Ubisoft’s action-adventure release Watch Dogs was launched in 2014, well after the Jonathan Nolan series Person of Interest. It’s clearly a riff on that world, including a vigilante protagonist, abundant hacking, and a grayscale city. Although the game’s sales were fine, it received mixed reviews. Its sequel garnered the reverse—critics enjoyed it, while sales suffered. Now, the series’ future is depending on Watch Dogs: Legion, which launches in March 2020. There are some fascinating mechanics at play in these games. So, here are some ways that the franchise could be reinvigorated, and a few that would finally compromise it.

10 Saves It: Personal Storylines

Alright, so the first Watch Dogs didn’t exactly go out of its way to avoid cliches. You’re basically a pseudo Batman, and the whole Death Wish thing has been done more than enough times. However, at least formulas work. The plot was streamlined, and the main character isn’t your typical cut-and-paste hero that saves the day. Your actions aren’t painted in black and white, and the family angle was more engaging than the hipsters that mainly wanted to just mess around in Watch Dogs 2. With every NPC being a potential recruit, let’s hope that Legion doesn’t disregard character development altogether in place of plotting. Keep it personal, or we won’t be able to invest. If nothing we do matters, there’s no point to the game.

9 Gets It Wrong: Police AI

This completely went off the rails in Watch Dogs 2. This is particularly frustrating because the police mechanics are so close to achieving a reasonable representation. Unfortunately, their instant spawning is beyond ridiculous, abruptly popping into existence just around the corner. This punishes you even when you’ve escaped their clutches.

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Also, in any of the countless standoffs that you’ll find in multiplayer, SWAT doesn’t move into the building to overwhelm you like they did in the first Watch Dogs. As a result, you can go after a bounty that’s surrounded by fiery streets full of exploded units, and it can go on perpetually. The AI behavior is in need of serious modification, especially if the upcoming plot involves an authoritarian, police state variant of London.

8 Saves It: Gameplay Mechanics

This is easily the highlight of the entire franchise. By the time Watch Dogs 2 has rolled out, there are endless gameplay mechanics that are both innovative and effective. Forging digital evidence in order to sic the police on someone, manipulating unmanned vehicles, creating your own music playlist—following a game that allowed you to catch serial killers, prevent crimes, and garner the reputation you prefer. It seems like Ubisoft plans to escalate everything yet again, making every single NPC in the world a playable character. That’s one of the most ambitious promises imaginable, but it shouldn’t compromise previously established mechanics. Build on what works, and fix what doesn’t.

7 Gets It Wrong: Inconsistent Tone

Either some people weren’t fans of the dark, gritty endeavor in the original, or they didn’t care for the radically cheesy spin for the sequel, where everything became over-the-top. And yet, even though the hackers in Watch Dogs 2 are supposed to be the heroes, they still commit an insane amount of destruction that piles up the bodies. It’s contradictory to their characters, and to the overall tone of the story.

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Besides, the group is entirely comprised of younger people, and the game desperately tried to pander to that audience. Unfortunately, it did so without quite understanding either modern-day hacker culture, or younger audiences, often catering to a hipster culture that no one actually likes. Find a balanced tone, and stick to it.

6 Saves It: Organic Action Pieces

One of the more entertaining sequences in the first Watch Dogs was the freeway chase of a massive vehicle that’s recklessly trashing everything out of its way. Because the game went out of its way to attempt a certain degree of internal realism beforehand, the chase felt even more rewarding. On the other hand, in Watch Dogs 2, many of the larger action pieces don’t feel woven into the plot very well. Also, if all of the action is spectacle, then nothing is. Similar to Syndrome's phrase, in The Incredibles. All that Legion needs to do is find a better balance between actual stealth and rewarding action.

5 Gets It Wrong: Lacking Stealth

Ubisoft is responsible for one of the most commanding stealth-based games franchises out there, Assassin’s Creed. So, it’s no surprise that this dynamic was incorporated into the Watch Dogs series. However, while the original installment called for quite a deal of it, the sequel didn’t quite follow through. Aiden Pearce has an entire mission set in a prison, wherein he must slip past one guard after another. Watch Dogs included Gang Hideouts, crime prevention and so forth, but now that element has clearly been severely lost. Although Watch Dogs 2 starts out that way, it’s quickly forgotten. But it’s an important feature that needs to be restored in order to balance out some of the frenetic features they’ve revealed in the trailer for Legion.

4 Saves It: Convincing Environments

This is something that the series can always defend. Even when Chicago isn’t entirely accurate, it still lives and breathes as an environment. San Francisco is vibrant and colorful, bustling with NPCs that have amusing backstories. Everyday people are clearly at work, holding hands, even drunk and vomiting—all the things that create an immersive atmosphere. NPCs can get upset with you, or photo bomb you when you take selfies in front of the many landmarks—it’s truly incredible. Much like Ubisoft’s mammoth franchise Assassin’s Creed, the setting is a character unto itself. It’s almost unrivaled. This shouldn’t be lost, and a recreation of London sounds very promising. Don’t abandon your good habits because of the near-future fiction.

3 Gets It Wrong: Meaningless Missions

The plot of Watch Dogs 2 is more often than not, rather disappointing. This is due to a meandering pace. For example, Marcus literally gets into a car chase with the police just for kicks. It seems antithetical to their cause, and it isn’t even a side mission. It’s really troublesome when many of the early campaign missions feel like an aside, that would otherwise be used for a typical grind in any other game. Where Aiden Pearce was desperately trying to solve the mystery of his car crash, Marcus is fighting for a cause—it just isn’t streamlined, because their goals don’t have any sense of urgency. Not when you’re out trying to get followers most of the time. Legion needs to deliver a plot where every mission really counts.

2 Saves It: Great Multiplayer

A great majority of the fun to be had in Watch Dogs 2 is embracing the silliness of the game with a friend. If you don’t care much for the story, there’s plenty to do together. Solving the puzzles that reward Research Points, racing boats and drones, hunting down bounties—it all amounts to some great cooperative play. Unfortunately, there aren’t a whole lot of missions to actually run through together, and most of them are cut short to insist on single-player completion. In a game that’s hinged on a group of randomly united hackers, it feels like there should be more in that department. Now that Legion is allowing endless playable characters, let’s see some more involved and important co-op missions.

1 Gets It Wrong: Relying On Drones

This is something of an elaboration on the lack of stealth. The primary reason that stealth was abandoned, was in favor of two cute little drones. There was a time when hunting for just the right street camera would make or break a mission. With the Quadcopter, it can become a breeze to secure an area. Simply stun everything in sight (avoiding explosions that will draw the police), swoop in, and get out before anyone even wakes up. Without a face-to-face confrontation, the stakes are significantly lower, and that goes for multiplayer too. PVP battles can be decided by a well-placed Quadcopter. Keep Jumper alone, which is at least reasonable, or backpedal the Quadcopter’s ability to kill and stun everything in sight.

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