Video Game / Watch Dogs: Legion

"Let's unfuck this world."

"My name is Legion. For we are many."

— Mark 5:9

Watch Dogs: Legion is the third game in Ubisoft's Watch_Dogs series. The game offers a dystopian look at London 20 Minutes into the Future, where rising crime and terrorism have led to the city becoming an oppressive police state, ruled by Private Military Contractors and crawling with surveillance drones. In response, the hacker group DedSec seeks to bring freedom back to the city of London. In order to achieve this goal, they will need to recruit new members to join their ranks...

The main selling point of Watch Dogs: Legion is the ability to recruit new members into DedSec: the people of London are so opposed to the city's current direction that any of the civilian NPCs can be convinced to join your cause, turning them into playable characters each with their own set of skills and (positive and negative) perks: some ex-military have exceptional combat skills, some activists have hacking specializations, retired old grannies with heavy weapons are better at infiltration than you might think... and some characters will randomly drop dead of a heart attack.

The game was set for release on March 6, 2020 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, and Google Stadia. However, after the Ubisoft Forward 2020, it was postponed to October 29, 2020 for the aforementioned platforms and released for Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 on the two systems respective launch dates.

The game has two novels in Watch_Dogs: Legion: Day Zero and Watch_Dogs Legion: Daybreak Legacy.

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Watch Dogs: Legion contains examples of the following tropes:

Main Game

Tropes A to M

• 20 Minutes into the Future: The game is stated by the developers to take place in post-Brexit London, which had happened by the time the game was released. The exact year the game's set in is left unclear, with some of the clues being contradictory. The date of of Sinead Larsen's birth and her age when she died (born in 1971, died at the age of 77) would indicate that the game takes place no earlier than 2048, but many of the game's text and audio lore collectables more explicitly date the game's timeframe as no later than the mid-2020s, and Stormzy's cameo As Himself shows him looking roughly the same age as he's in real life, meaning Sinead being born in 1971 was more likely a developer oversight.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Nowt's side missions deal with A.I. that went rogue and started killing people. As you find out later they're victims of Skye Larsen turning ordinary people into A.I. that could automate machines. Needless to say ending them is considered a Mercy Kill. Also happens at the end of the game to Bagley when Sabine launches a virus that makes everything connected to him run rampant.
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: One of the DedSec agents (after brawling with a bunch of street thugs) passes out from drunkenness.
• Amazon Brigade: An option, by making your DedSec full of women.
• And I Must Scream:
  • Skye Larsen converted her mother Sinead into a self aware A.I., and then proceeded to literally strip away any semblance of Sinead's free will and self awareness so she could turn her into her home management A.I.. However, unbeknownst to Skye, Sinead still had some self awareness remaining and was "living" in complete electronic agony. When the player breaks into Skye's home, Sinead agrees to help them in return for a Mercy Kill.
  • You see a few more of her creations later on in Nowt's side missions, like a taxi driver and nurse who got converted into A.I. and, to no one's surprise, started killing people. Just like Sinead they have just enough humanity left to beg for a mercy kill, with Nowt wondering why Skye left them in that state. Bagley quips that it's likely because she's a sociopath.
• And the Adventure Continues: Due to the game having No Ending, the climax of the story ends on this note. Albion has been thoroughly discredited and many other bad faith actors have been devastated with DedSec returned to its former glory. However, the city's still patrolled by Albion in the meantime and most of the bad faith actors still exist to fight.
  • Becomes a Bittersweet Ending with Daybreak Legacy as the novel provides an epilogue for the game. Albion has been removed from power, the police have been restored to patrolling London, and the government's back to being voted in. However, the chaos of the city's tremendous as there are many people attracted to the city's seeming vulnerability. The economy's also in tatters. Oh and Skye Larsen's research didn't die with her.
• Anti-Frustration Feature:
  • If you require the spiderbot for a mission and your recruit doesn't have one, there will be a box nearby where you can summon one to control. However, it will be separate from the one summoned via the Gadget, thus lacking the ability to double-jump, cloak, and especially perform Takedowns on enemies.
  • As with the other Watch_Dogs games, you can hijack passing cars whenever your Operative requires a vehicle. However, stealing a NPC's car causes them to gain a negative opinion towards DedSec as well as very quick in attracting the law enforcement - which is probably why most cars drive around with nobody in them, conveniently marked with an "A" sign on the front glass. Taxis and DRIVER cars are always unmanned and taking any cars without occupants in it will not attract the law enforcement, with the exception of Albion cars (where you need to be an uniformed Albion member).
• Anyone Can Die: If Permadeath is enabled this is a core aspect of the game. All DedSec operatives recruited by the player are capable of permanently dying over the course of the game, and it's extremely difficult to go through the game without losing at least a few operatives in the process.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: After leaving Skye's Mansion she sends you a video threat warning you to leave her alone. The DedSec Agent wonders how she was able to find them. Bagley points out they were just in her underground lab where she turned her mother into her House A.I. and is baffled this is what the Agent can't believe.
• Arc Words: "Let's unfuck London."
• Armor-Piercing Question: In the final part of the Clan Kelley quest line Kaitlin Lau receives 2 in immediate succession, one from one of the freed slaves who was trying to kill Mary, asking her to promise Mary won't go free, and another from the DedSec Operative who's present, asking her if she's protecting the system of the people. these two questions together convince Kaitlin to allow the slaves to kill Mary, instead of arresting her.
