Watch Dogs Legion: The Balance Between Politics And Realism

With tensions exceptionally high in the world right now, it came as a huge shock to see the latest cinematic trailer for Watch Dogs Legion.

The opening words “First, they came for the foreigners, but I did not speak out because I was not a foreigner” accompanying footage of armed men beating someone in the street was a chilling reflection of real-world events.

“Then, they came for the protesters...”

At that moment it became clear that political views and video games could no longer be kept apart. The debate within several communities of whether or not politics belongs in games has never been more prevalent.

Those against the idea maintain that a video game is their form of escapism from the harsh reality around us. Games should be about fantasy, exploration, and being able to do things no one could even dream of.

However, many forms of media use realism to create a greater level of immersion for their audiences.

Some people enjoy the gritty reality of a good war game or the pressure of a realistic survival experience. Many great works of art are based upon political unrest or influence at the time, so why should video games be any different?

A bad example of a game trying to mix reality with fantasy is the latest Modern Warfare, where the developers came under fire for trying to “rewrite history”.

The best example of another Ubisoft property that mixes politics into their stories is Assassin’s Creed, which features real people and places, but aligns them with fictitious organisations. By saying such and such was a member of an evil cult the entire time can indirectly push a political opinion about said individual.

The first two Watch Dogs games took a different approach and poked fun at some real-world figures such as Donald Trump and Martin Shkreli by using in-game parodies to avoid any legal disputes. These references were kept outside of the main campaign for the most part. Instead, any kind of satire was pushed into side quests as cheeky nods for players to seek out.

And herein lies the balance within Watch Dogs Legion.

The actual premise is bonkers, with players being able to infiltrate maximum security buildings with just a sweet elderly lady and a taser. London already had a long history of being known as a "surveillance state” which provided the perfect setting for a game all about hacking and challenging authority.

The game brings in an entirely fictional group of mercenaries as the villains and has, so far, not mentioned any political figures that could be linked to real-world counterparts. The full game will no doubt have a fair few winks and nudges given the series’ track history though.

Many of the concepts are borderline cartoonish with some playable characters acting as James Bond parodies, complete with missile shooting cars. And yet some of the missions include players needing to stop certain individuals from exploiting the very real NHS.

Combine the insane and over the top mechanics with an exceptionally well detailed London, and Ubisoft have hit the nail on the head. The balance between something so outlandish with themes that echo our own reality is done exceptionally well.

Watch Dogs Legion had been in development well before any of the current global issues, but it stands to reason that the game is scarily accurate to the world we now live in.

Intentionally or not, the fine line between being political and being realistic is shrinking more and more with each year.