Watch Dogs: Legion took the hacker-focused open-world series to the near-future streets of a dystopian London. The game also brought innovative features, including letting players make any NPC a playable character. This opened the game up and gave players a new level of freedom in how they approached Watch Dogs: Legion's story and variety of missions. The game has also received numerous free updates since it was released that add a number of playable characters, missions, weapons, and more content.
Watch Dogs: Legion's most recent update was its biggest yet, titled Legion of the Dead. Zombie games are nothing new, with titles like Left 4 Dead, Call of Duty, and others being iconic for the zombie-slaying action they offer. However, the biggest legacy that Legion of the Dead has to live up to comes in the form of another DLC: Red Dead Redemption's iconic Undead Nightmare.
Watch Dogs: Legion's Legion of the Dead Update
Legion of the Dead is a separate game mode in Watch Dogs: Legion that drops players into a London that has become besieged by the undead alone or with up to three others. In a sprawling city where the dead roam the streets, two factions - Albion and Clan Kelley, have started hoarding supplies. This leaves players having to scavenge from the city and the stockpiles of others to gather equipment and a minimum number of supplies before being extracted to safety. At the start of each session, players are given a randomized operative that comes with some of Watch Dogs: Legion's perks and a random gadget.
This helps make each run slightly different and puts players on their toes as they try to adjust their starting equipment. Once players gather the minimum amount of supplies they are able to extract from London, but they are rewarded for extracting with more than the minimum requirement. For successful runs, players are rewarded with credits that can be spent on equipment to be used in their next run. The purchasable equipment includes gadgets and guns, some of which cannot be found when looting London. So far the mode has received a positive reception by critics and players alike, and Legion of the Dead has been compared to games like Left 4 Dead and Escape From Tarkov.
The Legacy of Red Dead Redemption's Undead Nightmare DLC
Red Dead Redemption's iconic Undead Nightmare expansion sees the game's Wild West frontier becoming overwhelmed by an undead plague seemingly overnight. The mode offers players a new single-player campaign that sees John Marston having to fend off against hordes of zombies. The story is completely non-canonical, with characters dying in new ways.
The DLC includes a pretty large single-player campaign with a unique story, new undead animals to hunt, dynamic events, and mechanics, as well as new multiplayer game modes and characters. The DLC was extremely popular among fans and has left a lasting legacy for Red Dead Redemption.
A big part of that legacy is how fans have pined for similar single-player DLC options for Red Dead Redemption 2. The legacy left behind has also led to Undead Nightmare widely being considered one of the best DLCs ever released because of its sprawling amount of content. This puts Legion of the Dead in a tough position, because fans checking the mode out could very well be hoping for an experience with as massive a scope as Undead Nightmare, the kind of scope that will entirely change the experience of Watch Dogs: Legion. However, even though Legion of the Dead is aiming for a very different experience, it has been quite the success and could have a big impact on Watch Dogs: Legion's future.
What Legion of the Dead's Success Could Mean for Watch Dogs: Legion
Legion of the Dead has already led to some players calling for similar DLC to come in the future for Watch Dogs: Legion. The mode's early success with players could lead to the game receiving more DLC updates that feature creative ways to experience its mechanics. There is a lot of potential in an approach like this, which could help the developers please all of the game's fans that want a variety of different experiences. This could lead to multiplayer DLCs that could include different experiences like co-op raid missions, a competitive battle royale, or even an Among Us-like social deduction mode that sees players trying to find the hacker in the lobby.
Watch Dogs: Legion has received numerous other updates like the Watch Dogs: Legion Bloodline story DLC. It will be interesting to see how Watch Dogs: Legion's DLC looks in the future now that Legion of the Dead has been well received. It could be that the game will shift to focus on more multiplayer-driven updates rather than story-driven single-player content. However, the game could also continue to expand on its story while including new multiplayer modes based on the story content or something fun and random like Legion of the Dead.
Either way, it will be interesting to see what is in store in Watch Dogs: Legion's future, and the developer will hopefully continue to release new updates that engage its fanbase in exciting new ways. The mode's success could also end up having a large impact on future Watch Dogs titles as well, with a new entry in the series potentially focusing more on a variety of multiplayer modes. Hopefully, fans will get some more news on the future of Watch Dogs: Legion soon.
Watch Dogs: Legion is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.