What are your views on Watch Dogs: Legion ?

[Rynwar]

I like Watch Dogs: Legion but I didn't like some its direction. Example managing every character we see,our prevents empathize with character.what are your views?

 

[Frag Maniac]

There's a lot of game design decisions Ubisoft has been making lately that are not to my liking. What I find off putting about Legion is they're taking what once was a serious game about a guy fighting against a big tech corporation, and turning it into a corny, tongue and cheek comedy. I don't want a game that has tons of characters, including some that are clearly more for comedy than anything, like a guy wearing a pig's head mask, or a grandma.

That said, it's not surprising after seeing them turn Ghost Recon into a game with a fictional vs real world setting, with a very sci fi story about a villain with a drone army. They also completely disrespected the Splinter Cell fanbase by making us wait several years for another installment, only to come out with a cartoon mobile version of Sam Fisher in a game they recently released. Ubisoft ae slowly but surely self destructing.

 

[drunkpunk]

I enjoyed the first watch dogs alright, didn't play the second one, but picked up ubisoft+ because I'm just dying of boredom right now. I find it to be almost fun, but not quite. I really can't stand this whole rotating roster of characters idea that this one and a couple other games have come up with. It goes a long way to keep me from feeling any real connection or care about any of the characters. The gameplay is a little repetitive and largely uninteresting to me, the upgrade paths seem kind of boring, and the story doesn't really grab me at all. I'm probably going to uninstall it once AC comes out.

Also, yeah, I generally agree with Frag about Ubisoft. I find most of their games to be quite pretty, but quite shallow and dull in terms of gameplay and storylines I just can't bring myself to care about. The Division was the closest I got to enjoying one of their franchises, but what they did with the sequel just really put me off. Far Cry is really the only franchise I look forward to, and it's more for the coop than anything.

 

[Rynwar]

There's a lot of game design decisions Ubisoft has been making lately that are not to my liking. What I find off putting about Legion is they're taking what once was a serious game about a guy fighting against a big tech corporation, and turning it into a corny, tongue and cheek comedy. I don't want a game that has tons of characters, including some that are clearly more for comedy than anything, like a guy wearing a pig's head mask, or a grandma.

That said, it's not surprising after seeing them turn Ghost Recon into a game with a fictional vs real world setting, with a very sci fi story about a villain with a drone army. They also completely disrespected the Splinter Cell fanbase by making us wait several years for another installment, only to come out with a cartoon mobile version of Sam Fisher in a game they recently released. Ubisoft ae slowly but surely self destructing.

I agree with you. I want a new Splinter Cell. Watch Dogs is a very controversial game.

 

[Rynwar]

I enjoyed the first watch dogs alright, didn't play the second one, but picked up ubisoft+ because I'm just dying of boredom right now. I find it to be almost fun, but not quite. I really can't stand this whole rotating roster of characters idea that this one and a couple other games have come up with. It goes a long way to keep me from feeling any real connection or care about any of the characters. The gameplay is a little repetitive and largely uninteresting to me, the upgrade paths seem kind of boring, and the story doesn't really grab me at all. I'm probably going to uninstall it once AC comes out.

Also, yeah, I generally agree with Frag about Ubisoft. I find most of their games to be quite pretty, but quite shallow and dull in terms of gameplay and storylines I just can't bring myself to care about. The Division was the closest I got to enjoying one of their franchises, but what they did with the sequel just really put me off. Far Cry is really the only franchise I look forward to, and it's more for the coop than anything.

Ubisoft was my favorite company in the past .I used to love old AC games, farc cry, but now Ubisoft is trying to make money rather than make good games. I hope it will return to its old state.

 

[Rynwar]

By the way, sorry for my English, I'm just learning English

 

[Johnway]

I'll probably eventually get Watchdogs legion, but i doubt it will be any time soon. The opinions haven't been exactly glowing and especially the potential technical issues I'm in no rush to get it until they patch it. Plus, i need to finish Watch Dogs 2.

All things considered, if its more of the same, im ok for that, but if they expect me to buy new release price for the same game, they can forget it. Especially if there's going to be DLC/season passes somewhere down the line.

 

[Rynwar]

I'll probably eventually get Watchdogs legion, but i doubt it will be any time soon. The opinions haven't been exactly glowing and especially the potential technical issues I'm in no rush to get it until they patch it. Plus, i need to finish Watch Dogs 2.

All things considered, if its more of the same, im ok for that, but if they expect me to buy new release price for the same game, they can forget it. Especially if there's going to be DLC/season passes somewhere down the line.

Watch Dogs 2 is a nice game. I think there is a lot of difference between Watch Dogs 2 and Legion both in quality and gameplay.

 

[Johnway]

Watch Dogs 2 is a nice game. I think there is a lot of difference between Watch Dogs 2 and Legion both in quality and gameplay.

truth be told i haven't really been paying attention to it. the few glimpses of legion of gameplay mechanics has peaked my interest. But so has the news articles about messed up save games. I live near london ( a 45minute train ride) and will be pretty interested how it looks in game. on the surface, it looks promising. A bit miffed as to why we didn't get more of london tbh. No Canary wharf is very disappointing but meh, i'll need to play it to see how it feels.

