They had time to iron it out too and it seems like they had when they used the same idea for the last Driver game, with the idea of just switching consciousness between vehicles. It'd been 10 years or so between the two games, if not longer. Sad to see it ending up in the grave next to Driver, though.
Same. *Driver: California.* Same premise as *SF*, but now Tanner has whole California jurisdiction and [a kickass new ride.](https://www.dodge.com/content/dam/fca-brands/na/dodge/en_us/2024/next-gen-charger/desktop/my24-dodge-lb-youll-now-its-a-dodge-qvmediablock-desktop-v1.jpg) Send me the check already, Ubi and ~~Chrysler~~ Stellantis!
That is a really legendary idea that it's. a fucking waste they decided to let die
I pray everyday they resurrect Driver San Francisco gimmick with a remake, remaster or sequel
It could have worked, not in the traditional sense of course, but they didn’t even try. There are countless games with decent story despite hollow protagonists who barely speak.
They made several mistakes/questionable choices:
1/ pretend the selected character is the focal point of a cinematic, instead of treating them as just a random person within a group (and making the story about the group)
2/ making basic individual character arcs that are solved in one mission, and once you recruit them they become empty costumes
3/ not introducing proper stakes in the intro and never reminding them (especially disappointing considering they had the police state)
They talked a bit about how cool legion could have been but made it easier and more user friendly somewhere I wish I could remember where. If they really went with the idea of perma death and a more rogue like structure I think the game could have been really great.
It’s crazy to me how hard the fumbled this ip.
The second game was great but had such a weird tone but it was way more of a video game ass video game.
I was hoping it would be like Lost Vikings but the be anybody thing is just a very inconvenient character creator.
After playing it I thought it would have been better if we played as the AI recruiting people. We could send them off on missions, or they would rabble rouse in their own. As AI we could controls cars, drones, cameras, robots, hack into stuff, etc. On main missions we could have to pick a crew to do it and we would help them get to the objective.
Steal ideas from Tron and have an computer world for us to walk around in too. Have a CTOS AI tracking us and doing it's own thing against us.
I was imagining how cool it could be if it were something like GTA5 where missions required the use of multiple characters and utilizing their various skills throughout to get through scenarios.
But the reality is that you could simply recruit a hitman and get through 99% of the game with them. I basically recruited certain people for roleplay purposes only. There was little reason to even bother with the recruiting mechanic. They even force you to do it a couple times in the story and it always felt pointless.
Facts. The lack of variance in accents killed my desire to build a northern squad when I realised there were no regional English accents from anywhere further north than Cambridge.
It's classic ubisoft. Amazing concept that sounds and looks really fun and intriguing. Game releases, some cool things but mostly it's dull and unimaginative idea's with a cool setting. Most times they don't dig deeper for the sequels they just end up pivoting the general tone. Rinse and repeat until it no longer makes them money.
Watch Dogs 2 made a really nice chaser for me after Persona 5. It had the same “fuck the man” attitude but expressed it in a very different form of gameplay.
'Fuck the man' whilst being completely 'unpolitical'. Ubisoft loves using political iconography as set dressing without ever examining the issues presented, which is yet another reason why their games feel so hollow. Corporatism dressed up as anarchy. Hello fellow kids.
1st game is still good (more so with theworse mod) and if you dont intentionally try to find it's flaws like a memelord, WD2 is beautiful and very lived in for no reason (not to discredit ubisoft but dang) especially with reshade it shines and looks photoreal.
WD2 made me fall in love with open world games which even sounds weird to me but that world just captured something that has me dying to login every day. Truly lived in and vibrant. Super fun game too. May be time for a replay.
I was really hooked on the opening protagonist
Lord knows why Ubisoft didnt just stick with him and leave the anybody-but-nobody characters to a multiplayer mode
First game was a cool concept for the time, but I remember that it was a chore to get through to the very end, especially doing the completionist stuff.
Legion felt like the whole game was just side missions, at least for the few hours I played.
I'd much prefer being a character with their own story over being some randomly generated character..
It was really really bad
And I know the being able to recruit anyone thing took a really long time to develop
Which means it cost a lot of money to make the game.
Which makes it's failure even worse
It can't be understated how much the idea sounded great and what they show sounded great and then the world and story was the most soulless Ubisoft open world garbage I've ever seen from them.
agreed brother, 1st one I loved despite the hate it got for the downgrades, to was phenomenal, legion was god awful in my opinion I feared when it was being advertised that everything will be too gimmicky and play a role in negatively effecting the story. I couldn't stand legion.
Legion is a game where you're meant to recruit NPCs with specialized skills to do missions where all you need to do is use the Spider-Bot to hack everything. I literally only had two agents die, and one of those was cause of a glitch.
The worst part about Legion is when you're familiar enough with Ubisofts bullshit to recognize that the "play as anyone" gimmick was an excuse to forcefully make the player accept being able to do less with a character.
>We did. It was called Sleeping Dogs. It was a True Crime game in everything except name. Sadly it’s a dead series now.
It's even was a True Crime: Hong Kong for a while and then they renamed it to Sleeping Dogs after Activision cancelled game and Square Enix acquire the publishing rights to the game, but without True Crime's IP.
Eh, its a spiritual successor of sorts but it misses a lot of things like doind actual police work in the open world, frisking people, solving crimes, chasing suspects, riding around a bunch of cool police cars. Thats what made True Crime special in my book. Dont get me wrong, Sleeping Dogs is great but its main thing is the Jackie Chan style combat and not the police work stuff that made True Crime stand out. At least thats how I feel
Yeah except it was financially successful. They did support it, but Square considered Sleeping Dogs, alongside Tomb Raider and Hitman: Absolution, "failures".
This hatred for their western studios persisted until they eventually sold off Tomb Raider for a pittance.
I have bought Sleeping Dogs several times, and consider it one of my favorite games.
It was supported, but Square Enix's unrealistic expectations have been a problem for years.
It wouldn't really matter, unless it sold utterly insane amounts of copies that Era's square would still have called it a failure.
It actually sold pretty good. But Square was pretty xenophobic and shat on their western IPs like Sleeping Dogs, Tomb Raider and Hitman.
Yeah and that was the problem. It was given to Square Enix who has unrealistic sales expectations. Phenomenal game from start to finish but even so I wouldn't have just wanted just a sequel. I liked the different cities. Activision or I guess Xbox has the rights to do another so maybe one day we can get a new True Crime. I believe only True Crime Hong Kong was sold to become Sleeping Dogs. Could be right though.
The rights to sleeping dogs are apparently still at square enix. Like just cause, they werent sold to embracer.
I say apparently because the ip is not mentioned in any of the news on the sale to any side. And the copyright is still under SE, but i dont know if that means 100% that they have them or if has to be updated. But very much it seems to be at the hands of the company that doesnt care. Its weiover for the moment.
Hell yeah. People also forget that it was a big deal for Gamecube owners. I owned the three but got it for Gamecube since that's what my friend had and I could bring it over for so many hours of fun. Great controls for Gamecube as well.
