During the recent Ubisoft Forward livestream event, Ubisoft gave us a brand new look at Watch Dogs: Legion, and the NPCs that we can recruit. I think that these characters are really interesting, because they all seem to have abilities that make them useful in meaningful ways. As long as there is enough variety in their abilities, I can see this game being a smash hit.
While this trailer contains much more information about Watch Dogs: Legion, I want to focus on the NPCs we’re seen to have control over. One is a contract building site worker. He has a massive wrench which acts as his melee weapon, and the ability to call a construction drone. With this drone he can fly over obstacles almost entirely undetected, but once he lands he’s a bit obvious because of his high-vis jacket. No worries, he has a nail gun which he uses to shoot people.
If that doesn’t sound good, then there’s a drone specialist who can get in and out of pretty much any location without being detected. There’s also a bruiser who hangs out in the pub and loves to fight, though he doesn’t seem like a decent option since he has some sort of tendency to pass out. Moving on, we also see a hitman, a turncoat soldier of Albion, and even an old granny who fancies her chances at taking on the regime.
With each of these characters, Ubisoft has done a great job of giving them equipment that suits their personality, and makes them useful in the field. A hitman is always going to be useful but he’s also quiet. A construction worker is great for getting into building sites, but a drone hacker is definitely your best stealth option. when it comes to being beyond suspicion, the converted Albion soldier is definitely the way to go, and the granny might even work quite well if you’ve got a bunch of troops who don’t want to punch a pensioner.
The only issue I can foresee is that this is the breadth of abilities in the game. In a city where every NPC can be brought on board for the cause, you need much more variety to make the decision of which one to play as a key part of the game. I think that the game’s delay may have had something to do with pushing the number of abilities, but we may never know if that was truly the case.
So far, Watch Dogs: Legion looks fantastic, and I’m very excited to get my hands on it and play it. As long as the scope of the game is as large as they’re making it out to be, we’re onto a winner here.
