Watch Dogs: Legion, Ubisoft's newest open-world action game, features water physics that are still inferior to their 2013 title Assassin's Creed: Black Flag. The Watch Dogs series began in 2014 and focuses on the use of hacking to navigate a very gritty and slightly futuristic version of our world. Watch Dogs: Legion significantly changes up the series' formula by allowing the player to pursue, recruit and then play as almost any non-player character in the game world.
Watch Dogs: Legion has been praised for its unique and innovative recruitment system, which allows almost any non-player character to become a playable character. However, the game's graphics have also been praised for bringing Ubisoft's futuristic version of London to life. The game is truly impressive when running on Xbox Series X in 4K, so many fans are waiting to play until they can experience the game on next-gen consoles. The game also makes effective use of ray tracing technology to enhance lighting and reflections, making London even more immersive and believable. Ray tracing will only be available on next-gen versions of the game, but PC players can enjoy the feature immediately.
Despite the game's impressive technology, Reddit user Utkarsh5474 has drawn attention to the fact that Watch Dogs: Legion features poor water physics when compared to 2013's Assassin's Creed: Black Flag. A video posted to Reddit demonstrates how water in Black Flag reacts realistically, swirling and splashing around protagonist Edward Kenway in a fluid and believable manner. The video then shows how water in Legion behaves much more artificially, creating random splashes behind the player character's back as they run.
Some other aspects of Watch Dogs: Legion's performance have been criticized after release. as well. Early reports indicated that Legion was causing overheating issues on the Xbox One X, resulting in the console crashing. However, Ubisoft was well aware of the issue even before launch and put out a hotfix that fixed the problem completely. Watch Dogs: Legion's source code also leaked very soon after the game launched - the series' focus on hackers making the fact that it had itself been hacked a little ironic. Given the game's unique recruitment system, it is expected that a prolific modding community will be born from the leak.
Ubisoft has often been criticized for a lack of innovation, and this rings true when one compares the water physics in its brand new game against a game released in 2013. However, mechanically Watch Dogs: Legion is a very innovative title, and on next-gen hardware it appears to run beautifully. It should also be noted that water was a huge focus in Assassin's Creed: Black Flag, a game focused on sailing around on a pirate ship, so it should be expected that the water physics in that game were ahead of their time. With next-gen consoles coming soon, it is likely that Watch Dogs: Legion will receive an extensive graphical upgrade.
Watch Dogs: Legion is available now on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. The game will also feature as a launch title on Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5.
Source: Reddit