 

[Rynwar]

truth be told i haven't really been paying attention to it. the few glimpses of legion of gameplay mechanics has peaked my interest. But so has the news articles about messed up save games. I live near london ( a 45minute train ride) and will be pretty interested how it looks in game. on the surface, it looks promising. A bit miffed as to why we didn't get more of london tbh. No Canary wharf is very disappointing but meh, i'll need to play it to see how it feels.

I have never been to London and it is far from where I live. But everyone who does a game review liked it very much. If you go to London, I would appreciate it if you write your opinion on this comparison.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Watch Dogs 2 is a nice game. I think there is a lot of difference between Watch Dogs 2 and Legion both in quality and gameplay.

Watch Dogs 2 is where they first started steering the franchise the wrong direction though, making it too comedic and not visceral enough. It has a cast of young kids, the dialog is often cheeky, the missions are often ridiculous, like plastering graffiti all over the place. Even most of the combat scenarios are not nearly as realistic or challenging as WD 1.

It's a shame too, because they put in a lot of things I wished Watch Dogs 1 had when I was playing it, like functional cranes and mobile scissor lifts for navigation purposes. It was clear to me when I started playing WD 2 though that they had made some really bad decisions to appeal to the young console crowd. Once a developer goes down that road, they rarely go back.

These are telltale signs a developer has gone the route of thinking more about profits than the quality of their games. Most of the people I talk to anymore whom have played a lot of Ubisoft games agree that they are no longer the great dev team they used to be. I can't help but think a lot of the reason for it is they wanted to become so big so fast. They have so many employees and dev teams all over the world now, that there's not much cohesive quality control anymore.

 

[190pja]

I bought it. Not really sure why...slow Friday.
Alas. Not into it. Its a bit too. Political in a present tense. And it turns me off, as I don't find it fun.. Not that a political tone bothers me. Disco Elysium I enjoy the writing. Watch Dog....not so much.

Maybe its because big tech companies trying so hard to be my liberal friend. Not for me, doesn't seem genuine. Saying that. The tech in the game, its a good idea what self driving cars will be like

 

[Zloth]

@190pja - yeah, I found that in WD2, too. Getting preachy about privacy security can be done right but WD2 was having a character that's stealing a dozen cars a day and murdering quite a few people do it, which didn't work at all for me. Luckily, there was quite a lot of other fun stuff going on.

These are telltale signs a developer has gone the route of thinking more about profits than the quality of their games.

No, that's a telltale sign that they are trying to appeal to me rather than you. I've got no interest at all in WD1 but WD2 wasn't bad. I'm looking forward to playing Legions (after it's had a year or so to fix bugs and release DLC).

 

[Frag Maniac]

No, that's a telltale sign that they are trying to appeal to me rather than you. I've got no interest at all in WD1 but WD2 wasn't bad. I'm looking forward to playing Legions (after it's had a year or so to fix bugs and release DLC).

I never claimed that comment applies to everyone. I have my right to speak my opinion just like anyone else here.

That said., I would think the points I made about the direction of the story going from a very serious, family tragedy, revenge tone, to one of the campy antics of a kid cast rather makes my point, that they care far more now about appealing to the young console crowd to pull in money, than to tell an engaging and believable story. That's the part of pretty much all of their games that's going south the most.

At any rate, the thread topic is primarily about Legions, so we're getting a bit off topic here. Maybe you'll get what OP and I are saying once you play it.

 

[Rynwar]

@190pja - yeah, I found that in WD2, too. Getting preachy about privacy security can be done right but WD2 was having a character that's stealing a dozen cars a day and murdering quite a few people do it, which didn't work at all for me. Luckily, there was quite a lot of other fun stuff going on.


No, that's a telltale sign that they are trying to appeal to me rather than you. I've got no interest at all in WD1 but WD2 wasn't bad. I'm looking forward to playing Legions (after it's had a year or so to fix bugs and release DLC).

I think WD Legion incomplete a game than WD2

 

[Hz42]

The thing that I wish for is better character progression and customization- why would you care about a character you can't level up, or really even change except into some bland clothing? Legion is just a game that leaves you having a lot of fun blowing crap up, wondering why you are literally hitting the exact same spots over and over again for the so-called random missions, wishing that you had more emotional attachment to your team, wondering why the hell your so-called team can never assist on anything you are working on (like how hard would it be to have a team mate act as an overwatch element, provide covering fire etc--- you've got drones galore running around the map already. ) XCOM (there, I said it) got the formula right: you have a complete noob that makes good on a mission, you get to kit them out any way you like, they become an epic part of your team-- a go-to part of war party... and then they may or may not die. The point being, UBISOFT, the player becomes emotionally invested in the narrative. That continues to be a problem for Ubisoft in game after game- they just can't seem to grasp how to make characters that capture people's imagination. Figure that one out and you've got yourself one amazing future as a gaming company.

