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- ❝ Anyone can be your weapon.❞
- ―Tagline
Watch Dogs: Legion (stylized as WATCH DOGS LΞGION) is an open-world action-adventure third-person video game developed by Ubisoft Toronto and published by Ubisoft. It is the third installment in the Watch Dogs series. It was released on October 29, 2020, seven months behind its originally scheduled release date of March 6, 2020.
The game is set in the near future, where London is facing its downfall: the people are being oppressed by an all-seeing surveillance state, private militaries control the streets, and a powerful crime syndicate is preying on the vulnerable. The fate of London lies with DedSec, and the player's ability to recruit a resistance and fight back.
Plot
London Bombings
The London branch of DedSec, led by Sabine Brandt and her pirated and modified AI Bagley, detect armed intruders planting bombs in the Palace of Westminster. Sabine assigns DedSec operative Dalton Wolfe to defuse the bombs. As he attempts to do so, DedSec is attacked by unidentified intruders, similar to those detected in Parliament. As a result, in order to protect DedSec's assets, Sabine is forced to shut down Bagley, forcing Dalton to defuse the bombs without Bagley. Although he is able to defuse the bombs on the roof of Parliament, he quickly discovers that the perpetrators behind the bombings is an anonymous rogue hacker group called Zero Day, and that there are more bombs planted around London. Zero Day's leader kills Dalton on the roof as multiple bombs elsewhere in London are detonated, which kills thousands of people.
In the wake of the chaos, the British government contract Nigel Cass, the CEO of private military company Albion, with restoring order to London. As he receives the mandate and the key to the city, Cass vows to hunt the remaining branch of DedSec, blaming them for the bombings. However, this also causes social and political unrest among the population of London.
Several months later, Albion is in full control of the law, enforcing it without political oversight, effectively transforming London into a surveillance state with the aid of Signals Intelligence Response (SIRS), an intelligence agency consolidating all of Britain's intelligence network. As a result, London's citizens have their personal liberties severely restricted and their lives constantly monitored. Furthermore, organized crime is on the rise, and those that question Albion's methods are either arrested or disappear.
DedSec Rebuilds
DedSec slowly begins to reappear after Sabine is able to find a new recruit with the city's CTOS, successfully persuading them to reactivate the group's Safehouse as well as Bagley and eventually join DedSec. With their help, Sabine assigns them to find new recruits around London to rebuild the resistance, liberating city boroughs in the process by encouraging citizens to rise up in defiance of their oppressors, and to ultimately discover the true identity of Zero Day.
Clan Kelley
During their investigation, the group discover that both Nigel Cass and Mary Kelley, boss of crime syndicate Clan Kelley, profited from the bombings, and that each party are using the current situation to their own advantages. In the midst of their investigation, they discover that Metropolitan Police Inspector Kaitlin Lau had been investigating Mary Kelley for a while, suspecting her of human trafficking with the aid of Albion and the European Processing Centre. After realising that former DedSec operative Ángel López had been previously detained at the European Processing Centre, DedSec attempts to find him before Clan Kelley realises that he is a part of DedSec. DedSec discovers that Mary Kelley had been kidnapping people, using them as personal servants or simply harvesting their organs and selling them instead. While infiltrating Southwark Incinerator to find Ángel, DedSec crosses paths with Inspector Lau, as she was about to be harvested for her own organs. She is saved by DedSec, and DedSec also offers to help recover her files that will help implicate Mary Kelley for various crimes. In the midst of this, DedSec discovers Ángel, and unfortunately they reached him too late as he is found dead. Following Ángel's death, DedSec agrees to place Mary Kelley as one of their priority targets. As they prepare to infiltrate an upcoming slave auction hosted by Kelley, they investigate other happenings around London.
Skye Larsen
While waiting for the slave auction, DedSec detects a new anonymous group on the rise called the 404. 404 offers contracts to people of London to help secure data for them, and Sabine suggests that DedSec infiltrates 404 and retrieve its assets. Upon further investigation, 404 discovers that she has a connection with DedSec and reveals herself to be Nowt. On the topic of contracts, Nowt directs DedSec to the GBB House, where a presentation by Broca Tech CEO Skye Larsen is being shown. After hacking into the conference room's security cameras, DedSec discovers that Skye is unveiling a new project called Daybreak, which plans to use technology that transfers people's brains into neural-mapping AI. Nowt insists that DedSec investigates Skye's home. After infiltrating Skye's home and her secret underground laboratory, DedSec discovers the dangerous potential of the neural-mapping AI technology, as shown by how Skye transferred her dog into a Spiderbot and even her own mother into her house AI. After putting both Skye's dog and mother out of their misery, DedSec agrees to stop Skye. After infiltrating the Quantum Lab at Blume Complex, they meet Skye Larsen in her neural-mapping AI form. DedSec can either choose to complete Skye's upload to the neural-mapping AI, or shut down the upload to effectively kill her. Neither choice really matters, as in the end Skye's neural-mapping AI will eventually be shut down by Broca Tech in respect of her death, effectively still killing her in the process.
