Dystopias have something that dazzles us almost immediately . They show us a familiar, close and familiar environment in which we can feel identified while introducing new elements that substantially modify it and allow us to peek into our worst fears or the most catastrophic versions of our future. Watch Dogs Legion , the third installment of the popular saga developed by Ubisoft, has a heart, a core, purely Orwellian and dystopian and uses it to offer an interesting experience and that works well in the novelties but without being as round as might.
Welcome to the world of tomorrow
WD Legion takes us to a futuristic London. We are not talking about that kind of future in which cars fly, robots serve us food and laser weapons are the order of the day . It is a near future with a more advanced technology than what we have in 2020 and that in many cases we may see in the real world within not long time. I think this was the first great success of the title : its location both geographical and temporal. We left the United States to walk the streets of a city as iconic and recognizable as London, with all that this great city has to offer and how changeable it is depending on what area you are in. As for the choice of this near future, things flow from the first moment by allowing us to enjoy a great recreation of London with changes that surprise and amuse while remaining credible.
We started the game as an agent of DedSec, the hacking organization that fights for justice and good and that we already met in previous installments. The first mission dazzles thanks to its very clear references to the world of espionage level 007 but this only serves as an introduction and tutorial. In less than an hour of play, DedSec will be accused of a terrible terrorist attack and hunted to near annihilation. Meanwhile, a private army of a clearly profascist and dictatorial nature will assume the security of the city while the criminal gangs take control of everything that happens in the streets. A bleak outlook, right? Well, there is the grace. The main mission of the player will not be to complete the story and discover who is responsible for the attack, but to rebuild the DedSec resistance .
The ‘Play As Anyone’ and the ‘Permadeath’, the great successes
Since its official announcement at E3, a little while ago, Watch Dogs Legion promised an unprecedented and innovative game system by which we could handle any NPC we meet on the street or in missions and, in addition, a mode would be incorporated permanent death for which any of our recruits would disappear forever if he falls in combat or dies for whatever reason.
Ubisoft has delivered on its promise. Play As Anyone was a very ambitious project in which each character had to feel different not only because of their appearance or their story, but also because of their abilities and their performance on a mission. The developer team designed an AI that randomly generated these characters based on ethnicity trends, economic status, jobs, styles, neighborhoods, etc. And the truth is that it makes WD Legion London feel as diverse as the real one. Of course, one can do the missions with the character that he wants and, if he is skilled enough, he will complete them without problem but in my game I decided to try to be selective with my agents and change them according to the needs of each moment or my needs. preferences regarding the style of play. The differences are there and those seconds less that a hacker takes to download information or the extra resistance in hand-to-hand combat of a professional boxer can be decisive. The Play As Anyone offers a lot of tools and freedom to the player.
To this must be added how gratifying it is to see how your small army, your resistance , grows and strengthens with each new member. Since Londoners believe DedSec was responsible for the bombs, almost everyone will be against you and in order to recruit them you will have to earn their trust first. Recruitment missions are generally bland and somewhat repetitive, but they are worth it when the reward is a highly specialized agent or an ordinary person with some interesting skill. The variety of jobs, skills and equipment of potential recruits is quite wide and one ends up analyzing everyone who crosses the street and saving them as if they were the purchases they are shuffling for Christmas.
As for the Permadeath , there is little to say. The rules are clear: if you are dead, you are dead and the fallen agent is gone forever . The implementation of this new game mechanic came to the point with Play As Anyone , because it forces the player to continue renewing their team and filling available vacancies, as well as because it makes you worry a minimum about the status of your agents and be more cautious about the time to face a mission. It is true that you do not empathize or identify enough with the members of your team to feel sorry for their death, but it does cause you something like anger or frustration.
Clarify that this mode is optional and can be deactivated at any time, although once it is done, it cannot be activated again in the same game.
Hack, shoot, drive
Let’s now go through the general mechanics of Watch Dogs Legion , which differ little from those of the previous games .
With all the map available from the first moment and a lot of icons to investigate and solve , exploration becomes a basic pillar of the title but it does so within an urban environment in which it will be rare that we travel long distances without encountering something or someone interesting. The missions will be activated arriving at the place indicated on the map and we can decide when and how to do them, as well as when to leave them halfway.