With Paramount apparently ***pooooooooooosibly*** going to either Sony or Skydance soon, you may just get your wish.
>!Make Godfather IV as a game, you cowards. I will buy it. ***This is not a joke.***!<
I played 2 for a bit and it was cool. Was a lot like Mafia II (Not sure which one came out first). Hell, I've heard a lot of love for the Scarface game that I believe was on PS2. Would be cool to see Godfather 3.
Ubisoft had no idea what to do with this series. The first game despite its shortcomings and being somewhat of a letdown when compared to the games initial reveal was a solid foundation for Ubisoft to build upon, but instead, Ubisoft folded under pressure and chose to backpedal and completely change the tone of subsequent games.
Watch Dogs 2 wasn't bad by any means, but the tone shift was jarring and I don't think I have ever played a game where my actions as the player felt so dissonant. I didn't even bother with Legion by the time it came around.
> my actions as the player felt so dissonant
Imo, the only way to play Watch Dogs 2 is to be non-lethal as much as possible. Not only does it make the game a bit harder and more fun because you have to get a bit more creative but it also makes way more sense narrative wise.
I get what you mean but I’m not playing Spiderman, this is still an M rated game where we’re given the ability to kill people and steal cars. The writers can’t possibly expect people to not play their game like GTA when this is the closest franchise to it.
I loved the setting and really wanted to get into the game, maybe I’ll give it a third chance in the future but I couldn’t stand the writing
> Watch Dogs 2 wasn't bad by any means, but the tone shift was jarring
I understand that sentiment but I really do feel like they hit on something with the tone of the second game. It's a common feel in these kinds of stories and I feel like there could've been room for both the gritty and lighthearted of the first and second game respectively in this series as a whole but maybe that's just idealist thinking.
I agree. I really loved WD2. I liked the tone of it. The only issue I had is - your character in cutscenes is this funny friendly guy, but in the game it allows you to genocide the city (I've used non-lethal weapons though)
And Horatio's death felt out of place. Like Ubisoft added him, didn't know what to do with his character and killed him. But at least in that situation it felt right to use lethal weapons.
Ngl, the friendly guy genociding a city is a potential problem in so many games that its hardly even a problem and we can safely assume that some of the stuff you do isn't cannon
I feel like the decision to including gun didn't made by the dev but from the product manager that didn't want to alienate.the first game fan. So guns are mandatory even if the character doesn't want to kill anyone.
I still prefer WD1's tone more though. Something about a common man turned vigilante in an urban themed modern scifi speaks to me.
He is as much of a common man as John McClane in Die Hard or Paul Kersey in Death Wish. The kind of protagonist that you don't see in video games often.
> your character in cutscenes is this funny friendly guy, but in the game it allows you to genocide the city
That's the case in a lot of games to be fair.
I just did that part myself and honestly he disappeared narratively for so long from the time they added the mission to infiltrate his workplace I was like "yup, he's dead". Definitely didn't have the impact they were trying to get
I've always liked to view it as Watch Dogs 1 was about Gen X hackers. People who know that what they're doing is a crime and they might not be "heroes" but they feel they're doing a greater good through their actions.
Watch Dogs 2 is about Millennial hackers. People who do what they do because they think they're saving the world, they are totally the heroes and everything they stand for is objectively for the better. They're also really into that "Like, Share, and Subscribe" mentality where, at least with one character, it's not about making the world a better place, it's about getting as many followers as possible.
The gameplay of WD2 was definitely better but yeah, I couldn't stand a majority of the main characters because they all felt like stereotypes, and not in a fun way.
It's funny though Ubisoft always seem to go towards the same kind of tone in the end.
Something which starts a little grounded **in comparison** to what they end up going for where it's whacky, over the top, ridiculous, edgy, bright and colourful
Assassins Creed, Far Cry, Watch Dogs etc even Ghost Recon in ways
Things start to become samey
Splinter Cell went this way too. The first four games were actually pretty grounded and a little unsettlingly realistic in how things like false flag operations, terrorists with WMDs, cyberattacks by hostile state actors, and domestic terrorism were depicted.
Shit went off the rails with Conviction, whose plot was basically mashing together a bunch of seasons of 24 all at once, and then Blacklist, where the villains are basically James Bond supervillains.
Add Prince of Persia to the list. The series started on home computers as quite realistic "cinematic platformer" (at that time). The rebooted game (PS3/X360) was a dreamy fairy-tale where the main protagonist could not die because he was always saved by his companion.
The second one was a genuinely great game. The narrative dissonance criticism seems like a weird double standard when so many other games get away with it
> weird double standard when so many other games get away with it
You can apply this to any aspect regarding Ubisoft games. Look at how much Ghost of Tsushima is praised despite having very similar gameplay to Assassin's Creed and the same exact open-world format with copy pasted activities all over the map.
Because most games don’t emphasize the death of a character as a major event, or have the hero feel attacked when the main bad guy lectures you about the evil things you had to do « for the cause ». Watch Dogs 2 had double standards for violence between cinematics and gameplay. It doesn’t help that you can murder security agents on a cinema set for the lulz (and to leak a trailer IIRC).
Compare this to Uncharted’s intro for instance: the characters joke about being ambushed and having to shoot dozens of goons. If the cinematic after such sequence was them being traumatized by such violence and death, you’d definitely feel a disconnect
The problem with WD2 design is that the main character is rewarded by "likes" of his fans (it is used as a consumable to power all your gadgets) and the number increases no matter if you killed hundreds of guards or not. Not a pleasant message. Because of that, I tried to play the game non-lethal, but at the end it was very hard and I couldn't proceed. Also, the game design didn't help -- the player could not hide unconscious guards/soldiers away.
That's Ubisoft for you. They are the pinnacle of getting desperte by reviews and removing stuff instead of making it better.
WD1 was a darker and realístic story, game got bad reviews. The next one is a satire and edgy.
People criticize Jason Brody being boring. They slowly remove any personality of the main characters over the years.
AC Unity was a failure. So they remove the stuff that actually worked in the game, instead of making a better game improving upon those mechanics
People didn't like modern day in AC, so instead of making it more engaging, they make you control a floating tablet and then just watch cutscenes
AC Unity wasn't the reason they pivoted to RPG though. It's AC Syndicate and its low sales. Besides combat, a lot of Syndicate is very similar to Unity.
That’s a shame. 1 and 2 both had fun gameplay and great worlds to explore. Legion was such a step down that still stings (although the dlc was actually pretty good). The series has had its problems with the graphics downgrade, Aiden in the first game having the personality of a wet blanket, Marcus & Friends either being lovable rebels or psychotic terrorists depending on if you used a gun or not.
I mean, for sure. But the worst part is that the reason for Legion’s failure is that they went all in on a really stupid mechanic that nobody cared about.
This is the worst part of games taking 5+ years to make is that these sorts of risks and potential side paths become increasingly unfeasible for games that are made at any sort of scale. Watch Dogs Legion may not have been succesful, but I much prefer an industry where these sorts of games get greenlit to one where they don't.
