Watch Dogs: Legion lets you recruit people you encounter in London and play as them. Profile a potential recruit, weigh their abilities and drawbacks, then complete a recruitment mission to bring them into DedSec. Each operative can offer a different way to approach a mission, while the game’s story is built to work without one permanent protagonist.
How the Play as Anyone system works
Play as Anyone is a recruitment-and-switching system, not a choice among a short list of preset heroes. The game’s London population supplies potential DedSec operatives. You can assess people, recruit them, and switch to a recruited operative whose abilities suit the situation.
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Watch Dogs Legion (PS5) | $22.75 | Buy on Amazon |
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Watch Dogs: Legion PlayStation 5 Standard Edition | $14.99 | Buy on Amazon |
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Watch Dogs: Legion - PlayStation 5 | $18.12 | Buy on Amazon |
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WATCH DOGS LEGION PS5 VF | $24.10 | Buy on Amazon |
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Watch Dogs Legion -PS5 [CERO Rating "Z"] | $29.50 | Buy on Amazon |
1. London’s population generates potential recruits
Ubisoft describes Census as the procedural foundation that generates characters, gives them demographic and social profiles, and simulates their lives through schedules around the city. Those schedules can involve relationships with friends, relatives, and adversaries, so potential operatives belong to a connected population rather than a roster of unrelated character classes. The GDC Vault session overview describes Census and the systems it supports; Ubisoft Toronto’s development post discusses the work behind the simulated city and its playable characters.
2. You profile people and complete recruitment missions
- Find someone worth considering. Profile a person in the open world to view information about them, including their opinion of DedSec.
- Assess the fit. Look at the person’s abilities and drawbacks, then consider whether they suit the kinds of situations you want to tackle.
- Improve a poor opinion if needed. Ubisoft says a person who dislikes DedSec must be persuaded before you can make an offer.
- Complete the recruitment task. The candidate’s recruitment mission gives you a task connected to them. Completing it wins them over and makes them available as an operative.
- Switch when their strengths fit. Choose a recruited character when their abilities make a particular approach more practical.
Recruitment is not a guarantee that every person will be equally easy to persuade, nor does an occupation define one fixed build. Ubisoft describes character abilities as combinations rather than a universal one-job, one-skill rule. Its 2019 overview of the game describes each character as a potential questline.
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- Open-world London, explore a massive urban open-world where you can visit London's many famous landmarks
- play as anyone, experience a never-seen-before gameplay Innovation. Anyone you see can join your team complete with a unique backstory, personality, and skill set
- weaponise London's Tech infrastructure. Hijack armed combat drones, deploy stealthy spider-bots, covertly take down enemies using an augmented reality cloak, and much more
- bring your team online and join forces with up to three friends and explore the world together or take on entirely new co-op missions
How operative abilities and drawbacks differ
Abilities are assembled from reusable properties and can reflect a character’s background or visible role. Creative director Clint Hocking gave examples including a construction worker with a wrench and nail gun, a reporter with a news drone, and a character with a guitar, quiet footsteps, and a silent pistol. Those examples illustrate variety; they do not establish that every person in a given occupation has the same equipment. Hocking’s interview discusses the design approach.
Ubisoft’s 2019 overview also used specific numerical traits as examples: an amateur boxer with 50% more melee damage, a doctor who reduces healing time for the team by 25%, a street performer with 40% more headshot damage, and a character with 100% more damage who may also die randomly. These are illustrative examples from that pre-release overview, not a complete trait list or a guarantee about current character generation.
Rank #2
- Recruit and play as anyone from London. Everyone you see has a unique backstory, personality, and skill set for unique situations
- Hack armed drones, Deploy spider-bots, and take down enemies using an augmented reality Cloak
- Explore a massive urban open world featuring London's many iconic landmarks and fun side activities
- Team up with your friends for new missions in co-op mode, releasing as a free update post-launch
- Upgrade to the Gold Edition or ultimate Edition for access to the Season Pass and more
When comparing operatives, consider the practical trade-offs rather than ranking them by a single stat:
- Access and disguise: Can their role or abilities help them enter an area or avoid attention?
- Combat and stealth: What weapons or other tools do they bring, and can they support a quieter approach?
- Mobility and devices: Do they have a vehicle or remotely controlled tool that could help with the mission?
- Team support: Does an ability benefit other DedSec members, as in Ubisoft’s doctor example?
- Vulnerabilities: Could a drawback increase the risk of arrest, injury, or death?
This is a way to compare the documented kinds of properties, not an official class system. A useful operative is the one whose combination of advantages and risks fits the mission and your preferred approach.
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- Freedom and Consequences - Play the game the way you want. A brand-new melee system and a wide range of weapons and abilities means that the way you approach combat has real consequences.
- Customize Your Recruits - Personalize each member of your resistance and level them up by building out different skill sets, from hacking to stealth moves to all-out assault training. Customize further with unique outfits and iconic masks.
- Play As Anyone - Recruit anyone from the entire population of London into your resistance: from an MI6 agent to a tough bareknuckle fighter, or an inconspicuous old lady… Anyone you see can join your team and has a unique backstory, personality, and skillset.
- Team Up with Friends - Bring your team online with up to three friends as you freely explore the world together or take on entirely new co-op missions and challenging end-game content. Enjoy free regular updates adding new online modes, rewards, and themed events.
- Open World London - Explore a massive urban open world and visit London’s many famous landmarks – including Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, or the London Eye – and engage in side activities like bareknuckle boxing, freestyle football, illegal courier contracts or street art.
How the story works without one protagonist
Because the player can change operatives, the game cannot assume that the person currently on screen has one fixed biography. Ubisoft narrative designer Brendan Hennessy said the dialogue was written in 20 persona-based versions and recorded by 20 different voice actors. The system aims to make dialogue work across different kinds of playable characters rather than giving every operative a single conventional protagonist arc. Ubisoft’s account of the narrative design explains how the team handled this.
Recruitment missions provide self-contained context about individual characters. The wider plot, however, relies on authored allies and villains, whose motivations and conflict provide stable narrative anchors. Ubisoft says the game does not continue developing each recruit’s past through a long authored personal arc after recruitment; a character profile can instead give context for dialogue that must work for many operatives.
Rank #4
- Recruit and play as anyone from London. Everyone you see has a unique backstory, personality, and skill set for unique situations
- Hack armed drones, Deploy spider-bots, and take down enemies using an augmented reality Cloak
- International products have separate terms, are sold from abroad and may differ from local products, including fit, age ratings, and language of product, labeling or instructions.
What permadeath changes
Permadeath is an optional mode that raises the consequences of losing an operative. In an interview, Hocking said that operatives can be permanently killed in this mode and that losing the whole team can cause a game over. He also said some characters can have a disclosed sudden-death trait even outside permadeath mode, and that players can see such traits in a character’s profile before recruiting them. These rules are described in Hocking’s interview; Ubisoft’s Permadeath help page identifies the mode as an additional challenge.
Quick Recap
Best Value
- Free to add the people you encounter on virtual and organize resistance and get back to London in the near future, facing the crisis of collapse by hacking, intrusion, and combat Now it's time to gather with resistance
- Whoever met in the city can be played as part of their companion, and each has a backstory, personality and skill set
- Hack your armed drone, unfold the Spider Bot and eliminate your enemies while concealing them with the AR Cloak
- Explore the open world recreating the huge city, and enjoy the countless landmarks and fun side activities
- Invite new members online, collaborate with friends to make missions and challenge challenging end game content
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