait for online and more in the future. Also please update the uniform system. Have enforcers that only they can notice you plz? Worth a shot.

During quarantine I've spent a lot of time inside playing games and replaying the watch dogs series in preperation for this game. I just have to say only 4 hours into the game and I'm like shocked by how well this game is made. You can be anyone. Everyone has a backstory. The mechanics for hacking and even strolling in London is very cool. I have to say well done ubisoft well done.