• Armour Is Useless: It's possible to recruit a variety of Operatives with some kind of protective equipment, ranging from police officers with stab vests to Albion Elite Mooks with full military-style body armour. However, there's no armor system, so this doesn't provide any more protection than underwear.
• Artificial Stupidity: Enemy drones act tend to act like they're Immune to Bullets and hover in one spot while attacking you. Once you get the opportunity to control the drones for yourself you can employ an advanced technique known as 'dodging', making the machines far more dangerous in your hands.
• Artistic License – Physics:
  • Construction workers and some other characters come equipped with nail guns, which in-game functions and performs on par with a silenced pistol. Though a nail gun in Real Life is fully capable of being lethal, modern nail guns have a safety mechanism that prevents them from firing unless its nozzle's pressed directly against the surface to be nailed. Even if the in-game nail guns are modified, they would need to be attached to a very powerful air compressor (which is large and bulky), and would not be anywhere near as accurate or powerful at range. Rule of Cool seems to be in effect.
  • Similarly, paintball guns are perfectly capable efficiently incapacitating Mooks wearing ballistic helmets.
• Attack Drone: London's overrun with surveillance drones, some of which are armed with lethal and/or non-lethal weaponry. Of particular note are Chase Drones, which are the most annoying ones you'll encounter, in that they can keep up with you in a vehicle and zap it (or you!) and quickly rack up damage, while Riot Drones keep you on your toes in stealth missions. CT Drones, the strongest of the three in the base game, are definitely the most threatening ones you'll encounter, but like ground turrets, they can't continuously fire their weapons and have periods where they need to cool down. If you purchase the necessary upgrades, or have an operative with the Betray Hack perk, you can control these drones for yourself, or have them turn on their masters. A.I. Riot and CT Drones are also quite useful to have around if you're trying to storm a base of one of the enemy factions close to the other, as the one controlling the drones will usually send them in to 'clean up' the area as soon as bullets start flying.
• Automated Automobiles: All street-legal cars in London are fitted with Autodrive, which allows them to autonomously move towards a waypoint on your map. A large number of cars can also be found driving around while empty. In-game adverts show that this seems to be the result of a deliberate upgrade program, as you can find cars that are clearly much older than the others that have had this system fitted in.
• Awesome, yet Impractical:
  • The Desert Eagle wielded by Professional Hitman, as it has no silencer and even small arms are capable to bring you through almost the entirety of the game, as well as how now even "Enforcer" class enemies are weak in the head.
  • The tricked-out Spy Car. Yes, it's a fun Shout-Out to James Bond and seems super badass, but the cloaking device has a very limited timer, the missile launchers are a Fixed Forward-Facing Weapon which are no good when you're trying to destroy an enemy chasing you (which will be most of the time), and the pursuit A.I. is so feeble compared to previous games in the series that it's kind of redundant. Plus, it doesn't have Auto Drive, making it less practical as a vehicle in the first place.
• Badass Boast: If Aiden Pearce's the one to be doing Skye Larsen's missions, when Nowt says Skye's only threatening them because she's scared, Aiden will come up with this line:
  Aiden: Of course she's scared. Aiden Pearce is coming after her.
• Badass Normal: Downplayed considering there's no supernatural enemies to be found, but a random bartender or podcaster armed with a stun gun can take down as many drones and trained Albion soldiers or Clan Kelley gangsters as a trained killer or super spy with a lethal firearm.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Your operatives can be dressed up in a suit worthy of a politician and still throw down with Albion or Clan Kelley.
• Balkanize Me: The Union flag has been redesigned to remove Scotland's dark blue, heavily implying it has become independent. Replacing the blue is black with a yellow border added around Saint George's cross, representing Wales and the flag of Saint David. This new flag is known as the "Blackjack".
• Bee-Bee Gun: Beekeeper is one of the occupations people can hold; they have the ability to send a swarm of bee drones to attack opponents.
• Benevolent A.I.: Bagley's a friendly artificial intelligence that acts as an assistant for DedSec.
• Big Bad Ensemble: You've got Nigel Cass, leader of Albion and a completely unscrupulous man that will kill, destroy, and oppress without hesitation to achieve his iron-fisted idea of "peace" in London regardless of how much legal authority he really has, even killing the police commissioner and proclaiming it to be an assassination by terrorists to avoid any obstruction. And you've got Mary Kelley, leader of the strongest crime organization in the city who profits off of everything from drugs to human slaves and organs as she's outright shown forcing a slave's implants to kill them internally for daring to resist her. Both are on opposing ends of the scale despite their similarly monstrous actions, and both are your primary targets throughout the game. Ant then of course there's Sabine Brandt/Zero Day, the hacker responsible for bombing London and framing DedSec.
• Bland-Name Product: Doubling as a Shout-Out — "Staroger Coffee" (Starbucks).^note "Buck Rogers", geddit?
• Bond One-Liner: Depending on their assigned voice, the operative that confronts Sabine atop Blume Tower can give one after she falls to her death. Alternatively, they can subvert this by saying they can't think of anything cool to say.
• Book Ends: The second gameplay segment in the game, in which you pilot a Spider Bot to hack Blume's database, to get details on remaining Ded Sec members, takes place inside Blume Tower, the roof of which is where you confront Sabine in the second last gameplay segment of the campaign.
• Booze-Based Buff: Certain characters have some degree of alcoholism as a trait, which can make them deal and resist more damage.
• Boring, but Practical:
  • Even though there are operatives with much flashier skills and every playable character can hack pretty much everything, operatives with bonuses to hacking are considered among the most useful in the game.
