Watch_Dogs: Legion review

    WATCH_DOGS: LEGION is the third installment of the popular WATCH_DOGS franchise and my favorite of the Ubisoft video game series. I'm a huge cyberpunk fan and the idea of doing present-day cyberpunk with a dark and gritty edge attracted me to the adventures of Aiden Pearce. I also enjoyed the more lighthearted and amusing adventures of Marcus Holloway in the sequel but was hoping that they'd manage to strike a balance in the third game. To an extent they did but the third game has its flaws as well as benefits.

    Story-line wise: you are a recruit of DeadSec: London that has been blamed for the bombing of Parliament and the events that resulted in the establishment of a corporate-run police state. You have to fight the baddies and discover who is the terrorist known as Zero Day that I figured out in literally five minutes and was confused at the realization this was supposed to be a surprise. Which is unfortunate because I really liked the character and was disappointed they turned out to be the antagonist.

    I actually like the bad guys for this installment. One of the biggest problems of the second game were the antagonists were almost all white collar criminals. While I enjoy ribbing Scientology as much as the next man, I feel like it doesn't quite have as much bite as fighting the human traffickers of the first game. Albion as the tyrannical immigrant-hating PMC that has suspended elections, privatized all social services, and build a concentration camp in the middle of London's biggest stadium is a much better foe for our hackers to face.

    Just as the other WATCH_DOGS drew from HACKERS, MR. ROBOT, and SNEAKERS, this is a game that draws heavily from V FOR VENDETTA as well as BLACK MIRROR. This isn't a problem as most AAA video games riff on tride and true formula. I'm also a fan of both V for Vendetta and Black Mirror so it always fun when I picked up on what they were referencing at any given time. I also appreciated the character of Bagley (Pascal Langdale), an AI assistant who lends a Wheatley-meets-Zero Punctuation esque quality to the game.

    Gameplay-wise, this feels like a stripped down version of the previous two games. The central game mechanic is that you can recruit anyone in London and while it's nice to make an army of old ladies or hot dog vendors, it hurts the narrative to have no central character to build a story around. A lot of the previous abilities in the game are missing as well: SWATing, calling a hit on someone, steam-pipe explosions, blackouts, and controlling traffic lights.  You can fly around on a drone like the Green Goblin but once you have that with a construction worker, you won't want to play any other character.

    The post-Brexit London of the game is probably the best part of the game with a lot of social satire that Ubisoft denies exists out of their desire to probably sell to pro-Brexit gamers. There's homelessness everywhere, people struggling to get medicine, corruption everywhere, and organized crime gaining power due to an ambivalence about their activities. Scotland has also apparently left the United Kingdom if the modified flag is any indication.

    The voice acting in the game is, to put it in simple terms, not good. Aside from the odd mixes and matches that results from randomly generated PCs, it's clear that a lot of it was generated without any real scenery direction. As such, it undermines the storytelling of the game significantly. Since the protagonists cannot have any real personality, there's not any real stakes. No one can have a reason to dislike Albion beyond the most generic kind.

    It should be noted that there is an easy to fix most of the problems of the game but it's an expensive one. Basically, most of the issues with the storyline and gameplay can be resolved by purchasing the Season Pass or Bloodline DLC with Aiden Pierce as well as Wrench as recruitable characters. Their original voice actors return and have recorded performances much better than anything else in the game. The Bloodline DLC is also a decent campaign with a story arguably better than the main game. Unfortunately, this does feel like you're paying for the game at half-again price to get the full experience.

    In conclusion, Watch_Dogs: Legion is a flawed game and the best way to fix those flaws is more spending. It's really quite insidious. I was willing to shell out enough because the Season Pass also contained the original Watch_Dogs that I wanted on PS4. Combined with Bloodline, it was worth it but other gamers may need to be more frugal with their dollars.

7.5/10