When my review key came through for Watch Dogs: Legion, I was reading the news that both Russia and Iran were allegedly meddling in the upcoming United States election. The announcement from some of America’s top national security officials was a stunning reminder of the power technology now holds over us all.
Watch Dogs has been at the forefront of video games exploring this topic, alongside privacy, freedom, corporate power and greed. They're all big themes, which developers of the first two games have tackled with a lot of success. But how do they fare when it comes to Legion?
Giving away more than the bare bones of the story in Legion would betray those who have worked so hard on perfecting it, but there are some things you need to know from the jump.
Set in a near-future version of London, where a devastating chain of attacks have left England’s capital at the mercy of privatisation and heavy military force, players will catch up with hacking collective DeadSec following their framing for the destruction.
It becomes clear very quickly that whilst the themes of Watch Dogs are similar to those we’ve experienced in the past, the focus here is on building a collective to stand up against those in positions of power, in pursuit of a brighter future.
Rather than being given a main character to control, you’ll be tasked with building DedSec from the ground up, recruiting members from the streets of London after picking your initial recruit from a list of around 25.
I went for a 50-something lesbian novelist from Ireland, who had an incredible data plan, using 6G for fast downloads. She also turned out to be an extremely nimble fighter.
Once you’ve taken to the streets, there are millions of unique characters, each with their own weapons, skills and abilities. You can recruit them to the cause because of these factors, or simply because you want to add their items of clothing to your collection.
Every single one of those characters come complete with a detailed bio, so you can make informed decisions about who you’re bringing on board. The woman working behind the bar at your initial safe house for example may not be a good choice; she’s got a bad case of the hiccups that alerts nearby enemies.
Of course, hacking is your main ability in Watch Dogs. It’s through this that you’re able to learn so much about everybody you come across, and also how you’ll be able to control the drones that litter the skies as well as your own mechanical creations, like the brilliant Spiderbots that you can use to infiltrate dangerous red zones.
Those areas can be accessed in a number of ways, but before you even step a foot inside them, you’ll want to scout the area for your entrance and exit points, as well as discovering how many enemies are guarding the objective.
This can be done by hacking security cameras and any drones within the area, allowing you to pick out the Captain of a certain group so you can make them your primary focus for elimination; if a Captain spots you, they can call for reinforcements and make your job a lot harder.
You’ll also want to choose your operative based on the type of area you’re going into. A construction worker would be great for somewhere currently being built for example, whilst a hacker is the perfect choice for a location with a lot of secured doors.
However you fancy breaching an area, changing your character can make the infiltration an entirely unique experience.
Individual London boroughs you explore may at first be wary of DeadSec after all of the propaganda pumped out by the government and authorities, but as you build a resistance, they’ll rise up against those who oppress them; namely Albion.
As the primary law enforcement agents in Legion, Albion are somebody you get to know very quickly. They’re a private company who will use whatever force necessary to take down those who go against the new status quo. To DeadSec, they are the enemy.
That’s without mentioning the group forming behind a mysterious, technological genius known as Zero Day; the real culprit behind the bombings across London.
It sounds like a complicated affair and that’s due to the passion that has quite clearly gone into making Legion such an astounding final product. Many will be wary going in, thinking the promises made by developers would never be capable of being lived up to. Thankfully, they’ve exceeded all expectations.
In a year that’s about to explode in terms of big game releases, Watch Dogs: Legion is a top tier contender for major awards. Everybody who worked on making it such an enjoyable experience, from its opening sequence right through to its climactic end, should give themselves a round of applause.
Watch Dogs: Legion is released on October 29th, 2020 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Stadia, with releases for the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S on November 10th, and for the PlayStation 5 on November 19th.
A code for the game on Xbox One was given to Female First in exchange for a fair and honest review.
MORE: FIFA 21's Career Mode has been elevated to the next level, but Ultimate Team is getting stale
Tagged in Ubisoft