  • The LTL 68P DedSec Pistol, the default DedSec weapon is accessible to every operative, isn't as flashy as the "lethal" firearms, but can be upgraded to be equipped with a silencer and is effective against drones.
  • The Infiltrator Spiderbot. It's one of the cheapest unlockable gadgets and can be unlocked at the beginning of the game, is capable of doing pretty much everything an operative can do and can be used to complete most missions without an operative ever physically setting foot inside a restricted area.
  • Operatives with the ability to summon a GBB News Drone. Though unarmed, only being able to use its camera flash to disorient enemies, the GBB News Drone's capable of flight and able to fit through small spaces, and in some cases can be used as an alternative to the Spiderbot. It can also fly faster and with less noise than the ctOS and ParcelFox drones, making it a viable option for infiltrating areas stealthily. There are even some missions that require you to use a camera to take pictures, which the News Drone's capable of doing.
  • Janitors aren't exactly the flashiest characters available but they all come with the "Sweeping" ability, which allows them to hide in plain sight when out of line-of-sight (and out of restricted areas), making them amazing at escaping pursuers. The ability functions similarly to the Living Statue's "Statue Pose" (only lacking the ability to earn ETO from onlookers) but Janitors are far more common, giving them a better chance of spawning with good traits, like having unique weaponry and/or vehicle.
  • The Construction Worker's considered one of the most useful characters due to their ability to summon a Construction Drone, allowing them to fly over most obstacles and directly navigate to their objectives, not to mention how their nailgun is a lethal silenced pistol in all but name.
  • As far as Albion/Clan Kelley recruits go, you can do just fine with a lowly Albion Employee or a basic Clan Kelley Enforcer. Though they won't have the unique and flashier abilities or weaponry of their higher-ranking counterparts, their stealth capabilities are no different and you'll likely use them for stealth infiltrations far more than combat anyway. Even when forced into combat, as mentioned above, the DedSec pistol is still reasonably effective. Furthermore, they spawn right from the beginning, are very common and sometimes come with good traits like Light Step, Physically Fit, and even a silenced pistol, potentially making them one of the best infiltrators.
• British Royal Guards: As to be expected given the game's London setting, if you manage to sneak into Buckingham Palace, its gardens, or the adjacent Royal Mews, you can recruit the Queen's Guard to join Ded Sec. Since they come equipped with G36 machine guns, they're some of the best operatives you can get early in the game, and remain useful throughout.
• Call-Back: One of the Paste Ups, the one with the X over the woman's mouth, the woman looks a lot like Clara Lille from the first Watch Dogs game and also the first member of DedSec revealed in the series.
• The Cameo/Celebrity Cameo: British grime artist and rapper Stormzy stars in a mission, which culminates in a broadcast of his song "Rainfall".
• Captain Obvious: Ian, the player character, complains about drones, prompting Bagley to suggest recruiting a drone expert.
  Ian: Brilliant, never would've thought of that.
• Character Customization: Present, though extremely limited, as now the only thing that can be customized is clothing, makeup, hair, and Dedsec-exclusive less-than-lethal weapons and gadgets. Many of the equipments and loadouts are tied to a particular character, and only characters with "preferred vehicles" can call their vehicles at will.
• Company Cross References: Someone may jump into a river with their arms spread out while an eagle screech is heard. Fitting, since both series' have had plenty of references to the other.
• Company Town: London has become one of these as Albion has its propaganda plastered over every building in the city, has privatized the police force, suspended the civilian government, and divied up the public services among its corporate allies. By the time the game starts, the public is universally sick of it.
• Cool Car: You can recruit spies from MI6 that have cars equipped with cloaking devices and concealed missile launchers.
• Cool Mask: Going beyond the range of bandana masks available in 2, characters can now be given a range of zany masks that they will put on upon entering restricted areas or pulling out a weapon. The cover and "mascot" of the game showcases a pig's mask with a monocle, while other pre-release videos have shown everything from a gas mask to a cardboard box.
• Country Matters: Several protest signs refer to the PMCs of Albion as Private Military Cunts.
• Cloaking Device:
  • It's possible to unlock a personal 'AR Cloak' gadget to help your Operative sneak past guards, with similar devices available as an upgrade for your spiderbot, and one of the features of the Spy Car.
  • A particularly annoying type of Albion Elite Mook uses an upgraded version which can remain permanently active and allows them to fire their weapon without decloaking.
• Crapsack World: Unlike the previous two games which had some masquerade of normalcy, London's an outright Police State which is so thoroughly screwed up (machine gun drones patrolling the streets, mass-deportation, human trafficking) that any civilian can be recruited into DedSec.
• Creator Provincialism: An odd example. Of all the places in London that could be blown up, the first one we see in the Gamescom 2019 trailer is the Canadian High Commission in London. The game was developed by Ubisoft Toronto.
  • A passing reference is also made to a Toronto DedSec existing.
• Crowbar Combatant: Operatives can have this as a weapon to fight in melee or to quickly knock out mooks.
• Cyberpunk: Much more explicitly so than the previous two games in the series, with London featuring near-future technology such as holographic advertisements and omnipresent drones, as well as being in the grip of an authoritarian government and their MegaCorp goons. There's also a greater emphasis on far more advanced technological concepts such as digital brain uploading, self aware artificial intelligence, and cybernetic augmentation.
