Watch Dogs: Legion: Gamescom 2019 – Play as Anyone Explained

[Crossing Eden]

A good breakdown video comprised entirely of new footage. The video goes over the various perks a character may have:

Such as this alcoholic man who gets a 50% damage resistance boost after drinking:

Or this lawyer who reduces prison time for characters who have been arrested:

And in true Clint Hocking fashion, some characters can even die randomly, like this old man.

After recruitment, you can also determine that character's class and playstyle, like the two previous games there are many skills to unlock:

It goes over other features of the game, such as the part where police will arrest instead of killing you depending on if you're wielding a lethal weapon when committing crimes or if you surrender when downed. That character will be jailed and unusable for a period of time.


Full costume customization returns from WD2 for ANY character:

 

[Mariolee]

One of my most anticipated games, and all these character perks and drawbacks (random dying lol) make me even more excited.

 

[Fat4all]

thinking back to WD1, they've probably been thinking about doing sommit like this ever since they had the randomly generated profiles for people you would scan on the streets

 

[Prolepro]

Never played a Watch Dogs (2 seemed interesting) but this looks dope.

 

[TripaSeca]

This game looks really sick

 

[Varixio]

I can't wait for this, it's going to be awesome.

 

[Tribal24]

this is the most exciting title of 2020 for me, its exactly how i thought the next evolution of watchdogs should be

 

[travisbickle]

Such as this alcoholic man who gets a 50% damage resistance boost after drinking:

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So this won't get a physical release in .. Australia was it?

 

[Fat4all]

Never played a Watch Dogs (2 seemed interesting) but this looks dope.

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2 is where i feel they got the gameplay down pretty well, and they made the story and side stories a lot more fun

 

[ColonialRaptor]

This is insanely ambitious. Looks like Ubisoft's investment in Neural net programming for their engines is really paying off because there is no way this is done by hand, they will have defined thousands of different possible origin story parts which the neural net system puts together into different people.

So ambitious and I really hope they've pulled it off in a fun way.

 

[PROh1bited]

Oh shit, Gunkata.

My hype has gone up tenfold.

 

[TheMadTitan]

Step 1: Get a lawyer
Step 2: Turn everyone else into Sam Fisher and Solid Snake


Everyone is going to be a melee gun kata stealth assassin. I'm in for the CQC.

 

[Gamer @ Heart]

I'm so excited that I was bummed when it came out ghost recon was their q3 game and not this as people expected.

Im super curious how many npc voices they had to record for the game to account for all the potential squad members. It all seems so much more manageable now that i understand not everyone is literally playable that you can recruit and can be support like the lawyer in the trailer

 

[dragonflys545]

Not feeling the whole play as anyone mechanics.

 

[Deleted member 8468]

I'm definitely going to try and play as the old man as my main. Every mission is a roll of the dice!

 

[Effect]

I've been really confused as to how this whole character swapping was going to work or why even go in this direction. This makes a LOT more sense now. I'm not sure if I liked the expendable nature of the team mates though. This basically means any interaction with them is going to be very limited or very repetitive if you go through characters quickly and start seeing the templates that are most certainly going to be there.

 

[Deleted member 11976]

This is insanely ambitious. Looks like Ubisoft's investment in Neural net programming for their engines is really paying off because there is no way this is done by hand, they will have defined thousands of different possible origin story parts which the neural net system puts together into different people.

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GDC next year (or the year after) will probably be fun.

 

[Prolepro]

2 is where i feel they got the gameplay down pretty well, and they made the story and side stories a lot more fun

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I'll prob get around to it if I can get it around $20 before 3.

 

[Katarn343]

I'm so excited that I was bummed when it came out ghost recon was their q3 game and not this as people expected.

I wonder how many npc voices they had to record for recorded for the game to account for all the potential squad members. It all seems so much more manageable now that i understand not everyone is literally playable that you can recruit and can be support like the lawyer in the trailer

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They've actually explained this and is quite impressive.

So there are 20 character archetypes (old person, edgy, naive, crazy, etc.) Then, each archetype has its male/female counterpart. So there are 20 versions of the script, since your characters participate in the story, and 40 unique voices because there needs to be a male and a female for each archetype. From those 40 unique voices, Ubisoft is using new "voice modulation tech" that makes voices sound completely different, yet real, even if they're portrayed by the same person. Sounds really ambitious.

