I'll preface this by saying I think Ubisoft's games often get an underserved bad rap, they can make some quality shit, like this game's predecessor, Watch Dogs 2, which is one of the most well-crafted sandboxes I've ever set foot in.
The main hook of watch dogs legion is the ability to recruit anyone off the street into your rebellion crew, in essence, being able to play as "anyone". Pre-release, I was quite hyped for this release, this sort of gimmick seemed like a perfect fit for watch dogs and the gameplay possibilities could've been endless.
As it turns out, I think the mechanic not only doesn't bring many strengths to the table, it also really hurts the experience as a whole significantly. The people on the streets have a daily routine before they're recruited, after that they're just another lifeless robot with zero personality whatsoever. The story suffers because whichever operative you choose will speak the exact same lines any cutscenes. Even in gameplay different characters don't vary enough. Often times a rando on the street and a trained hitman will have the exact same capability with guns. But at the exact same time, no character will have the full arsenal of tools, either. The story suffers because the lack of a fixed character, and often times it's really jarring to see ultra serious story beats take place, only to transition to your goofy crew of nutjobs that are so poorly voice acted that's it's funny. WD1 or 2 didn't have a story to right home about, but at least you're playing as somebody. In Legion, despite what the back of the box says, in reality, you're playing as nobody. Some things that I may have expected to take advantage of the system (like taking multiple operatives to single objective and have them tackle it from different angles) aren't there. The recruitment missions get quite cumbersome fast, as well.
You know, the fact that they sorta screwed up with the "recruit anyone" system isn't as surprising as this next point, since that was a really risky endeavor (and one that I commend Ubisoft for, even if it feel flat on it's face).
What's worse is, for some reason, the hacking in this game feels inexplicably stripped back from Watch Dogs 2. I have no idea what Ubisoft were thinking here, the so-called masters of copy and paste design couldn't carry those mechanics over? Just a few things that I noticed missing we're traffic light hacks, blackouts, blowing up steam pipes, and calling the cops or gangs on random people on the street. This might seem like pointless stuff to be complaining about, but so much of what made Watch Dogs 2 so unique for me was it's systems driven emergent gameplay in it's open world, and how far you can take it with your creativity. That game also a slick UI and presentation with it's phone integration, all replaced in Legion by generic menus. Previously present interiors, such as for clothing shops are now missing. You don't really feel a meaningful sense of progression due to recruiting mechanic, you only earn gadgets upgrades, and no upgrades for the actual character.
I want to touch on a couple positives here, I think the London open-world is very well done. And I enjoyed just driving and checking out all the famous landmarks in the game. Infiltrating buildings is still quite fun and you still have a good number of options at your disposal (despite not being as extensive as the WD2).
As a whole though, the game doesn't know what it's what's to be. The first game was a grimdark revenge tale, and a surprisingly good third person shooter with the hacking as set dressing. The second game was about light hearted group of hackers taking down an evil megacorp, with the hacking taking center stage in the experience.
Legion sorta takes a bit a both and is set in a near future, almost Cyberpunk-ish London, and is about building a crew that can take down authoritarian regime that has an iron grip on the city. but it's gunplay isn't as a good as the first, hacking is stripped back from the second game, and has zero consistency with it's tone and narrative. It's like the multiple teams in charge of different aspects of this game barely communicated during production, and as a result we got this frankenstein mess of a game in our hands.
Thoughts?
The main hook of watch dogs legion is the ability to recruit anyone off the street into your rebellion crew, in essence, being able to play as "anyone". Pre-release, I was quite hyped for this release, this sort of gimmick seemed like a perfect fit for watch dogs and the gameplay possibilities could've been endless.
As it turns out, I think the mechanic not only doesn't bring many strengths to the table, it also really hurts the experience as a whole significantly. The people on the streets have a daily routine before they're recruited, after that they're just another lifeless robot with zero personality whatsoever. The story suffers because whichever operative you choose will speak the exact same lines any cutscenes. Even in gameplay different characters don't vary enough. Often times a rando on the street and a trained hitman will have the exact same capability with guns. But at the exact same time, no character will have the full arsenal of tools, either. The story suffers because the lack of a fixed character, and often times it's really jarring to see ultra serious story beats take place, only to transition to your goofy crew of nutjobs that are so poorly voice acted that's it's funny. WD1 or 2 didn't have a story to right home about, but at least you're playing as somebody. In Legion, despite what the back of the box says, in reality, you're playing as nobody. Some things that I may have expected to take advantage of the system (like taking multiple operatives to single objective and have them tackle it from different angles) aren't there. The recruitment missions get quite cumbersome fast, as well.
You know, the fact that they sorta screwed up with the "recruit anyone" system isn't as surprising as this next point, since that was a really risky endeavor (and one that I commend Ubisoft for, even if it feel flat on it's face).
What's worse is, for some reason, the hacking in this game feels inexplicably stripped back from Watch Dogs 2. I have no idea what Ubisoft were thinking here, the so-called masters of copy and paste design couldn't carry those mechanics over? Just a few things that I noticed missing we're traffic light hacks, blackouts, blowing up steam pipes, and calling the cops or gangs on random people on the street. This might seem like pointless stuff to be complaining about, but so much of what made Watch Dogs 2 so unique for me was it's systems driven emergent gameplay in it's open world, and how far you can take it with your creativity. That game also a slick UI and presentation with it's phone integration, all replaced in Legion by generic menus. Previously present interiors, such as for clothing shops are now missing. You don't really feel a meaningful sense of progression due to recruiting mechanic, you only earn gadgets upgrades, and no upgrades for the actual character.
I want to touch on a couple positives here, I think the London open-world is very well done. And I enjoyed just driving and checking out all the famous landmarks in the game. Infiltrating buildings is still quite fun and you still have a good number of options at your disposal (despite not being as extensive as the WD2).
As a whole though, the game doesn't know what it's what's to be. The first game was a grimdark revenge tale, and a surprisingly good third person shooter with the hacking as set dressing. The second game was about light hearted group of hackers taking down an evil megacorp, with the hacking taking center stage in the experience.
Legion sorta takes a bit a both and is set in a near future, almost Cyberpunk-ish London, and is about building a crew that can take down authoritarian regime that has an iron grip on the city. but it's gunplay isn't as a good as the first, hacking is stripped back from the second game, and has zero consistency with it's tone and narrative. It's like the multiple teams in charge of different aspects of this game barely communicated during production, and as a result we got this frankenstein mess of a game in our hands.
Thoughts?
