The Watch Dogs franchise has achieved quite the fame since it’s first installment in 2014. The first game received mixed reviews as critics praised the game’s new and original concept whereas criticizing it’s graphics which were largely downgraded from what the developers showcased at E3. As for the second installment which was released in 2016, it was met with overall positive reception due to it’s improvement over it’s predecessor, whereas drawing criticism because of various technical glitches on launch. It’s been more than two years since we last saw a Watch Dogs release from Ubisoft and there has been little to no chatter regarding a third installment until now.
According to a listing on Amazon U.K website, which was later removed, the new installment in the franchise is titled Watch Dogs Legion.
Here’s what the description of the listing reads –
“Watch_Dogs Legion is set in a near-future, dystopian version of London. It’s a post-Brexit world in which society, politics and technology have changed and altered London’s fortunes. London is one of the most iconic cities in the world and has had a massive influence on all of Western Culture for centuries… London makes total sense for WD, as the city has one of the highest surveillce levels in the world making this the perfect playground.”
From what I make of the statement, this doesn’t exactly look like an official description that Ubisoft would provide Amazon with. Firstly, there’s the misspelling of surveillance as ‘surveillce’. Humans make mistakes but it is unlikely that a professional typing a description for the official Amazon U.K website would ignore such a thing. Secondly, it is very unlikely for Ubisoft to say something like “London makes total sense for WD”. They are the publishers, therefore they wouldn’t have this element of uncertainty in their statement. I would suggest everyone to take the listing description with a pinch of salt, then again, Kotaku editor Jason Schreier is certain that the information is indeed true based on his sources.
Rumors that the next Watch Dogs will be set in London has already been on the air ever since Ubisoft released a patch that adds a post-credits sequence to Watch Dogs 2 with coordinates to Brixton. This recent leak in the Amazon listing further solidifies our assumption and it would make perfect sense for the third game in the franchise to be set in a fictional dystopian London after taking us through a crime-ridden Chicago and a tech-obsessed San Francisco in the first and the second game respectively. It seems like Watch Dogs Legion will probably have a much darker tone to it’s plot as compared to it’s light-themed predecessor. A game set in post-Brexit London will of course have a story to tell, about how everyone and everything have adapted to the new political system and what exactly is the goal of the protagonist in the game.
Speaking of protagonist, the listing also stated –
“Play as anyone, Every individual you meet in the open world, has a full set of animations, voice over, character traits and visuals that are generated & guided by gameplay systems.”
I’m not sure as to how exactly it is possible to play as any NPC in the game but based on a Kotaku report, “you’ll see different things at different points in the game depending which NPC you’re playing as. In fact, from what I’ve heard, this system is so ambitious that it’s been causing the developers a lot of headaches (and may have led to at least one delay).” If true, it would indeed be amazing to take control of an NPC and explore the world from their perspective. I’m not sure as to whether they will be able to hack everything just like the main protagonist but this new addition would surely be greeted with positive reviews.
It’s not exactly atypical of an Ubisoft game to be leaked ahead of it’s E3 announcement. Another very recent leak provides information about their new Assassin’s Creed game. Time and time again, most of the leaks about Ubisoft games that are revealed ahead of E3 turn out to be true. Therefore, even though we should take the Amazon listing information with a pinch of salt, there’s no reason to believe that it’s completely fake as the rumors are pretty solid and very likely to happen.