It all seems so much more manageable now that i understand not everyone is literally playable that you can recruit and can be support like the lawyer in the trailer

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I don't know if I misunderstood you, but everyone can be recruited. Even random police officers and Albion mercenaries. Support characters, like the lawyer, can pick up a gun and kill people, appear in cutscenes or even kill their families if you take control of them and decide to do such.

 

[Blackleg-sanji1]

Wd2 was insanely fun my goty 2016..this is looking to be damn good as well can't wait March is so stacked where will I find the time

 

[Deleted member 4372]

- explosions look fucking sick. LOVE their aesthetic
- graphics in general are very good
- vehicle destruction looks very satisfying
- I dig that it's not political

 

[yap]

motherfucking gunkata in this ubisoft game

 

[Gamer @ Heart]

They've actually explained this and is quite impressive.

So there are 20 character archetypes (old person, edgy, naive, crazy, etc.) Then, each archetype has its male/female counterpart. So there are 20 versions of the script, since your characters participate in the story, and 40 unique voices because there needs to be a male and a female for each archetype. From those 40 unique voices, Ubisoft is using new "voice modulation tech" that makes voices sound completely different, yet real, even if they're portrayed by the same person. Sounds really ambitious.

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Awesome. Thank you for the info.

 

[Crossing Eden]

This is insanely ambitious. Looks like Ubisoft's investment in Neural net programming for their engines is really paying off because there is no way this is done by hand, they will have defined thousands of different possible origin story parts which the neural net system puts together into different people.

So ambitious and I really hope they've pulled it off in a fun way.

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Here's a really good breakdown of how they achieved this.

And yea, it is truly ambitious, as there are twenty versions of the game's script.

I don't just mean people saying the same lines. We're talking different characters, different personas, different voices, different acting."

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It all seems so much more manageable now that i understand not everyone is literally playable that you can recruit and can be support like the lawyer in the trailer

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You misunderstood, literally everyone is playable. So if you want to make that lawyer eave her office, put on a mask and casual outfit with a silenced pistol coupled with some gunkata, you can do that.

 

[ChippyTurtle]

Looks great. Cant wait to play it.

 

[Baccus]

Insane. Ubisoft is insane.

 

[SDBurton]

This looks soooo good, and gunkata too? Sick.

 

[M. Wallace]

This will be better than everyone is expecting.

 

[Deleted member 56580]

This will be better than everyone is expecting.

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Watch Dogs 2 got under looked I feel like, it was already amazing

 

[Crossing Eden]

Also something to note, is that development apparently started as far back as 2015. They were already doing the usual research trips about the setting before Watch Dogs 2 even released. So by the time this game is released it'll have been in development for five years.

 

[Viceratops]

The customization was probably my favorite part of Watch Dogs 2. I'm glad that's returning for Legion. That was my only fear. I'm all in now.

 

[King Alamat]

Here's a really good breakdown of how they achieved this.

And yea, it is truly ambitious, as there are twenty versions of the game's script.




You misunderstood, literally everyone is playable. So if you want to make that lawyer eave her office, put on a mask and casual outfit with a silenced pistol coupled with some gunkata, you can do that.

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Now I'm picturing Ms. Attorney at Large walking scot-free outta the same Albion station she was caught raiding.

 

[oggob]

So this won't get a physical release in .. Australia was it?

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That... could possibly happen... but not just physical, but refused classification and ultimately not legal for sale...

Drinking in games, normally the controls because unresponsive/over-responsive and/or the screen becomes blurry, so that is a clear impairment. So getting a buff, with possibly no negative side effects?

EDIT - Or... it's already been rated! AU Classification Website - So, depending on what Ubisoft advised in their description of the game, they could review the classification down the line.

 

[piratepwnsninja]

The VO budget for this game has to be the most insane thing ever. I can't even fathom the scope.

 

[Bizzquik]

Looks really interesting.

My problem with the second game, though, is that they cut out a lot of the side activities from WD1 (poker, chess puzzles, drinking game, cup shuffle, all the digital trips, etc). I wonder if that will happen here, as well.

 

[Crossing Eden]

Now I'm picturing Ms. Attorney at Large walking scot-free outta the same Albion station she was caught raiding.

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TFW you use the profiling system to figure out the daily schedule of the officer who arrested you just so you can get him back with an invisible suplex.

 

[Vex]

Game is now on my radar for full customization and grannies.

thinking back to WD1, they've probably been thinking about doing sommit like this ever since they had the randomly generated profiles for people you would scan on the streets

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Everytime you say "sommit" loik that I start cracking up.