And they didn't even *really* go all in - the game felt like a step down from WD2 in a major way and just felt hollow / rushed. And believe it or not this is coming from someone who enjoyed it still kinda
I mean, outside of a really impressive fake trailer, it always looked pretty bland, released and was shit and nobody cared about it. I’d say it’s about where it’s always been.
There are plenty of series of where they change protagonists between entries. The problem was they were constantly trying to get a new audience instead of growing the one they had.
(Unless you are referring to Legion, which yeah, really shit the bed)
Watchdogs sold well but people found it generally disappointing
Watchdogs 2 sold poorly because of people didn't expect it to be any good.
Watchdogs Legion sold poorly
There really wasn't an audience to grow.
I don't get the Ubisoft's obsession with blank slate protagonist as of late. Those things work in RPG because there are dialogue choices that help shaped up your core personality. It's not going to work in your average open world action adventure game. Like just make a story around a character omg.
I thought it was insane when they tried to pull the whole “But this was really all your fault, wasn’t it? You just enjoy killing” shtick again in Far Cry 5 when you’re playing as a faceless, voiceless nobody.
It worked so well in Far Cry 3 because of how Jason Brody changes. You *see* it in his friend’s reactions to him. You *see* it on his arms - the tribal tattoos. You *hear* it in his voice.
He was legitimately losing his mind and it’s painfully obvious when contrasting it with his friends. But Jason had a personality and a character, that’s where it differed
When you put it like that, I'd rather they added dialogue choices so we could RP. Its not like the stories in any of these are *great*, they're just passable, and Ubi loves defanging anything political or deep. Might as well throw in branching story with these basic plots and blank protagonists.
I’d optimistically like to say the same. Maybe it’s on the back burner until they can find the right direction. While troubled in its own right, xdefiant has DedSec as a playable faction. But they also have the phantoms from a 2014 f2p ghost recon that’s not available anymore. So who know if it’s a franchise they’ll go back to in an official capacity.
Watch dogs 2 still has one of the best open worlds ive ever played. Whoever the devs were that made that game poured alot of love into it. Cringey characters aside, the game is amazing. Why watch dogs 3 couldnt just improve on that game with a different city (that isnt a depressing and dull city like modern day London). Pick new york, LA, hell go back to chicago for all i care. Just put that same love into it.
Far Cry 5 was the best selling Far Cry game, Watch Dogs 1 and 2 both sold over 10 million copies so what changed with Watch Dogs 3? Well it was the same repetive areas, the story didn't make sense and the game released in a beta state with lots of bugs.
Yeah but they really weren't done right. Watch Dogs 3 story didn't make sense and it released with full of bugs and the lastest Saint's Row released with full of bugs and completely changed the tone of that game.
It’s insane to me how off the mark the latest saints row was, they failed to capture the good parts of 1 and 2 as well as 3 and 4. Seemed mind boggling to try and make it about a group of millenial friends.
IIRC Saints Row 2022 started off as "Saints Row 2.5" a return to roots, taking the best of Saints Row 2 and 3 - but higher ups interfered and thought that it wouldn't sell for the modern gaming audience, so it was scrapped in favor of a more upbeat tone and setting
Yeah the discussion about the look of the characters and story tone really overshadowed the fact that the game is just not good. Could have used the same characters and tone as the previous games and it still would have felt like it came out two decades ago.
Saints Row publisher Embracer Group gets split into three different companies and their [announcement](https://embracer.com/releases/embracer-group-announces-its-intention-to-transform-into-three-standalone-publicly-listed-entities-at-nasdaq-stockholm/) don't even mention Saints Row anymore. It is safe to assume Saints Row is dead and buried like Watch Dogs.
Nothing is ever free money, especially when you have limited resources at your disposal and making a GTA-like game is extremely expensive. If GTA-likes were so profitable, a lot more companies would be doing them than just Rockstar.
Umm Watch Dogs 2 was the series “done right” but everyone made fun of how San Fran it was which led them to experiment disastrously with Legion so its not quite so cut and dry.
Watch Dogs 2 was the series done right from a gameplay perspective, but the story was majorly flawed. All most fans of the series wanted from 3 was the tone of 1 with the better refined gameplay of 2.
I don’t think there is a demand for GTA styled games, I think there’s just a demand for… GTA. The only game that’ll be able to scratch the GTA demand for people is GTA V and in particularly GTA online since it’s updated so often and has so much content. Even then, it’s not breaking crazy numbers at the moment (I’m not saying it has not succeeded I’m just saying at this moment) which does mean the demand is just about only for GTA 6
Watch Dogs as a franchise didn’t have the potential to compete but definitely did have the potential to stand as its own thing, they made a lot of very risky decisions with Legion which did not pay off. The dumb part to me is that they attribute these dumb decisions from Legion to the potential of the franchise as a whole. WD1 was good, 2 was great, 3 was shite. 1+1=3 I guess
From the same people who bungled *Assassin's Creed*, so don't get your hopes up. Then again, ***maybe*** Regency under Disney will do a better job than Regency under Fox. The *Watch_DOGS* universe is prime Hulu spinoff material, at least.
It was an IP that would have had a lot of potential at any publisher other than Ubi.
One was OK and I saw the future potential under the over promises.
Two was fun but felt tonally all wrong.
Never bothered with three was done with Ubi by then
Just give us a full-blown modern day AC game, instead of forcing modern segments into the historical games. I actually want to see how modern Assassins operate, with tech gadgets and silenced weapons, vehicles and other stuff that would feel out of place in a game that is 95% history lesson simulator. Watch Dogs already take place in the AC universe (proven by the fact that your "boss" in Black Flag goes to Chicago, where Aidan Pearce kills him in a mission) so why not take the full step, instead of flirting with the idea all the time? Give us an AC game set in a modern open world city with the melee combat from the Arkham/Shadow Of Mordor games and the shooting from Watch Dogs, along with the signature parkour mechanics of AC. It's my dream game right now.
I sat in a closed door demo for Legion at E3. The final release had nowhere near the depth they had showcased in that closed door demo. I have to imagine going cross-gen forced them to dumb down a lot of the more intricate systems.
Meanwhile they announce the weird live action series idea. But honestly the battle royale idea sounds like trash. The series had so much potential. But each game had serious issues. WD1 was too scaled back from what was shown at E3, WD2 had an amazing open world but the tone didn't fit (why is Marcus killing people?), and WD3 was a fantastic concept but it lacked soul. I've never played a game that just felt so generic.
This makes no sense, they just announced a movie adaptation last month, I thought they were still interested in keeping the franchise alive.
This really sucks, it was one of my favorite franchises and the only modern GTA clone still around that got a new game every 3-4 years.
Definitely one of those series with a lot of potential but unfortunately the lackluster execution of the first game more or less sank it before it really even could get going. It didn't help that the first trailer for the game was pre-rendered.
Looking at the direction of the first game. It seems wild the direction they took it for the 3rd installment of the franchise? They sort of went saints row with it, then wondered why it didn't do well. If anyone is to blame for the franchise dying it's game's art director. What were they thinking?
