The Watch Dogs franchise has been somewhat of a black sheep when looking at the Ubisoft family of IP. The original was met with expectations that went beyond the horsepower of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, whilst the sequel built on its father’s foundations. Watch Dogs: Legion strikes out on its own, rebelling against the family business whilst keeping the core mechanics that made the original stand out.
Watch Dogs: Legion
Watch Dogs: Legion‘s narrative is a change of pace in itself, trading a single protagonist for a team of operatives. With nods to James Bond plot devices, a new big baddie is hell-bent on and is successful in bringing London to a standstill with an explosive ‘Zero Day’ event. Likened to the Great Fire of London, Zero Day is essentially a hard-reset for the English capital.
Dedsec is the scapegoat for the terrorist attack on London, Queen and Country. As the plot for Watch Dogs: Legion begins to unravel, players begin exploring a post-zero day London. Previous games in the series have made attempts, but Watch Dogs: Legions take on London is a ‘Far Cry’ from past attempts. More on that later.
Device, Plot Device
Watch Dogs: Legion has a couple of different plot devices to drive a team-based third-person game, which again borrows from 007. Standing in for M is Sabine, the spark that kept Dedsec alive post-zero-day. She’s the font of intelligence and the brains behind the British rebellion against Albion, the big bad in Watch Dogs: Legion.
Originally made famous by actor Desmond Llewelyn, Q now takes the form of Bagley. Serving as a player’s Alexa, Bagley is a next-gen A.I. that keeps the cogs of Dedsec turning in the digital hacker age. Bagley is a font of humour and pop culture references, keeping the narrative tight and giving a persona players can invest in. It can be hard to keep character development in-check in a game that focuses on multiple protagonists, Bagley is the perfect conduit for streamlining the story of Watch Dogs: Legion.
Optic devices work alongside the in-games AI helpers. These devices are controlled by a central command centre, which is now Albion owned. It’s very much a pessimistic observation on the future of society, which makes Watch Dogs: Legion all the more enthralling. Players will also learn how to hijack various vehicles and equipment to help raise propaganda for Dedsec whilst minimising Albion output. Raising machinery to get to inaccessible rooftops is a grand example.
No, Not That Albion
Finding themselves completing tasks such as infiltrating restricted areas for intel or giving crime syndicates a run for their money sees players building up Dedsec’s reputation. As the game progresses, players will find plenty of uses for their purchased gadgets and weapons. Using an AR cloak to sneak past Albion operates that couldn’t be taken down by setting traps or distracted with CCTV cameras is a good example.
Recruitment of Dedsec followers and agents is key to changing the public perception of the rebellious hacker group. Bagley is also on hand to help pick up on conversations that may help the cause. Helping out in general, mostly by completing side-missions, will aid Dedsec in winning back the hearts and minds of Londoners. It’s a back-scratching culture in London Town.
After playing the introduction and getting familiar with the game’s mechanics, the opportunity falls for a spot of character creation. Unfortunately, it’s limited to a handful of prebuilt characters. Given that Watch Dogs: Legion allows players to control various Dedsec operatives on the fly, this isn’t a big deal. Each operative has specific skills such as burglary or traits like exceptional athletic ability. These give players more options and variable to consider when starting a mission.
Controlling a Legion
Overall, the control layout is tight and allows for multitasking whilst driving, walking and ultimately infiltrating Albion hot spots. Shoulder buttons are locked to hacking/bypassing which feels like a natural input during gameplay. Gunplay is a standard Uncharted/Gears affair. Cover with B, vault with A, shoot/aim with triggers. Reloading and melee actions are reserved for facial buttons, with distract and attract hacks on hand via the shoulder buttons if needed.
Melee combat is akin to franchise brethren Assassin’s Creed in its defensive beats offensive system. Of course, players can get in a good jab with X, with Y serving as a guard break which delivers a heavy counter. A well-timed dodge with B leaves a great opening for a couple of rib breakers, which is always nice. As for driving mechanics, Grand Theft Auto would be a good reference, with the option for auto-driving once a waypoint has been selected.
The in-game menu allows players to spend tech points on gadgets and weapons, equip said items to team members and to view collectable data that players have picked up around London. This has been organised into subjects to help players navigate. Missions and maps are also readily available to view. Map allows players to place wayfinder markings and points of interest to allow quick navigation of the London maze.
Suit Up and Feel Good
Wardrobe items can also be bought with the games currency and changed into via the in-game shop. Cosmetics can also be unlocked when completing certain tasks. This can be found back at Dedsec base. This is geared towards the obvious GTA approach to Legions upcoming online mode available in December. Mini-games such as Network Bypass adds to player immersion by re-routing power to an unlockable door. Combining this to NPC reactions makes from some hilarious one-liners.
Watch Dogs: Legion takes great care in understanding British Pop culture from the last 40 years. Feel Good Inc. and Three Lions were the first two tracks heard on our playthrough. More importantly, Legion gets British accents and the massive diversity therein. Unlike Xenoblade Chronicles and Fable, not one plank of wood can be heard in the dialogue for Watch Dogs: Legion. Local phrases and dialects are beautifully crude. Ambient sound is the icing on the cake for Watch Dogs: Legion. The depth and multiple layers of sound engineering are beautiful, right down to the last water drop hitting a puddle.
Full of Geezers
The presentation of a post-calamity London is familiar yet radical. From the well-kept patches of concrete Jungle Grass to the Banksy-inspired front of house at the London Art Gallery, Watch Dogs: Legion pulls players in. London feels alive.
Drones, various cultures of people, natural (although not as busy) traffic and subtle environmental touches all add up to a living metropolis. Overall, texture details, mapping and location mapping are spot on.
Hotfix Coming on 30th
A few performance issues were noted during our pre-release review playthrough, which have every chance of being patched out in the day-after-release update. Watch Dogs: Legion is a next-gen game in sheep’s clothing, and performance can dip as a result. On Xbox One X, load times ranged from 20-70 seconds, the latter is loading from boot up. This should see a drastic improvement thanks to Xbox Series X/S SSD’s and Smart Delivery. Random freezing was also an issue on occasion, alongside noticeable facial texture downgrades.
Games developed with next-generation tech in mind will always have trade-offs on end-of-life hardware, but cross-gen games can get away with it. The Series X/S and PlayStation 5 generational leap aren’t necessarily about graphical fidelity this time around. It’s about Dynamic Lighting and various new rendering and presentational upgrades that benefit upcoming titles. This results in Xbox One X’s visuals being blandly lit but possessing highly detailed textures throughout, some improvements can be seen in darker environments.
Overall, Watch Dogs: Legion is a memorable third-person open-world romp that builds on its predecessors. The game’s bustling and diverse London captures the grand city perfectly. It’s no Manchester but it’s not bad to spend a few days in, I suppose…
Review code provided by PR. Players who purchase Watch Dogs: Legion for Xbox One or PS4 will be able to claim a FREE upgrade for respective next-gen hardware
