Earlier today, Ubisoft revealed a lot of new info about what players can expect from Watch Dogs: Legion, even after they finish the campaign. The upcoming open-world sandbox game is the third in the Watch Dogs series, taking the action across the pond to a version of London overtaken by an authoritarian government. The big hook for players is a procedurally generated cast of Londoners players can recruit from anywhere in the city. Outside of that, the main crux of the gameplay remains, with players using their elite hacker skills to take over intersections, sneak past guards, and unravel city-wide conspiracies in bite-size open-world missions.
Ubisoft seems to want to make Watch Dogs: Legion a game that players stick with long after they're done with the campaign, keeping it in line with the recent trend of providing live services to all its releases. The previous two games in the series relied on paid DLC add-ons that expanded the story of each entry's unique characters. With all the characters in Legion set to be nondescript custom citizens that can die permanently if the player chooses rather than story-defined heroes, the model of continuing the story from wherever it leaves off is less appealing than expanding in several other directions. That seems to be exactly what Ubisoft plans to do.
As revealed in an official trailer from Ubisoft, players will have plenty to explore after their main adventure is done in Watch Dogs: Legion. Launching on December 3 (just over a month after the game launches), the online mode will let players log into London with up to three friends for co-op play. There will be new missions with co-op mechanics, raid-like Tactical Ops that will challenge a full party, and plenty of opportunities for open-world mischief. For less cooperative action, the game will also introduce two more ways to interact online. Invasions return from the previous Watch Dogs, letting players log into one another's open world and try to hack them without being spotted. This will return to the game sometime after the December 3 update, but there will be one mode that is available on that date. Spiderbot Arena is a deathmatch mode where players control tiny drones armed to the teeth with weapons and explosives.
These new online modes certainly seem like a departure from traditional Watch Dogs gameplay, and Ubisoft promises more PvP-style modes in the future. What they could entail is still unknown, but given the unique premise of Watch Dogs: Legion and the entire franchise it's a part of, there's good reason to hope for more inventive modes down the line.
In addition to all the online activities that will try to stretch out Watch Dogs: Legion for fans, Ubisoft has also announced that the season pass will tie the game into the Assassin's Creed universe via a crossover character. Considering how close the publisher got to doing this with Far Cry 3 back in the day, it's interesting to see Ubisoft attempting to bridge the gap between its disparate franchises. Ubisoft runs the risk of making its games seem even more similar than they already are, but it could also be great fan service for the type of gamer who would subscribe to Ubisoft's subscription service.
Watch Dogs: Legion releases on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Google Stadia, and PC on October 29. The game will also be a launch title for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
Source: Ubisoft