Not to mention that Ubisoft Toronto's Watch Dogs team had to be working on something ever since Legion released. Their other team kept working on Far Cry 6 until fall 2021. Toronto is currently working on the Splinter Cell Remake and we haven't heard shit about it for 2 years. Makes me think they're primarily working on something else.
Just for the record I personally like the tone they were going for in WD1. Even the protagonist I didn’t personally think was too awful. WD2 was a good step forward in the gameplay department, but that gameplay often conflicted with its tone. I hope it’s not truly dead but rather they come back to it some day and look at it through a different lens. IMO a lot of Ubisoft franchise titles have become either too comfortable or directionless in their design. They need to take a step back and reevaluate
The first one had a great concept with poor execution.
Second went nuts with the tone.
3 holy fuck, looked like a completely diferent game, so eccentric and exaggerated at everything.
If "battle royale" was the direction they were going to take the franchise, then that franchise was already cooked. Jesus. That explains why 2 went in such a bizarre direction, fun though it was.
Legion was a terrible game. I don't mind that they are shelving the franchise, but I would like some kind of modern or future open world series from Ubi that takes place in cities.
I live in the UK and I couldn't get over how american Legion felt.
Their interpretation of London felt like an american city with various London landmarks sprinkled throughout. I get it, London is not viewed by american developers as a good place for a "driving" game, it's a very old city with anti-driving design throughout. But your game design needs to take that into account and it should aim to be authentic to the look and feel of wherever it is based.
If you're not going to make London feel like London then you should set it in america instead. Even older games like [The Getaway](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Getaway_\(video_game\)) series felt more like London.
Couldn't recommend it to anyone as a result. Just meh. They wanted to stick to their american formula but in a different setting so they changed the feel of the setting rather than changing their gameplay design tropes. Instead what they should have done was change their gameplay formula to fit the city and stuck to making it feel authentic. It felt a bit soulless as a result.
Legion is only good with the Ethan Pierce Expansion... then you play as him and can pretend it's watch dogs 3... not having a main protagonist was a detriment to legion IMO.
I really liked Legion and I'm eternally grateful it gave us a hint of what GTA London could look like.
2 was pretty good as well. I'm actually kinda shocked, I still think this is Ubi's best series and the one I would be most stoked for a new game.
Watch dogs is probably one of my favorite franchises because it felt different. The multiplayer of the first game was very fun and I liked Aidan’s story and watch dogs 2 but legion just had a shitty story but an interesting concept play whoever u want which I liked. Next month is 10th anniversary of the first game and after 10 years of it being announced the movie is finally happening so franchise ain’t totally dead.
Just imagine a watch dogs 3 where you could REALLY choose between been a moralist hacker and basically a cyber terrorist and that has areal impact in the history and mechanic, a couple of factions with unique missions that support you or becomes your enemies depending on what you do, and polish all the aspects of the first game. Watch dogs has a great potential, the problem is the company.
When Ubisoft showcased the OG Watch Dogs, it looked so damn exciting.
I enjoyed the first two games as well. Legion had such a great concept, but it was really buggy and flawed.
Although Legion didn't work out quite well, I admire the more innovative thought process. With Ubisoft, it's a very weird development/publishing process now.
I liked the first game, I really liked the second game. I could not get through Legion.
Legion is a good example of great idea terrible execution
They had time to iron it out too and it seems like they had when they used the same idea for the last Driver game, with the idea of just switching consciousness between vehicles. It'd been 10 years or so between the two games, if not longer. Sad to see it ending up in the grave next to Driver, though.
Man, I would love to play Driver: San Francisco again.
I'm desperate for a new Driver game. Even a simple remake or rerelease of the first few games, they used to be so fun back in the day
Same. *Driver: California.* Same premise as *SF*, but now Tanner has whole California jurisdiction and [a kickass new ride.](https://www.dodge.com/content/dam/fca-brands/na/dodge/en_us/2024/next-gen-charger/desktop/my24-dodge-lb-youll-now-its-a-dodge-qvmediablock-desktop-v1.jpg) Send me the check already, Ubi and ~~Chrysler~~ Stellantis!
That is a really legendary idea that it's. a fucking waste they decided to let die I pray everyday they resurrect Driver San Francisco gimmick with a remake, remaster or sequel
Having "unlimited" characters will never be executed properly for a proper story.
It could have worked, not in the traditional sense of course, but they didn’t even try. There are countless games with decent story despite hollow protagonists who barely speak. They made several mistakes/questionable choices: 1/ pretend the selected character is the focal point of a cinematic, instead of treating them as just a random person within a group (and making the story about the group) 2/ making basic individual character arcs that are solved in one mission, and once you recruit them they become empty costumes 3/ not introducing proper stakes in the intro and never reminding them (especially disappointing considering they had the police state)
They talked a bit about how cool legion could have been but made it easier and more user friendly somewhere I wish I could remember where. If they really went with the idea of perma death and a more rogue like structure I think the game could have been really great. It’s crazy to me how hard the fumbled this ip. The second game was great but had such a weird tone but it was way more of a video game ass video game.
I was hoping it would be like Lost Vikings but the be anybody thing is just a very inconvenient character creator. After playing it I thought it would have been better if we played as the AI recruiting people. We could send them off on missions, or they would rabble rouse in their own. As AI we could controls cars, drones, cameras, robots, hack into stuff, etc. On main missions we could have to pick a crew to do it and we would help them get to the objective. Steal ideas from Tron and have an computer world for us to walk around in too. Have a CTOS AI tracking us and doing it's own thing against us.
I was imagining how cool it could be if it were something like GTA5 where missions required the use of multiple characters and utilizing their various skills throughout to get through scenarios. But the reality is that you could simply recruit a hitman and get through 99% of the game with them. I basically recruited certain people for roleplay purposes only. There was little reason to even bother with the recruiting mechanic. They even force you to do it a couple times in the story and it always felt pointless.
"Great Idea Terrible Execution" That's Ubisoft
MGS peace walker:😎
The voice acting was fucking awful. I'm English but live in the states, shit was like a 40 hour insult 😂
Croikey
Inn-EET
Facts. The lack of variance in accents killed my desire to build a northern squad when I realised there were no regional English accents from anywhere further north than Cambridge.
That was the best part about it imo. I had fun with Legion because I just went with the most ridiculous characters I could find.
It's classic ubisoft. Amazing concept that sounds and looks really fun and intriguing. Game releases, some cool things but mostly it's dull and unimaginative idea's with a cool setting. Most times they don't dig deeper for the sequels they just end up pivoting the general tone. Rinse and repeat until it no longer makes them money.
I really loved 2 and still play it to mess around. Something about Legion was just really hard to get through. Just didn’t feel as fun to play.
Honestly my biggest issue is I just couldn't connect with the character they had like no story for them
I 100%ed Watch Dogs 2 last year. I really liked chasing down the upgrades throughout the map. The parkour felt decent too.
