Watch Dogs Legion

Watch Dogs Legion is a multi-genre sandbox game from a third-person perspective set in an open world, continuing the popular series of hacker action games. The events take place in a near-future London, which has become one of the centers of the technological revolution. After a series of terrorist attacks, security on the streets is strictly controlled by a private military company called Albion. At the grassroots level, a criminal syndicate has emerged, beginning to prey on the weak and vulnerable. Only the hacker group DedSec is capable of fighting for justice and freedom, and the fate of London is now in the hands of the player.

The area of the Legion sandbox is comparable to the size of the original game from 2014, but it has greater "verticality." The city is divided into 8 districts (City, Westminster, Tower, and others), with no possibility to go beyond its borders. Famous landmarks coexist with fictional skyscrapers where major corporations hide. You can move on foot, by car, or quickly through the subway.

In the future London, the roads are filled with autonomous electric transport, while various types of drones fly in the sky for courier delivery, construction, and patrolling the area. Phone booths provide internet access. There are many smart devices everywhere. Not cyberpunk, but close enough. Futuristic, yet recognizable. Everything is controlled by the city's operating system, which hacktivists exploit for their own benefit.

The construction and design of the world are top-notch. London is realistically planned, densely filled with decorations, and scattered with signs and graffiti. The map is densely built-up, but you cannot roam freely wherever you want. Most buildings are simple boxes. Tricksters on drones are stopped by invisible walls.

Each district of London has its unique atmosphere, cultural characteristics, and residents. One has more businessmen, another has IT specialists, a third is home to the working class, and so on. The life simulation system has been improved. NPCs do not just live by a schedule; they go about various tasks, relax in clubs and parks, make friends and enemies, and exchange information.

The absence of a main character is a feature of the project. The player controls the entire London cell of DedSec and can recruit any NPC encountered in the game world. Procedural generation creates hundreds of unique characters, endowing each with perks based on their biography, personality, age, and workplace. Dozens of unique animations and voices add variety.

Ordinary NPCs in Legion can be useful or not. Some receive a viral hack, extra health, or a gun (all weapons in the game come as perks), while others have a chance to die at any moment or attract unwanted attention. Due to randomness, a 70-year-old grandmother can fight as well as a 20-year-old guy. Investors, lawyers, and doctors are hired simply for their bonuses.

The game world adapts to the character. By recruiting a police officer, you can use their right to violence, freely enter police stations and secured locations. A builder trying to go where he shouldn't will raise the alarm and be detained. However, he can easily get onto the construction site. The grandma cannot do either, but relies on the robo-spider and hacking.

NPC personal perks are supplemented with abilities and gadgets from the entire DedSec cell, available regardless of the chosen character. Often, they are much more useful. Therefore, the group is equipped with unique heroes — a hacker, a spy, or a cyber-beekeeper.

Missions in Legion can be completed by one character, almost any character, and actions can be taken based on the situation. You can fly in on a drone, hack something, sneak in, shoot enemies with an assault rifle, and so on. But you cannot bring the entire DedSec cell as a team for a mission and assign each their task.

The events of Legion take place in troubled times. Britain's exit from the EU, automation, and artificial intelligence have freed millions of jobs. The familiar economy is collapsing, and the government is losing control of the situation, losing authority and power.

Organized crime has taken over the streets of London. The criminal syndicate Clan Kelly, led by boss Mary Kelly, controls smuggling, drug trafficking, sells immigrants into slavery, or harvests organs for the black market. Activists fighting against the lawlessness are beaten or even killed. Crime is one of our opponents.

Another opponent is the PMC "Albion," whose leader Nigel Cass is a caricatured supporter of the iron fist and patriarchy, ready to keep the population in a tight grip and deal with all dissenters. He fully exploits the fears of the population, who have submissively traded freedom for security, and builds total control in London.

The third opponent is the secret society Zero-Day, which actually orchestrated the terrorist attacks in London. According to the storyline, it will strike at DedSec more than once, but by gathering evidence and testimonies, the player will expose all its members.

The story of Watch Dogs Legion tells a standard tale of hipsters, outsiders, activists, and grandmas fighting for all that is good against all that is bad. Moreover, this struggle lacks feedback. The TV vilifies the "DedSec terrorists" and shows the faces of its members, while NPCs are not even scared when a societal and state enemy recruits them in broad daylight. "Albion" and the mafia, despite their authority and numbers, make many threats, but do not act on them.

The story is presented through reading notes, listening to dialogues, and cutscenes; there is no interactive communication system. Only a couple of side quests stand out against the backdrop of the standard main storyline. However, the entire game can be completed without grinding.

The gameplay is standard for previous games in the series: we complete missions to undermine digital dictatorship, fight crime, and help ordinary residents with their problems. As soon as the regime in a specific area weakens enough, the opportunity to start a rebellion will arise, and a liberation mission will open — a unique task and a real challenge for the player.

After completing it, the strength of "Albion" on the streets will decrease, the residents will feel uplifted, which will make it easier to recruit NPCs into the Resistance. By completing missions, the player gains experience and also collects money. The latter is needed for cosmetics, while technology points are the basis of the upgrade system. Development affects the London cell of DedSec as a whole, but its members also have their own individual progress.

During missions, the current character can be killed, especially if they are not a fighter or an assault specialist. It’s not worth taking risks; if discovered, it’s better to escape, and if injured, to surrender and go to jail.

Weapons are found both lethal and non-lethal, and both can be customized. However, no one wants to use heavy weaponry in civilian London, so Legion has seen more brawls and physical violence. The system has been complicated with simple and powerful strikes, blocking, rolling, strafing, and counterattacks.

Decisions made by the player while playing as different characters affect the game world and the population's attitude towards DedSec. There are also many additional activities in the game: bare-knuckle boxing, football freestyle, courier work, street graffiti painting, and much more.

Designed for 2-4 people, the online mode of Watch Dogs Legion offered all the same missions and activities that were in single-player, except for the storyline, and on the same map. Progressing and gathering agents also had to be done from scratch.

Besides free play, where simple tasks could be completed: kill, save, steal, hack, etc., for a couple of minutes, there was a "special operations" mode where 3-4 players completed higher difficulty missions in several stages. They were focused on tight cooperation, such as heists.

For the first time in the Watch Dogs series, full PvP was introduced. At launch, the "Spider-Bot Arena" mode was available. From 2 to 4 players fought using heavily armed combat drones. Over time, "Invasion" returned — the classic mode of the franchise. You could enter another player's world to hack them and steal valuable data. The opponent had to put up fierce resistance.

Over time, Ubisoft released the "Legion of the Dead" mode, where you had to escape from a zombie-infested London with up to 3 friends. There was also a "Capture" mode, in which the player, having obtained valuable data, drove across the city to unload it. Other players pursued them.

After receiving 5 seasons of content, support for multiplayer was discontinued in early 2022.