• Darker and Edgier: While the Bay Area in 2 was colourful and optimistic when at its best, London in this game is an outright authoritarian dystopia. Colors outside of the night-time neons are more muted due to England's rainier weathers, the story's tone is more like the original game, and there's both Albion's willingness and permission to execute citizens in broad daylight for the smallest slights while Clan Kelley's explicitly harvesting organs and exploiting human trafficking. There's even bouts of Surprisingly Creepy Moments and existential horror with everything involving Skye's horrific acts.
• Day of the Jackboot: Albion has taken over the country along with a bunch of other corporations. They have instituted martial law and Parliament has been suspended. They allow a limited amount of media criticism but otherwise act with impunity.
• Death from Above:
  • Construction Drones can be used to pick up high-explosive pallets, which will obliterate pretty much anything they're dropped on. A smaller-scale version of this is possible if you locate a Parcel Fox Delivery Drone carrying an ammo box, which also explodes if damaged.
  • What Project THEMIS ultimately is. It's a swarm of kamikaze attack drones that identify threats and "neutralize" their target from high altitude.
• Death Seeker: A perk on some recruits is this, where said recruit will stay dead even if permadeath has been switched off.
• Decoy Protagonist: The prologue starts off with secret agent Dalton Wolfe infiltrating Parliament to stop a terrorist bomb plot. He gets shot for his troubles and his corpse is used to blame DedSec. Even Mission Control is wiped out by a raid and Bagley's reset to factory settings. DedSec is then forced to recruit the player character to continue the fight.
  Narrator: But don't worry, we've got our best man on the case. Because if anyone can fix this mess, it's this smooth ([Censored] / bastard) super spy-
  * BANG*
  Narrator: ...oh. Well. Looks like we're recruitin'!
• Demoted to Extra: Blume Corporation despite being the Man Behind the Man for the previous two games but is now just an excuse for ctOS technology being in London. The new villain, Albion, is a Private Military Contractor firm.
• Denser and Wackier: Though the overall setting of the game is dark and serious gritty cyberpunk, there's definitely much more of a silliness factor added in compared to the previous two games. Just some of the things you can do tear through Mooks as an otherwise harmless looking old lady or old man, hide your identity with some absolutely ridiculous looking masks, deck out your operatives head to toe in British flag apparel, or even have your characters run around London in their undergarments.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • Ubisoft has taken a lot of player opportunities into account. The names you see mentioned in a characters' bio are actual NPCs in the game world, and at least certain NPCs follow actual schedules where they explained one of the ways to increase favorability of DedSec of one character is to help out a family member connected to said character.
  • If wanted by the police, your character can surrender to them and will be taken to jail; while this itself's an option in many other open world games, if you have a lawyer in your team the captured ally will spend less time behind bars, or you can just break them out.
  • All of the clocks in the game are accurate.
  • The vehicles will warn you if your tire's flat.
  • Each character has a different dialogue to the conversation.
  • If you attack someone and you come across them again, they will remember you.
    • If attack someone enough times (or kill a loved one), they will Hate DedSec and become unrecruitable. On rare occasions, anyone you've crossed (such as a Clan Kelly member) will kidnap one of your operatives. Until you complete the mission and rescue them, you cannot take control of them.
  • Averted with the relationships of characters. If you have an operative recruit a relative, they will act like they have never met before.
  • Dalton's fully modeled as a character within the game's systems, which means he has family, friends, and/or acquaintances you can meet in-game.
    • If one manage to recruit Dalton via a glitch, he's voiced... by a Synthetic Voice Actor.
  • An Operative's unable to use firearms against any friends or family members of theirs.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Hiring Albion officers and Clan Kelley enforcers is notably more difficult than hiring ordinary civilians, but they can also freely enter Albion bases and Clan Kelley hideouts. Such operatives would also often comes with heavy weapons like assault rifles, light machine guns or grenade launchers, which would be useful if your cover was blown.
• Disc-One Nuke: Playing the Bloodline DLC first unlocks Aiden and Wrench early in the game. While Aiden has access to nearly every kind of weapons in the game, Wrench has weapons that can disable electronics near him as well as a modified cargo drone.
• Do-Anything Robot: The Infiltrator Spiderbot. It's capable of fitting into vents and small spaces that human characters are incapable of, can incapacitate hostile Mooks, and it's the only controllable robot/drone that's capable of hacking into physical access points (which otherwise need your operative to directly access). It can later be upgraded to sprint faster, jump higher, and even turn itself invisible. The spiderbot can be used for most missions without ever having to physically set foot inside a restricted area.
• Doesn't Like Guns: Played With. Many civilian-based operatives are incapable of using conventional lethal firearms, but have no qualms whatsoever about using the less than lethal DedSec firearms, and construction workers have no qualms using their nailgun as silenced pistol. That being said there are plenty of other ways to use lethal force on your enemies other than shooting them.
• The Dog Bites Back: Mary Kelley is beaten/stabbed to death by her former slaves with improvised weapons after their explosive leashes are deactivated and Katlin Lau decides that arresting her would probably be pointless and does not intervene.
• Dressing as the Enemy: An Albion soldier might be able to enter Albion locations without raising suspicion, same goes with Clan Kelley thugs who are able to freely enter their hideouts. However, if you get too close to another Albion or Clan Kelley guard, they will realize that you're not supposed to be in the area and will grow suspicious of you.
• Dystopia Justifies the Means: Nigel Cass envisions turning London into a brutal Orwellian police state as its own justification and spreading a privatized One Nation Under Copyright across the world.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: Both Albion and Clan Kelley appear to employ fairly diverse mooks, including roughly equal numbers of males and females.
