BAGLEY, PLAY NATALIE IMBRUGLIA’S “TORN.”
I am a huge fan of Watch Dogs. Probably one of the biggest fans of Watch Dogs there is. I loved the gameplay and the story of the original game while many others criticized it. I own it on PS4 twice (standard and collector’s edition), on PC through Steam, the Wii U version, which is lacking some of the features of the other versions, and with the code for Watch Dogs: Legion’s Gold Edition on the Xbox One as well. I bought the “iconic” cap Aiden Pearce wore, multiple t-shirts, and a zipper sweater that vaguely looks like Aiden’s trench coat. It is safe to say I love Watch Dogs and I can go into large detail as to why I love it and why I had issues with Watch Dogs 2 when it launched. It wasn’t as much fun to explore the city, I felt the story lacked impact, and that while it certainly fixed issues people had with the first game by adding more likeable characters and better driving, it made a lot of new problems for itself. I was hoping Legion would be a return to what I felt made the first game amazing, and in some ways, it has, and in other ways it has not.
Because I’m going to be talking about parts of the game in a bit more detail to which some people would find to be spoilers, I’m going to write a brief summary of my thoughts here. Watch Dogs: Legion combines the darker story of Watch Dogs with the gameplay of Watch Dogs 2. A lot of missions can be completed with the heavy use of the Spiderbot, rendering most other equipment useless (like the drones in Watch Dogs 2) and the story, while it is grim and says something about technology, never feels as impactful as it wants to be because none of the characters really matter as every single one of them is replaceable. In short, I don’t think this is going to be anybody’s favorite Watch Dogs game, and while I appreciate the idea of everyone being playable, the idea falls flat and I never want to see it again. There are also some bugs that can be irritating on previous generation hardware. Overall, the main game loop is still fun and worth playing (especially for Watch Dogs fans), just don’t expect Legion to be amazing.
PLATFORMS: XB1, XSX, PS4, PS5, PC, STADIA
MSRP: $59.99
PRICE I’D PAY: $29.99
This is where I may tread into some spoiler territory so be warned that if you still have some interest in this game, stop reading.
The plot of Legion revolves around Ded Sec attempting to figure out who the mysterious hacker Zero Day is and why they set up Ded Sec to look like the terrorist who caused multiple bombings across England. This is established in the first mission and is very effective, as it shows Ded Sec being wiped out, establishing the core hook for Legion of recruiting anyone. I will return to that aspect after I have talked about the story some more. Throughout the game there are basically four narrative paths in the attempt to unmask Zero Day: one deals with the gang The Kelleys, one deals with the militaristic police force Albion, another is something I don’t want to give away because I think it is actually the most interesting part of the story, and the last deals with Zero Day itself. Each of these pieces felt like they barely scraped the surface of what could be said about them separately; for example the Albion story line only briefly touches on the deportation of illegal citizens and torture and all these other terrible things that military level law enforcement does, but forgets about them by the end because it has to be part of a bigger story. Sure, they will be referenced in other plotlines, but for the most part these subjects are just there to mark them off the narrative checklist (which is somewhat comedic as checklists seem to be the core of Ubisoft game design).
A big issue I have with this whole story though is that Ded Sec are once again the good guys with zero faults of their own. I realize Ded Sec is a catchy name to sell merchandise and to graffiti on walls and the like, but from the lore of Watch Dogs itself Ded Sec was their surrogate for Anonymous, and Anonymous is neither good or bad because no one knows who they are, which is why Aiden Pearce refuses to give them backdoor access into ctOS at the end of the game to which they do not respond enthusiastically. This like the Assassin’s Creed lore about aliens and the like will be forever ignored because Ubisoft refuses to have someone in charge of lore for their series. It’s annoying and an issue much bigger than the Watch Dogs franchise, but I don’t think anyone is going to be out there making the point that this game is so far off from what they set up in the first game.
Most players will find a disconnect however because the playable characters are all random, so they lack emotional connection to the plot. It’s hard to get invested in any of this when your character is expendable and easily replaced by someone who doesn’t look anything alike but sounds similar as the voice has clearly been pitch shifted (for male characters only). They all play the same and they all have approximately the same characterization, which is to say none. Sure, some have special abilities but I found myself rotating between a total of six characters: two for their uniform access, two because they came with guns, one because he had a construction drone, which is basically a cheat code to fly anywhere, and Arthur who was my first randomized character chosen. I thought I made a mistake when I refused permadeath but I realized at the end of the game I did not, as I would have had zero emotional connection to the character and would just be made to do stupid errands for someone until I could play as them.
Since I have wholly criticized the main draw of this game let me explain how this could be great in two proposals. The first is simply making the AI character Bagley the protagonist. It would give the story a central character to fixate on. The game starts with Bagley finding a character for the player as he lacks the arms and legs to do the work Ded Sec needs, so I am not making a crazy suggestion here. Bagley having to find people in the city to blackmail into doing work for Ded Sec would not only be interesting but also restore the vague morality Watch Dogs needs to be effective (heroes don’t blackmail, threaten, steal data, kill people, etc.). Bagley is seen to be able to access ctOS, and with all the drones around it would be fun to track down the right person for a job. The other option is simply making the missions feel more like the heists in Grand Theft Auto, where every character would have some role to play and would be necessary in a multi-tiered approach to reaching an objective. I barely used people who were good hand to hand fighters because there was zero reason to, but if they gave me a reason to use drone pilots maybe I would have included these more esoteric skills in my approach to the game.
Guns and spiderbots rule the gameplay once again though, so that’s what I focused on. Don’t pour upgrade points into anything but the hacking skills, the spiderbot, and the few non-lethal guns available as everything else is a waste. In fact, so many areas have places only accessible to the spiderbot I never removed it because it just meant returning to former locations with it later. Why? Well it’s because there’s an arbitrary lock on changing abilities while in red zones (areas where enemies are located). One step outside of these zones and like magic abilities can be changed again. At that point only give spiderbots to specific people because that would at least make sense when it comes to backtracking. It’s just infuriating. Smaller details like money only being used for clothes which are no longer worn by your character once you switch to another recruit or the music not being able to be listened to outside of the car just infuriated me and had me asking, “Why?” Especially when old features like the music were there in Watch Dogs 2. All the ctOS hacks like the traffic lights and sewer pipes that dominated Watch Dogs are all but gone.
But here’s the thing… this game is still good. Not great, but good.
My gripes really stem from the place of being a fan. Anyone entering Watch Dogs: Legion looking for a by the books open world game is going to find a lot to enjoy. There are small puzzles to solve, plenty of collectibles, lots of missions and I would say the shooting and driving are the best this series has ever been. Fans of the series like myself however will be disappointed by the lack of enjoyable characters as well as stand out missions and story beats. With how close Legion is releasing to Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla and Immortals Fenyx Rising it feels like Watch Dogs: Legion was left to fight for your attention and your money with less money put into development. I would recommend both Watch Dogs 1 & 2 as well as plenty of other Ubisoft experiences from the last few years before Legion at full price.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
