Watch Dogs has always had a good concept. It was a really cool idea to interact with almost every technological gadget you see around you. Although the first game of the series implemented this idea nicely, the fun factor of the game was completely forgotten. We can say that the second game added more to the first game in terms of fun and variety. As we have seen from the first trailers released, we have a sequel based on the 2nd game.
The story of the game takes place in the period of collapse of the UK economy, which is suffering from artificial intelligence in the near future. We start the story as Dalton Wolfe, a member of the hacker group DedSec. We are trying to prevent the plans of a group called "Zero Day", which is planning to demolish the Parliament Building with explosives. However, just as it will neutralize the explosives, Zero Day plunges the city into chaos by detonating additional explosives it has placed around London. Dalton, who we saw in the game for a short time, was killed before he could provide evidence that Dedsec was not even remotely involved with the bombings, and the crime is entirely on Dedsec. After this explosion, the British government makes a deal with Albion, a private company, to get London in order. Since the culprit of these explosions is also seen as DedSec, the group cannot be as active as before and is forced to retreat into its shell. As a member of the DedSec group, we recruit new members to our team in order to get rid of the slander against us and try to remove this black stain on behalf of our group.
Pros
+ Different character control
+ Controlling each NPC separately is a great innovation
+ 2. Minor improvements have been made to the game
+ Provides you plenty of variety with its talent tree
+ London looks great
Cons
- Driving and character mechanics
- Repetitive task structure based on the same foundation
Environment and Character
After the introduction of the game is over, a screen appears for us to choose our character. Each character has a different special ability. For example; When a character is called, there is an engine that appears right next to us, while in another, hacking times are reduced. This provides you a great deal of convenience in your tasks. I personally chose a character with a motor to experience vehicle driving mechanics. After completing your choices, you start touring the beautiful streets of London. When we look at the city in terms of detail, it is very nice and satisfying. It makes you feel as if you are really in London as you step through the streets of the game. The map is quite large and there are plenty of places to go. Since there are plenty of side missions in the game, you can find tons of things to spend time and deal with. Speaking of the city, I also want to touch on driving dynamics. Frankly, the game disappointed me a bit when it comes to driving dynamics. If you ask why, almost nothing has contributed to Watch Dogs 2's driving dynamics. 2. The clumsiness of the game continues in this game, unfortunately. While using any vehicle, it seems that the weight of that vehicle has not been reflected in the game.
Optimization and graphics
I think we came to the event that bothers me the most in the game. Optimization. I don't know if this problem is only related to me, but I had to experience Watch Dogs Legion with an average of 45 FPS. Not to mention the loading times of the game and in-game hang-ups. I can say that this incident severely undermined my gaming experience. As I said, this may be a situation solely due to me. However, this does not change the fact that the graphics of the game are nice and the color palette is used. However, I think that this problem can be overcome with future updates by Ubisoft, and more importantly, it should come.
Recruitment system and characters
Let's come to the most striking point of Watch Dogs Legion. Every NPC you see in the game is in position of a playable character. So let's say you are bored and want to change characters, you can play a grandmother who goes and waits for a bus. However, they said that every good thing has a price. We can see how true this statement is in Watch Dogs: Legion. Because in order to add the character that we have envisioned to our team, you have to fulfill what that character asks from you. I have to say that I am satisfied with this subject. I've added more than 10 characters to my team and I haven't encountered a repetitive task in any of them. These missions are likely to repeat as the game progresses, but I can say that they keep the task pool at a sufficient level. Does this mean that we will take part every time we add new members to the team? Fortunately not. Because the NPCs you help in random incidents on the streets of London agree to join your team directly. This prevented the repetition of the character task and ensured that the range of different characters was kept widely. Let's not go without specifying this
As I mentioned at the beginning, the characters we manage have some features that make them stand out. For example, when you choose an assassin, you start swinging flying kicks in close combat. But this hits a downside to your hacking abilities. The same is true for NPCs with high hacking abilities. But since there are too many characters in the game that you do not want, it is necessary not to get caught up in such small details. At the same time, I would like to point out that when you develop a skill in the skill tree, these improvements affect all characters. In a way, this prevents you from dealing with each character separately. In other words, we can say that you are actually increasing the abilities of the DeadSec group, not the character.
However, this does not mean that there are no shortcomings in the characters. For example, there are so many characters that you can play in the game that, after a while, more than one character is voiced by the same people, and it leaves a feeling that you are playing the same character. Moreover, there seems to be a voiceover problem in both some characters and the game in general. Dialogues and portraits are far from natural and artificial. For example, the first character I chose when starting the game had almost no English accent. He was trying to try, but I can't say he was very successful. I can say that this recruitment system also prevents sticking to a single character in games like me. So when there are so many characters, you cannot empathize with the person you direct. There is also character customization in the game, but there are so many characters in the game that you don't even need to customize the characters you play.
Equipment
There are equipment that appeals to everyone in the game. From electronic brass knuckles to invisibility cloak. I can say that this adds to the style of gameplay. You can improve the equipment with the money you earn from the in-game missions and the open world. This means you have to update each equipment separately. In short, I can say that the equipment offered in the game was quite sufficient.
Task diversity
Yes, let's come to the game's missions and task variety part. Although the story of the game tries to tell something in an entertaining language, these narratives are greatly overshadowed by the repetitive tasks. For example, we go to take charge, we start with fun, humorous dialogues. Later, the tasks you need to do are restricted so much that almost every task begins to look alike. To give an example; You are taking on a story-oriented assignment, you are asked to hack the assigned location and propagate DedSec. Although these may sound fun at first, they are repeated later. Although the tasks on paper are different, they basically remain the same. So, in my opinion, a task should not just be hacking a door with your phone and trying to kill an enemy secretly and complete the mission. We can also use spiders and drones as equipment in the game, but basically everything we do is the same. The only difference is that we do these jobs sometimes in different equipment and locations. Unfortunately, I cannot say that they did a very catchy job on Watch Dogs 2 in terms of story. However, there is a situation that the game's Multiplayer mode was not available at the time of writing this review. Missions would be more fun in the multiplayer mode, maybe who knows?
Result
I commented on Watch Dogs 2, the game that Ubisoft has recently made a name for, with my own observations. As I mentioned above, if a little more attention was paid to the missions, character and vehicle handling mechanics, I guess it would be one of the most sound games of this year. However, I think those who love Watch Dogs 2 will love this game, as it contains mechanics from the previous game of the series. Nevertheless, Watch Dogs: Legion is not a game that I can readily recommend for players looking for story-based variety. I think the game is a very innovative and potential game. However, since this is not fully integrated into the game, it offers a bit of uninspired gameplay elements and a repetitive structure. Still, Ubisoft's innovative feature that we can control every NPC can be a milestone in the gaming world. Maybe in the future, we will see more games that we control a lot of NPCs, thanks to Ubisoft's brave breakthrough. In this article, I commented on Watch Dogs: Legion for you. I hope I could give you enough information with my review. See you at our next review. Stay well!