• Evil Luddite: Sabine, despite being the leader of two hacktivist groups. She wants a neo-Dark Age to reset London.
• Evil Power Vacuum: Four out of the five major crime organizations have been taken down by Albion. Because of this, the last one, Clan Kelley, has grown into a major syndicate.
• Expy:
  • Spies are basically James Bond Homages.
  • Professional Hitmen and Hitwomen are basically Léon Montana and John Wick copycats.
• False Flag Operation:
  • In the game's prologue, DedSec heads out to thwart a terrorist plot to bomb Parliament, only to find out too late that it's a trap set by Zero-Day to frame them for multiple bombings all over London. This gives the government the pretext to mobilize Albion and put London under martial law, while DedSec is made the scapegoat and nearly wiped out of existence.
  DedSec: We didn't set up the bomb. We defused it.
  • Subverted later in the game when Cass is attacked during a press conference. DedSec is absolutely certain that Cass arranged that attack to gain sympathy from the public. It isn't until when they examine the crime scene they realize that the attack on him was genuine.
• Feeling Their Age: Elderly recruits are going to have a very tough time doing jobs that require strength or dexterity. They'll try, but often Hilarity Ensues too.
• Final Death Mode: Turning the "Permadeath" option on.
  • On: On your character's first down, you have a choice of either surrendering to your attackers and have the character taken into custody, or getting back up to continue fighting or escape and evade, at the risk of guaranteed death should the character go down a second time.
  • Off: Your character's immediately taken into custody when downed.
    • In either case, in the event a character's locked up, they'll be unavailable for a set amount of time. Having a lawyer - or specifically, a barrister^note In common law countries, a barrister's a lawyer who pleads cases on court; as opposed to a solicitor who deals with clients directly and typically handles things like contracts and deed polls - on your team will shorten the time that character will spend behind bars.
• Fluffy the Terrible: Helen calls the spider drone "darling". It proceeds to electrocute a security guard.
• Football Hooligans: Hooligans are one of the categories that can be recruited from. Their special ability allows them to summon other hooligans to serve as distractions.
• Foreshadowing: Skye's brother is foreshadowed very early in the game when you examine the relics in her underground home: such as the note about her broken trophy and the artwork by "an unknown artist" showing Skye, her mother and her brother. There's also a room upstairs that appears to have been cleaned out, with boxes laying around and the furniture covered with sheets. In this room, you can find a picture of Skye and her brother. Bagley also mentions upon entering that the records of the room's occupant are corrupted.
  • The Villains of London screen in the missions menu has pictures of each of the villains, represented by their respective logo underneath. Nigel Cass has the Albion logo, Skye Larson has the Broca Tech logo, and so on. Zero-Day, however, is represented by the Dedsec logo, hinting at their status as an insider.
    • On a few occasions Sabine tries to distract Bagley from the Zero-Day investigation, pointing out that other missions are more important or, after beating Cass claiming tat they deserve to have a break and celebrate the win. This turns out to really be because she is Zero Day, and is trying to keep [DedSec] off her back.
• Full-Frontal Assault: Nothing stopping you from having all of your agents running around in their underwear.
• Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • How would a Game Designer, a Living Statue, or a Janitor be able to fight and defeat trained fighters? The DedSec Headquarters has a boxing ring where they train their recruits on how to fight.
  • Beating up a NPC or killing a relative will make sure they're never going to join DedSec. Though how they find out a DedSec Agent killed their relative is anyone's guess.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • You're explicitly told that the "mask" is to hide your identity. However, for some reason, NPCs know immediately who knocked them out and that they were a member of DedSec despite there being absolutely no in world explanation that could justify that instant knowledge.
  • The Spy characters can summon their Weaponized Car anytime... However it's not electric, has no Autodrive, and it's manual transmission, evident as you'll hear clutching and gear shifting sounds if you drive them (though the player drive the car like any other, in other words it's functionally automatic for the player).
  • During the SIRS storyline, Richard Malik blows up the Canadian High Commission building, and frames DedSec for it. However, if you return to the building afterwards it appears completely undamaged. This is particularly egregious if you die during the ensuing escape and respawn, since the building appears completely normal almost immediately!
  • All of the Albion and Clan Kelley members who join you tend to be less sadistic and evil members of their group. The exception is the one who just want to screw over their bosses.
• Gangsta Style: It's possible to recruit a Yardie Operative who holds pistols like this.
• Gasshole: "Flatulent" is one of the traits a character might spawn with, which makes them prone to farting and thus drawing attention to themselves when in stealth.
• Glass Cannon: One trait people can have is the trope name where they can give and receive double melee damage.
• Gun Fu: The game features a mix of gunplay and hand-to-hand combat not unlike that found in the John Wick films, with your character being able to perform a series of lethal takedowns using firearms when up close and personal with an enemy. Hitman-type characters specialize in this, being particularly useful if you find yourself in a gunfight.
• Heel–Face Turn: It's possible to hire Albion and Clan Kelley officers and enforcers into your team, although it's said to be more difficult than hiring normal civilians. They can enter restricted areas without arousing suspicion, unless they act out.
• Hero Stole My Bike: You can hijack someone's vehicle, be it a motorcycle or even a car.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Having been framed for one of the worst terrorist attacks in Britain, DedSec naturally's not held in high regard by the general populace. It's up to the player to earn the public's trust again.
  • Aside from that Operatives who defect to DedSec from Albion or Clan Kelly will have citizens hurling abuse at them if they're wearing their uniforms.