And I'm sorry, but Bagley is not remotely funny. I enjoy the granny with the .357 and plenty more, but Bagley is like a bitchy Brit version of Kit from Knight Rider (and with that comment I believe we've established my age demographic)

 

[Zloth]

Just finished it. I was going to make a new topic to talk about it, but the topic search sniffed this out, so I'll just post here.

I liked it a lot, but it made some seriously stupid mistakes at the end. Luckily for y'awl, the worst one can be easily avoided if you know it's coming.

PC Gamer's review is here: Watch Dogs Legion review | PC Gamer

Christopher is right when he mentions the dissonance between the main character in WD2's actions in game and how he comes off in the story. I mentioned it above, too. In WD3 that goes away because you've got multiple characters, and there aren't really a lot of opportunities for them to have large hunks of dialog. They still do get personalities, though, largely through game play. My characters that were more into non-lethal were used most of the time but, when I got mad, grandma hypnotist or a character that could turn drones against their owners got called in to rain death down on the unworthy.

Unlike Christopher, I like the circuit puzzles. It didn't seem like there were nearly as many as I saw in WD2 and the ones with a time limit were more rare, too. I thought it was fun to have to run around, flipping switches as I tried to stay alive under a boss' attacks.

Something Christopher didn't mention that really ticked me off came near the ending. After you make your way to the gate of one of the main boss' inner sanctums, you're told you need to pick a member to do the boss fight. You won't be able to switch team members out. Problem is, you've got NO CLUE what's down there. Are there more layers of security that will need hacking? Is it going to be a dual to the death with a bullet sponge? Turns out, it's very battle oriented. I went in with a gal more suited toward stealth and non-lethal take downs.

And when they say you can't switch, they aren't kidding. You can't even switch your weapons and gadgets out. What's more, there's only one save, so forget about re-loading a previous save so you can pick a different operative. You finish with that character or you quit the game completely, all based on a totally blind choice! GRADE A STUPID!

Then, as an encore, it does it again. But, you know what? It doesn't matter to you, because I'll just tell you: bring in operatives that can deal out and take damage - hacking skills will be of little use beyond hacking a few turrets, which everyone will likely be able to do by that point in the game. There, problem fixed! You live in an enlightened age. (It actually does it a third time, right at the end - but those missions can be done by any operative.)

Another minus would be the crashing, which I was getting roughly once every 5 hours (at a guess). Oh, and a couple of side missions were practically undoable without checking online. Find 3 mansions with protests in front of them over the whole map? This map is BIG! You could at least tell us which part of town its in, Ubi.

The core game play was great fun for me. Here's a building full of baddies (that you can hire if you aren't especially mean to them). Here's a little gold mark where you have to get yourself, or maybe just your spider bot, or maybe just any drone. Here's a bunch of skills you can use to make your way in. Oh, and some of the buildings are famous London landmarks. Go to it. I can do that for hours! About 70 hours by Ubi's count. I enjoyed it so much that I was grabbing tech points just for fun, even after I bought every tech skill in the game!

I didn't touch the DLC or the online gameplay. (I did have to install some anti-cheat software, though, just in case I did decide to play online. Grrrrr.)

Over all, I would give it an 85. I probably would have given it a 90 if I wasn't tricked into bringing a stun gun to a machinegun fight and forced to live with it.

P.S. And I liked Bagley! He wasn't LOL funny, but he was good!

 

[Mazer]

I agree with @Zloth (and by extension Dr. Livingstone) that the lack of a fully fleshed out PC went a long way to repairing the ludonarrative dissonance (love that term) that had crept into the series with WD2. Marcus was just such an upbeat, positive character that tooling him up with lethal weapons and crushing gang members beneath remote controlled forklifts felt completely out of place. The non-lethal options were generous enough, but playing the game that way meant limiting yourself deliberately in a way I'm terrible at. With the broad cast of characters you can assemble in WD:L you can headcanon your own lethal and non-lethal characters, so switching between them meant changing up your playstyle completely which helped keep things fresh, for me anyway, and allowed for a more diverse cast of characters than you'd usually see in a AAA game.

I understand the tonal issues people took with it, but the overall theme of corporate/government oversight and totalitarianism felt like a logical progression for the game universe to me. And the range of European dialects were a welcome change from the usual North American characters we usually hear in games.

So, not a 10/10 game by any stretch, but a worth addition to the series for my money. Having ducked out of the Splinter Cell series with Blacklist and the Tom Clancy games sometime around Vegas 2, I've actually appreciated most of the shifts in the ongoing Ubisoft IPs to be honest. I'm a little concerned about AC Infinite as I've never been comfortable with games as a service, but I've got a strong feeling that it'll end up spawning side entries in that universe rather than actually being the final destination that they're describing.