Clint Hocking, Creative Director of the upcoming action Watch Dogs: Legion, has participated in a Reddit AMA to answer fans’ questions about the game.
Let’s dive right in and see what he had to say!
WD2 had great HUD customization, with being able to turn off almost everything individually. Does Legion offer a similar or even greater degree of customization? Specifically I hope to be able to disable everything including weapon reticles. The team is very proud of the HUD customization. There is a lot to say so here’s a link with more details about our customization and accessibility features. https://news.ubisoft.com/en-us/article/5uzsLCqRVNAtodBfm0bpRH/addressing-accessibility-in-watch-dogs-legion
Will I be able to find a Grandma with Gunkata takedowns in the open world or is the combo too out there? yes it is possible – but it is extremely improbable/unlikely for this character to spawn. So if you find one make sure to share it with us! I’d love to see it!!
The masks obviously play a huge part in the imagery of WD Legion and setting it apart from WD1/WD2 which both featured simple bandana/sleeve style masks to protect the wearer’s identity. I’m very curious about how you guys went from there to the idea of different types of full masks & helmets. Can you share anything about that process/what the first mask designed was? In large part, we were inspired by Wrench, but also, we were looking at different British cultural inspirations. Back when we first started there was a lot of imagery of protestors in masks – both from the occupy movement and in protest of PM Cameron at the time. There is also the iconic Guy Fawkes mask, and numerous others. Part of the way we wanted to capture the absurdism that the British often use in protests was to have outlandish masks.
What was the inspiration for the ‘play as anyone’ mechanic? It seems such an ambitious idea, but totally in keeping with the WD franchise. I’d love to know how this came to fruition. Play As Anyone was inspired by the original Watch_Dogs. The very idea of being able to look at someone on the street and see their job and their income and some little fact about them inspired so much imagination and made the characters in the world feel so real. When we started asking ourselves what would take that to the next level, we came up with the idea that everyone could be real… they could have a real home and a real job and a family and friends and all that. On top of that, as we looked at the evolution from a single hero in WD1 to a team in WD2 (and you get to play as all of them for a bit in the final mission) we said, what if you built your own team by recruiting your own DedSec.
- Who is composing the soundtrack for Watch Dogs Legion? The musical score for the game was composed by Stephen Barton, who is a renowned and award winning British composer. We had the opportunity to work with him at Abbey Road Studios in the UK, which was an amazing experience.
Considering the amount of characters you can play in the game, how did you guys manage to voice all of them? Writing and recording the entire script with a huge number of actors in order to attempt to capture the diversity of voices and personalities you would find in a city like London was an enormous creative, technical and production challenge. Each of the writers on our team was tasked with writing the script from the point of view of an individual character (or characters). On the audio side, we spent months going back and forth to London to record actors and capture all the dialogue lines. On top of that, we have had to innovate and develop new technologies to modulate actors voices to create even more performances… it was incredible to see the different department’s on our team all come together to make this happen, and we’re very proud of what we’ve managed to deliver.
With the ability for each playable character to permanently die, is it possible for players to have one character that they use throughout the game? Permadeath is an option in the main game, so you do not have to play with Permadeath on. Either way, you can choose to use one character throughout the game – as long as they are not arrested or hospitalized (or killed), you can stick with the same character throughout – except for a couple of instances where you might need someone specific.
Difficulty and Permadeath are separate options. You can play in Easy Normal or Hard, and you can play with Permadeath on or off in any difficulty.
Permadeath is an option in the main game, however it’s not part of Multiplayer because we found very early that there was too much potential for griefing and randomness that didn’t add to the fun of the game. We’ll talk more about MP soon.
What defines Watch Dogs, according to you? Watch Dogs has always been about holding those in power accountable. Legion is no different. Obviously, it has a focus on technology, privacy, and individual liberty – and that’s something we’ve tried to focus on very strongly with Watch Dogs: Legion.
Has developer team put some secret easter eggs somewhere in the game that we will be able to look for? SECRET – I reported a bug a couple weeks ago about a [redacted] that I was unable to get. Turns out it was not a bug. This caused me to be let into the secret club of people on the team who know about the [secret easter egg] and I was shown the test validation for how for how it can be acquired /SECRET
How has COVID-19 affected the work done on the game? Back in mid March, we closed down the studio and transferred everyone in our offices in Toronto to Work From Home. Other parts of the team around the world were also moved to Work From Home at different times. This was an enormous undertaking that required hundreds of team members to figure out how to work remotely. Our tech and support teams did a really incredible job of help all of us pivot to this new way of working quickly and efficiently. I’m super proud of how well the team has managed to function during this time, and extremely happy with the results we’re seeing in the game.
How will it work when you die with every character does the game end and wen it every lasts 1 character will the streets of London be only you? If you are playing in Permadeath Mode (which is optional) and all of your characters are Dead, or simultaneously Arrested or Hospitalized, and you have none left, the game is over and you will need to restart from the beginning. Permadeath can be turned off (but not back on) in the options menu at any time. Whether you are in Permadeath or not, operatives can be arrested or hospitalized, which takes them out of action for a while, but you can recruit people to reduce that time (such as Doctors or Police Officers who can get your operatives back faster).
In terms of side content how much variety is there in the missions and story’s if there’s any. Aside from the missions in the main storyline, there are many side missions that unlock as you play through the game. These delve into stories that reflect on the city, technology and other themes in our near future version of London. Also, Borough Liberation involves engaging in activities that lead to cool climactic missions featuring really unique gameplay, that inspire each Borough to rise up.
Are all NPCs going to be generic, or will there be unique npcs in game thatvhave ability and gadgets no one else has? There are many characters in the world who have very rare or unusual abilities or combinations of abilities, and there are at least a few abilities that are unique to certain types of individuals. For example, only Tidis Beekeepers can summon and control swarms of robotic bee drones and use them as a weapon. My favorite characters tend to be those with more common abilities that come together in unusual combinations: for example, some of the champion fighters in the underground Bare Knuckle League have common melee abilities, but they have several of them stacked in interesting ways that make for awesome melee characters.
Can you create an army of MI6 spy grandmas or is there only one grandma in the world? Like can you find a clone of a character elsewhere in the world? A grandma who is a spy would be an incredibly rare spawn. I have never seen one, and seeing more than one in a single playthrough would be one in a billion, I imagine. If you manage to get a spy crew of grandmas, make sure to share!
How expansive is London? Our open-world version of London stretches from Wellington Arch in the west to Limehouse Basin in the east, and from Camden Market in the north to Windrush Square in the south. It’s a very large area, and the city feels huge, with tons of stuff to do. While the Tube is only used for Fast Travel, there are many buildings in the game that you can enter – particularly the major gameplay locations.