• Hiccup Hijinks: One trait someone can have is they have Hiccups where they'll just randomly do so, which is bad when trying to be stealthy.
• Hidden Badass: It's not uncommon to see homeless or unemployed people owning a silenced weapon, an automatic weapon, a silenced, automatic weapon, or a grenade launcher.
  • The Construction Worker as well, not only the tutorial guide you to recruit one of them, but their nailgun is a silenced pistol in all but name, arguably making the silenced pistol equipped Spy redundant and Awesome, but Impractical in comparison.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: If you are so inclined, this cell of hacktivists actively hunted as cyber-terrorists can dress entirely as transhumanist cyborgs, complete with holographic detailing, their logos and name branding them like a fashion label. None of these things make it any easier for enemies to spot you.
  • For that matter, Darcy Clarkson, supposedly the level-headed sibling of a pair of Assassins who have been training in secrecy from birth to avoid Templar attention, has two default outfits, both of which include the Assassin logo prominently displayed on her back. Recolors of her cyberpunk robes make it glow a variety of colors. Her foolish sibling, Lucas, who brashly invades Templar-controlled London to wage a one man war, wears a sensible yellow raincoat.
• Hollywood Heart Attack: One of the available random traits is "may die randomly". It's also not just a trait of the elderly, as someone who's "Addicted to Adrenaline" also has this trait.
• Honey Trap: In the SIRS storyline, one of the missions has your operative seduce the SIRS home office liaison to get her biometrics for Malik. The mission's even called this.
• Human Traffickers: Clan Kelley are infamous for this, as they use human trafficking as a means to fuel their black market organ harvesting.
• Hypno Pendulum: One of the recruits called a Street Performer, is shown to use this to knock someone out as well as turn an enemy into a temporary ally.
• Innocently Insensitive: Helen calls out Bagley for passively telling her about Ian's death. Justified, since he's an A.I..
• Janitor Impersonation Infiltration: Recruiting people with certain jobs will allow you to enter relevant restricted areas with a bonus to remaining concealed. This includes a construction worker who can enter construction sites, a paramedic who can walk around hospitals, and even defected Albion and Clan Kelley Mooks.
• Joke Character: While there are plenty of characters with fancy abilities perfect for being hacker commandos, there are also plenty of not-so-useful characters you can recruit such as the elderly (who are naturally frail and sluggish), people with flatulence (who can attract bad guys at random) or those with the Doomed trait (who will die randomly).
• Kicking Ass in All Her Finery:
  • Female operatives (and male operatives as well) can choose to wear tight skirts and high heel shoes as part of their outfit. Regardless it doesn't slow them down one bit during combat or any other sort of action.
  • There will occasionally be an elderly lady who gets defense and offensive melee buffs from drinking. Players can put her in a Sunday outfit complete with flower bonnet, then completely waste opponents in the underground bareknuckle fighting league, making it a combo of this trope, Never Mess with Granny and Drunken Master all at the same time!
• La Résistance: The London branch of DedSec is a resistance group aiming to take down London's oppressive totalitarian government. In fact, the phrase "the Resistance" is repeated several times.
• Law Enforcement, Inc.: The PMC Albion have become the primary law enforcement agency in London. At least one MI5 agent left the agency after it was privatised.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When Nigel Cass says "London will be the first city to be truly safe", he ends it by looking directly at the player and smiling.
• Lethal Joke Character:
  • Living Statues are completely undetectable by enemies, so long as they enter their statue pose outside of the enemy's line-of-sight (and outside of restricted areas). This makes them fantastic at escaping pursuers. (There's an Achievement/Trophy for a Living Statue doing this to escape a 5 star wanted rating.)
  • Ditto for Janitors, who can do the same by pretending to sweep the floor. While they can't use their ability to earn ETO like the Living Statues, they're more common and thus, more likely to spawn with good traits.
  • Hypnotism can have anyone randomly start to attack their friends. It's especially useful during a pitched firefight, or to just have an enemy attack fellow guards without raising suspicion towards the player. (Add that to having Turrets and Drones betraying the enemy, and the chaos can essentially wipe out all resistance without even setting foot in a base.)
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Bagley says this after he sees Arthur Griffin peeing into the Thames.
• LGBT Awakening: Bagley finds out the original Bagley had a boyfriend.
• Liberty Over Prosperity: The main theme of this game is when the desire for safety overrides any freedom for the citizens.
• Literal-Minded: In response to being told "eyes peeled," Bagley, an A.I., who offers the following response:
  Bagley: I have no eyes, and if I did, I wouldn't peel them.
• Literal Surveillance Bug: The Infiltrator Spiderbot, which can be used to easily scout out restricted areas, especially once its cloaking device is unlocked. It can even be covertly lobbed over walls and fences for easier access.
• Macross Missile Massacre: Several missions involve your character piloting an advanced CT drone which can launch volleys of eight guided missiles in rather quick succession.
• Magical Defibrillator: Not in the "shock people back to life" sense, but if the operative has a medical job like a doctor, their stun attack involves taking out a pair of paddles and shocking the mook down.
• Mind Manipulation: Hypnotists and Street Performers have the power to hack people with her mind.
• The Mole: It's even possible to recruit people working for Albion, Clan Kelly, and even British Royal Guards to your side. They still have their uniform and security clearances for restricted areas, allowing you to stroll into their territory without suspicion.
• Mole in Charge: As the sole surviving member of the previous iteration of DedSec London. Sabine's treated as being the one in charge,and she ultimately turns out to be Zero-Day.