Project THEMIS
After settling with Skye Larsen, DedSec continues to investigate Albion. They discover that Cass is planning to unveil a new project called THEMIS, which will implement drones around London that will supposedly eliminate citizens that are about to commit a crime, even if the crime had not occurred yet. Despite inside arguments, claiming that the project infringes on London's laws, Cass continues with the project. With the aid of one of Cass's former friends, Hamish Bolaji, DedSec is able to erase THEMIS project data, hampering Cass's progress in it.
Richard Malik
After successfully putting an end to Kelley's human trafficking ring, DedSec is contacted by Richard Malik, a member of SIRS, who has a lead on Zero Day. Although his information seems true and implicates SIRS's current head Emily Child for the bombings, Child is quick to inform DedSec that Mailk had been lying all this time, all to infiltrate DedSec and let them be easily hunted by Albion. Child and DedSec forms a plan, with DedSec meeting Malik at the Canada House to allow Child's snipers to kill Malik. However, Malik is able to get away and detonates bombs in the Canada House, killing Child and once again implicating DedSec for another bombing that they had no involvement in. Due to Child's death, Malik is able to take over as the head of SIRS. With Bagley's help, DedSec is able to expose Malik's role in the Canada House bombing and also capture him for interrogation, but they learn from him that he is not part of Zero Day. DedSec continues their investigation regardless.
Kelley's Slave Auction
With the slave auction around the corner, DedSec infiltrates the auction. They are able to shut down the microchip implanted in every kidnapped slave, liberating them from Kelley's clutches. When Inspector Kaitlin Lau arrives on the scene to arrest Kelley thanks to all of the evidence collected by DedSec, she is persuaded by DedSec to allow Kelley's former slaves to beat her up and kill her, as they both realise that Kelley will still get away with her actions had she been arrested instead.
Nigel Cass
After settling Mary Kelley, DedSec learns of news of an attempted attack on Nigel Cass during a speech. Investgating the scene, they learn that a friend of Hamish was part of the attack, and DedSec investigates why his friend had attempted to kill Cass. Upon further investigation, they discover that Hamish's friend discovered Cass had been able to complete THEMIS, and was preparing to launch it very soon. Upon realising this, DedSec infiltrates Tower Bridge to shut down the THEMIS project once and for all, uploading a virus into it. Following this, they begin to considering on whether to directly attack Cass as Hamish's friend planned, however they decided against it as it would only support the idea that DedSec are terrorists. Instead, they look for ways to take away people's support from Cass. They attempt to search for Claire Waters as part of their investigation, but they discover that Albion had silenced her in order to prevent crucial information implicating Cass in the bombings from being leaked by Claire. DedSec locates Claire's recording equipment to learn more, and they learn that Cass partnered with Zero Day to gain control over London. With the help of Hamish, DedSec exposes this to the public. Despite for calls to arrest Cass, Cass publicly announces that he will be killing anyone trying to stop him, which forces DedSec to go after Cass. DedSec confronts Cass at the Tower of London, defeating his prototype and Cass himself. Following Cass's death, DedSec celebrates, giving themselves a small rest.
The End
As DedSec celebrate their actions, Zero Day suddenly hacks the group, stealing the tech they had acquired. Tracing the hack, they quickly discover that Sabine was behind the bombings and Zero Day, and that Cass worked alongside her until he double-crossed her for control of important technology. In response, Sabine sought to restart DedSec simply to get revenge on Cass, recover what he stole, and seek out other components she needed. As the group evade Sabine's efforts to stop them, DedSec discover that she intends to use the technology she stole to create a patch that will link a series of AIs to Bagley, and use the AI to plunge the country into chaos as part of plan to force society to forgo technology and restart. To prevent this, Bagley willingly agrees to be shut down and assigns DedSec to complete the task amongst the rampant chaos across the city. The group successfully shut down Bagley, preventing the patch being sent out, causing Sabine to fall from the panel when she attempts to stop them.
Epilogue
In the closing credits, the British government reviews its contract with Albion as local law enforcement begins work to resume operations, while DedSec has their name cleared and subsequently praised for exposing considerable crimes and corruption across the city. In an epilogue scene, DedSec manage to restore Bagley to his state prior to Sabine's actions while her body was never found by the authorities, and continue to rely on Bagley to work at exposing corruption across the city and finish off loose ends.
Main Characters
There is no set main character in Watch Dogs: Legion; instead, the game relies on a system that allows the player to recruit any civilian to DedSec's cause. As a result, the only consistent characters within the game are the allies, antagonists and DLC characters. This drew criticism from fans as they felt a lack of connection to the story and its characters.
