Watch Dogs: Legion shows a lot of promise, and have beautiful visuals, but the early version we tested had a few kinks that still need to be worked
The war of the Watch Dogs series has always been fought in two parts — physically with weapons and by proxy in the online space. In the original, which took place in Chicago, hacker Aiden Pearce, aided by the DedSec crew, hacks just about any device in his vicinity on his quest to make up for the loss of his niece, Lena, and take down a mysterious software called Central Operating System (ctOS) that ran the city and spied on its citizens. Then in Watch Dogs 2, players entered the shoes of Marcus Holloway, a DedSec activist whose goal it was to overcome ctOS version 2.0 in San Francisco while simultaneously exploiting its weaknesses for their own gain. This time around in Watch Dogs: Legion, ctOS and a private military group called Albion have taken over London. Unlike the previous games, you’re not a specific individual with a particular set of skills. Early on during a prologue segment, players control Dalton Wolfe, a British MI5 agent who just so happens to be a part of (you guessed it) DedSec. Wolfe walks into a planned bombing of Parliament that he’s able to stop. Unfortunately, the culprits, a second hacker group called Zero Day, set off more explosions around the city and kill Wolfe on the roof of the Parliament building. Following Wolfe’s death, Albion sweeps into London and locks the city down as part of a coup following the bombings. The privatized military group spins a misinformation campaign framing DedSec for the series of bombings, and gains control of London by using (once again, you’ve guessed it) another version of ctOS. Players then take control of one of a large list of possible characters to lead DedSec in the campaign against ctOS and Albion itself. This is just the first in a grocery list of changes to the core mechanics in an effort to keep the Watch Dogs franchise feeling fresh. Watch Dogs: Legion is equal parts stealth and sneaking around, like Assassin’s Creed, with sandbox car thievery and evading law enforcement with one of several playable characters, similar to Grand Theft Auto V, and a healthy dose of futuristic hacking simulator. Albion has locked down all of London as a whole, but DedSec’s plans include freeing it one borough at a time. You’re not on your own, though. Right from the start, we were in constant communication with Sabine Brandt, the last remaining leader of DedSec. Intelligence comes from Sabine’s smarmy British AI partner Bagley, who’s clearly based on British comedians like Ricky Gervais. This all-knowing computer has access to limitless checkpoints and surveillance equipment, but is quicker to make jokes than give answers. At first, not getting a straight answer from an AI assistant is funny and a little charming, but it quickly turns repetitive and annoying. We prefer our AI to be helpful and compliant, like Lt. Commander Data from Star Trek. While modern-day London has 32 boroughs, Watch Dogs: Legion condenses that down to nine. The goal is to free each of them by interrupting Albion’s propaganda campaign, recruiting new members into DedSec with desirable skills, and infiltrate a series of bases spread around the city. Once you’ve completed a series of missions in a borough, it will start resisting Albion, which opens up opportunities to recruit more members, unlocks additional side missions, and usually grants access to new skills and technologies. The in-game version of London is huge, so getting around requires going on foot, using a fast-travel tunnel system, or commandeering a car. Fortunately, DedSec recruits don’t have to pull people from their vehicles to steal them, since roughly half of the cars we’ve encountered so far are driverless meandering vehicles ripe for the taking. They might be driverless taxis, but Albion agents don’t seem to mind when we hop in one and drive it manually. Combat focuses heavily on stealth. Much like Assassin’s Creed, we can take an enemy down from behind with a single button. Each character has their own signature takedown stylings that range anywhere from simple choke holds to vicious but quick tazering. All the takedown moves we used felt right for the personality of the character we were playing at the time. It’s satisfying to sneak up on every enemy in a base, or set traps that cause enemies to take themselves out, and sometimes their friends along with them.