As a good hacking game that it is, Watch Dogs Legion focuses its challenges and missions on downloading data, technological sabotage and obtaining information on top-secret servers . We will always have at our disposal the equipment and gadgets that we have bought (pay attention to the spy robot) and the devices that are in the place of turn. While it is true that the missions start to be relatively predictable with a few hours of play (infiltrate here, use the cameras there, hack this, download the other, hit a couple of shots or knock out the guards and flee without a trace) , the Play As Anyone compensates or at least softens the sensation of repetition depending on which agent we are using and how many laps we want to give. All missions can be completed in different ways (using only technology, with a stealth infiltration or kick in the door and shotgun in hand) and it is very likely that that impregnable fortress in which you are always caught has a ventilation shaft to sneak through. a spider robot or a drone and get what you want without even having to enter the perimeter.
In this aspect, as in other details, there is a lack of an attempt to innovate and get out of the already known formula that, without being an insurmountable problem, does become an important ‘but’.
System failures
The theme of originality and variety in missions is not the only little problem I have encountered in Watch Dogs Legion . Beyond the bugs and glitches typical of these games (to be expected at this point when it comes to a new release) and the odd odd face or performance drop in the game, there are three things that particularly caught my attention and that I want highlight.
In the first place, and unfortunately, I have confirmed one of the doubts that assailed me when I started researching this game: the absence of more complex and defined characters (let’s call them ‘main’) means that you do not get to introduce yourself to 100% in the game . You can identify with the DedSec cause, you will end up having a favorite and you will be sorry when a member of your team dies but you will not get to know them or care . The background of each character and the traits that make it special are diluted in the middle of the crowd, thus making it impossible for the player to get to know their characters and feel them as their own. This was one of the possible cons of an idea like Play As Anyone and, at least in my case, it has been noticed. Of course, it is the first time that we have come across such a system and it is expected that things will improve and improve over time.
The second problem comes from the hand (rather the steering wheel) of driving . I still remember how hard it was to drive in the first Watch Dogs and how pleased I was to see that WD Legion had vastly improved that aspect. Without a doubt, the vehicles handle well and the driving is quite pleasant and correct. But, because it was clear there was a ‘but’, I still don’t feel like real driving. Cars seem weightless or 100% obey the laws of physics that we know and that govern our world. The railings, canopies and lampposts detach from the ground as soon as we have accelerated a bit and the feeling that causes me to crash into a bus with a jeep-type car is the same as the one that causes me to do it with a delivery motorbike and it should not be like that …
Watch Dogs is not a game that focuses on driving (although from time to time there is a chase) but rather vehicles are simple means of transport with which to move around a fairly wide world . Its lesser prominence may be the cause that it is an aspect that has been somewhat neglected.
Lastly, and to get a bit bloody, let’s talk about the AI of the NPCs , both civilians and enemies. Simply put, NPCs are pretty stupid and innocent. Civilians must practice abstraction because you have to mess it up very brown to really react and interact with the player and the enemies obtained their villain card in the same place as the stormtroopers (although it is true that they have good aim). It is very strange to pass by some agents of this private army, run over an innocent pedestrian and they do not even ask you to get out of the vehicle. The same thing happens when they finally decide to arrest you and persecute you. If you manage to lose sight of you for a few seconds or hide behind some wall or bush, they will notify the central that they have lost you and that they cancel the search. I do not know how much they pay these virtual soldiers, but it is clear that they are not very motivated with their work .
Conclusion: We are the resistance
Like the society it tries to heal, Watch Dogs Legion is not perfect. Drag deficiencies from previous installments and add a few new ones that, hopefully, will be polished over time until they disappear. Fans of the franchise who have enjoyed the previous installments will find a familiar and new experience at the same time, preserving the traits that defined the Watch Dogs brand and growing with a style different from what we have already seen and new functions that, even being only the first steps, they promise a lot.
Those who are not so close to the saga, will see in Watch Dogs Legion a title that despite its flaws works both in form and in substance . The title is entertaining and very functional as a whole, thus being an interesting experience and to value if only to discover Play As Anyone and explore this version of London in which Big Brother is more present than ever.
Don’t forget: we are all the resistance!
