Ubisoft’s hacking based sandbox Watchdogs Legion made a lot of promises to fans ahead of its release on the 29th October 2020. Promises such as an amazing setting that would depict a Post-Brexit, dystopian London, AI that would allow the player to play as literally any NPC in the entire game, an intriguing story of anarchy and rebellion. Plus, all the usual chaos and mischief that comes with an open-world sandbox. So you may be wondering, how many of these promises did they deliver on? Well, here is a quick review of Watchdogs: Legion.
Call it an Uprising
Let’s kick things off with the new intuitive and groundbreaking AI. Sadly, it is far from groundbreaking despite all of Ubisoft’s claims. Yes, you can technically play as any character but in practice, this system plays out like a much less impressive version of the nemesis system from Middle Earth: Shadow Of Mordor. The characters are all relatively similar, there is little want or reason to change your operative unless you die or get arrested. However, we did appreciate the abundance of accents on show to exhibit the multicultural nature of real-world London. It isn’t enough to redeem the feature but its a nice touch.
Poor Execution
Next up, the story. We have to give credit where credit is due, the plot is an intriguing one with moments of brilliance throughout. The villains are well written, your AI assistant Bagley is a great companion and some of the main missions are very well designed. However, as a whole, the missions are repetitive, the characters outside of those mentioned are bland and the pacing of the story is well off the mark. There is no urgency posed to the player, little encouragement to follow the main story and on too many occasions, it falls flat leaving you wondering why your even bothering at all.
London Calling
Without a doubt, the highlight of this game is the setting. It’s clear that a lot of effort has gone into understanding the layout of real world London, capturing each area’s charm and essence, relaying British culture for all to see and nailing the sarcastic and self-deprecating humour in the process. You can see this through all the fine detail poured into recreating the famous landmarks of London such as Camden Market, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square and many others. Ubisoft has been meticulous in this respect and for this reason, you can really place yourself in this Post-Brexit London without too much strain.
Fails To Innovate
The gameplay for this one is sadly no further forward than Watchdogs 2 in our opinion. The hacking is still fun but we have seen it all before. The gadgets are fun but underutilised and limited in scope. The cars still control like dodgems at a fair making travelling London feel manic, like an arcade game. Plus, as we mentioned, the missions are stale and repetitive. Don’t get us wrong though, the game is still fun for the most part, we just feel that it had the potential to be so much more.
The Verdict
Score: 7/10
Watchdogs: Legion is a game that made big claims and only really meets them in the loosest sense. Yes, you can play as anyone but its dull, repetitive and more of a novelty. Yes, you can hack everything and be a savant with tech but you could do that in the last outing too. It just feels like the developers set out to hit certain criteria and when they did, they didn’t feel the need to revise or improve on their work. There are spots of greatness here such as the setting, some characters, a handful of core missions and the dystopian London setting but overall, this one feels like a missed opportunity to be something incredible.
Watchdogs Legion is out now on Xbox One, PS4 and PC and Stadia.