 

[Fat4all]

TFW you use the profiling system to figure out the daily schedule of the officer who arrested you just so you can get him back with an invisible suplex.

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look at that suplex, goooood shit

 

[True Prophecy]

Damn this game is looking cool. Loved WD1 and 2 so really excited for this change up.

 

[Tmespe]

- explosions look fucking sick. LOVE their aesthetic
- graphics in general are very good
- vehicle destruction looks very satisfying
- I dig that it's not political

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Yeah, UK post brexit with a dystopian surveillance state is totally not political.

 

[Stiler]

Reminds me of how State of Decay worked, I wouldn't be surprised if that's where they got the idea from, especially since it too has permadeath and such for ones that die.

However unlike that these all seem to have their own backstory, etc that you help them with, which seems fucking nuts in terms of development.

I'm gonna make my entire team out of all the random homeless people, from rags to riches or perhaps a team full of punks, hopefully there's enough of them in game, would seem quite fitting.

 

[Militaratus]

Gunkata = Stadia PreOrder Confirmed!

 

[Haze]

This game looks pretty sweet.

 

[dex3108]

The VO budget for this game has to be the most insane thing ever. I can't even fathom the scope.

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Nope, they used like 20 voice actors and modulation to achieve variety.

I still think that game will get boring after a while and without strong story and characters it will end up being just another mindless sandbox.

 

[Static]

The sheer number of avatars available for recruitment and the detail available for each gives me the impression that none of this can avoid being that shallow. What they present is impressive and exciting, but I'm reminded of Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War. Some people seemed really enthused by that system. You had the dudes at Giant Bomb reacting to the first game with the sentiment that "They're going to put the Nemesis system in everything." To me though it never seemed much better developed than the generations of "characters" in a 4X, who are really just collections of traits stuck together haphazardly. I don't see how this system or any system like it could be much different. Short of machine learning procedurally generating content at an intimidating level of believability, I think that games are going to continue to rely on bespoke content, including bespoke characters, to produce genuinely interesting content that doesn't rely on the presence of other humans. I know that a lot of people love emergent gameplay and this does seem like a really well realized version of emergent gameplay... but it seems like a thin fucking substitute for actually hand crafted, entirely deliberate shit.

They say that each character has a backstory and I'm like... Yeah. Sure. I guess. And I'll bet they're each well developed and interesting and well supported with connected characters and good voice acting and cutscenes. I'll believe it when I see it.

I'm going to stop being a spoilsport now. Because in spite of what I think this system can't do, I think what it probably can do is still pretty stupid impressive and cool. I just am super skeptical of the way they frame it.

Gunkata dude looks cool af. John Wick simulator let's fuckin go.

Spoiler

If only I believed that Ubisoft was going to do firearms really well in a Watch Dogs game outside of "Awesome Button" type gameplay.

 

[sca]

Watchdogs 1 was alright, I mainly played for the story since there wasn't much to do in the open world. I'm having a lot of fun with the second, so I'm looking forward to Legion

 

[piratepwnsninja]

Nope, they used like 20 voice actors and modulation to achieve variety.

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Sure, and modulation is a great way to get variety, but the banks of lines that they have to have for each VA are probably very sizable. Let's just say I've become intimately familiar with VO line counts as of late, and without carrying the scope of an entire open world game with multiple points of potential interaction, it's still large.

 

[ezekial45]

- explosions look fucking sick. LOVE their aesthetic
- graphics in general are very good
- vehicle destruction looks very satisfying
- I dig that it's not political

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It's set in post-Brexit UK with paramilitary forces in control utilizing incredibly advanced surveillance technology to keep tabs on everyone. You are playing as citizens rising up against an authoritarian regime in the UK.

This game is political.

 

[dex3108]

Sure, and modulation is a great way to get variety, but the banks of lines that they have to have for each VA are probably very sizable. Let's just say I've become intimately familiar with VO line counts as of late, and without carrying the scope of an entire open world game with multiple points of potential interaction, it's still large.

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It is still big project for sure. But I think that Rockstar spent more money on VO for RDR2 for example.

 

[SageShinigami]

- explosions look fucking sick. LOVE their aesthetic
- graphics in general are very good
- vehicle destruction looks very satisfying
- I dig that it's not political

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It's literally referencing Brexit. WTF.