There's Ambitious and Then There Is Watch Dogs: Legion

By: Ryan Ramakrishnan

When it comes to innovating in the modern age of gaming, developers and publishers really have to push to stand out. Once upon a time, tropes like choices that actually matter, a focus on storytelling and narrative execution and dynamic open worlds to explore were all new and unheard of. Today, as we near the next generation of consoles, few titles really attempt unheard of ideas and good ones at that.

While Ubisoft has certainly missed the mark on plenty of their games through questionable decision making over the last several years, I am on the side of believers in the French publisher. Ubisoft is responsible for some of my favorite games of the current and previous generation. Few have left me with such fond memories as 2016’s “Watch Dogs 2.” And its predecessor, though clearly flawed, was also a favorite of mine. So when E3 2019 went down and Ubisoft unveiled an extensive look at the next game in the hacking series of open world mayhem, I was sold right away.



“Watch Dogs: Legion” was leaked prior to E3 yet the demo and explanation of what this game is all about surprised me (and many others) nonetheless. It amazed me if I am being completely honest. “Watch Dogs: Legion,” unlike its predecessors, both of which had one main protagonist, lets you take control of anyone. And I mean ANYONE. This game will allow you to choose any NPC and reverse that title. It sounds unreal but in March of 2020, gamers will be creating their own teams and alliances using tens of hundreds of random characters spread out in the London-set world of this highly ambitious game.

I thought that the E3 showing of “Watch Dogs: Legion” was great. I can’t imagine people not being, at the very least, interested or curious with this title. Even the haters of “Watch Dogs” and its sequel should not ignore the third entry so soon. As previously mentioned, “Watch Dogs” always followed one guy. In 2014 we got the gruff, serious and admittedly not very compelling Aiden Pearce. Fast forward a couple of years later and Marcus Holloway, a funny, charming and cool guy, much more desirable, at least in my opinion. But next year, you won’t have to worry about not liking who you play as. You can just replace them. There are so many characters roaming the streets of London, so you’ll have the power to be who you want to be.

What’s more is just how much versatility is going into this system. “Watch Dogs: Legion” got a brand new trailer at Gamescom 2019 via Google Stadia that dove deeper into this system of turning NPCs into playable characters. It is quite astonishing, in the best way possible. The game actually has narratives to each character. Now I definitely can’t begin to fathom the possibility of this; however, who am I to question it? I am sure Ubisoft Toronto has been super hard at work to deliver on these ambitious premises for a while. The latest trailer capitalized on what we had previously been shown by now exemplifying the customization and genuine versatility in London’s many faces.

In “Watch Dogs: Legion,” I can choose to recruit a young man walking down the sidewalk and he may have a criminal record, be a doctor or be MI6. And each of these hypothetical stories I just came up with would actually have some groundwork. It seems like he would do some bad things comfortably if he was a criminal in the past. Maybe he’d be a medic to other people I chose to recruit throughout London if being a doctor is what he does for a living. And maybe he’d get our team the intel we need in addition to some killer fighting skills if he were in fact MI6.

So that can go for anyone in London. In “Watch Dogs: Legion,” you choose who to recruit and you explore their stories and personalities, learning who they are and what they can provide to your team. We saw in the aforementioned Gamescom trailer that some characters have special abilities like damage buffs or resistances. And they can be upgraded too. This is where “Watch Dogs” delves into RPG territory and I am all for it. You can upgrade the stats and skills of these characters and make them worthwhile investments. Of course, customizing is a huge part of any good RPG right? Ubisoft didn’t forget that either. It would appear that you can do a lot of fun cosmetic changes to your recruits to make them personal and special to you.

“Watch Dogs: Legion” ultimately looks like something we have never played before. While its predecessors, namely the second one, hold special places in my heart, I can’t imagine ever wanting to go back to the simplicity that was “Watch Dogs” after spring 2020. This sequel appears to, on the surface, capitalize on what made the last entries so cool and fun, as well as doing so based on the modern gaming scene with open word titles at the forefront. However, “Watch Dogs: Legion” is changing the game. This title will be moving beyond what we know. The ambition behind playing as any character you see in a large open world of London is amazing. And it just gets all the more exciting when you consider the post-Brexit narrative and the plentiful stories that each character will have, the customization and upgrades applicable to anyone and everyone around you. “Watch Dogs: Legion” may be a third installment in an iffy series but I personally see this open world game bleeding ambition in every direction. I am genuinely excited for this fresh and innovative title to hit store shelves on March 6, 2020.