Congratulations Ubisoft, you’re the first people to make an open-world title (other than Rockstar) that I actively want to play. It took you three goes to get there and you’ve hypocritically announced it as being politically aligned after saying you don’t make political games but hey, you’ve done it!
Officially unveiled at yesterday’s Ubisoft E3 briefing Watch Dogs: Legion introduces one of the most ambitious game mechanics I’ve seen to date. The new title in the franchise gives you the ability to literally pick any person in the open-world and play the game as them! That’s right; any-one!
Set in a “post-Brexit” version of London (their words), Legion paints the great city as one on the brink of collapse. Corrupt private military personnel roam the streets, power crime syndicates operate from the shadows and its citizens are subject to an all-seeing surveillance state all but destroying any sense of privacy.
Players control operatives within the DedSec resistance movement, working towards the removal of corrupt powers. As they explore the open-world new characters can be added to their playable roster by scanning them and performing tasks to gain their loyalty. Up to twenty operatives can be in your rotation at any one time and switching between them is a seamless process that can be performed at any time.
Each operative has their own uniquely tailored back story. These are generated by the game’s mechanic and if delivers, promises to be one of the major leaps in game development of the modern age.
Another unique feature of the game is the operatives perma-death states, meaning that once they die, they’re gone for good. It’s a unique idea, that without the ability to recruit more operatives would hinder such a gigantic title.
Watch Dogs: Legion promises to be a unique and truly ambitious title in the open-world genre – should they pull it off. It’s scheduled for release in March 2020 and is likely to be one of the last big AAA titles from Ubisoft for this current generation of consoles.