Allies
Antagonists
Others
- Claire Waters
- Gabriel Isa (DLC)
- Harriet Park (DLC)
- Joeri Martens (DLC)
- Mina Sidhu (DLC)
- Aiden Pearce (DLC)
- Wrench (DLC)
- Darcy Clarkson (DLC)
- Helen Dashwood (DLC)
Gameplay
Watch Dogs: Legion is an action-adventure game played from a third-person view. The game is set within an open world, fictionalized representation of London, which will encompass notable landmarks, boroughs, and cultural styles of the city. The game's setting takes place within a London that has become a surveillance state. Personal liberties have been vastly limited, and citizens are constantly monitored in their activities by Albion, a private security company that acts as the city's law enforcement. The player will have the ability to navigate the city either by foot, using vehicles, or fast-traveling via the city's Underground stations. Unlike the previous games in the series which focused on the use of a single protagonist to drive the story's narrative, Legion features the ability to control multiple characters within the game's setting. Each of these characters can be recruited through a unique mission, though this depends on their standing with DedSec; for example, a character who the hacker group helps out will be in favor of aiding them when asked and completing their recruitment mission, whereas a character whose family member was accidentally killed by a DedSec member will not tolerate the group and likely refuse to join.
Once a character is recruited into the player's roster, they are assigned to one of three classes: combat, stealth or hacking. Each class features its own set of tools and ability upgrades when a character levels up from completing missions and activities. Each character also has their own background which dictates a special skill or trait they have. For example, a recruited character may be more skilled with drones and thus can do more damage with them, while another is an "adrenaline junkie" who deals more damage but at the possible risk of dying at any random moment. All characters in the game recruited into the player's roster have their own personal lives when not being controlled, can be fully customized with various clothing options, and can wield a mixture of lethal and non-lethal weapons, the latter featuring a more extensive selection than in previous titles.
Permadeath
Because the player can recruit a large roster of characters to control, Watch Dogs: Legion introduces the permadeath feature to balance things out, where each character can be permanently lost during the course of the game. Characters risk the possibility of being killed either while conducting operations for DedSec against other groups or against local law enforcement, provided that players have the permadeath option enabled.
Combat
Watch Dogs: Legion puts more of an emphasis on close quarters combat: there are certain enemies who will use melee weapons to attack you and you can either use your weapons or fists to take them out. Weapons have become more customizable giving you the option to choose between setting your weapon to Lethal or Non-Lethal. Each decision you make as different characters affect the world, the personality of your character and the world's perception of DedSec. Like Watch Dogs 2, drones are a big part of Watch Dogs: Legion, featuring combat drones that take over the role of the traditional cop car chases (and military checkpoints that replace police blockades), construction drones that carry payloads (and can be ridden on once hijacked), riot drones that replace police officers, etc., and these drones can be hacked only by those whose skills are great at hacking. Additionally, driving has been given a new feature: auto-driving; this enables the car to drive itself, or (if the player wants go the route of Watch Dogs and Watch Dogs 2) they can disable it in favor of manually driving the car.
Development
Watch Dogs: Legion is being developed by Ubisoft Toronto, with additional work being provided by sister studios Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft Paris, Ubisoft Bucharest, Ubisoft Kiev and Ubisoft Reflections. The development team is headed by creative director Clint Hocking, who was recruited to assist on the game's creation due to Ubisoft moving development from their studio in Montreal to Toronto, and recruiting developers who had previously worked with him on Far Cry and Far Cry 2.[1]
Retail editions
- Copy of the game
- Lighting Ded Coronet Mask
- Exclusive Steelbook™
- Ultimate Edition
- Double-sided Propaganda Poster
- Set of 3 Stickers
- Exclusive Box
- Bloodline DLC (set before the events of Legion)
- Watch Dogs - Complete Edition
- 4 New Hero Characters (Mina, Aiden, Wrench, Darcy)
- 3 DedSec Stories (Not In Our Name, Guardian Protocol, Swipe Right)
- DedSec Car Skin
Release
Watch Dogs: Legion was teased by Ubisoft via Twitter on June 5, 2019, before its announcement at E3 2019, where the game had its release date revealed as March 6, 2020. On October 24, 2019, Ubisoft announced that the game would no longer be released on March 6th, 2020, with its release date being delayed to Ubisoft's fiscal year. On July 12, 2020, Ubisoft announced that the game would be released on October 29, 2020. It was, in fact, released on October 29 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Google Stadia, November 10 for Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X, and November 24 for PlayStation 5.[2]
Reception
Watch Dogs: Legion received "generally favorable" and "mixed or average" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic getting a Metascore of 75/100 on PC,[3] 73/100 on PS4,[4] and 77/100 on Xbox One.[5]
Gallery
Cover
Videos
References
- ↑ Francis, Bryant (June 27, 2019). Why Clint Hocking wanted every NPC in Watch Dogs: Legion to be playable. Gamasutra. Retrieved on June 27, 2019.
- ↑ https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/game/watch-dogs/legion/news-updates/30fdWwcvWlw3fBc3hKJXjy/everything-you-need-to-know-about-watch-dogs-legions-launch
- ↑ Metascore for Watch Dogs: Legion on PC, Metacritic, Retrieved November 1, 2020
- ↑ Metascore for Watch Dogs: Legion on PS4, Metacritic, Retrieved November 1, 2020
- ↑ Metascore for Watch Dogs: Legion on Xbox One, Metacritic, Retrieved November 1, 2020