Ubisoft shows off Watch Dogs Legion NPC swapping gameplay, and a granny with a taser.
Ubisoft’s E3 press conference gave us our first official look at Watch Dogs Legion today. This being a high-profile Ubisoft game, it was of course spoiled a few days before the event in an Amazon UK listing, but this was our first chance to see how the game will actually work.
In the gameplay that we saw, a Deadsec operative gets into a fist fight with some security personnel, before pulling out a firearm and getting involved in a shootout. The character eventually died, and the screen pulled back to give a lot of NPC options to choose from. The next character was an older woman, so the rumors about multiple NPCs and swapping between them is true! Honestly, the old lady gameplay was amazing. What was very interesting is that the loss of an NPC seems to affect the story, and you can pull in new NPCs into your Deadsec cell as you play the game.
Not the granny we need. The granny we deserve. pic.twitter.com/1y4IPgLXnR
— Twitch (@Twitch) June 10, 2019
There definitely seemed to be a strong focus on hand to hand combat in the gameplay that was shown at E3, but eventually, the guns came out for that series staple, the third person tactical gunfight. Based on what we saw, it certainly seems to be the best iteration of combat in the series to date.
Watch Dogs Legion will be the first game in the series set outside the U.S. The previous two installments were set in Chicago and San Francisco, while Legion is set in London, which was also revealed in the leak. In the game, the U.K. is greatly diminished after Brexit, leaving the once-powerful country’s security apparatus ripe for exploitation by hackers.
The game’s story revolves around the UK government collapsing, and people attempting to find their freedoms in the power vacuum that is left behind. Deadsec appears to be up to their usual tricks, trying to bring down some of the nastier elements that have risen to power since the government broke down. You will have to build a resistance group, and you can recruit and play as anybody in the game. This is a truly unique aspect of the game and should make for some very interesting gameplay experiences. Some characters will have obvious histories that make them perfect for the job, or you might find a diamond in the rough.
Watch Dogs Legion will be available PC, PS4, and Xbox One and is available to pre-order now, and will release on March 6, 2020.
