Playing on Iron Man mode raised the stakes exponentially, as I couldn’t allow myself to be careless when approaching any given mission scenario. If all operatives are killed and there’s nobody remaining, game over. To up the stakes, players can turn on Iron Man mode, which locks the campaign in permadeath. Players can toggle this on, meaning that any operative killed in combat is gone forever. What I found fascinating was Watch Dogs: Legion’s permadeath mode. I found myself constantly swapping between characters in order to find whatever DedSec operative was best suited for a given mission. Play as anyone takes this concept and multiplies it by 50. The franchise has always given players the power of choice, letting them run into a mission with guns blazing, or completing the same mission without ever setting foot in restricted territory or harming a soul. It completely transformed the way I approached any Albion mission. I’d simply walk right into any heavily protected facility, just needing to act natural in order to keep my cover. That Albion officer became my go-to character for nearly the entire Albion arc of missions in the Watch Dogs: Legion campaign. I was then able to recruit him into the hacker group. After learning what I’d done for him, the officer was no longer negative towards DedSec. I went and found the blackmailer, erased their files, deeming them powerless over the aforementioned Albion officer. After diving into his profile, I discovered that somebody was blackmailing him with some personal information. With his occupation, he already had a negative view on DedSec. During my playthrough, I saw an Albion officer (Watch Dogs: Legion’s militarized police force) harassing folks on the corner of a busy street. It’s the integration of this feature that makes Watch Dogs: Legion a blast. This will also allow players to enter areas restricted to construction workers without having to sneak and hide behind cover. If an NPC is a construction worker, recruiting them may yield a nail gun weapon, as well as a personal cargo drone that players can summon to lift themselves into the skies. In Watch Dogs: Legion, a character’s occupation and hobbies are directly tied to how they play. However, this was always a feature that never went further than the occasional laugh. Since Aiden Pearce first took to the streets in the original game, players have been able to scan and hack data on any character, revealing unique personal information and details about any given citizen. Instead, players are able to recruit practically any NPC they come across and play as them, allowing anybody to be the hero.īeing able to play as anybody truly delivers on the promise of Watch Dogs. Unlike past entries in the series, Watch Dogs: Legion has no set protagonist. The focal selling point of Watch Dogs: Legion is its “play as anyone” mechanic. While it lacks the emotional swing of Watch Dogs 2, it’s a pretty solid story following our favorite group of hackers. The simple question of “who was really behind the Zero Day attack?” is one that kept me guessing until the very end. It’s a story that delves into political intrigue, drama, and betrayal. Now, players are tasked with rebuilding DedSec’s ranks, and must recruit characters from all walks of life via the new “play as anyone” mechanic. Following a terrorist attack on Parliament, DedSec is falsely accused as the perpetrating party, leading to harsher surveillance laws being enacted, and a large portion of London’s population seeing DedSec as a terrorist group. Taking place in the bustling city of London, Watch Dogs: Legion once again follows the hacker group DedSec, this time fighting to clear their name. Watch Dogs: Legion leaves the United States behind in favor of a European setting. Watch Dogs: Legion is the third outing for Ubisoft’s open-world hacking franchise, and it’s the developer’s biggest swing yet. 2014’s Watch Dogs received lukewarm responses from both critics and fans, and Watch Dogs 2 also underperformed, despite a much more positive critical response. It also happens to be one that has struggled to find its footing. Watch Dogs is still relatively young in the pantheon of ongoing AAA game franchises.