E3 2019: Watch Dogs Legion lets you play as literally everyone

You see that NPC? You can play as him!

Ubisoft kicked off their E3 press conference with a bang. Right out the gates, the French publisher showed off a lengthy gameplay walkthrough of their much rumored – and leaked – open-world action-adventure game Watch Dogs: Legion. Watch it here!

The unveiling of a new Watch Dogs game doesn’t really come as a big surprise. For months, teases and leaks circulated the internet, with most recently, Amazon UK basically leaking not only the game’s location but also its major gameplay hook.

Now, Ubisoft is showing the goods. In the walkthrough video, Ubisoft shows viewers first-hand how the character hopping mechanic will work in Watch Dogs: Legion. And from what we have seen, it’s going to be an awesome new addition to the third entry of the popular hacking adventure series.

Walking across NPCs in open-world games is hardly a new thing. Quite the contrary to be honest. For the longest time, games have been priding themselves by populating cities and worlds with evermore digital people. But rarely do these NPCs affect the gameplay in a meaningful matter. Assassin’s Creed famously made groups of people a tactial tool by blending into them.

Watch Dogs: Legion is upping the ante considerably by literally enabling players to recruit any NPC into their underground movement and fight against an oppressive regime. Just as the previous leaks suggested, Watch Dogs: Legion is set in post-Brexit London where the ramifications of the divisive political decision led to a quasi-fascist government. It’s this setup where players are put and tasked to grow DedSec.

While doing so, you’ll come across all kinds of people in the city, just as one would expect in real life. There are elderly ladies alongside ex-cops, and even proper agents. Players will be able to hack each NPCs background and decide according to their unique traits whether to recruit them or not. This leads to conservative moments like a professional hacker being of good use to DedSec or rather hilarious ones like a grandma going on an assassination.

Watch Dogs: Legion will release on March 6th for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Google Stadia.