The brilliance of playable NPC in Watch Dogs Legion

[Reality vs Adventure]

This needs a special topic because I think it's the first game ever made where you can pick whatever NPC you want to play. It's pretty awesome to choose who you want to join your crew. It gives a bit of respect to all NPC's that populate the environment. I never want to run anyone over cause you don't know who they are. Everyone has value in that game. Part of the fun is just trying to recruit people you have an interest in. Sometimes you can see your crew members walking down the street. And your actions influence NPC's throughout London. 

I'm playing on the mode where if your character dies, they are gone for good. And it's amazing that kind of realism. I know other games have that kind of strategy in the Souls series, but this is more realistic. And every character looks different, and has different skills and background. It gives you a chance to fantasize and play the kind of person you wish to be. Especially in a dystopian broken corrupt world. Who do you want to be? So many looks. Putting myself in their shoes with everyone being so different creates so many different personalities. 

I'm hooked on it. What are your thoughts on that kind of interactions? I really hope other games adapt that ability. Well, that's one of the best damn things I've ever experienced in gaming. 

 

[Shagger]

I couldn't really get into Watchdogs. Can't say for sure why, but the first game wasn't a polished experience and got boring for me. I' also certain it's not the first game that allowed you to control other NPC's. I know of a game called Mindjack on the Xbox 360 that had a very similar mechanic. It was apparently crap, but that's beside the point.

[StaceyPowers]

I feel a sense of irony reading this post after watching my friend run over about 50 NPCs yesterday while struggling with a mission =D But yes, I agree--this game has given us a new way to empathize with NPCs.

[Reality vs Adventure]

10 hours ago, Shagger said:

I couldn't really get into Watchdogs. Can't say for sure why, but the first game wasn't a polished experience and got boring for me. I' also certain it's not the first game that allowed you to control other NPC's. I know of a game called Mindjack on the Xbox 360 that had a very similar mechanic. It was apparently crap, but that's beside the point.

Wow, you are right about Mindjack. You can take control of anybody. That's a cool feature. 

2 hours ago, StaceyPowers said:

I feel a sense of irony reading this post after watching my friend run over about 50 NPCs yesterday while struggling with a mission =D But yes, I agree--this game has given us a new way to empathize with NPCs.

Haha-I'm always wondering who I killed when I'm crashing into them fleeing the cops. And sometimes using the hijack car feature to drive them off the road to get out the way and it smashes into someone on the sidewalk; ooops!!! Nobody saw that right? 

[StaceyPowers]

23 minutes ago, Reality vs Adventure said:

Wow, you are right about Mindjack. You can take control of anybody. That's a cool feature. 

Haha-I'm always wondering who I killed when I'm crashing into them fleeing the cops. And sometimes using the hijack car feature to drive them off the road to get out the way and it smashes into someone on the sidewalk; ooops!!! Nobody saw that right? 

I"ve noted the same thing as you though about valuing them all. I even feel more sympathy toward the Albion people when shooting at them since some of them are recruitable. The game's philosophy as expressed through its mechanics essentially seems to be that people are fundamentally OK if one can find a way to reduce their suffering and get through to them about the suffering of others. Alas, IRL, this is more challenging. But I like the message. 

[Reality vs Adventure]

3 minutes ago, StaceyPowers said:

I"ve noted the same thing as you though about valuing them all. I even feel more sympathy toward the Albion people when shooting at them since some of them are recruitable. The game's philosophy as expressed through its mechanics essentially seems to be that people are fundamentally OK if one can find a way to reduce their suffering and get through to them about the suffering of others. Alas, IRL, this is more challenging. But I like the message. 

You are very right about Albion characters as well as Klan Kelly. When I scope things out I sometimes look at their bio summary to see if they are worth killing or not. lol. If they donate to bad causes or anti immigrant, that sort of thing I'll kill em so quick. And usually their surroundings give a good idea who they are, like if they are patrolling a torture zone, I'll kill em. But yeah, many of them you recruit, they say they want out of the game so as to not get involved with the harder or more sinister stuff. This kind of personalization for all characters including so called enemies is an outstanding feature. 

[StaceyPowers]

3 minutes ago, Reality vs Adventure said:

You are very right about Albion characters as well as Klan Kelly. When I scope things out I sometimes look at their bio summary to see if they are worth killing or not. lol. If they donate to bad causes or anti immigrant, that sort of thing I'll kill em so quick. And usually their surroundings give a good idea who they are, like if they are patrolling a torture zone, I'll kill em. But yeah, many of them you recruit, they say they want out of the game so as to not get involved with the harder or more sinister stuff. This kind of personalization for all characters including so called enemies is an outstanding feature. 

"Kill on sight" has so long been taken for granted in games. After I played Spec Ops: The Line, I can never feel the same way about that again. Watch Dogs Legion is one of the only other games I have seen find a way to call out this assumption/behavioural training. 

[Yaramaki]

I picked up watch dogs legions for 20 bucks a few weeks ago,  this thread  got me kinda curious to say the least so i'm definatly going to give it try, i was always under the impression plays as any npc is a gimmick but apperently seems like a lot of fun.

I don't know what to make of watch dogs to be honest, i played the first one and tought it was ok nothing really special, i believe  it was also one of the first real "big" aaa games for ps4/xbox one. Never got really into the second game, i don't know why tough, played for a few hours and move onto something else, maybe i got burned out on ubisoft games or something, quite a few people seem to like the second game so i'll give that another chance first after i finish up greedfall.

[Reality vs Adventure]

9 hours ago, Yaramaki said:

I picked up watch dogs legions for 20 bucks a few weeks ago,  this thread  got me kinda curious to say the least so i'm definatly going to give it try, i was always under the impression plays as any npc is a gimmick but apperently seems like a lot of fun.

