Watch Dogs Legion

One of the most impressive E3 demos I’ve played in years

- By Samuel Roberts

Let me tell you about Abe Welch. He’s a hired goon who is now in a hospital. I put him there after performing a melee takedown on him during a mission in Watch Dogs Legion. It was at this point I decided to save him to my collection of tracked people in the game.

A menu screen tells me he hates Dedsec, no surprise after I knocked him out. But, having hacked into the hospital, I can now prioritize his care, which will begin to change his mind. From there I can help him with the other troubles in his life, like his sister who’s being harassed. Eventually I will have the chance to win Abe to my cause. If all goes well, he’ll have gone from being a random enemy goon to my new playable character.

Watch Dogs Legion has no default protagonist. Those rumors about being able to play as any ‘NPC’ in the game were true—while it takes a little work to recruit each individual to Dedsec, you build up a pool of swappable playable characters. As the Ubisoft E3 conference demo showed, the story will play out with whichever character you chose, voice-acted cutscenes and all. There is a major, brave twist to this however—if that character dies in combat, they are gone forever. Permadeath is now a major part of the Watch Dogs experience. You’ll have a chance to surrender to your enemies so that doesn’t always happen, but I did experience it in my 45-minute demo. I recruited a person, watched her liberate Camden Market from goons (and put Abe Welch in the hospital), then saw her get double crossed and shot dead in front of a massive security force. I was a little bit attached. The game’s big idea is working.