• Multitasked Conversation: Happens in the climax during the final confrontation with Sabine. The player character responds out loud to Bagley's instructions in order to keep Sabine distracted long enough for the Blume Tower satellite to finish reconfiguring and thwart her plans.
• Murder by Remote Control Vehicle: Pretty much every ground (and water) vehicle in the game can be hacked and directed to move forwards or backwards, and turn left or right. While this doesn't allow you to properly drive the vehicle remotely, it does turn parked cars into lethal weapons which can flatten any unsuspecting enemies who happen to be standing nearby.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Thanks to the "recruit anyone" format, you can send a middle aged woman into a bare knuckle boxing tournament and she'll do just as well as a pro.
• Mythology Gag: Bagley's call to arms, "Enough talk. Let's unfuck London", is a callback to a conversation from 2:
  Sitara: [DedSec] is my brand, and now it's completely fucked.
  Marcus: So unfuck it.
  • When Hamish releases his smear video of Nigel Cass, he uses DedSec's old Sign Off Catchphrase... before subverting it and telling the people of London to fight back.

Tropes N to Z

• Nail 'Em: A nailgun is available as a weapon if you recruit a construction worker or a profession associated with nails, such as a woodworker.
• Nerf: Unlike 2, now the enemies will detect drone users as well, except the drones caught when infiltrating if the user's outside the restricted area.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Malik framing DedSec for the Canada house bombing meant that, when they exposed him, it raised doubt on the previously accepted narrative that DedSec were behind the earlier bombing as well.
  • Sabine reassembling DedSec after Cass betrayed her, leading up to her own defeat and death.
• Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here: The "Tower Bridge #3" audio log has an Albion soldier complain about this trope while on guard duty because of how nothing there is to do, how hot his suit is to the point he's just about willing to strip naked and jump into the Thames.
• NPC Scheduling: All of the NPCs in the game have a set schedule to when and where they will be. You can even unlock the Deep Profiler early in the game to see where people you have saved will be at at what time.
• Older Than They Look: The ages of the recruitable operatives are randomly generated alongside everything else, but while they'll try to maintain something that resembles the character model, it's perfectly likely you can end up with someone in their 50s or 60s who looks like a teenager.
• One-Man Army: Pretty much all London DedSec operatives, regardless of whether they're John Wick-esque assassins, trained ex-soldiers, social media influencers, drunks with flatulence, or seemingly harmless old ladies, are all perfectly capable of walking into a restricted area by themselves and wiping the floor with every single Albion or Kelley goon present.
• One Nation Under Copyright: Albion and its allies in Blume and Carcani Medical have managed to suspend Parliament as well as institute a brutal police state. Their goals are also to milk the populace of as much money as possible.
• Point of No Return: During the mission "London's Protectors," before you go in to the next part to face down Nigel Cass, the game tells you that you can't swap out operatives or leave until you finish the mission. This also applies to the endgame missions, starting with "The Face of the Enemy."
• Police Are Useless:
  • The Metropolitan Police have effectively been superseded by the militaristic Albion as the city's law enforcement. Albion are essentially occupying New Scotland Yard as well, reducing the police to the role of desk workers and second fiddles to the PMC. Needless to say, many of the police officers are not happy to be sidelined, and some can be recruited as operatives while DedSec teams up with ex-detective Kaitlin Lau to take down Clan Kelley.
  • This is Lampshaded in a conversation between a policeman and Albion contractor, where the policeman complains that that Albion don't behave like proper law enforcement, while the Albion contractor points out that the police completely failed to stop the terrorist bombings. The contractor retorts that Albion treats crime as a business, so wiping out crime would be unprofitable.
  • The feeling is so pervasive that even DedSec themselves don't trust the police to properly take care of Albion and Clan Kelley even after DedSec goes through all the trouble of dismantling them and exposing their crimes, which is why they are all too glad to resort to assassinating both factions' leaders.
• Power Fist: Well, more like Electro-Fist; an unlockable pair of brass knuckles modified to electrocute enemies.
• Private Military Contractors: Albion is a PMC that was hired by the British government to effectively replace London's police force in the wake of the bombings.
• Privately Owned Society: One of the signs things have gone to pot in London is that this has happened to their social services under Albion's control. Things like the National Healthcare Service have been gutted and contracts given to private companies. The police are also replaced with Private Military Contractors.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Recruiting members of Albion and Clan Kelley will invariably make them amicable to the Dedsec, and their interactions during recruitment mission makes it clear that they hate their employer's actions.
• The Purge: The original London DedSec was wiped out after Zero Day's terrorist attack and Albion came for them when they were made The Scapegoat.
• Quest Giver: Besides each one having their own storyline, Hamish, Kaitlin, and Nowt can give out a variety of side missions.
• The Quisling: One of Nowt's side missions involves a traitorous DedSec Houston hacker looking to spill his secrets to Albion. He ends up getting tortured and killed by SIRS, who thought he was still working for DedSec and were going to kill him anyway.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: You can recruit practically anybody into DedSec. This ranges from government agents, veteran soldiers, office workers, blue collar laborers, activists, and criminals. However, this is partially deconstructed when Malik points out that the Fatal Flaw of DedSec's egalitarian recruitment methods is that it makes it extremely easy for them to be infiltrated by spies or radicals. This is quickly proven true when it's revealed that Malik's a Double Agent and Sabine was Zero Day all along.
