Review for Watch Dogs Legion. Game for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Google Stadia, the video game was released on 29/10/2020
Version for PlayStation 5 from 12/11/2020
Version for Xbox Series X from 10/11/2020
Initially scheduled for early 2020, then postponed to a later date and finally scheduled for October 29, Watch Dogs: Legion is the third chapter of the saga created by Ubisoft Toronto which for this chapter tries to turn the tables, offering us a unique gameplay of its kind. Will he have convinced us? This review will answer everything.
Get ready for a journey that will take you to post-brexit London created by Ubisoft where we will be called to create a resistance and save the capital of the United Kingdom.
The third time is the good one
After the first two chapters of the saga, Watch Dogs receives a significant change, opting for a particularly risky approach to gameplay than in Watch Dogs: Legion manages to surprise the player from the first hours of the game. In the past, Watch Dogs offered the public an open-world closely linked to the hacking of any device connected to the network while Watch Dogs 2 reiterated the same formula, but changing style, passing from the dark tones of the first chapter to decidedly more youthful and colorful shades. .
This third chapter immediately entered the market as an anachronistic title, however, all this is due to one of the most important features of Watch Dogs: Legion, that is, the ability to play as any NPC. Although the first doubts, the preview a few weeks ago managed to answer all the questions regarding the recruitment of any London citizen and also in the final version, we can confirm that each citizen differs from the other, allowing the player to choose according to their preferences or sometimes needs the right activist to recruit in the DedSec.
Fun for everyone
What stands out most in Watch Dogs: Legion is certainly the freedom of play that is offered to the player. After a prologue in which we will be forced to use a character, more specifically the secret agent Dalton, the DedSec will have to be rebuilt from scratch and with the use of a spiderbot we will discover a list of activists willing to join the resistance who have not yet been arrested or worse, dead.
The plot of Watch Dogs: Legion is certainly closer to the narrative tones of the first chapter, in fact, the terrorist attack at the hands of the mysterious “ZeroDay” is linked to a series of figures who are now under the crosshairs of DedSec. The story continues in a linear fashion however, giving the player the opportunity to choose who to investigate first and on some occasions you will be called to make a choice that will change the game world and the s with the other members of the resistance.
But if you want to have fun exploring London, Watch Dogs: Legion will guarantee you a large amount of secondary and free-roam content that you can play freely without any limitations. Exploring an alley could allow you to discover a citizen unjustly arrested and it will be your concern or choice whether to save him with gadgets or punches.
The use of gadgets is certainly the funniest aspect of Watch Dogs: Legion gameplay which in combination with hacking has allowed us to vary our infiltrations into the structures manned by enemies. Each member of the DedSec can have two weapons which can be lethal and not and a gadget, while some characters, depending on their uses, have some extra skills such as the secret agent who can temporarily block the weapons of the enemies with his special watch or call his special car.
What we liked the most was the perfect management of the recruiting system that is closely linked with the numerous possibilities of approaches to gameplay, for example, entering a structure manned by the Albion militia could be complex, we could spend time studying the right path, the possible escape routes or any conduits in which to pass our spider-bot, but how would you react if we told you that instead you can enter without any problem? Just look for the right person, exploring London you may find Albion members and if you are persuasive you will be able to convince them to join your cause.
Watch Dogs: Legion manages to create an additional game layering with examples like these, allowing the player to build their own resistance with activists who best suit your style of play and if you are looking for an additional challenge, we strongly advise you to activate the permanent death option. When an activist is killed he will be really dead, no longer usable, we would have appreciated even more a priority decision in which the game did not allow to disable this option. An additional difficulty that makes the player constantly on the alert to avoid losing the favorite activist or the one with unique features of its kind.
The best London ever seen in a video game?
London has been recreated with care and meticulousness. Every single street manages to convey that feeling of loyalty that allows the player to remain intrigued by every single aspect of the city. The continuous day-night cycle and the variable atmospheric conditions allow us to observe with interest the work done in the reconstruction of London which shines and reflects above all thanks to the implementation of Ray Tracing.
Testing the title on PC with Ray Tracing enabled, as well as in the preview, we were impressed by the general lighting and reflections on the asphalt that were reproduced during the typical rainy days. The density of cars and citizens that can be encountered are also well proportioned according to the areas of the capital of the United Kingdom.
By opening the game map it will be possible to move quickly between the stations of the famous London underground and quickly reach the desired destination. In addition to this, the icons are indicated for the so-called "Technology Points", that is, a currency that allows the player to upgrade their gadgets, unlock new ones or decide to install new hacks.
As previously mentioned, every neighborhood in London is under the hegemony of Albion and organized crime which, after the events of Zero-Day, have discredited the reputation of DedSec. It will therefore be our task to try to rekindle the rebellion in the various neighborhoods. Each zone has different activities dedicated to DedSec propaganda and once all of them are completed you will be able to access a unique and different "liberation mission" for each part of London.
Technical sector
Watch Dogs: Legion is a cross-gen title, available accordingly both on current generation consoles and on next-gen consoles with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X / Xbox Series S that will enjoy the effects of Ray Tracing, also available in the version from us tested on PC. The title was tested with the settings at maximum and to lighten the load on the GPU, we took advantage of DLSS 2.0 technology.
This particular function allows you to reduce the rendering resolution, gaining FPS in game (especially with Ray Tracing active) and upscaling the resolution to that of your native monitor through the CUDA Cores of the new RTX cards, in fact, in order to take advantage of this new feature you will need to have an Nvidia 2000 or 3000 series video card.
Watch Dogs: Legion wisely takes advantage of some graphic elements such as puddles or reflections scattered on some surfaces to better delineate the Ray Tracing but, despite this, the third chapter of the Watch Dogs saga does not differ from the other Ubisoft productions on the graphic aspect. What is most striking is the vision of the impact of the environments, the fidelity in the reconstruction of the city of London and the care of the interiors of the structures manned by Albion. Despite the day one patch we found an irregular fluctuation in the frame-rate which will almost certainly be resolved with proprietary drivers for video cards and a possible stability patch in the coming days.
Watch Dogs: Legion is a title that has been able to introduce something different and unique in the now increasingly frequent open-world formula. The ability to play as each individual NCP allows Ubisoft's recent title to differentiate itself from its two predecessors. A formula that is fun and well established even after many hours of play, capturing the player in a pulsating city full of activities to do. A perfect title that opens the dances for the beginning of the new generation and that you can also play on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X / S in 4K with active Ray Tracing effects. Watch Dogs: Legion offers an almost perfect reconstruction of London, which will guarantee you one of the most evocative open-world experiences ever as you try to shed light on a terrorist attack that has subverted the whole of London and it will be your job to save the city by reborn. the resistance of the DedSec.
► Watch Dogs Legion is a Shooter-Adventure type game developed and published by Ubisoft for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Google Stadia, the video game was released on 29/10/2020
Version for PlayStation 5 from 12/11/2020
Version for Xbox Series X from 10/11/2020
