WATCH DOGS LEGION
They can’t take all of us!
Format PS4 ETA 2020 Pub Ubisoft Toronto Dev Ubisoft
Perhaps it’s fitting that Ubisoft’s Brexit simulator has been delayed. But while we’re still none the wiser as to what our actual future holds, Legion’s dystopian vision of London is more certain. In this timeline, Brexit was done and dusted by March 2019. An advanced surveillance state has arisen in its wake, powered by series big bad the Blume corporation and its tech, ctOS. The Metropolitan police have cleared off but private security company Albion has taken their place, leaving citizens with an especially raw deal. However, hacker collective DedSec is here too – and it’s your task to expand it.
The British capital is full of people, each one a possible recruit. As you’re going about your
DedSec business, you can whip out your phone and scan your fellow Londoners to see what they could bring to the cause. These aren’t your garden variety Non-Player Characters; everyone is a Potentially Playable Character.
As we’re attempting to keep a low profile in Westminster, someone catches our eye. The infamous Helen Dashwood isn’t quite as spry as our younger recruits but Grandma may be just the ticket we need when it comes to stealthier operations. Besides, who would expect a sweet old lady to be a dab hand with a spider drone? From our phone, we add her profile to our contacts for later.
Let’s just hope she doesn’t have the trait that can cause your operatives to die randomly…
UP THE JUNCTION
Every Londoner has an opinion on DedSec’s operation, some more positive than others. Maybe one of your operatives was especially bloodthirsty during a mission, or perhaps they noodled around with a gas main that exploded just as an innocent bystander walked past. When you kill someone, whether they worked for Albion or not, their friends and family will feel their absence.
Sometimes the recruitment process will require redressing that balance. Say they have a family member – injured by a faulty gas main, perhaps – in the hospital. You could tinker with some systems and see that their care is prioritised. Or maybe Albion has some sensitive information that the person you’re courting for the resistance would rather they didn’t possess. Well, then you need to break into the relevant Albion base and wipe the necessary servers.
Speaking of Albion, you can even recruit members of the private security firm to give yourself an additional edge in combat – though, as you’d expect, they’re tough nuts to crack when it comes to changing their opinion of DedSec.
HACK ‘N’ DASH
You’re probably beginning to see the advantages in not going in all guns blazing. While you can mow down your enemies, this can make things more difficult for you in the long run. Permadeath not only means that once your operatives go down, they’re out for good, it also means you permanently lose potential recruits. The non-violent option can be better. As well as using Augmented Reality tech to cloak your presence and approach missions stealthily, you can deploy non-lethal takedowns rather than straight-up killing enemies.
And that’s before we’ve started considering the tech you can get your grubby little hacker mitts on. Our favourite way to make an entrance has got to be clambering onto a larger delivery shipment drone and riding it like a bumbling, oversized hoverboard. But you can also engineer a distraction by pinging enemies’ phones or create a diversion and cover for yourself by hacking vehicles. In this always-connected London, there’s plenty to explore, and you can take in the sights of the city at your leisure next year.
“THE BRITISH CAPITAL IS FULL OF PEOPLE, EACH ONE A POSSIBLE RECRUIT.”