Our Review Of Watch Dogs Legion

Set in a dystopian near future London, Watch Dogs Legion shows us the reality a data sharing centric future could give us. Thrown straight into the action from the start, you are a former MI5 spy working for the hacker group DedSec and are tasked with preventing the bombing of Parliament, a couple of fake bombs and stereotypical bad guys later a hologram face appears above you revealing that they are the hacker group Zero Day and are one of the 2 main antagonists for the plot. They reveal that there are bombs placed all over London for a ‘cleansing’, in turn the bombs go off as you are left with the ultimate reality of your failure as your character is gunned down.

A strong enough opening on it’s own, but nothing compared to what the rest of the game brings to you.

The open world feels fresh and expansive with plenty of side content to keep you entertained whilst free roaming. It feels like Ubisoft has really taken the time and energy into making London as accurate and beautiful as possible, the care and attention they have put into making the players’ surroundings immersive with random events and conversations taking place between NPCs.

We are blessed with an array of different gadgets for hacking and navigating London, my personal favourites are the spider bot and the cargo drone. The spider bot can get into all the places that your character can’t such as air vents and can hack into enemy systems to retrieve vital information and data, it’s easy to control and is another way that the developers immerse you into the game play. The cargo drone is a big drone that the player can ‘ride’ around the skies of London, it makes it a quick and easy way to get to your destination without the annoyance of traffic, it’s especially satisfying to use the drone at night as you can see all of London lit up.

The only critique I feel I could give this game is that driving a vehicle is incredibly janky, the mechanics they’ve used for driving cars and motorbikes left me feeling empty inside. It feels as if the cars in the game have regressed and power steering is no longer a thing in this futuristic London. Trying to steer a bike is definitely the worst as it hardly turns and you end up crashing head first into something, something the developers need to improve on for future titles.

Being able to recruit anyone and everyone in the game sounded very alien to me at first, but after a few hours of recruiting grannies and ladies of the night it became a second nature and I became enraged when the enemy would kidnap my recruits. I then turned my attention to getting recruits that had actual skills that DedSec could use such as seasoned hackers and get away drivers all with their own unique skill set. Once my team was built up it was time to get them on the streets to expose Zero Day to the public and clear DedSec’s name.

From here, we are able to take back the boroughs one by one and free London of Albion’s reign. The system on being able to take back the borough reminds me of the Ubisoft title Assassin’s Creed Syndicate in which the protagonists there had to take back London from rival gangs, perhaps a recycled idea from an old game. Being able to look at the map and see that we have reclaimed London gives a satisfying sense of achievement and makes the time you spent doing it seem worth the while.

The missions as a whole are fun and chaotic, you can choose a stealthy approach and sneak your way around famous buildings and landmarks of Lonodn, or you can barge in and shoot up the guards with a nail gun, the choice is yours.

Overall, this is a fun and enjoyable game and definitely a credit to Ubisoft. If this game shows us how much care and attention they are going to put into future releases then I believe Ubisoft will be restored to its former glory as one of the big game developers once more.

Watch Dogs Legion is available to BUY NOW! Pick up your copy today!

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