Watch Dogs: Legion has finally graced our platforms, after many cool trailers and lots of anticipation. Without a shadow of a doubt, this is one of the most ambitious games to date. Ubisoft really challenged themselves and set the bar high. I’ve been playing for a while now, and I think I’ve finally managed to formulate my thoughts. So, without further ado, let’s just get right into this.
What is Watch Dogs: Legion?
Watch Dogs: Legion is the latest instalment of the Watch Dogs series, and is an action-adventure game. Set in London. join DedSec as they fight to take the city back from Albion. Recruit people to your ranks, build your legion and takedown Albion.
London Calling
I want to start this section off by just talking about London itself, or rather, the in-game London. I’ve been to London twice. The first time was mostly just visiting family. Didn’t really get to explore anywhere. But the second time, last year was a proper holiday. And boy, did I explore.
There is something very surreal about playing a game and actually recognising the places in it. Major props to the designers/developers for that. Multiple times as I was playing, I recognised places I had been to. Not gonna lie, there are a couple of places I really want to hunt down in-game. I am bad at navigating. But I’ve driven through random areas and recognised landmarks, bridges, all that kind of thing. I fully recognised the Camden area!
The accents and the language/slang used in some parts is hilarious. It just adds to everything and has made me laugh so much. Everyone is a character, even the people you drive past on the street. Or in my case, the ones I nearly run over.
Building a Legion
There is no denying that the concept of playing as anyone is cool as heck. That was what drew me into Legion in the first place. I do feel like there was a little… misconception with this point though. This is just my impression, from trailers and from sitting in a round table session. The impression I gathered from all of the information given is that you can basically hack into anyone. As if you could hack them to play as them. This is not the case. Again, this is just my impression, and I very easily have misunderstood.
To build your legion, you have to work for it. Once you recruit people, you can indeed swap between characters and play as them. However, to recruit them, you need to do loyalty missions. But not all loyalty missions are available, and it’s not easy. Now, a lot of things were halted for me thanks to bugs, but I’ll get to that in a moment. In my time playing, I did not manage to recruit anyone from Albion. If anyone else has managed that, please let me know!
I have gotten to recruit some really cool people and had a lot of fun with them. Some of them come with really cool perks. The loyalty missions really are fun, no denying that. The missions in general are pretty fun. I actually understood what I was supposed to be doing.
Let’s get techy with Watch Dogs: Legion
This is when things are going to take a turn for the worst. And this actually hurts me, big time. I was really really loving playing Watch Dogs: Legion. That’s when the bugs appeared. Small at first, it started with the game freezing for a few moments. Or the audio would drop in loading screens. Don’t get me started on the length of the loading screens.
I can forgive these things, or at least I usually can. Not this time though. These bugs were basically a warning. I lost track of the number of times this game crashed on me. But that’s not the end. I’ve had my PC for 2 years now, and it is still future proof. I still have a good 2-3 more years easily before I need to start upgrading anything at all. For the first time in 2 years, I got a blue screen on my PC. And the only thing that was open at the time was Watch Dogs: Legion. Even last night, when I was playing through more, BAM. It screwed with EVERYTHING and messed up both my screens. I am feeling very lucky my PC is actually okay right now.
Graphically speaking, the game looks gorgeous. It feels like actually moving through a city and interacting with everything. I also had a load of fun with the driving in this game. Especially when I learned how to beep the horn. I’m an overgrown child, I know.
Do you wanna build a Legion?
I was so beyond hyped for this game. When the chance to sit in on a round table session appeared, I jumped at the opportunity. Honestly, I had a lot of faith in this game. Story-wise, it lives up to the hype. For the most part, my expectations were met.
But when the bugs really started hitting, my heart broke. I was having so much fun, and really getting into everything. Crash. Load back up, okay, perfect. Autosave meant I didn’t have to do massive chunks all over again. Make more progress. Crash.
Watch Dogs: Legion is so full of fun and promise. By no means is this a bad game. It is just a very very buggy game. I truly hope that this gets sorted soon because right now it is just not worth the money. One day, it definitely could be. But right now? Save your money.
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