First things first, I’ve been itching to play Ubisoft’s new Watch Dogs: Legion (Watch Dogs 3) ever since the game was announced. The original Watch Dogs game is amazing, in my opinion, though I first played it a couple years ago for the first time, on Xbox One. However, now I’m a number of hours into Watch Dogs: Legion on Xbox One and while the graphics are gorgeous and the gameplay familiar, the bugs are definitely hampering the experience. And I’m not alone.
In the first hour alone, I’ve had the game not save where I left off, a dead body spawn in the safe house where there should be none, the chase camera not work for driving, the auto-drive feature stopped working, and the entire game completely crash. This is on top of the framerate feeling slightly less smooth than in Watch Dogs 1, making shooting just a bit more annoying. I do also see some slight screen tear on walls sometimes, looking very closely.
The second and third hours of gameplay went smoothly, with no problems. However, the fourth hour ended with a physics defying crash out of nowhere that sent me hurtling into a wall faster than I was traveling in the first place. Fortunately, I brushed it off without a scratch, despite hitting a concrete wall hard enough pulverize every bone in my body. But sadly, the game crashed completely a second time shortly after this.
Two fatal crashes, a missed auto-save, and a randomly spawned body aren’t too bad I guess for the first four hours of gameplay, but remember, this is already after a patch a about a week ago that fixed a lot of problems including one that would permanently fry Xbox One Xs if it triggered.
Scratch that, more crashes now than I can remember, including three within a city block area while trying to complete a mission, and I’ve even tried restarting my Xbox. It’s becoming a real drag, and this is after Ubisoft issued a patch a little less than a week ago, and it’s happening on all Xbox devices (Xbox One/S, Xbox One X, and Xbox Series X) apparently. Really looking forward to another patch from Ubisoft ASAP or I’m worried my save files might get corrupted.
This is pretty much unacceptable for an AAA title like this, and won’t reflect well in the score if it’s not fixed in the next week. What’s worse is that I’m really enjoying the game so far, even if it isn’t quite living up to the hype. In fact, it’s debatable right now if Watch Dogs: Legion is even beatable after the last patch. Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla is also seeing serious screen tear issues on Xbox devices. Just terrible.
My First Impressions of Watch Dogs: Legion
The game is beautiful. The dithered lighting system that was present in the original Watch Dogs is much less noticeable and reflections look much shinier and real. A lot of texture, lighting and shadow work has gone into Watch Dogs: Legion and it shows, even on Xbox One/S without HDR.
Gameplaywise, little has changed from even the original Watch Dogs, though there are now numerous drones of different types to hack, creating some pretty interesting situations. I’ve always thought of Watch Dogs as a combination of the Grand Theft Auto and Deus Ex franchises, and Watch Dogs: Legion continues in this vein. The combination of stealth, hacking and gunplay give plenty of options for completing objectives.
The character recruitment system is quite interesting, with characters sorted into classes of sorts, with specific skills unlocked. You really choose who you will start the game as, and swap characters in and out, without changing the story. I started with someone who is a debt collector for a living, and they are a good mix for all three disciplines. However, my first recruit was a hacking expert, and I was able to complete a fairly difficult mission with her, without using any stealth or even firing a single round, with her advanced hacking skills.
London definitely feels alive and the gameplay is fun, with numerous paths to success. The story doesn’t focus on you, the player, but rather what you do and a mysterious, terrorist organization that has framed DedSec. It remains to be seen on how this works from a story point of view.
My only real gripe is the bugs so far, of which I’ve only experienced a small number of, compared to other players, especially before the last patch went out.
Keep an eye out in Ubisoft’s forums for more updates.
And also come back and read my in-progress review when it’s done. Hopefully the crashing issues are fixed soon. Otherwise, I won’t be able to recommend Watch Dogs: Legion at this time.
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