Watch Dogs: Legion Bloodline Review - When You Come Out Better — Too Much Gaming

Watch Dogs: Legion’s first expansion titled ‘Bloodline’ is a treat for the fans as we have Watch Dogs protagonist Aiden Pearce back in action and is partnered with the quirky but likeable Wrench from Watch Dogs 2. Set before the events of Legion’s main campaign. Aiden - who fails at staying retired from hacking work - is tasked to do a gig in London, which unfortunately puts his nephew Jackson involved and in danger. It’s a personal story in futuristic London that gives more backstory to Aiden, and comes out as a more enjoyable game than the main game.

In Bloodline, Gameplay is pretty much the same as players can hack key devices to give you the upper hand. The mission structure between the main campaign and the expansion is almost identical, so don’t expect any new missions in Bloodline or new objectives for the sake of changing things up. The only difference here is that you can’t recruit anybody to join your merry band of hackers. You just have Aiden and Wrench, which are more than equipped to handle any situation in the expansion. Aiden is more fine-tuned to handle situations that involve gun fights while Wrench is more ideal for covert missions.

Bloodline can be a roughly 4 hour sprint if your only interest is just the overall story. There are side missions to get you distracted, and if completed, rewards you with new gadgets and hacking opportunities for either character. But they feel more like added padding as the story around each side quest and what you are tasked to do has nothing new that would excite veteran Watch Dogs players, especially if you’re someone that has already finished Legion’s main campaign. Beyond that, the world will feel bare, as if it’s treated as a small teaser for what’s to come. Included are the usual collectible text and audio logs for added lore here and there and that pretty much sums the overall content packed inside Bloodline.

But I find more enjoyment here than in Watch Dogs: Legion’s main campaign simply because the interactions between each character has more personality and weight in it. With Legion’s designed to play anyone you recruit, the voice acting for the operatives you play in the main game always felt like generic responses, even robotic at times. Your recruits lack that uniqueness that makes characters stand out or even believable personal growth as the story progresses, which made it difficult for me to stay invested. Bloodline doesn’t have any of those issues as Aiden and Wrench were great characters in their own way, with one being a bit too serious while the other is the polar opposite. A fun dynamic to witness.

Despite it’s short runtime, Bloodline comes out as the better campaign, making it clear that a legion of operatives is less appealing compared to a fully fledged protagonist complete with a strong motivation and is surrounded by strong supporting characters. It’s a missed opportunity to bring new gameplay experiences but if you already enjoyed the overall combat and hacking, you’ll enjoy your time with Bloodline. The expansion gives me hope for future games in this franchise as it shows there’s more stories that can be told in this world, and I would gladly see more of it. If a new game does happen, I just wish it’s a new lead character, or at the very least someone already established and known to many.

8/10

New to Watch Dogs: Legion? Read what we think about the full game here.

Highlights

( + ) Aiden Pearce is actually a better character this time around
( + ) A likeable personal story that’s sadly short-lived
( - ) No new mission objectives to make the gameplay unique
( - ) Side missions are padded content with no real value aside form the upgrades you earn

What I’ve Played

Finished the campaign and did most of the side missions given to each of the characters in Bloodline.
Spent over 6 hours with the Bloodline expansion
Played Bloodline on the PS5 with Performance mode for 60 FPS

[This review is based on a PS4 review code provided by Ubisoft.]

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