Over the last week, I’ve been exploring the city of London in Ubisoft’s latest game Watch Dogs Legion. Watch Dogs Legion is the third game in the Watch Dogs franchise; the series first released in 2014 with Watch Dogs and then saw a second game, Watch Dogs 2, in 2016. With 4 years having passed since the last game, a lot has changed and is going on in the world. Please note, this review is based on our experience with the Xbox One version of the game; we’ve yet to play the game on the Xbox Series X, but will update our review after the Xbox Series X releases on November 10th. Keep an eye out for an updated review after some hands-on time with the Xbox Series X version.
Welcome to Ubisoft‘s rendition of London in Watch Dogs Legion. Where you’ll need to call a hacker, rather than a hack.
Immersed in the World
The gameplay itself provides players with quite a bit to do in the city; so much so, that I spent a good chunk of my time at the start of the game exploring the world as well as testing out the recruitment feature allowing anyone to be part of your team. I will talk more about this shortly, but for the time let’s talk about what the world has so much to offer.
Random missions given by potential allies will enable you to gain access to a variety of buildings you can explore to an extent. As previously stated, the game is based on the city of London. Looking at the game you can tell that a lot of work went into making sure that buildings within the virtual city match their real-world counterparts. On multiple occasions, I was so focused on what I was doing that I nearly went into Buckingham Palace. Because I didn’t realize where I was until it was too late, I had the enemy surround me due to being in an off-limits area.
The game itself is not overwhelming in sheer size but will provide players a means to spend countless hours goofing off, doing side-missions, and eventually completing the main story. Over the course of a week, I put in good chunks of time to beat the game even without all the side missions complete. This meant ironing out my full crew of people to bring with me when I do the missions in the world.
Recruitment
Now as I stated, one of Watch Dogs Legion‘s new features is the ability to build your own crew from the citizens of London. Ubisoft is true to its word that anyone you see, even the enemies, can be brought into the fold. During the playthrough, I recruited an old lady who’s a magician with the ability to hypnotize people to attack others. On various occasions, I used her hypnosis abilities to make the enemy shoot one of their own or just to see how long the city would last against bystanders. Each area has a variety of operatives that you can unlock to be part of your team; I’m still in the progress of clearing out each of the areas to enhance my team. We are Legion, we are many.
There were times the game would tell you there is someone of interest that you should look into, which you’ll see via a green icon on the map. Whether you will go to this person or simply a random bystander, you’ll be given a quest to do to help this person. Examples include saving someone who’s been kidnapped, stealing stolen data, or any number of activities that the game decides you’ll need to do for this person to be part of your team. Each character has randomized abilities, which can range from helping your crew heal faster when taken down, to being able to get out of jail faster while you play as another character. One perk I found to be funny is the chance to lose that person if they die.
Replay Value
My main issue at this time when it comes to gameplay is that there is no Multiplayer at the time of this review. The game’s replay value score would be a bit higher if the multiplayer was active so I could see how it works and plays. I will be coming back to this section in December when the update goes live to everyone to update on my thoughts regarding the online features.
Controls
When it comes to the controls of the game, they were pretty fluid and easy to grasp. It has been a while since I played Watch Dogs 2, but within a few hours of playing, I had the controls down for hacking, fighting, and more. My only issue was driving and when I say that I mean not driving on the right side of the road. Other than that, any newcomer to the series should have no problem picking up the game on Xbox One, PS4, or even PC. Looking to hack that drone that’s been chasing you or hacking that cop car behind you? No worries it’ll be easy to do so. There is nothing like getting away from tons of enemies when you’ve made the mistake of hitting a cop car or two while driving around the city.
Audio/SFX
When it comes to the game’s music, I’m blown away by the number of known artists within the game; songs from artists ranging from Muse, The Prodigy, Bring Me To the Horizon, and more are in Watch Dogs Legion. The selection on all of the radio stations while driving is spot on and would be music most people would enjoy. At times while playing I was taking notes of who’s playing and what song when I thought it was good.
Hopefully, when future content is added to the game there will be more music added. The audio throughout the game doesn’t detract from any of the music, acting from bystanders or when a random cop decides it needs to have its sirens on when it drives past. This makes the game feel as if I’m in the city itself putting up with everyday life. The acting of each character, which you’ll be able to play as once they join your team if you so decide, is excellent. Be warned though when it comes to all the characters in the game, you never know what you may hear! During my time playing, I heard one character tell off another about shagging someone’s mom and I think dad too. I laughed when I heard it and the NPC’s walked off after it had happened.
More to Come
I can’t wait to really dig into this game more since I’ve beaten the main story. Watch Dogs Legion does provide some good replay value when it comes to the world. Even if I get everything completed I do see myself coming back for more, which is what I like in a game. Once the multiplayer update is live, you’ll be seeing me joined by 2 to 3 others.
Overall, I feel as if Ubisoft has dug back into what made Watch Dogs enjoyable to play. With some improvements to the overall gameplay and tweaks as time goes by, I can see others enjoying the game. The team behind Watch Dogs Legions has really dug into what made the franchise fun to play and adding some new features was a nice refresher as well. While there are some things I would’ve loved to see such as the multiplayer being live already. I will be looking forward to any future content coming down the line when the time comes. I will note that a hotfix is coming to everyone on Friday, Oct 30th, 2020. During my playthrough, I had no issues playing the game on the Xbox One X.
A review copy of Watch Dogs Legion was provided by Ubisoft for review.