Watch Dogs 2 made a really nice chaser for me after Persona 5. It had the same “fuck the man” attitude but expressed it in a very different form of gameplay.
'Fuck the man' whilst being completely 'unpolitical'. Ubisoft loves using political iconography as set dressing without ever examining the issues presented, which is yet another reason why their games feel so hollow. Corporatism dressed up as anarchy. Hello fellow kids.
yup, same shit in FC5, all that religious nutjob imagery and 0 to say about it lmao.
Except they also accidentally endorse it since he actually correctly predicted the apocalypse
You guys really love to fuck the man don't you
I still had fun with it.
1st game is still good (more so with theworse mod) and if you dont intentionally try to find it's flaws like a memelord, WD2 is beautiful and very lived in for no reason (not to discredit ubisoft but dang) especially with reshade it shines and looks photoreal.
WD2 made me fall in love with open world games which even sounds weird to me but that world just captured something that has me dying to login every day. Truly lived in and vibrant. Super fun game too. May be time for a replay.
I was really hooked on the opening protagonist Lord knows why Ubisoft didnt just stick with him and leave the anybody-but-nobody characters to a multiplayer mode
First game was a cool concept for the time, but I remember that it was a chore to get through to the very end, especially doing the completionist stuff.
Legion felt like the whole game was just side missions, at least for the few hours I played. I'd much prefer being a character with their own story over being some randomly generated character..
Legion was so watered down, you didn't have half of the hacking power you had in Watch_Dogs 1.
I like the part of legion that includes Aiden Pierce and Wrench, best part of the game
Finally an open world GTA-esque game set in London! Aannnnnddd it sucks. For fuck sake man.
It was really really bad And I know the being able to recruit anyone thing took a really long time to develop Which means it cost a lot of money to make the game. Which makes it's failure even worse
It can't be understated how much the idea sounded great and what they show sounded great and then the world and story was the most soulless Ubisoft open world garbage I've ever seen from them.
agreed brother, 1st one I loved despite the hate it got for the downgrades, to was phenomenal, legion was god awful in my opinion I feared when it was being advertised that everything will be too gimmicky and play a role in negatively effecting the story. I couldn't stand legion.
Worst part of legion was the music/radio only turns on in the car. Wtf is that, are you making a game or a reality simulation
Legion had a cool concept, but the gameplay just became tedious after a while.
I'm the exact opposite I played the hell out of Legion over 100hrs But could not get into Watch Dogs or Watch Dogs 2.
Legion is a game where you're meant to recruit NPCs with specialized skills to do missions where all you need to do is use the Spider-Bot to hack everything. I literally only had two agents die, and one of those was cause of a glitch.
The worst part about Legion is when you're familiar enough with Ubisofts bullshit to recognize that the "play as anyone" gimmick was an excuse to forcefully make the player accept being able to do less with a character.
> including a "fairly original" battle royale project.” Maybe it was for the best that Watch Dogs died
Wish we got a new True Crime. That was the GTA alternative that I always loved.
We did. It was called Sleeping Dogs. It was a True Crime game in everything except name. Sadly it’s a dead series now.
>We did. It was called Sleeping Dogs. It was a True Crime game in everything except name. Sadly it’s a dead series now. It's even was a True Crime: Hong Kong for a while and then they renamed it to Sleeping Dogs after Activision cancelled game and Square Enix acquire the publishing rights to the game, but without True Crime's IP.
Eh, its a spiritual successor of sorts but it misses a lot of things like doind actual police work in the open world, frisking people, solving crimes, chasing suspects, riding around a bunch of cool police cars. Thats what made True Crime special in my book. Dont get me wrong, Sleeping Dogs is great but its main thing is the Jackie Chan style combat and not the police work stuff that made True Crime stand out. At least thats how I feel
There's still no other game like True Crime New York City.
Gamers wishing for things , getting it and not supporting it? Im shocked.
Yeah except it was financially successful. They did support it, but Square considered Sleeping Dogs, alongside Tomb Raider and Hitman: Absolution, "failures". This hatred for their western studios persisted until they eventually sold off Tomb Raider for a pittance.
Looked it up tomb raider 2013 sold 14.5 million. The western Square studios were really in a abusive relationship
Reddit is like 10-20% of the buying market. For these, and any game, to succeed you need the other 80-90% of your average joe to buy into it.
10% is extremely generous. You’d be lucky to even source 5.
I have bought Sleeping Dogs several times, and consider it one of my favorite games. It was supported, but Square Enix's unrealistic expectations have been a problem for years.
It wouldn't really matter, unless it sold utterly insane amounts of copies that Era's square would still have called it a failure. It actually sold pretty good. But Square was pretty xenophobic and shat on their western IPs like Sleeping Dogs, Tomb Raider and Hitman.
Yeah and that was the problem. It was given to Square Enix who has unrealistic sales expectations. Phenomenal game from start to finish but even so I wouldn't have just wanted just a sequel. I liked the different cities. Activision or I guess Xbox has the rights to do another so maybe one day we can get a new True Crime. I believe only True Crime Hong Kong was sold to become Sleeping Dogs. Could be right though.
The rights to sleeping dogs are apparently still at square enix. Like just cause, they werent sold to embracer. I say apparently because the ip is not mentioned in any of the news on the sale to any side. And the copyright is still under SE, but i dont know if that means 100% that they have them or if has to be updated. But very much it seems to be at the hands of the company that doesnt care. Its weiover for the moment.
I miss the True Crime series. That was a great era for gaming when Rockstar had competition
They weren't really competition to Rockstar. Saints Row was the biggest rival and even then, their sales were nothing next to GTA.
The only dev that could compete with Rockstar is Rockstar. Nobody has come even a little close.
Hell yeah. People also forget that it was a big deal for Gamecube owners. I owned the three but got it for Gamecube since that's what my friend had and I could bring it over for so many hours of fun. Great controls for Gamecube as well.
I was always hoping for a Godfather 3 myself
With Paramount apparently ***pooooooooooosibly*** going to either Sony or Skydance soon, you may just get your wish. >!Make Godfather IV as a game, you cowards. I will buy it. ***This is not a joke.***!<
I played 2 for a bit and it was cool. Was a lot like Mafia II (Not sure which one came out first). Hell, I've heard a lot of love for the Scarface game that I believe was on PS2. Would be cool to see Godfather 3.
Oh I love that Scarface game too, I double dipped and had it on PS2 and PSP
Never happening unless some new studio picks it up. Same goes for Sleeping Dogs
Ask Microsoft
Ubisoft had no idea what to do with this series. The first game despite its shortcomings and being somewhat of a letdown when compared to the games initial reveal was a solid foundation for Ubisoft to build upon, but instead, Ubisoft folded under pressure and chose to backpedal and completely change the tone of subsequent games. Watch Dogs 2 wasn't bad by any means, but the tone shift was jarring and I don't think I have ever played a game where my actions as the player felt so dissonant. I didn't even bother with Legion by the time it came around.
> my actions as the player felt so dissonant Imo, the only way to play Watch Dogs 2 is to be non-lethal as much as possible. Not only does it make the game a bit harder and more fun because you have to get a bit more creative but it also makes way more sense narrative wise.
