Hackers of the Big Smoke unite! Watch Dogs: Legion will be getting its long-awaited online mode on the 9th of March this year, and it will be available absolutely free. Originally set for release in December last year, the online mode has been delayed a couple of times, but it’ll soon be available on PC and PS and Xbox consoles.
According to a release from Ubisoft, the cyberpunk hacking thriller set in London is in for a decent amount of multiplayer content next month, including free-roam open world co-op in which players can form teams of four and tool about London completing challenges and side activities.
Load up on guns, bring your friends
The highlight of the online mode seems to be ‘Tactical Op’, which is made up of five interconnected narrative missions in which players need to coordinate and “communicate effectively” with their human teammates in order to complete. It’s also worth noting that Ubisoft says that players had better have teamed up with some pretty heavily levelled up characters with upgraded hardware in order to stand a fighting chance. The first of these missions, “Leader Of The Pack” arrives as part of the online download.
There’s also a Spiderbot PVP mode called ‘Spiderbot Arena’ (catchy title), in which four players can send their armed, eight-legged, remote-controlled robots into free-for-all deathmatches (maybe Capture The Flag was too much for the little buggers).
Finally, there are new co-op missions for two-to-four players, which allow players to “recruit the perfect team and fight back against London threats across the most iconic landmarks of the city.” According to a report on Gadgets 360, players can have teams of friends or AI mates.
Naturally completing online matches and missions earn players XP, which they can use to increase their rank and unlock rewards, including exclusive cosmetics and influence points to recruit new operatives or upgrade their DedSec gadgets.
Did you buy your season ticket?
At the same time the multiplayer drops, there are two single-player missions arriving, but only for those who bought a Season Pass. Both take place after the end of the main game’s story.
The first of these, ‘Guardian Protocol’, sees DedSec on the hunt for an algorithm that could allow AI to override human decisions. Think of the city of Watch Dogs: Legion – filled with drones and run on AI – suddenly turning on its human population.
The second is called ‘Not In Our Name’, and pits the hacker collective against a media baron who has hired a rival group to steal information for the purpose of blackmail.
Ubisoft promises robust content for 2021 for Season Pass holders, with more missions, an expansion called ‘Bloodline’, and characters including a transhuman named Mina, a member of the Assassin Order named Darcy, and the return of Aiden Pearce – the protagonist from the original Watch Dogs, who has a voice that sounds like he smokes a pack of cigarettes every hour.