I don't know what to make of watch dogs to be honest, i played the first one and tought it was ok nothing really special, i believe  it was also one of the first real "big" aaa games for ps4/xbox one. Never got really into the second game, i don't know why tough, played for a few hours and move onto something else, maybe i got burned out on ubisoft games or something, quite a few people seem to like the second game so i'll give that another chance first after i finish up greedfall.

Part of the fun is just recruiting who you want. And that can be a challenge itself. You can always dismiss anyone on your crew if you find someone else you prefer. You can have up to 42 or so members. Anyone you see you can save them to your recruits to check them out later and decide if you want to risk your neck to recruit them. Some people hate you because of the propaganda against you, so that doesn't necessarily make them your enemy; you have to do more work to recruit them. And having it on permanent death mode will greatly intensify the way you handle your crew members. Things can go haywire real fast and get your member killed. That could be someone you really liked. So that sense of urgency to save your neck is pretty damn intense. Once you are stuck in the shit with nowhere to go except guns blazing, you better have quick thinking to get yourself out of it. Cause drones above will also shoot you on site. 

[Reality vs Adventure]

It's interesting to see how some potential recruits I have saved react to how I interacted with others. If I injure or kill an NPC, turns out that was a friend, associate, or family member of a potential recruit I have saved. Next thing I know that bastard gets revenge and kidnaps one of my crew members. Then I have to go on a special mission to save them. And it surprises me to find out it's a potential recruit I have saved that went and did it. Then they put me on their hate list and I have to decide if I want to pursue recruiting them still or not. That kind of interaction with the world is very unique. 

[Heatman]

One thing that does for me is that it gives me a proper sense of connection with any NPC that I decide to pick and play in the game and I really enjoy that. 

[Empire]

its aite i guess. it gets repetitive at times, with the same restricted areas being used over and over, but since u can use different operatives to change how u play, it balances out. Storywise its somewhat predictable(?) My favourite in the series is Watch Dogs 2.

so it was nice seeing Wrench and Marcus appear again in the DLC. My only huge-ish issue with the game are the upgrades. I find them very lacking in that aspect

[Heatman]

That's the only way to work on the game's repetitive scenes that it doesn't bore you. Once it gets too monotonous, there wouldn't be any fun in playing it much again. 

[Yaramaki]

Now that i've finally beaten the game and it's dlc, i've put about 70 hours into the game, i'm only missing the long live deadsec achievement, so if i played it on playstation instead of xbox i would have platinumed the game so i've got a decent idea what i'm talking about.

-> London looks beautiful and at times you really feel like you're in london because the world is full of life, having visited london myself a couple of times i can finally relate to a location. The fact that i had a high ranking police officer on my time and people would thank me for keeping the streets safe is nice touch, aswell if you have a high ranking albion officer in your time, people start calling you out, i tought that was a nice touch worth mentioning

-> The recruit anyone is on paper a nice idea and for the first few hours you play the game, it's also seems to work well, however the recruiting missions could have been a little more varied if you ask me, after stealing a car or inflirtrating the same building for the third time. it get's repetitive after a while. The recruiting anybody system is a double edged sword imo,  On one hand is that the game is unique to everybody on the other hand you really don't get memorable characters like in watch dogs 2.

-> Once i started playing it was hard to put the game down, let's try and grab another tech point, maybe i should do another side missions or recruit somebody new, before you know it you're a couple of hours later without even knowing. 

-> The story is typical Ubisoft stuff, not bad but not great either, i don't think the vilians weren't even all that bad some of their ideas weren't even half bad if you ask me exept for the kelly leader bitch had to die,just to give an example there was a woman were you had to choose to let here live or shut off a machine, no matter what you choose you'll have the same outcome anyway then why even let me choose in the first place. The fact i meanly divided missions between several characters was also a nice change of pace.

-> The voiceacting of the characters let's just say they are terrible, i had a woman on my team that had an indian accent and a guy who had a russian accent but damn that must be some of the worst voice acting i've heard in quite a while. Also the dialogue when you recruit somebody i don't know what drug they were on but is must be good stuff. One thing i missed aswell was interaction between fellow deadsec members sometimes you encounter one in london, why is there no interaction between the two, like why did they just pass me instead of maybe saying Hi or greeting me.

-> Gameplay wise is the strongest point of the game because it's awesome, stealth is still king and your robot spider is probably your best friend and you know once you can hack drones, nothing beats taking over a couple of drones and shooting up the place but as previously mentioned more upgrades could have been integrated into the game.

-> I played with permadeath on, on the default difficulty while i had a few officers die early in the game, like with any ubisoft game once you have a couple of upgrades the game becomes easier over time, i don't think i had anybody die when i was halfway trough the game.

->Let's talk about the dlc last, it's not worth 40 bucks i only paid 20 for it but it's still pushing it. Unless you really want to play as wrench or aiden in the main game, While the bloodline story was good it's not earth shattering and brings nothing new to the table, no new part of london for you to explore either, i don't know if the assasin darcy was dlc or not, she was a likeable character enough, maybe they could bring here back in future installments of assasins creed.

Lastly should you buy the game, i'm going to say if you like ubisoft games or open world games this is definatly something you should look into, especially since the game can be had under 20 bucks, i paid like 18 euros for it, the amount of hours you can poor into the game is good value for money.

[Clasher]

Sincerely I think watch dog: legions is a really cool game though I play it once or twice at a friend's place ( I don't own one at the moment ), the game story borders around the hacker syndicate Dedsec Which seek to clear the names after been framed for a series of terrorists bombings. At the moment I don't even know which is best watch dog: 2 or legions.