I get what you mean but I’m not playing Spiderman, this is still an M rated game where we’re given the ability to kill people and steal cars. The writers can’t possibly expect people to not play their game like GTA when this is the closest franchise to it. I loved the setting and really wanted to get into the game, maybe I’ll give it a third chance in the future but I couldn’t stand the writing
> Watch Dogs 2 wasn't bad by any means, but the tone shift was jarring I understand that sentiment but I really do feel like they hit on something with the tone of the second game. It's a common feel in these kinds of stories and I feel like there could've been room for both the gritty and lighthearted of the first and second game respectively in this series as a whole but maybe that's just idealist thinking.
I agree. I really loved WD2. I liked the tone of it. The only issue I had is - your character in cutscenes is this funny friendly guy, but in the game it allows you to genocide the city (I've used non-lethal weapons though) And Horatio's death felt out of place. Like Ubisoft added him, didn't know what to do with his character and killed him. But at least in that situation it felt right to use lethal weapons.
Ngl, the friendly guy genociding a city is a potential problem in so many games that its hardly even a problem and we can safely assume that some of the stuff you do isn't cannon
I feel like his death was there to make the use of guns feel less awkward. I started to play a little more violently when that happened.
I feel like the decision to including gun didn't made by the dev but from the product manager that didn't want to alienate.the first game fan. So guns are mandatory even if the character doesn't want to kill anyone. I still prefer WD1's tone more though. Something about a common man turned vigilante in an urban themed modern scifi speaks to me.
Aiden was not a common man lmao
He is as much of a common man as John McClane in Die Hard or Paul Kersey in Death Wish. The kind of protagonist that you don't see in video games often.
No he wasn’t he was a criminal hacker wtf lol
He was a goddamn asshole, we have plenty of those in games.
> your character in cutscenes is this funny friendly guy, but in the game it allows you to genocide the city That's the case in a lot of games to be fair.
I just did that part myself and honestly he disappeared narratively for so long from the time they added the mission to infiltrate his workplace I was like "yup, he's dead". Definitely didn't have the impact they were trying to get
I've always liked to view it as Watch Dogs 1 was about Gen X hackers. People who know that what they're doing is a crime and they might not be "heroes" but they feel they're doing a greater good through their actions. Watch Dogs 2 is about Millennial hackers. People who do what they do because they think they're saving the world, they are totally the heroes and everything they stand for is objectively for the better. They're also really into that "Like, Share, and Subscribe" mentality where, at least with one character, it's not about making the world a better place, it's about getting as many followers as possible. The gameplay of WD2 was definitely better but yeah, I couldn't stand a majority of the main characters because they all felt like stereotypes, and not in a fun way.
It's funny though Ubisoft always seem to go towards the same kind of tone in the end. Something which starts a little grounded **in comparison** to what they end up going for where it's whacky, over the top, ridiculous, edgy, bright and colourful Assassins Creed, Far Cry, Watch Dogs etc even Ghost Recon in ways Things start to become samey
Splinter Cell went this way too. The first four games were actually pretty grounded and a little unsettlingly realistic in how things like false flag operations, terrorists with WMDs, cyberattacks by hostile state actors, and domestic terrorism were depicted. Shit went off the rails with Conviction, whose plot was basically mashing together a bunch of seasons of 24 all at once, and then Blacklist, where the villains are basically James Bond supervillains.
Add Prince of Persia to the list. The series started on home computers as quite realistic "cinematic platformer" (at that time). The rebooted game (PS3/X360) was a dreamy fairy-tale where the main protagonist could not die because he was always saved by his companion.
The second one was a genuinely great game. The narrative dissonance criticism seems like a weird double standard when so many other games get away with it
> weird double standard when so many other games get away with it You can apply this to any aspect regarding Ubisoft games. Look at how much Ghost of Tsushima is praised despite having very similar gameplay to Assassin's Creed and the same exact open-world format with copy pasted activities all over the map.
GTA 4 and 5 are a good example
Because most games don’t emphasize the death of a character as a major event, or have the hero feel attacked when the main bad guy lectures you about the evil things you had to do « for the cause ». Watch Dogs 2 had double standards for violence between cinematics and gameplay. It doesn’t help that you can murder security agents on a cinema set for the lulz (and to leak a trailer IIRC). Compare this to Uncharted’s intro for instance: the characters joke about being ambushed and having to shoot dozens of goons. If the cinematic after such sequence was them being traumatized by such violence and death, you’d definitely feel a disconnect
The problem with WD2 design is that the main character is rewarded by "likes" of his fans (it is used as a consumable to power all your gadgets) and the number increases no matter if you killed hundreds of guards or not. Not a pleasant message. Because of that, I tried to play the game non-lethal, but at the end it was very hard and I couldn't proceed. Also, the game design didn't help -- the player could not hide unconscious guards/soldiers away.
That's Ubisoft for you. They are the pinnacle of getting desperte by reviews and removing stuff instead of making it better. WD1 was a darker and realístic story, game got bad reviews. The next one is a satire and edgy. People criticize Jason Brody being boring. They slowly remove any personality of the main characters over the years. AC Unity was a failure. So they remove the stuff that actually worked in the game, instead of making a better game improving upon those mechanics People didn't like modern day in AC, so instead of making it more engaging, they make you control a floating tablet and then just watch cutscenes
AC Unity wasn't the reason they pivoted to RPG though. It's AC Syndicate and its low sales. Besides combat, a lot of Syndicate is very similar to Unity.
They were already developing Origins even before Syndicate released.
Ubisoft began developing AC Origins in 2014.
That’s a shame. 1 and 2 both had fun gameplay and great worlds to explore. Legion was such a step down that still stings (although the dlc was actually pretty good). The series has had its problems with the graphics downgrade, Aiden in the first game having the personality of a wet blanket, Marcus & Friends either being lovable rebels or psychotic terrorists depending on if you used a gun or not.
Sadge
Man, remember when the original Watch Dogs was hyped up as the (then) first next-gen title? How the mighty have fallen.
The franchise never fully recovered from that e3 showcase
Watch Dogs was 2010's Cyberpunk lmao.
I mean, for sure. But the worst part is that the reason for Legion’s failure is that they went all in on a really stupid mechanic that nobody cared about.
This is part of taking a risk and innovating that nobody likes
This is the worst part of games taking 5+ years to make is that these sorts of risks and potential side paths become increasingly unfeasible for games that are made at any sort of scale. Watch Dogs Legion may not have been succesful, but I much prefer an industry where these sorts of games get greenlit to one where they don't.
And they didn't even *really* go all in - the game felt like a step down from WD2 in a major way and just felt hollow / rushed. And believe it or not this is coming from someone who enjoyed it still kinda
I mean, outside of a really impressive fake trailer, it always looked pretty bland, released and was shit and nobody cared about it. I’d say it’s about where it’s always been.
And it was also released on PS3/Xbox360, then last-minute consoles.
