UbiSoft created a dystopia through complex

‘Watch Dogs: Legion’ is undoubtedly ambitious. This is evident in its replica of a perfectly recognisable near-future London, which has been carefully duplicating iconic places through the lens of a militarised and hyper-surveilled city. Or in its recruitment mechanics, which help players feel like they’re in a living city where every citizen matters.

At a presentation by Ubi Soft, the French company covered various aspects of ‘Watch Dogs: Legion’ to provide a preview of its complexity and scope. After several hours of revealing secrets and meeting some of the designers, the sense of urban magnitude had been achieved, but there were still things to uncover. We focus on the great mechanical discovery of ‘Legion’: the ability to recruit almost any character for our cause.

In Watch Dogs: Legion, our “good hackers,” DedSec, investigate Zero Day, a rival group that wants to bomb Parliament, in a future London. It’s a diversionary tactic: explosives are everywhere in the city, and DedSec is blamed for multiple injuries and deaths. DedSec must be revived and Zero Day exposed while fighting Albion, a militarised urban security firm.

The player can hack any electronic device and recruit any Londoner to his cause. We can win them over by doing them small favours with our hacking skills, and they will join DedSec with their own style, weapons, and skills. This collective protagonism challenge is technical and part of the game’s approach and spirit.

The game’s art director, Patrick Ingoldsby, told us they spent months documenting London and understanding “the different areas of the city, the different neighbourhoods, how it’s organised.” This requires a street map and deeper understanding. By talking to passersby, they realised “London is a diverse place full of very different people.”

Everyone from hip-hop artists to businesspeople gathered. When adding urban fauna to the game, Ingoldsby’s team wanted players to “recognise at a glance which area they belong to and what they do.” This is crucial for calling on different Londoners depending on the mission: do you need a construction drone to fly? Call a construction worker with a wrench and helmet. Infiltrate Parliament? Find the best-dressed rebel in the wealthy neighbourhood.

Dubbing director Natalia Hinds had an army of voice actors to reinforce their differences while recognising their traits and social background. She coordinated and worked with the art department to give all recruitable Londoners distinct personalities.

City divided but united
Nicolas Fortin, associate art director at Ubisoft Montreal, told us that the department’s main task was to translate this diverse cast of characters and residents into famous locations like Camden at night, Covent Garden, Piccadilly Circus, and Trafalgar Square, where Albion protests take place.

As stated, the art designers created “a series of surreptitious and invisible systems that assigned visual styles, ranging from urban decoration to the style of the clothes of pedestrians” to classify the city’s areas. As in any sandbox, the player must free and join different parts of London to his cause until he returns the entire city, but ‘Watch Dogs: Legion’ divides these zones by visual style.

London is one of the cities with the most surveillance cameras, which fits the plot, Fortin said. Clint Hocking, the game’s creative director, told us that the game tries to “be fun and dark at the same time: an undeniably British character trait” and that “Bagley, an artificial intelligence that will accompany the player at all times providing assistance,” has “a personality of this style.”

UbiSoft created a dystopia through complex

By b0oua

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