My disappointment in Watch Dogs: Legion at launch is almost impossible to measure. It wasn’t the worst game I’d ever played – far from it, in fact – but it felt like one of the most soulless, downgraded sequels I’d seen in ages. To go from Watch Dogs 2’s engaging and heartfelt depiction of San Francisco to the drab, dreary, and constantly sarcastic iteration of London was discouragingly defeatist. Almost a year later, I’m still pretty annoyed about it.
The main culprit for this is Legion’s randomly generated protagonists. It is incredibly hard to get invested in a typical Ubi open world when you’re playing as someone with zero personality. At its best, I’d call the ability to play as anyone relatively neat, but at its worst, I’d say it ruins any connection to the narrative you might have. It’s as wide as an ocean and deep as a puddle, which is surprisingly apt for a game set in the rain-soaked streets of London.
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Admittedly, the idea of playing as anyone was a clever one, but it was so easy for the illusion to be shattered by having four DedSec members with the same voice, or realising that even with all these varied character traits, no one has any personality. The only real characters you have are the insufferably sarcastic Bagley and the stoic, totally-not-a-villain Sabine.
Combine this lack of compelling characters with a London in a far-too-realistic state of disrepair and it makes for a depressingly lonely adventure devoid of any enjoyment beyond the solid stealth gameplay. The fun of watching a granny use a taser only lasts so long when you realise she’s copy-pasted across the map and has nearly the same voice lines as everyone else. Nanny Helen won’t save your game, Ubisoft, no matter how hard you try.
Despite my disdain for Legion, I was cautiously optimistic about Bloodline. Beyond introducing the wonderful Wrench and incredibly overrated Aiden Pearce, it looked to fix my main issue with Legion by actually implementing defined characters into the story. Lo and behold, Watch Dogs: Legion is ten times the game it once was simply by having characters that are worth giving a crap about. Wrench is just as entertaining and loveable as he was in Watch Dogs 2, while Aiden Pearce actually becomes more than just a vengeful loner and gets a decent character arc.
The difference between playing as a character you care about and one that’s just a template is immeasurable. I ended up getting every trophy in Bloodline simply because I enjoyed seeing what Wrench and Aiden got up to and following their story through actual moments of happiness, sadness, and intrigue. When you care about your characters, it makes something as inarguably repetitive as a Ubisoft sandbox suddenly turn a whole world of opportunity.
My main thought throughout the whole of Bloodline was that this is what Watch Dogs 3 should have been from the start; a crossover for the fans and an attempt to merge the tonal differences between the first and second game. It’s not a perfect DLC, sure, but it’s remarkable how much better than the main game it is because it’s actually focused on something beyond a gimmick.
Even ignoring the plot of the Bloodline DLC, you’re also given the option to recruit Aiden Pearce and Wrench into your main DedSec gang, which just proves the point further because they feel completely neutered in comparison. Legion’s mechanics only allow for the most basic of responses, which doesn’t let any of them do anything beyond muttering a general comment while Bagley does all of the storytelling. Bloody Bagley.
If Watch Dogs 3 is ever going to happen, Bloodline has proven that it’d be more successful by steering away from the “play as anyone” formula and returning to set characters. It doesn’t need to be Marcus, Wrench, or Aiden, but it does need to be someone with a solid sense of self. There’s merit in creating a bond with your team, but that alone can’t carry a whole narrative, which is what people remember most fondly from Watch Dogs 2.
Thankfully, Bloodline implies the developers have started to realise that, too. There are multiple clues towards a future entry in the series that hint at a return to proper storytelling, rather than further evolution of Legion’s core gimmick.
That’s not to say that the mechanics from Watch Dogs: Legion should be removed altogether. The tech behind being able to play as any random Joe Bloggs from the crowd is undoubtedly impressive, but it feels misused by having you play as each random NPC. Something similar to Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood’s team mechanics would probably be the smartest move going forward. Just make sure Bagley gets the chop, eh?
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