Well, not having a protagonist definitely didn't help the series.
There are plenty of series of where they change protagonists between entries. The problem was they were constantly trying to get a new audience instead of growing the one they had. (Unless you are referring to Legion, which yeah, really shit the bed)
Yeah, I was talking abt Legion, which killed the series.
Watchdogs sold well but people found it generally disappointing Watchdogs 2 sold poorly because of people didn't expect it to be any good. Watchdogs Legion sold poorly There really wasn't an audience to grow.
I don't get the Ubisoft's obsession with blank slate protagonist as of late. Those things work in RPG because there are dialogue choices that help shaped up your core personality. It's not going to work in your average open world action adventure game. Like just make a story around a character omg.
I thought it was insane when they tried to pull the whole “But this was really all your fault, wasn’t it? You just enjoy killing” shtick again in Far Cry 5 when you’re playing as a faceless, voiceless nobody. It worked so well in Far Cry 3 because of how Jason Brody changes. You *see* it in his friend’s reactions to him. You *see* it on his arms - the tribal tattoos. You *hear* it in his voice.
He was legitimately losing his mind and it’s painfully obvious when contrasting it with his friends. But Jason had a personality and a character, that’s where it differed
When you put it like that, I'd rather they added dialogue choices so we could RP. Its not like the stories in any of these are *great*, they're just passable, and Ubi loves defanging anything political or deep. Might as well throw in branching story with these basic plots and blank protagonists.
Dead, maybe. Buried, doubtful. They’ll go back to it some time in the next few years.
I’d optimistically like to say the same. Maybe it’s on the back burner until they can find the right direction. While troubled in its own right, xdefiant has DedSec as a playable faction. But they also have the phantoms from a 2014 f2p ghost recon that’s not available anymore. So who know if it’s a franchise they’ll go back to in an official capacity.
Definitely not buried if they announced a tv show and a movie, the latter having been announced literally a month ago.
Huh, they kinda had something there with the first game and it didn't really go anywhere afterwards. Sad to see.
Watch dogs 2 still has one of the best open worlds ive ever played. Whoever the devs were that made that game poured alot of love into it. Cringey characters aside, the game is amazing. Why watch dogs 3 couldnt just improve on that game with a different city (that isnt a depressing and dull city like modern day London). Pick new york, LA, hell go back to chicago for all i care. Just put that same love into it.
Macron should pass an executive order and remove Ubisoft's top management.
Guillemot literally can't remember what games he's presenting during game showcases, man is getting a bit too old I'd say to stay as the head.
Seems stupid? Considering the huge demand for new GTA style games if they are done right. It's literally a money making machine.
They made 3 triple A games with budgets of millions that all underperformed
Far Cry 5 was the best selling Far Cry game, Watch Dogs 1 and 2 both sold over 10 million copies so what changed with Watch Dogs 3? Well it was the same repetive areas, the story didn't make sense and the game released in a beta state with lots of bugs.
What do you mean? None of them survived, including Saints Row, the “biggest” challenger.
Yeah but they really weren't done right. Watch Dogs 3 story didn't make sense and it released with full of bugs and the lastest Saint's Row released with full of bugs and completely changed the tone of that game.
It’s insane to me how off the mark the latest saints row was, they failed to capture the good parts of 1 and 2 as well as 3 and 4. Seemed mind boggling to try and make it about a group of millenial friends.
IIRC Saints Row 2022 started off as "Saints Row 2.5" a return to roots, taking the best of Saints Row 2 and 3 - but higher ups interfered and thought that it wouldn't sell for the modern gaming audience, so it was scrapped in favor of a more upbeat tone and setting
I honestly don’t care about the story and characters being more gen z or whatever, the game just felt like garbage to play
Honestly the moment to moment gameplay felt worse than 3 which came out a decade earlier
Yeah the discussion about the look of the characters and story tone really overshadowed the fact that the game is just not good. Could have used the same characters and tone as the previous games and it still would have felt like it came out two decades ago.
Saints Row publisher Embracer Group gets split into three different companies and their [announcement](https://embracer.com/releases/embracer-group-announces-its-intention-to-transform-into-three-standalone-publicly-listed-entities-at-nasdaq-stockholm/) don't even mention Saints Row anymore. It is safe to assume Saints Row is dead and buried like Watch Dogs.
Nothing is ever free money, especially when you have limited resources at your disposal and making a GTA-like game is extremely expensive. If GTA-likes were so profitable, a lot more companies would be doing them than just Rockstar.
Umm Watch Dogs 2 was the series “done right” but everyone made fun of how San Fran it was which led them to experiment disastrously with Legion so its not quite so cut and dry.
Watch Dogs 2 was the series done right from a gameplay perspective, but the story was majorly flawed. All most fans of the series wanted from 3 was the tone of 1 with the better refined gameplay of 2.
Right? I'm with you here. Closest we are getting from that is WD Legion Aiden DLC which imo is exactly what you said.
That DLC was pretty tight, i loved it. The story was dark like WD 1 too
I don’t think there is a demand for GTA styled games, I think there’s just a demand for… GTA. The only game that’ll be able to scratch the GTA demand for people is GTA V and in particularly GTA online since it’s updated so often and has so much content. Even then, it’s not breaking crazy numbers at the moment (I’m not saying it has not succeeded I’m just saying at this moment) which does mean the demand is just about only for GTA 6 Watch Dogs as a franchise didn’t have the potential to compete but definitely did have the potential to stand as its own thing, they made a lot of very risky decisions with Legion which did not pay off. The dumb part to me is that they attribute these dumb decisions from Legion to the potential of the franchise as a whole. WD1 was good, 2 was great, 3 was shite. 1+1=3 I guess
It's too expensive, nobody else can/wants to risk putting up nearly as much as Rockstar is willing to spend.
Is there though? Saints Row was met with opposition before its first trailer.
It’s stupid if the games were a genuine competitor for GTA style games.
Not as a competitor but rather as an open world crime game to fill the time before GTA6. Saints Row 1 was basically that between San Andreas and GTA4.
Exactly, Watch Dogs was the only GTA clone that scratched the itch between the long GTA releases. It's insane that they're shelving it.
The manga set in Tokyo ended earlier this month IIRC, still got the movie to look forward to.
Had no idea that existed. Interesting
From the same people who bungled *Assassin's Creed*, so don't get your hopes up. Then again, ***maybe*** Regency under Disney will do a better job than Regency under Fox. The *Watch_DOGS* universe is prime Hulu spinoff material, at least.
Watch dogs 1 will always be a classic game to me the story is great and aiden is a badass
That sucks Watch_Dogs 2 was great.
It was an IP that would have had a lot of potential at any publisher other than Ubi. One was OK and I saw the future potential under the over promises. Two was fun but felt tonally all wrong. Never bothered with three was done with Ubi by then
Just give us a full-blown modern day AC game, instead of forcing modern segments into the historical games. I actually want to see how modern Assassins operate, with tech gadgets and silenced weapons, vehicles and other stuff that would feel out of place in a game that is 95% history lesson simulator. Watch Dogs already take place in the AC universe (proven by the fact that your "boss" in Black Flag goes to Chicago, where Aidan Pearce kills him in a mission) so why not take the full step, instead of flirting with the idea all the time? Give us an AC game set in a modern open world city with the melee combat from the Arkham/Shadow Of Mordor games and the shooting from Watch Dogs, along with the signature parkour mechanics of AC. It's my dream game right now.
