'Watch Dogs: Legion' review:

Note: This review covers the single-player story mode only because Ubisoft had not enabled online play.

Previous Watch Dogs games had the same problem as many sandbox games with a story beyond “first be a goat and then, maybe, do these missions”: plot and mechanics are completely separated. Games that tell a revenge story or have multiple, well-developed secondary characters but let the player drive from A to B and run over a dozen innocent old ladies crossing the street are hard to take seriously.

‘Mad Max’ is justified because it’s the apocalypse, ‘Assassin’s Creed’ sometimes takes place in times when human life had little value, ‘Just Cause’ or the latest ‘Saint’s Row’ is a caricature, but in the first ‘Watch Dogs’, despite its obvious comedy (or not: in these times, taking a selfie in front of a terrorist attack is not very clear if it is parody or hyperrealism), there was this dissocia As part of an illegal group that wants to fix the world, if you have to kill 70 people to find an object in an abandoned factory, that’s fine.

As we say, it’s an inherent feature of the game and must be taken as such: a more or less credible story and mechanics without it are perfectly compatible (and frankly, ‘The Last of Us 2’s genocide seems more serious and discordant to us). ‘Watch Dogs: Legion’ attempts to explain this distribution of responsibility, not justify it. In ‘Legion’, anyone can join DedSec, so some lunatics are expected.

This mechanic, which underpins UbiSoft’s new game, removes all realism: it makes no sense that the player can discuss a top-secret operation in a hyper-surveilled city with any passerby. If given a favor, this newcomer joins the organization’s core. But this lack of plausibility justifies everything else: ‘Far Cry’ has more “anything goes” nonsense than the first ‘Watch Dogs’, which took too seriously a proposal that demanded more mambo.

This mechanic also helps ‘Watch Dogs: Legion’ deliver its title-stated message. The biblical demon said, “My name is Legion because there are a lot of us,” which fits this Anonymous lookalike’s headless, multiple, and schizophrenic nature, where a middle-aged construction worker, internet comedian, secret agent, and retired athlete can coexist. Without the silly approach, the game’s message is serious: decentralize the system to end it if its strength comes from it.

Beyond aesthetic or plot issues, these protagonist personality changes encourage mission flexibility. This may make the first part of the game too easy (you can shoot your way through any place with a powerful DedSec member), but it forces the player to think. To practice reconnoitering buildings with hackable drones to develop a strategy.

Breaking into buildings stealthily is more fun, but Albion or the Kelley clan’s firepower is superior to yours (they are the game’s main villains, on either side of the law before the fourth force of discord, the terrorists who start the plot). Since stealth will be your best friend, the mechanics are designed to enhance it (one of the first gadgets provides temporary invisibility) and distract or incapacitate enemies from afar.

The many side missions, perfect for exploring this recognizable near-future London, are stealth-heavy, requiring infiltration for data or ad hacking and analysis of the vast, beautifully designed buildings. Watch Dogs: Legion’s London feels alive because any passerby is recruitable and its buildings are more than cardboard. The many side missions—including illegal fistfights, delivery missions, and enemy icon disabling—help.

The effort to recreate a bright and lively London yields interesting setting results, as we learned in our meeting with the game’s developers. All the game’s possibilities, inherited or improved from previous installments (hacking everything, basically), are used to create a title that raises the stakes slightly but feels much more ambitious.

Amazingly, that applies to problems too. You’ll only use a small portion of its possibilities: I’ve rarely needed to remotely control other people’s cars (improvisedly). Another issue is the enemy AI’s tendency to forget what they’re doing, which is surprising at this point. The lock-picking puzzles haven’t changed much since the last installment, so they can be tedious.

‘Watch Dogs: Legion’ review:

Note: This review covers the single-player story mode only because Ubisoft had not enabled online play.

By nr39r

Related Post

Five years after its disastrous rebrand

Everyone loves Henry Cavill as James Bond

This impressive open source model can

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You Missed

Five years after its disastrous rebrand

Everyone loves Henry Cavill as James Bond

‘Watch Dogs: Legion’ review:

US: Secret Service Planning Increased Inauguration Security