Title: Watch Dogs: Legion
Developer: Ubisoft Toronto
Publisher: Ubisoft Entertainment
Genre: Action, Adventure
Price: $59.99
Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs series shares much of its makeup with Assassin’s Creed, the company’s other sandbox property. Just like its older brother, the Watch Dogs franchise makes heavy use of its large open world, filling it to the brim with quests, storylines, and alternate activities to keep its players entertained. However, where the Assassin’s Creed games eventually played with concepts of magic, myths and, historical tales of knights, assassins, and Vikings, Watch Dogs would follow its science-fiction roots to their natural conclusion. The series has delved further into its dystopian setting, and out of this evolution comes Watch Dogs: Legion, just released and available on the Sony PlayStation 5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and personal computer.
Watch Dogs: Legion has players picking up the pieces off an attack that leaves London in shambles. Controlling members of the local branch of DedSec, they’re tasked with exposing the terrorist organizations at work and, in the process, clearing the name of the hacking collective. En route, they must recruit new blood from the city’s ordinary folk, fulfill quests and side missions that bring about much-needed resources and upgrades, and ultimately prepare a team capable of restoring order and justice to the world around them.
Watch Dogs: Legion revels in its grandiosity from the get-go, and, for the most part, it lives up to its promise. London is vast and expansive, and the sheer number of missions on offer will more than hold players’ attention. From recruiting new members to infiltrating and clearing mission zones, they're pretty much neck-deep in situations typical in a Watch Dogs game. There’s a lot of running around, sneaking, hacking, and puzzle-solving while continuing along a set path. Much is done in stealth, but unwanted discovery brings about action-filled encounters, with weapon and melee skills required for survival. All of this is pretty standard fare, and anyone who’s ever played a third-person shooter before will be right at home with its controls.
Where Watch Dogs: Legion does try to set itself apart from its predecessors, however, is in its informed decision to eschew a named principal character. If Watch Dogs had vigilante Aiden Pearce and Watch Dogs 2 had hacker Marcus Holloway chewing up the scenery, the latest release does not have a central protagonist to control. The world is the players’ oyster, and they’re free to pretty much pick and play whomever you want. The interface enables multiple playable characters, thus providing an incredible amount of variety and, therefore, uniqueness. Parenthetically, the setup allows it to double down on its sandbox nature, and helps maintain its freshness. There is no one-man killing machine. There are just nameless characters with diverse looks, distinct backstories, personalities, abilities, and gear. And just like the enemies they face, the protagonist being controlled at at a particular moment could be anyone.
To Watch Dog: Legion’s credit, the deliberate, if surprisingly daring, choice actually serves to underscore its virtues. Coupled with a vast environment rendered exquisitely on the PS5, excellent shooting mechanics, and competent level designs, it proves to be no slouch as far as open world games go.
To be sure, Watch Dogs: Legion is not without its flaws. While its good parts do shine through and distinguish it from its older siblings, it nonetheless exhibits quirks that should be familiar to the series’ old hands. Meanwhile, the game is locked to 30 frames per second on all consoles, not a complete deal breaker given its polish, but still a minor letdown considering the vast potential being offered by latest-generation platforms. Certainly, players spoiled by other titles running on 60 frames per second will be looking in askance at Ubisoft’s programming choices. Other minor complaints also surface once the midpoint is reached. It misses or throws to the wayside otherwise-notable marks like variety of missions and non-playable characters, as if suddenly engulfed by an overall lack of ambition. And perhaps due to the weight of its pledges, it never gets to reach its projected dazzling heights. It never stops being enjoyable, but the most demanding players will be bothered by a nagging feeling that it could have been not just better, but transcendent – that it’s just a few steps shy of greatness.
All told, Watch Dogs: Legion is an extremely engrossing title well worth its $59.99 price tag. It’s boasts of practically everything it needs to keep players entertained, and it’s not one to shy away from using every trick in the open-world book to hold their attention. Through exciting set pieces, urban gunfights, and stealth missions, it manages to combine familiar Watch Dogs prompts with a darker, more serious plot and singular gameplay. That said, it seems to hold itself back when it should press on, and ultimately leaves fans wondering if the best is yet to come.
THE GOOD
- Compelling dystopian premise, blended nicely with modern designs and architecture
- Excellent gunplay and stealth mechanics on a brand-new game engine
- Open-ended approach to team-building
- Multiple playable characters offer variety and freshness
THE BAD
- Familiar Watch Dogs design notes can give off a been there, done that vibe
- Settings and storylines are darker but seem to be held back, leaving the payoffs wanting
- Tasks become repetitive as the game progresses
RATING: 8.5/10
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