{"id":54259,"date":"2019-06-15T18:17:15","date_gmt":"2019-06-15T16:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.joypad.ch\/?p=54259"},"modified":"2020-10-28T09:15:43","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T08:15:43","slug":"played-at-3-watch-dogs-legion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.joypad.ch\/en\/giocato-alle3-watch-dogs-legion\/","title":{"rendered":"Played at E3: Watch Dogs Legion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ubisoft surprised many when it announced Legion. Not because a third Watch Dogs game was ever really in the cards, but rather because the new installment won't have a single protagonist. No character on the cover, no specific man or woman to follow. Legion features dozens of protagonists, and we'll be the ones to choose who becomes one of DedSec's heroes. How? Let's find out in our 45-minute hands-on from Los Angeles!<\/p>\n

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\nComing into our Watch Dogs: Legion demo at Ubisoft, we weren't entirely sure what to expect from this third installment: without a protagonist, how will we make a single-player game? A question Clint Hocking, Creative Director at Ubisoft Toronto, wanted to answer in a short briefing before the demo itself. In Legion, every NPC can become a full-fledged player. In the London of the not-too-distant future, where technology is increasingly permeating society and injustice is the order of the day, everyone is potentially a rebel. DedSec, the hacktivist group from the first two Watch Dogs games, has now become much more. It's a global movement for civil rights, for freedom, and for holding evil people accountable. In a society where security has been privatized and where security companies are unaccountable to politicians and the public, there's a dire need to set things right. Also because in this new hyper-technological regime, people are mysteriously disappearing, while AI and automation have supplanted humans in almost every aspect, leaving many without a steady income. Despite facial recognition, artificial intelligence, and algorithms, people are less safe than they were before.<\/p>\n

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\nEvery character we meet can become one of our field agents. Ubisoft has created hundreds of characters, each with their own backstory, relationships with other characters, skills, unique traits, and, most importantly, an opinion on DedSec. Some support the activists, others hate them, and some are more ambivalent. The important thing, we were told, is that each person is, in a certain sense, real, because if we wanted, we could stalk anyone and watch them go to work, home, meet friends, and so on. Our demo therefore opened with one of our characters, an old lady, looking for a new operative to recruit. We spent a few minutes near a pub using the Profiler, a system that gives us general information about the people around us. We saw people who were skilled with weapons or more comfortable with melee combat, but also people with the most diverse skills. The two most important pieces of data when profiling people, however, are any bonuses and penalties (weapon skill, combat advantage while drunk, +15% pistol accuracy, and so on\u2014there are really a lot of perks). The other important piece of data is their opinion of DedSec.<\/p>\n

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To recruit an agent, we must first convince him to join our side. In the case of the person we decided to recruit, a man quite skilled with firearms who already had a positive opinion of our resistance group, we had two options to further improve his affinity. We chose to help his sister, who was in trouble with the police, to try to convince him. The profiler then shows us where the man will be for the next 24 hours and who he will interact with, so we can reach him. The mission is generated automatically. We discover which police station the compromising information is located and set off. We quickly reach the building, switching from the elderly operative to a decidedly younger and fitter woman. There are a variety of approaches to obtaining the data, but we choose to proceed silently. A quick hack into the police station's internal camera system reveals that the data is stored in a terminal on the second floor and that the security, which initially seemed extremely tight, can actually be easily bypassed. We enter through a side door and cautiously make our way to the second floor, knocking out a police officer by grabbing him from behind. With the data secured, all that's left to do is visit the man we're trying to recruit and let him know his sister's situation is resolved. Since his opinion of DedSec was already quite positive to begin with, we can recruit him directly. If his initial level of conviction had been lower, however, we would have had to work much harder to convince him that our cause is the right one. Ubisoft has insisted that we can truly recruit anyone; you just have to want it and put in the effort.<\/p>\n

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\nOnce we add a new agent to our team, we have to choose which class to assign them: Enforcer (the fighter with skills like shock grenades, explosive ammo, heavy weapons, and so on), Infiltrator (stealth, AR cloaking, AR shields\u2014basically, they can hack the device implanted in the optic nerve of every citizen of London), or Hacker (a hybrid class capable of using the spider bot, hacking armed drones, using turrets, and so on). Each character will then have their own stats and must be leveled individually in the direction we desire. There is also permanent death. If we fall in combat, we have two choices: resist and continue fighting\u2014at the risk of dying permanently and losing that agent\u2014or surrender. If we surrender, we'll end up in jail and won't be able to play as that character again, at least until we free them using another of our agents. However, if we give up, the current mission will fail, so we will always have to make a choice between certain defeat and the possibility of continuing and winning.<\/p>\n

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\nArmed with our new operative, we embark on a new mission of the over 60 available in the final game, divided into five different storylines. We have to go find some men in Camden Town and eliminate them. A quick glance at the map, we use a fast travel point, and we're in the area. The environment is heavily controlled by guards and drones, but for this time we choose the violent approach. We open the door and start shooting wildly. Five confusing minutes of running around at breakneck speed, making do with cover, and a lot of shotgun fire ensue, but we emerge victorious. The approach could have been very different, however; perhaps they entered the area using a heavy drone as a gateway or causing chaos with hacking powers. But our character was an enforcer, so it was worth checking out the combat!<\/p>\n

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\nThe demo was almost over, a quick escape from the police, and it was time to draw conclusions. Watch Dogs: Legion remains Watch Dogs, despite all the new profiling mechanics. The idea of having dozens of agents to choose from is undoubtedly interesting, as is the enormous technical challenge Ubisoft faced in making this feature possible. It will be interesting to see how the final players approach the game! You can also play in co-op with up to four people, and progression will be shared among all participants in the mission. In short, Legion seemed interesting to us\u2014more interesting than Watch Dogs 2, in fact.<\/p>\n