Watch Dogs: Legion

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.

Overall this is a solid Watch Dogs Games. However, the Missions are repetitive and the main villains are a bit bland. There is no character customization, besides of outfits, at all. I would love to change hair or something on my chosen characters. The biggest achievement is also the biggest issue in this game: You can recruit anyone in your team and all of them have some kind of background story. It is a great system, but it really lacks depth: You could build a whole Clone Army with the same face, only the abilities change - and this is the main aspect to choose people. However, you can also stick to one character if you want - but besides clothing you can not change a thing. So the biggest issue? You can not identify with "your" character. It is disposable and you just jump to the next one. You will not get attached at all. There is no personal history or story. All the gathering stuff is fun at first, and very similar to "The Division 2", but do not expect it to be as good as in the other game. You get text files, audio files and rare old things you can gather. Oh and some masks. Overall, even though you can get outfits and masks en masse in the game itself, it is clear that the best looking items with the best textures comes directly through the Item Shop - you can buy some ingame money, helper to show all locations of collectibles and complete unique outfits. I have to admit, I am only 30 Hours in, but I still try to find an outfit ingame - let´s hope it is not only available through cash shops items. There is btw also no way to earn any Shop Items with playing the game. Not even a gambling system or so.

And doing the missions? There are 3 ways: 1. You just shoot through 2. You sneak around and subdue anyone by yourself or with the help of traps. 3. You spider your way through the mission (though have to admit you can not do all with the spider).

One more thing about collectibles: Do not expect that you can listen to an audio file while walking. The System needs you to stay in the menu and on that specific file to play.

And no matter when and where you go, every place is full of people. At night 3am in a small dark walkway? No worries, you are not alone and 30 people are all around you.

The ingame map is ok, but also needs polish, POI´s just vanish if you are to far away and if you are to much zoomed in it gets angled to visualize a 3D Map. Needs getting used to, but needs some polish.

Overall: London looks great, systems are not polished, customization options are missing, no attachment to your played character, Missions are similar and repeating after you have done the first few and only the story behind it is different.

I only give 7 Stars, for the City itself and the character system they tried to build. This game is more a concept art, but sadly not finished and needs so much more finetuning. 6 Months more for these things and it should for sure get a 8 or 9 Star.

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.

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 Legion is awesome! It has so many characters to recruit I don't know who to recruit first