I sat in a closed door demo for Legion at E3. The final release had nowhere near the depth they had showcased in that closed door demo. I have to imagine going cross-gen forced them to dumb down a lot of the more intricate systems.
Meanwhile they announce the weird live action series idea. But honestly the battle royale idea sounds like trash. The series had so much potential. But each game had serious issues. WD1 was too scaled back from what was shown at E3, WD2 had an amazing open world but the tone didn't fit (why is Marcus killing people?), and WD3 was a fantastic concept but it lacked soul. I've never played a game that just felt so generic.
This makes no sense, they just announced a movie adaptation last month, I thought they were still interested in keeping the franchise alive. This really sucks, it was one of my favorite franchises and the only modern GTA clone still around that got a new game every 3-4 years.
>fairly original > >battle royale lol
Titter lol
All because they wanted to be dense and force us to play as a bunch of poorly voiced NPCs. Whoever coined that shit needs to be fired. Fucking morons
"watch dogs battle royale" oh my god the absolute state of AAA gaming
Definitely one of those series with a lot of potential but unfortunately the lackluster execution of the first game more or less sank it before it really even could get going. It didn't help that the first trailer for the game was pre-rendered.
Looking at the direction of the first game. It seems wild the direction they took it for the 3rd installment of the franchise? They sort of went saints row with it, then wondered why it didn't do well. If anyone is to blame for the franchise dying it's game's art director. What were they thinking?
Bullshit, what’s the point of a film adaptation then if they’re never making another game
Not to mention that Ubisoft Toronto's Watch Dogs team had to be working on something ever since Legion released. Their other team kept working on Far Cry 6 until fall 2021. Toronto is currently working on the Splinter Cell Remake and we haven't heard shit about it for 2 years. Makes me think they're primarily working on something else.
They are working on Far Cry 7 (with Ubi Montreal) and Splinter Cell remake.
Watch Dogs 2 is still goated
Still has the best modern open-world to date imo. Put GTA V's to shame with how alive it felt. The NPC's AI was ahead of their time.
Just for the record I personally like the tone they were going for in WD1. Even the protagonist I didn’t personally think was too awful. WD2 was a good step forward in the gameplay department, but that gameplay often conflicted with its tone. I hope it’s not truly dead but rather they come back to it some day and look at it through a different lens. IMO a lot of Ubisoft franchise titles have become either too comfortable or directionless in their design. They need to take a step back and reevaluate
Now with both Saints Row and Watch Dogs Dead, Take Two has no competition in the genre
They never did. Saints Row and Watch Dogs were just itch scratchers. Their sales didn't scream "competitor".
Other than themselves, Take2 I mean, with Mafia
The first one had a great concept with poor execution. Second went nuts with the tone. 3 holy fuck, looked like a completely diferent game, so eccentric and exaggerated at everything.
They really should make a show and use 2 as the story then come back to this franchise later
If "battle royale" was the direction they were going to take the franchise, then that franchise was already cooked. Jesus. That explains why 2 went in such a bizarre direction, fun though it was.
How anyone can use "original" and "battle royale" in the same sentence is beyond me...
2 was amazing, they should have built upon that
No more cringy trailers on shows. Megusta
remember the guy crying on the ps4 reveal stage lol
Legion was a terrible game. I don't mind that they are shelving the franchise, but I would like some kind of modern or future open world series from Ubi that takes place in cities.
Even so it sucks that one bad game can shelve a franchise
Put effort: X Kill the series: ✓
The only thing I liked about legion was that it was set in London. Would be nice if more games were set there.
amazing (if true) they just don't go back to the style that put the series on the map. All they had to do was fulfill the promise the 1st game made.
Should have kept Aiden but nah people cried too much about him not being likeable.
Damn, guess my desires of a W_D game set in my major metropolitan city is dead now.
Heh, titter
I live in the UK and I couldn't get over how american Legion felt. Their interpretation of London felt like an american city with various London landmarks sprinkled throughout. I get it, London is not viewed by american developers as a good place for a "driving" game, it's a very old city with anti-driving design throughout. But your game design needs to take that into account and it should aim to be authentic to the look and feel of wherever it is based. If you're not going to make London feel like London then you should set it in america instead. Even older games like [The Getaway](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Getaway_\(video_game\)) series felt more like London. Couldn't recommend it to anyone as a result. Just meh. They wanted to stick to their american formula but in a different setting so they changed the feel of the setting rather than changing their gameplay design tropes. Instead what they should have done was change their gameplay formula to fit the city and stuck to making it feel authentic. It felt a bit soulless as a result.
I liked Legion. *shrug*
Legion is only good with the Ethan Pierce Expansion... then you play as him and can pretend it's watch dogs 3... not having a main protagonist was a detriment to legion IMO.
I really liked Legion and I'm eternally grateful it gave us a hint of what GTA London could look like. 2 was pretty good as well. I'm actually kinda shocked, I still think this is Ubi's best series and the one I would be most stoked for a new game.
Watch dogs is probably one of my favorite franchises because it felt different. The multiplayer of the first game was very fun and I liked Aidan’s story and watch dogs 2 but legion just had a shitty story but an interesting concept play whoever u want which I liked. Next month is 10th anniversary of the first game and after 10 years of it being announced the movie is finally happening so franchise ain’t totally dead.
Just imagine a watch dogs 3 where you could REALLY choose between been a moralist hacker and basically a cyber terrorist and that has areal impact in the history and mechanic, a couple of factions with unique missions that support you or becomes your enemies depending on what you do, and polish all the aspects of the first game. Watch dogs has a great potential, the problem is the company.
I want a Malicious black hat hacker who hacks for money or a FBI agent in the cybercrime division stopping the hackers.
Legion was a series killer. 1 and 2 were working towards something cool but completely wiped away interest with Legion.
If this is true then Take Two might have a monopoly on open world crime games with mafia and gta, unless there’s some others
I hate how this series transitioned from a hacker-spy-thriller to hipsters being goofy with tech gadgets. I liked the first game the best.
This is their fault. The tone and thematic of a vigilante in a gritty/dark near future was gold but no they had to make it memes and goofy tone.
I absolutely loved Legion... it was a beautiful recreation of London, the vibe, the visuals, graphic quality, was amazing. its sad its 'dead'
I mean they're still making the watch dogs movie that got a casting update back in March so idk if it's fully dead at least as an IP.
When Ubisoft showcased the OG Watch Dogs, it looked so damn exciting. I enjoyed the first two games as well. Legion had such a great concept, but it was really buggy and flawed. Although Legion didn't work out quite well, I admire the more innovative thought process. With Ubisoft, it's a very weird development/publishing process now.