stealthy infiltrations into secure
buildings and areas filled with guards,
cameras and other security measures.
While the configurations of mission
areas usually aren’t wildly different,
it’s still satisfying to virtually infiltrate
a location, hacking security cameras
to spy on the premises, mark the
guards, absorb the layouts, and
activate traps. Most mission locations
can be tackled from different
directions and in different ways using
gadgets available to all your team
members, plus whatever special skills
are unique to them. I can send in a
semi-creepy spiderbot to crawl
through vents or a drone over the
roof and into windows to disable
security features, then sneak inside,
performing stealth takedowns on
enemies or slipping past when
they’re distracted.
HACK AND SLASH
If I don’t feel like being all that
stealthy, which is often the case, I can
take a shortcut by airlifting my agent
to the roof with a hijacked cargo
drone to get as close as possible to
my goal. Or I can just fight my way in
with melee combat and guns. As in
the earlier Watch Dogs games, it feels
the best to clear an entire building of
threats remotely and make off with
stolen data all while standing
innocently outside. It’s
also hectic fun when
something goes wrong,
the sirens blare, the
guards are alerted, and
you have to engage in a
battle to escape.
Initially, my crew
was largely non-lethal
types, but it’s not long
before I start dropping bodies using
other characters. I recruit a former
MI6 spy to my roster, armed with a
silenced pistol and a cool watch
gadget that lets him jam enemy
weapons. He’s a James Bond type
who wouldn’t give a second thought
to headshotting any guards that get in
his way. That’s just part of the gig.
I’ve got a professional hitman on my
squad, too, who I recruited after
following him around at night and
witnessing him stabbing some
unfortunate citizen to death in a park.
I even recruited a member of Albion,
whose uniform lets me wander
around secure buildings without
drawing too much attention. She
doesn’t seem the type to worry too
much if someone gets riddled with
bullets or dies in an explosion, either.
80
Playing as anyone works
great in Watch Dogs
Legion, when you’ve
finally found the right
group of anyones.VERDICTI hate fighting
drones –
they’re
basically giant
flying insectsDRONE ZONE Legion’s flying robots and what they can do for you
CTOS DRONE
Pros : Like
smartphones,
they’re everywhere
and easy to find.
Cons : Can only
distract enemies,
can’t attack them.PARCEL DRONE
Pros : Can drop little
boxes on people.
Sometimes they
explode!
Cons : Someone is
impatiently waiting
for that package.NEWS DRONE
Pros : Can take
pictures and daze
crowds with a
camera flash.
Cons : Like the news
industry itself, it’s
pretty fragile.RIOT DRONE
Pros : Has a shotgun
and can fire gas
canisters.
Cons : It’s usually
firing them at you.
Best to hack it as
soon as possible.CT DRONE
Pros : Has a heavy
machine-gun and
lots of missiles.
Cons : Built by the
lowest bidder:
constantly
overheats.Watch Dogs Legion
REVIEW
Killing with those characters feels
perfectly in-character, and I can
swap to someone else if I want to
return to non-lethal tactics.DRONING ON
Just as it took me a few hours to start
appreciating my team, it took me a
while to warm up to the sheer
number of drones in Legion. I hate
fighting drones – they’re basically
giant flying insects, one of my least
favourite enemy types. At one point
in Legion I was piloting a drone
while trying to protect a friendly
drone from being attacked by swarms
of enemy drones.
Watch Dogs Legion
really goes all in on
drones, and for a while
I couldn’t stand it.
But as I unlocked
more skills for my
team, my anger at
drones slowly turned
into appreciation
because I could disable them, hijack
and pilot them, and even turn their
AI against my enemies. Now,
overhearing a soldier say he’s sending
a drone out to look for me is music to
my ears. Dude, you’re just giving me
another weapon to destroy you with,
thanks though! If the bad guys don’t
send drones after me I’ll hijack any
random ones flying around the area
instead. I am a drone convert.
I even have a drone expert on
my team, a guy named Fallon. He
can summon his own drone,
which can be remotely piloted to
deliver electric shocks that KO
most enemies with one blast. He can
also chuck a second drone into the
air that will divebomb and
incapacitate a targeted enemy. Plus,
my unlocked team skills let himdisable one enemy drone,
commandeer a second one and tell a
third to fight for him on autopilot.
That’s five different drones Fallon
has access to within a few seconds in
a single fight. Drones went from
being a nuisance to the centrepiece
of my infiltration and combat
strategy, and Fallon became the star
of my team. He’s basically my
protagonist now.
I never really got into Legion’s
story, which is almost entirely related
to you by Bagley, DedSec’s fast-
talking, deeply sarcastic AI who
briefs you before missions, during
missions, after missions – he’s not as
bad as some chattering robots I could
name, but he never really shuts the
hell up. Since you’re playing as any
one of your team members rather
than a main character, there’s little in
the way of meaningful interaction
with Bagley – pretty much
everything he suggests is A-OK with
whichever character you’re
inhabiting at the time. There’s a
single choice to be made during the
main campaign, otherwise, you’re
just following a to-do list, completing
objectives and being agreeable.
Legion’s play-as-anyone gamble
just about pays off. Most of London’s
citizens are way too ordinary to be
much fun, but the few I grew to care
about wound up feeling more
important to me than most
videogame protagonists ever
do. Not bad for a group of
randomly generated misfits.