During today's Ubisoft Forward event the publisher revealed more information about their upcoming game Watch Dogs: Legion, including a release date of October 29. It is the third game in the Watch Dogs franchise, and was first announced during E3 2019, and it recently suffered a delay at the hands of the coronavirus pandemic.

The series began with the release of Watch Dogs in 2014. The title was hotly anticipated due to its emphasis on hacking and subterfuge. While it received generally favorable reviews upon release, player experience was less favorable, citing technical issues and a disappointing protagonist and story. It did not live up to the potential it was advertised with, and is generally remembered as a disappointment. Watch Dogs 2, which released two years later, fared a little better, with critics praising the developer's decision to move the game's tone in a more lighthearted direction than its rather dour predecessor. Watch Dogs: Legion looks to change up the series' formula still further; instead of controlling one protagonist throughout, you can recruit any NPC in the game to join your cause and make them a fully playable character.

This ambitious new gameplay approach was highlighted during a lengthy gameplay trailer showcased during today's Ubisoft Forward stream. Emphasis was placed on the fact that any mission can be carried out by any character that the player has recruited. Ubisoft showed footage from the same mission three times with three different characters. The first was a brash construction worker who could knock people out with a wrench and summon a cargo drone to carry him around. Next was a young woman with an army of automated drones at her disposal, and the ability to hack enemy drones mid-fight. Finally there was a member of the evil Albion faction, whose uniform and credentials allowed her to simply walk into the facility. In addition to these three, fans saw substantial footage from a drunken pub-crawling brawler and a professional hitman.


Fans eager to explore Ubisoft's dystopian version of London and recruit whoever they please were graced with a release date of late October for Watch Dogs: Legion. The game is coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Stadia. Ubisoft has confirmed that it will be releasing on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X when those consoles release later in the year.

The promises Ubisoft is making for this game seem almost too good to be true. Filling an entire game world with characters who can be recruited and played as is a daunting task, and it's hard to imagine how the developers will carry it out while keeping the characters distinct enough to be worth recruiting. Navigating story beats in the game seems equally difficult, as the presentation demonstrated that any character can take part in any cutscene in the game. Historically, most video games that promise a level of content this ambitious have failed to live up to expectations. But the gameplay Ubisoft showed off today looked solid, and if they can deliver, then Watch Dogs: Legion will be a very remarkable game when it releases this October.