9 important things you need to know about Watch Dogs Legion

Andrew Highton
A worker looking over London in Watch Dogs Legion

Watch Dogs Legion is shaping up to offer an extraordinarily intriguing experience. Its use of innovative features and evocative philosophies is making the game one of the desirable titles in the series.  In order to help you better understand Ubisoft’s upcoming game, here are 9 important things you need to know about Watch Dogs Legion.

While Watch Dogs 2 wasn’t a bad game, it didn’t really do too much to innovate and improve upon the first title. However, Ubisoft have now responded in a defiant fashion with never-before-seen concepts that could be potential game-changers.

Watch Dogs Legion lives up to its name – Legion – as you are now everyone. The sandbox just opened up even further and the game is offering all sorts of possibilities. Whichever random person on the street you decide is worthy of leading DedSec to victory is now up to you.

An underpaid construction worker? Go for it. A bus driver bored to death by the mundaneness of his job? I guess it’s time to make him the new James Bond. There are so many cool features present in Watch Dogs Legion, that we decided to pick 9 of the most important things you need to know about Ubisoft’s upcoming open-world.

1. All NPCs are actually PCs

An old woman in Watch Dogs Legion
You can recruit ANYBODY.

Strictly speaking, there isn’t a single NPC in the game. Everyone is playable.

That is the huge statement that Ubisoft has made about Watch Dogs in their attempts to make the game a first-time-ever experience. The game will still be filled with occupational people fulfilling their everyday jobs. You’ll still be able to interact and talk to them, but only this time you can push them into joining DedSec – and using them.

Now, not every individual will be chomping at the bit to go from daytime baker into a technological extraordinaire, some will be harder to convince than others and might even take exception to DedSec themselves. So make sure you turn on the charm.

2. Everyone character is supposed to be unique and voiced

A builder on top of a drone in Watch Dogs Legion
Builders are trained to ride drones, right?

Even Iris from HR? Supposedly.

Whereas a conventional open-world game will have obligatory character models that are endlessly copied and pasted around the game, Watch Dogs Legion aims for complete originality.

This is an excerpt taken from the Ubisoft website regarding this limitless possibility:

“Literally anyone you see can join your team and has a unique backstory, personality, and skillset. Your team, your way! Each character has unique skills, their own style, and personality. Choose the right operatives to best confront the challenges ahead and grow your influence.”

3. NPC strengths and weakness

An ex-spy in Watch Dogs Legion
Sometimes people are a natural fit.

In addition to the individuality of the game’s characters, they all come packaged with their own various idiosyncrasies that define them. It makes sense right?

They’re normal flesh and blood that have lived lives up to this point, so it’s only natural that they’ve learned skills and abilities that could transfer over to this new world.

A generic IT administrator could already be a dab hand at Cyber-security without truly realizing it. Make sure you find and convince them to join your cause.

4. If your characters get arrested, you can control someone else and save them

Law enforcement in Watch Dogs Legion
They will try their best to bring your character in.

Stand back, this is a job for…Leonard from accounting.

If a mission goes awry and one of your DedSec brethren becomes incarcerated, then just select someone else, and go and save them. There’s nothing else to it. You don’t lose anything, you don’t decrease your chances of further recruitment, you’re just down a member that you can rescue anyway. They’re not permanently lost forever.

That is unless they die. In which case…

5. Permadeath

A man being held at gunpoint in Watch Dogs Legion
Yes, your character really will die for good if they are killed.

I’m afraid death is an option in Watch Dogs Legion.

That’s one of the fascinating quandaries about the game’s universal approach to heroism. It can be difficult if you become attached to one character for too long. All you need is one firefight to escalate too quickly, and your virtual relationship dissipates quicker than ice in a furnace.

It adds this unexpected emotional layer of depth and guilt if anything happens to them.

6. Three character classes to choose from

Multiple characters in Watch Dogs Legion
Choose from 3 different classes to suit the task at hand or your playstyle.

Whenever you do recruit someone, you can try and recruit people better suited to one of the 3 character classes the game has on offer.

  • Enforcer – A combat brute that prefers all-out warfare with heavy weapons
  • Hacker – Predominantly focuses on technology and gadgets to operate from a distance
  • Infiltrator – Uses an aggressive playstyle – like the Enforcer – but focuses on stealth

It would probably benefit you to have a balanced team so that you have someone ready for every occasion.

7. Cut-scenes change because of the characters

An old woman shooting someone in the head in Watch Dogs Legion
Hopefully, anything goes in Watch Dogs Legion.

Watch Dogs Legion apparently has 20 endings and doesn’t sacrifice its open-ended, all-player mechanic for the cut-scenes – it’s apparently all contextual.

Now, until people have had a chance to really get hands-on with the game and explore this in great detail, it’s too hard to fully pass judgment on this claim just yet.

But what we can say, is that if different characters, with different mannerisms, will indeed behave differently in cut-scenes, then that’s fabulous – and revolutionary.

Variety is the spice of life after all.

8. Post-game, 4-player co-op

Advertising online play for Watch Dogs Legion
Soon, you and up to 3 friends will be able to play as a unit.

This one isn’t too surprising given that Watch Dogs did incorporate 4-player co-op in a free update sometime after the game’s initial release.

Despite not having too many details at present, Watch Dogs Legion will also have multiplayer in the future. Tentatively it appears that players will be able to share the same world and complete multiplayer objectives that don’t directly interfere with the main game. But the caveat is that it could have consequences on the main game in parts.

We’ll have to wait and see on this one.

9. It’s set in jolly ol’ London

London Bridge in Watch Dogs Legion
It looks like the city has been modeled perfectly.

One of the world’s leading tourist destinations is completely actualized here to explore.

The home of Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, The London Eye, The Houses of Parliament, and a litany of other desirable hotspots. London is about as iconic a city as you can get, but very rarely is it featured like this in a game. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was the most recent example to use some of London for its game, but this is the full works.

If you want to see London in all its glory then check out this exclusive video that Ubisoft released showcasing England’s most famous city.

Beefeaters and all!

And that concludes our 9 important things you need to know about Watch Dogs Legion. The game has clearly had a lot of work put into it and it has the potential to be one of the sleeper hits of 2020.

Stay tuned for more Watch Dogs Legion content as we draw closer to the game’s October 29 release.

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About The Author

Andrew Highton is a former Games Writer for Dexerto. He has a Creative Writing degree from Liverpool John Moores University and has previously written for games websites such as Twinfinite and Keengamer. With 13,000+ PlayStation Trophies to his name, Andrew is a fan of a huge variety of video games, his favourites being God of War and Metal Gear Solid. Contact him at andrew.highton@dexerto.com, on Twitter @AndyHighton8 or at www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-highton.