My Watch Dogs Legion Review!

It was two years ago that I walked through the gloomy streets of Chicago as Aiden Pearce. I was hacking people, stealing their money, saving their lives from crimes that were about to happen and even stopping a human trafficking ring from taking place. Then I returned to the franchise in part 2, taking on the role of Marcus Holloway where I was in the ever bright San Francisco. The sequel saw my character become a member of Dedsec, defeated gang members, hacked people, stole their money, sick cops or gang members on random people etc.

When part 3 was announced I couldn't be anymore excited. After a delay (March 6th was the original date before Ubisoft decided to do a 180 on a majority of their big title games) I was finally able to pre-order the Ultimate Edition and got my hands on the physical game which was released on October 29th.

Before I dive into my review, let's discuss what's in the Ultimate Edition.

Ultimate Edition Goodies:

The Ultimate edition gave me a free digital copy of the first Watch_Dogs game which was an honest waste since I played the game more times than I have brushed my teeth in the last year-which is twice a day every day!

They also gave me four starter players which was very vital for me to finish the game with due to their amazing weapons. In this game, weapons cannot be brought and they don't give off enough damage, so these four players and their amazing weapons came in handy.

A season pass was also given to me (more on that later) along with face masks!

Alright, let's dive into this Spoiler Free review.

Watch Dogs Legion takes place in what many have described as Post Brexit London. It's somewhere in the future as everyone in this country has chips on their ears which makes for cool accessories.

Unlike part 1 & 2, there isn't a sole protagonist here except for the sarcastic and annoying A.I named Bagley, that helps you in certain missions and offers some unnecessary sass during difficult tasks.

There are six antagonists that we have to kill because they are planning to turn Dedsec into terrorists and if you've played Watch_Dogs 2, then you know Dedsec is far from a terrorist organization.

Now, I finished the main stories of this game but again, this is a spoiler free review, so I'm going to shift focus on the new feature Ubisoft added, and that's the recruiting and playing as anyone!

I have to admit this feature was very interesting because it requires players to carefully analyze everyone they see on the streets and decide if their weapons, skills, weaknesses and even strengths is something they can use for missions (main and sides).

This is important because we cannot buy weapons in this game. Only non lethal ones and those dish out minimal damage.

There are characters who were retired spies that come with amazing hand to hand combat skills, cars that can shoot rockets and can temporary turn invisible when being chased. Then there are players who come with shotguns, paintball guns, grenade launchers and drones. But there are also characters who have the abilities to (I'm not even kidding) fart and give your position away to other enemies. Some can fight but cannot walk fast. Others are lawyers which can help your characters come out of jail faster when they're defeated by an enemy. So it is imperative to weigh your pros and cons when trying to recruit these characters.

One rumor that was swirling before the launch of this game was about Permadeath. This means that if your character dies they are permanently dead and you can no longer access them. This rumor is true, but fun fact, that choice is optional! You are asked to either keep it on or turn it off when you start the game, I decided to turn it off for my first round, just in case.

Instead of my character dying while on a mission, if an enemy depletes their energy, they are arrested and released 30 minutes later- there's a timer. If you turn the game off, that timer pauses until you restart the game gain. Crazy right?

Now, recruiting these characters sounds fun, who doesn't want to play as an elderly person or even as a spy? Well, recruiting isn't as simple as just tagging them, you have to earn their trust and do them a favor, which brings us to side missions. When we successfully complete those side missions, they join Dedsec and you can choose to switch to your new recruits or simply stay as whomever you are. Unfortunately, side missions tend to be repetitive, we have to rescue someone or hack a computer for info. Bleh!

Personally, if you get the Ultimate Edition the four starter characters they give you is enough to finish the game, minus recruiting three people with a specific set of skills, for certain missions.

Now, lets talk about the fighting styles.

In Part 1 & 2, you just take down an enemy by pressing a button and your character beats them up. In this game you are in control! You have to punch, break your enemy's guard when they're blocking your hits and then duck when they're about to hit you!

I enjoyed this new feature but again, fists alone won't inflict that much damage, so pistol whip them and they won't be able to block your hits.

Tech Points Are Revenue:

The image above is the only store available in this game- minus the clothing stores to personalize your character.

These items can be brought with Tech Points which you get from completing missions as well as finding them on your map and going to the locations to retrieve them.

It's definitely different than the stores in the first two games because we used money and were able to buy weapons and we were able to upgrade our abilities by using skill points that are obtained from completing missions as well as when we reach certain progress in the game.

The best items to get in this game are:

*Shroud-which turns your enemies invisible when you knock them out. This prevents their allies from finding their bodies and being alerted.

* Cloak- which turn you invisible for a certain amount of time.

* Drone Manipulation- if there's one thing that I hate about this game it would be the drones that are relentless! If you fully upgrade these pesky drones, you will be able to control them firing their guns at your enemies or manipulate their systems causing them to shoot and kill their own allies for a certain amount of time. These upgrades will make certain side missions easy to do by using drones to assassinate enemies.

* Spiderbot- these upgrades cause you to do a super jump which is important for certain parts of the game.

* Deep Profiler- is an important one to unlock because this makes recruiting people who hate Dedsec a lot easier. Especially if that person is a cop. You might want a cop on your side for a few missions or two. ;).

Watch Dogs 1 & 2 Vs Legion:

So how does this one fair against the other two?

* Cars- You can't call a service to get calls like you can in 1 & 2. If you want a cool car, you'll have to work in recruiting someone who has a special vehicle. Spies have cars that can turn invisible and shoot rockets! But they aren't easy to find. Easy to recruit but not find. You can also find cars parked on the side of the road or just steal one! You can also hack cars without needing to unlock a skill and the cars can be put on auto drive! But they drive soooooo slow, so just drive yourself or fast travel through various train stations.

* Music- This game has amazing songs but you can only hear them in the car radio! Unlike 1 & 2 where you can create your own playlist and have music blasting in the background while doing missions. This was a huge loss for me.

(You can read my past article comparing and contrasting 1&2 here.)

Final Thoughts:

My final verdict? The game was definitely a 5 out of 10 for me.

The main story was predictable and the twists and turns weren't so shocking as the writers probably thought they would be.

When playing it reminded me of the game inFamous The Last Son. That game had districts that were being occupied by police and we had to win them back and rescue citizens who were being handcuffed or beaten by the police.

It's literally the exact same thing in Legion! Districts are locked by the ruling police who can be found beating citizens, arresting them, mistreating them etc. This wasn't new to me just redundant.

But there is a glimmer of hope for me and that's the season pass which will bring back two characters from the first two games!

That's right, take a look at the above picture and you will see Aiden Pearce (protagonist from the first game) in the center. There was already a tease of his return to the franchise:

He will have a standalone revealing more about his time away and based off of rumors swirling, you will be able to play the entire game as Aiden and the game will be remodeled to fit the character's attitude. Hopefully that will be so much better than the actual game.

But that's not all!

Wrench from Watch Dogs 2 is also arriving! There is no word yet on his involvement and whether we will also play the game as him, but I'm excited.

There are also two Assassin Creed characters popping up in the season pass as well, which isn't shocking because there is a huge reference to the franchise in this game.

Sadly, there are no release dates for the season pass and Aiden's solo adventure other than 2021.

It was announced that the multiplayer feature will be added in this game next month, so that's something to look forward to.

I love this franchise, the open world, the music, the protagonists and the adventures, but Legions wasn't really on the same level as the first two. I'm hoping Aiden's adventure can certainly change my mind.

Until then, happy gaming!