Watch Dogs: Legion

This hacking-focused adventure does an incredible job of giving players the flexibility of stepping into the shoes of anyone in London, but its biggest stumbling block, ironically, is tech-based. Watch Dogs Legion is a dire take on a future where citizens are no longer free in their own city, because their government has sold their security and safety to a private military corporation. Coupled with tech that tracks their every move, the conditions are ripe for revolution. The commentary about cryptocurrency, driverless cars, drones, illegal immigration and other issues feels ripped from today's headlines. The big twist here is that any character can join your cause and help start the revolution. Everyone on the streets is a possible agent in training. The grandma that's skilled with robotics? The homeless girl packing a silenced MP5? The hypnotist street performer that can convert guards to your side for a mission? These are just some of the people you can profile and bring onto your team, rounding out your squad's needs for a particular mission. That also means that you can intentionally choose to make a mission harder by picking a someone that has to take a more direct route than a stealthier path in levels based on their skill set. Additionally, the option to choose anyone makes London feel more alive and realistic than virtually any other open world game, because each character has their own motivations and needs to fulfill. For example, if you prevent a random character from being arrested, their spouse or family member might remember that, and may be more willing to join the cause. Accidentally kill someone or cause their problem to become worse, and you may make an adversary that will come back to haunt you, including kidnapping some of your teammates and threatening their lives. The overall result is that you not only care who's on your team, but you start looking at everyone as prospective teammates instead of random citizens.

Legion's gameplay is incredibly ambitious, but while it shoots for the digital moon, it manages to suffer from some significant bugs. Environmental objects suddenly pop into existence or won't always respond to commands, which can hinder the solving of puzzles or missions. Character profiles and voices for your team will sometimes swap out with recruits, which can be somewhat confusing when you're picking team members for a mission. But the most significant problem is that there are random crashes and freezes that will pop up, forcing you to restart and reload the game. It's ironic that a game that's so steeped in tech (such as the hacking, drone direction, or scene reconstruction by holograms) suffers from tech glitches. Many of these problems are scheduled to be fixed by upcoming patches, so if you can overlook these flaws, Watch Dogs Legion presents one of the deepest, most believable open world experience to date.