We were invited by Ubisoft for a long four hour rehearsal in the streets of London's Watch Dogs: Legion and today we can tell you our impressions on the new chapter of the saga of Watch Dogs which changes its formula in favor of a more original and free path.
This 2020 has certainly changed the habits of many people and even the videogame sector has undergone some mutations, in fact this preview was done remotely connecting to a PC playing the title in 1080p with active ray tracing effects. Let's not delay, it's time to talk to you about what we were able to discover in this preview of Watch Dogs: Legion.
Join the DedSec
In our Watch Dogs: Legion test we had the opportunity to freely explore a large part of the city of London and we got to try not only the free-roaming activities but also several missions from the main campaign. The tone of the narrative is certainly closer to the first chapter than the second, catapulting the player into a series of increasingly important and peculiar events, which will lead to a social confrontation between an unscrupulous military faction called Albion and us, part of the resistance formed by DedSec.
One of the aspects that has intrigued us most since its first announcement is the ability to play as any NPC in Watch Dogs: Legion. How deep is this mechanic? How many effective citizens can we recruit in DedSec? Are they all original NPCs or can we come across copies of the same person? Well, Ubisoft has succeeded in this feat: every single London citizen can be recruited into DedSec and controlled by the player. We wanted to investigate this aspect a lot, so we set out to discover the profiles of all the people within reach of smartphones on our journey and in four hours of testing we could not find a person who had traits already seen elsewhere.
However, some features of this game function must be outlined. The game itself will occasionally offer us "special" individuals who have unique abilities and reserved accesses due to their job, ergo, there are certainly characters more interesting than others, some more suited to stealth rather than hacking or mere hand-to-hand combatbut nothing will stop the player from taking even the quietest citizen of London and filling him with the right arsenal to infiltrate everywhere.
For example, in our rehearsal we started with a celebrity who could use attention-grabbing skills as a cover in case the police were on our trail and while we were scouring the streets of London we met Ian Dalgliesh, a secret agent. In these cases, to recruit these "special" categories you will first need to give them a hand and carry out some tasks, once completed we can shake hands with the new team member and decide to take control immediately or at a later time. We also appreciated the implementation of a short cutscene when we decide to change the player character, a small detail that creates cohesion in the gameplay as a whole, highlighting how DedSec is now a group of people who really believe in one goal: to take back London.
The liveliest London ever
Taking back London will not be an easy task, each district (outlined as in reality) will be liberated, thus trying to gain the consent of the public opinion; on this front Watch Dogs: Legion is inspired by mechanics already seen in other titles but manages to differentiate itself with a great strength of recent Ubisoft productions: the game map.
London has been beautifully and meticulously recreated. Every single street manages to convey that feeling of loyalty that allows the player to be intrigued by every single aspect of the city. The continuous day-night cycle and variable atmospheric conditions allow us to observe with interest the work carried out in the reconstruction of London that shines and reflects above all thanks to the implementation of Ray Tracing.
We had the pleasant surprise of trying the title on PC with Ray Tracing activated and were impressed by the general lighting and reflections on the asphalt that were reproduced during the typical rainy days. The density of cars and citizens that can be encountered are also well proportioned according to the areas of the capital of the United Kingdom. By opening the game map it will be possible to move quickly between the stations of the famous London underground and quickly reach the desired destination. In addition to this, the icons for the so-called “Tech points” are indicated, that is, a system that will allow the player to upgrade their gadgets or unlock new tools.
As previously mentioned, every neighborhood in London is under the hegemony of Albion, the security company that now controls the entire city. Each district has different activities dedicated to DedSec propaganda and once you have completed all of them you can access a "liberation mission". In our test we managed to regain control of the Westminster borough by climbing Big Ben with our trusty spider-bot.
The freedom of gameplay
One of the aspects that convinced us most in this Watch Dogs: Legion test was certainly the freedom of play that is offered to the player in this new chapter. We still don't know how the actual initial moment of freedom will be grafted after the prologue but one thing is certain: you will hardly get bored in London.
Unlike the Chicago of the first chapter and the colorful San Francisco of the second episode, the city is as protagonist as the player himself and is always full of activities to do, never mandatory (if not the main campaign of course), but always pleasant to complete. Exploring an alley could allow us to discover a citizen unjustly arrested, so we will be able to save him from the clutches of the Albion by sending the enemy to the ground with gadgets or punches.
The combat in Watch Dogs: Legion is certainly colorful and we will have the opportunity to choose whether to face an enemy head-on or use cunning and move him away from our target or send him to the ground with the use of gadgets. As for hand-to-hand combat, Ubisoft tries to find a balance with the much-used freeflow system, it works but there is a slight stiffness in the animations.
The use of gadgets is certainly the funniest aspect of Watch Dogs: Legion's gameplay: combined with hacking it has allowed us to vary our infiltrations into the structures manned by the Albion. Each member of the DedSec can have two weapons which can be lethal and not and a gadget, while some characters, depending on their uses, have some extra skills such as the secret agent who can temporarily block the weapons of the enemies with his special watch or call his special car. Driving in Watch Dogs: Legion has definitely been improved compared to previous chapters, as well as vehicle damage are now more realistic and clearly visible on the bodywork.
We came out satisfied with this preview. A title that manages to find its identity with the implementation of unique and well-crafted gameplay mechanics. A London that we could define as the best ever reproduced in a video game, underlining Ubisoft's ability to create great game worlds, alive and detailed. A solid technical sector that will make use of the Ray Tracing effects on PC and Next-Gen with free upgrade for those who buy the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions allows Watch Dogs: Legion to be an excellent trailblazer for the new generation. Net of some flaws of artificial intelligence, Watch Dogs: Legion has all the premises to be, perhaps, the best chapter of the saga, but for the final judgment we will have to wait until October 29th. Stay on these pages to find out more about Watch Dogs: Legion's post-brexit London.
► Watch Dogs Legion is a Shooter-Adventure type game developed and published by Ubisoft for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Google Stadia, the video game was released on 29/10/2020
Version for PlayStation 5 from 12/11/2020
Version for Xbox Series X from 10/11/2020
Watch Dogs Legion is a beautiful game that cannot be missing from your collection: we have decided to evaluate it with a 85%, if you are interested in learning more you can read the Watch Dogs Legion Review
