First I have to start with the state it launched in. I picked it up at release to play on my Xbox One S for a week while I waited for the Series X to arrive. I gave up on that idea after half a dozen crashes in my first hour of playing. I started again on Series X where I found out Ubisoft's cross gen save platform "Ubisoft Connect" was not only not working, but stopping the game from saving locally so the game wouldn't save at all. This wasn't fixed for a month, by which time Cyberpunk was out so I'd moved on.
I came back to it a few of months later and it's finally fixed.. Mostly.
The story and side characters are largely dull and predicable, it doesn't help that the recruit anyone mechanic means there aren't any focused protagonists. The nearest thing is Bagley, the annoying, foul mouthed AI that gives you your missions.
The weak story wouldn't matter too much if the world was as fun to explore as WD 2's San Francisco. But it isn't. There's a lot of detail in places but the dystopian London of Legion is ugly, dull and seriously lacking in any of the variety and personality found in the second game. Gone is the mobile phone menu of WD2 and along with it the ability to listen to music on foot. sightsee with the ScoutX app, do Taxi missions with the Uber like Driver app and buy and collect cars to order on demand. But hey, you can play one of the worst darts mini games I've encountered in the pubs that are dotted around.
Legion is also missing a lot of the fun hacking mechanics of WD2. As far as I'm aware (unless there is a recruit I haven't encountered) you can no longer issue arrest warrants or put out gang hits on people for example.
The recruit anyone mechanic is an interesting idea but has major issues. Firstly, thanks to the seriously over powered builder you recruit early on, you only really need this one operative alongside maybe a hitman or secret agent for gunfights. The second issue is since they are randomly generated you mostly get people with attributes that don't fit. You'll see old black men that sound like young white men and vice versa, I followed a palace guard to a pub to recruit him where he was with his wife who appeared to be homeless. A lot of my recruits seem to have ridiculous and ugly looking facial hair, and while you can buy them new clothes, there are no barbers or customisation options for their face fuzz. Pretty much all the characters have over the top borderline parody accents too.
The missions, like everything else, are a mixed bag. There are a couple of decent missions but there are also far too many drone obstacle course sections. Many missions that take place outdoors can essentially be bypassed by using the builder and his cargo drone to fly over the area and drop a spider bot down to do your job for you. There is also one particular mission that involves you navigating a platforming section in pitch black by constantly stopping to move a drone with a torch slightly to light your way ahead that is amongst the worst I've ever played. It reminded me of that nightmare level in the original Max Payne.
At the time of writing the game has been out five months and it's still pretty buggy. I got stuck and unable to move in multiple missions, causing me to have to quite and reload. sometimes you can't interact with things you're meant to. The separate from the main game online mode has just launched but the ability to do things like invasions from the previous games still appear to be months away.
I did finish this game, and I did enjoy parts of it. Overall though it's a big disappointment and a huge step down from the previous entry in virtually every way.
I came back to it a few of months later and it's finally fixed.. Mostly.
The story and side characters are largely dull and predicable, it doesn't help that the recruit anyone mechanic means there aren't any focused protagonists. The nearest thing is Bagley, the annoying, foul mouthed AI that gives you your missions.
The weak story wouldn't matter too much if the world was as fun to explore as WD 2's San Francisco. But it isn't. There's a lot of detail in places but the dystopian London of Legion is ugly, dull and seriously lacking in any of the variety and personality found in the second game. Gone is the mobile phone menu of WD2 and along with it the ability to listen to music on foot. sightsee with the ScoutX app, do Taxi missions with the Uber like Driver app and buy and collect cars to order on demand. But hey, you can play one of the worst darts mini games I've encountered in the pubs that are dotted around.
Legion is also missing a lot of the fun hacking mechanics of WD2. As far as I'm aware (unless there is a recruit I haven't encountered) you can no longer issue arrest warrants or put out gang hits on people for example.
The recruit anyone mechanic is an interesting idea but has major issues. Firstly, thanks to the seriously over powered builder you recruit early on, you only really need this one operative alongside maybe a hitman or secret agent for gunfights. The second issue is since they are randomly generated you mostly get people with attributes that don't fit. You'll see old black men that sound like young white men and vice versa, I followed a palace guard to a pub to recruit him where he was with his wife who appeared to be homeless. A lot of my recruits seem to have ridiculous and ugly looking facial hair, and while you can buy them new clothes, there are no barbers or customisation options for their face fuzz. Pretty much all the characters have over the top borderline parody accents too.
The missions, like everything else, are a mixed bag. There are a couple of decent missions but there are also far too many drone obstacle course sections. Many missions that take place outdoors can essentially be bypassed by using the builder and his cargo drone to fly over the area and drop a spider bot down to do your job for you. There is also one particular mission that involves you navigating a platforming section in pitch black by constantly stopping to move a drone with a torch slightly to light your way ahead that is amongst the worst I've ever played. It reminded me of that nightmare level in the original Max Payne.
At the time of writing the game has been out five months and it's still pretty buggy. I got stuck and unable to move in multiple missions, causing me to have to quite and reload. sometimes you can't interact with things you're meant to. The separate from the main game online mode has just launched but the ability to do things like invasions from the previous games still appear to be months away.
I did finish this game, and I did enjoy parts of it. Overall though it's a big disappointment and a huge step down from the previous entry in virtually every way.