Watch Dogs: Legion Reviews
The takeaway is this: Watch Dogs: Legion is an ambitious simulation which reliably fails whenever players push against its boundaries. Like the cargo drones which grant them the ability to freely fly, it hits an invisible ceiling that prevents players from soaring above London’s skyscrapers.
Although the recruitment system provides a few hours of entertainment, Watch Dogs: Legion feels like a series of systems masquerading as an open-world adventure game. Compared to the first two entries, Legion is a massive step backward, both in terms of story and execution. This is paint-by-numbers Ubisoft on autopilot.
Ubisoft is known for making great open-world experiences and Watch Dogs: Legion is almost that. With a darker storyline and a wonderfully re-imagined London that is the star of the show, the third entry into the franchise feels as if it’s slightly matured from Watch Dogs 2. The new ‘play as anyone’ mechanic is innovative but sadly soon becomes redundant. Numerous bugs and glitches also mar the overall experience. Having the game crash several times and losing about 20 minutes worth of progress each time is not something that should be happening with a big-budget title such as Legion. Even after downloading the latest hotfix, crashing issues still persisted. This will likely be fixed with more patches later on down the line, but it will still be disappointing for those who purchase the game on day one. However, if you can keep a stiff upper lip about some of the bugs, you’ll have a lot of fun with Legion. Even if someone does end up calling you a twatwaffle.
Watch Dogs Legion's innovative 'play as anyone' gimmick gives a fresh twist to the open-world template
Watch Dogs fans and more die-hard anarchists among you might enjoy it more, but between the short storylines, underwhelming tech and mission types and the general “everything is on fire” vibe, it just doesn’t rate highly for me.
For all its themes of rule-breaking anarchy, Watch Dogs: Legion toes the line as a formulaic, though ambitious, open-world adventure. While it boasts one of the most visually exciting and stunningly authentic locales in the genre's history, Watch Dogs: Legion's gameplay is mechanical, over-familiar, and repetitive, struggling to capture the exciting promise of a fist-pumping, system-smashing revolution.
A disappointingly tame vision of a near future dystopia, that represents a perfectly competent use of the Ubisoft formula but falters in its attempts to add anything new to it.
And that’s the real issue here: the previous game was a story and a damned good one. Watch Dogs Legion is a playground and a damned good one. All it took was a shift in priorities to make the open-world feel less like a world, and more like… well, a game.
Even though it may sound as if the game is avoidable after reading through this review, there’s still some fun to be had, especially for the hardcore Watch Dogs fans if that is such a thing. Going into this, I was craving another Ubisoft style, check-box frenzy of a game, and this just didn’t do it for me in the slightest. It didn’t help that Assassin’s Creed Valhalla released just a handful of days after this and is exactly the style of game we were looking for. So should you jump in? That largely depends on you. If you played the first two games, I can certainly recommend a go at this one just to stay fresh on story elements and be prepared for the hopeful revitalization of the franchise when we get Watch Dogs: Black Flag. For everyone else, you can probably look away this time, especially with so many things releasing right now in the new generation of console gaming.
In a bid for Ubisoft to try and remain politically neutral, Watch Dogs: Legion loses any sharpness it could have had with a more urgent and focused message. Instead, what we get is a watered down open-world experience that feels like just another NPC in a sea of open-world players.
Ubisoft have done well with this game but if you get frustrated easily I would maybe wait till this game has had a few more updates first before playing it.
After so much anticipation, Watch Dogs: Legion is finally here, failing to impress. Almost every single problem that prevented the 2 previous version to reach their full potential is still there, and the ability to play as all NPCs added even more issues to the game. Yes, the world is beautiful and you have all the freedom that you want, but as a game, Watch Dogs Legion is shallow and suffers from poor level and character design. A strong contender for the most disappointing game of the year.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Being able to Play As Anyone in Watch Dogs: Legion is impressive at first, but it becomes a detriment to the core experience that's in need of revitalization. The hacking and stealth infiltrations haven't changed a bit, and with repetitive mission design and numerous technical issues, this latest chapter finds DedSec in an identity crisis.
My gripes really stem from the place of being a fan. Anyone entering Watch Dogs: Legion looking for a by the books open world game is going to find a lot to enjoy. There are small puzzles to solve, plenty of collectibles, lots of missions and I would say the shooting and driving are the best this series has ever been. Fans of the series like myself however will be disappointed by the lack of enjoyable characters as well as stand out missions and story beats. With how close Legion is releasing to Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla and Immortals Fenyx Rising it feels like Watch Dogs: Legion was left to fight for your attention and your money with less money put into development. I would recommend both Watch Dogs 1 & 2 as well as plenty of other Ubisoft experiences from the last few years before Legion at full price.
Watch Dogs: Legion is a far more palatable experience on PS5 thanks to its vastly-improved load times and splendid visual upgrades. The only real technical gripes are that there's little in the way of DualSense implementation, and the framerate, while steady, hasn't been upped. Its base problems of open-world fatigue and messy storytelling are still problems that can't be so easily fixed and still remain a significant barrier to enjoyment. It'll give you a dazzling trip to London, but you wouldn't want to stay there.
Watch Dogs: Legion offers many missions, activities, side jobs and customization options. Grinders will certainly get their money's worth, even if it is quite monotonous. But for a lot of gamers in front of their screens this might not be enough to justify the purchase at or near the release. Watch Dogs could have been or rather should have been much better, especially since it will be released in a year or quarter when real hits like Cyberpunk 2077 and Assassin's Creed: Valhalla will be released. Personally, I call myself a Ubisoft fanboy, because I play and enjoy almost all the big games of the publisher. Also Watch Dogs: Legion is one of them and is my current choice for a chilly evening or afternoon, even a longer session. I like to grind and drive and fly all tech points and other collectable items. But the concept does not work for the general public. For this reason, the game objectively scores relatively poor. There would have been much more in it.
Review in German | Read full review
Watch Dogs Legion is a fine entry in a franchise that keeps changing up its tone with each instalment. It mixes the tones from the first 2 games well enough with a serviceable story and an engaging gameplay mechanic. How much fun you want from this game will depend on how much variety the game's 'play as anyone' system offers, which in my experience has been plenty.
This score represents the experience of the PC version which is, even weeks after launch, in a sorry state of buggy mess for many players. Nevertheless, Watch Dogs: Legion does offer some decent fun overall with its sandbox approach to missions and standout feature of playing as virtually anyone in London.
Watch Dogs: Legion is a great game with impressive graphics, original gameplay and a lively and relatively large world. However, it won't impress you with a rather average story, full of clichés about hacker "goons" and futuristic crypto-anarchy. However, it can be interesting as a slightly less morbid alternative to the popular Grand Theft Auto, against which it is generally much more optimistic.
Review in Czech | Read full review