Watchdogs legion
Platform: Xbox One, Series,Playstation 4 & 5,PC
Release: October 2020
Developer: Ubisoft
Graphics Its a beautiful depiction of modern day London city but less interaction with buildings indoors e.g unlike AC syndicate and Unity which partially allow you to get inside some buildings as you explore in Legions you buy clothes while standing outside the store. Whereas in synonymous open world titles such as GTAV you walk inside the store and go even as far as the clothing rake and choose what type of clothing you want to wear. To some degree we shouldn't ask for total realism but when a video game is trying to simulate real life at least it shouldn't fail in some obvious aspects. The Raytracing is not convincing nor a big deal a bit more on that a little later.
Female and male character main character models look unpolished compared to the likes of Ghost recon Wild lands and breakpoint, they seem to have received less attention to detail. Understandably your main protagonists are derived from multiple npc character models of your choice (you randomly pickup on the street) which to me is rather too ambitious from Ubisoft considering how they have to make lots of variances to make the characters distinct. Which leads to failing to capture character detail resulting in rather generic last generation looking models that are more of fillers than actual protagonists. At least Mass Effect approach would have been better to have a clearly defined team. I must also say this generation has not impressed me at all with over 95% of the games as they just look like frame boosted last generation games. The only game that carries that wow factor for me is Horizon Forbidden West and its the best looking current gen title in my opinion. I wouldn't consider Cyberpunk as the best looking current gen title as some would do because it seems to heavily rely on high end pc gaming cards which are basically for the 1% gamers.
Before we leave this topic its good to mention things such as how good the audio is:
Its like when you walk out of a car and close the door leaving the radio on you can tell how the sound is distinct between inside and outside.
And how your character drinks. Some attention to detail worthy of recognition and mention at least.
Gameplay
The gameplay is so much fun and the best part of the game. Its best played with the graphical setting to balanced mode within the game.
30fps (see video above) is very sluggish and on console I clearly did not see the benefits of Ray tracing 30fps.It may not be bad for you if you are used to 30fps as it doesn't feel unstable but I cant handle it. This game fulfills what Watch Dogs 2 lacked on console which was the 60fps performance mode. Gameplays between the two is largely identical in almost every respect with the excerption of that you are using multiple main characters while in the other you have one single all in one character. There's a couple of other fun stuff to mention such as recruiting from the streets characters with certain abilities that are applicable in certain missions.
Like any open world game you are bound to encounter bugs such as the anomaly above. However its important to note that its not an everyday recurrence but those are one time rare moments so not to worry about. Above we mentioned how good Rockstar game worlds are but I would say Watch Dogs Legion plays better than Rockstar third person games combined i.e Red Dead Redemption 2 included. Its almost like. FIFA and e-Football situation where you have one game with slightly weird rigid character movement whereas the other being more fluid. You would expect this fluidity from an Ubisoft game because of the Assassins Creed DNA in their open world games.
The game also has simple controls and many ways to approach a mission. The hacking is excellent as always Physical combat a tone of fun. So while it would take me more paragraphs and paragraphs to give more detail this is briefly what one can expect, gameplay is the core part of the game fun experience.
Story Ubisoft games stories are always good and rich in my opinion. When you look at AC games, and Tom Clancy Ghost Recon games you are by and large left impressed with the story paths. It has a purpose and is educative about modern day realities on AI tech, politics human trafficking etc. I found this game better than the previous entry in that the previous felt like a bunch of kids wanting to prove a point to the world from where Aiden Pearce left of in the first Watch Dogs. I couldn't connect with Watch Dogs 2 at all. It felt off for me. Still on this, this is more of a personal preference you may not see or feel this way.
In closing I want to mention for myself that I don't get review codes nor sponsorships and there are positives I embrace in such a position because I am not tied to appeasing the one paying the bills by giving shill reviews. There are also negatives yes because you are hardly noticed and its all from your pocket. Also I don't review games for clicks because it has just come out so I have to race to get clicks or speed-run it. Thing is you honestly need time with every new game (new to you) you haven't played because sometimes you see findings you wouldn't have come across with reviewing early or speed-running. Thats why at times I mention that its still "early thoughts" or i chat about a game months/year later even if I got it day one. Some games pick up later on, some you may understand them better with a second play through like in my case i found Uncharted 4 to be very nice after the second playthrough. I have friends here who get the bangers every time they come out but they either choose to review or not or maybe at their own time its their choice. You are also invited to come through and give us your thoughts on games without being a jerk of course and when you feel like leaving you are always free even if you want your work taken off as you leave. There are also good reviewers on this platform even better literature you should checkout their work and shout out to them. So I just review what I haven't played at my own time and pace giving an honest opinion. Lifestyle also determines as and when you can have time to chat about games. With that said you are guaranteed I am not not out to impress any company or group of people its my thoughts its subjective. Cheers.
Pros
Fantastic gameplay
Good Story
Cons
No generational leap in graphics
Less detail on characters
RT minimal to no effect
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