• Reality Is Unrealistic: While some accents that your Operatives can have may not line up with their ethnicity or nation of origin, characters speaking in a Jamaican accent's not necessarily wrong even if they're Caucasian, Asian, or Pacific Islander. They make up a small percentage (less than 8%, with the majority being Black or mixed heritage), but it's not as out of place as it might seem.
• Restart the World: Zero Day actually Sabine Brandt, has this as their motivation. They want to restart the clock (hence the name), which requires destroying the city of London by turning its technology against the city.
• Retired Badass: Some characters have obtained their skills from their past jobs; these include a former MI-5 agent and an ex-assassin as examples.
• Revisiting the Roots: Though the game's largely a thematic continuation of 2, it does also mark a return to the more overt Cyberpunk aesthetic of the first game.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: A ex-DedSec Houston associate arrives in London looking to sell the locations of the London cell to the authorities... Unfortunately for him, SIRS is more inclined to offer Cold-Blooded Torture rather than a Briefcase Full of Money.
• Sacrificial Lion: The very first character you play, Dalton Wolfe, is a trained MI5 operative. However, he's killed in the prologue when he's ambushed by Zero Day.
• Samus Is a Girl:
  • In the full length Cinematic Trailer, it's revealed that the DedSec Agent being chased is a girl, with the cab driver correcting himself when he hears her speak.
  • Sabine's revealed to be Zero Day.
• Scenery Porn: Futuristic London looks utterly gorgeous, especially at night, where the holographic advertising and neon lighting causes the city to glow with vibrant colours. When combined with the older, more rustic areas of the city, this has the effect of giving the open world environment a very beautiful Schizo Tech vibe.
• Scenery Gorn: On the other hand, London is still a dystopian hellhole currently in the grip of an oppressive police state. Most of the urban areas of the city are rundown cesspits controlled by organised crime, unemployment is at an all time high resulting in vagrancy being a common sight across London, graffiti can be found on most walls and surfaces, and garbage litters most of the streets, even in the more affluent districts. It would simply be easier to count off the parts of the city that don't appear to be dirty, crime ridden or even vaguely dystopian.
• Self-Imposed Challenge: The main point of the game's trying to find the best NPCs with the most beneficial skills, yet you can just recruit whoever you want. Do you just want to recruit characters that look good to you, recruit an entire team of the elderly, only those with negative skills, or even ones with no skills at all? You can very easily, if that's what you want.
• Sequel Escalation:
  • The first 2 games were content with just creating random profiles to each NPC you see. Here, the system generates them with gameplay stats, personalities and voices so they can be played as full-on playable characters.
  • In a meta sense, Ubisoft took the recruiting mechanic from Assassin's Creed: Odyssey and expanded it into a main gameplay mechanic. These recruited NPCs become full-fledged playable characters, instead of being a stat boost or summons like in Odyssey.
• Sequel Goes Foreign: Unlike the previous two installments which were set in the American cities of Chicago and San Francisco, Legion is firmly set in Britain, specifically London.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: The 404 plotline ultimately ends up like this. The player's ultimately asked to either allow Skye Larsen to carry out her Daybreak program and upload her own brain, or make her pay for her crimes by stopping her in her moment of triumph. Taking the "evil" choice and allow Larsen to complete the experiment, leads the Player Character to hold a short speech on how they think Brain Uploading could be a geniune way to help mankind at large, but this does little to convince their allies in the 404, with Nowt angrily declaring that she will cut off contact with DedSec. In the end though, Nowt later calls in again with a peace offering and apologizes for her earlier anger, meaning her missions are still available. The kicker then comes with a news report that the Blume Corporation decided to pull the plug on the Daybreak program, leading to Skye Larsen ending up getting "killed" regardless.
• Shared Universe: Confirmed with Assassin's Creed where one of the 4 DLC exclusive characters is from the Assassin Order. As well as that, at least some of the recruits (particularly Hitman characters) are apparently descendants of Jacob Frye. Unfortunately, it's confirmed that the Assassin's Creed plotline in this game's merely an easter egg and not canon.
• Shout-Out:
  • Starting character Dalton Wolfe likely gets his first name from Timothy Dalton, a former actor for James Bond. Besides his name, he's also a former MI5 secret agent and wears a similar suit. You also later find a Bland-Name Product version of the Bond Car.
  • There's a 'Professional Hitman' named Elliot Sharma. His segment begins with him mourning somebody at a graveyard, his profile reveals that he had his charges for killing a home invader dropped, and his abilities include Unnecessary Combat Rolls and unique, 'gun-fu' takedown animations. Just to hammer the comparison home, "LED Spirals" is the track playing during his segment.
  • The achievement/trophy list has these shoutouts.
    • NO NOT THE BEES
    • Hack The Planet
    • Shaken Not Stirred
    • Paint Me Like One of Your...
    • Hacker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
  • The small spider-drones attack by jumping on their target's face and wrapping their legs around them.
  • In Finsbury circus gardens, you can find an email from a concerned resident to the head of the borough council, complaining of the park being ruined and how it used to be an area of "outstanding property value all within the precincts of a clergyman" and how Albion might "allow people of foreign extraction to reside there." Both of these lines are said almost verbatim by Hyacinth Bucket when she's chastising people calling her for thinking she's the local Chinese takeaway.
• Skewed Priorities: Many of the reasons someone Dislikes DedSec can fall into these. Such as being ghosted after a date with a previous member or that their merch is not locally made.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Just about everyone. Dalton drops several F-bombs just in his opening mission, and almost every other recruitable civilian has lots of prominent curse words in their dialogue.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • People who have been wronged by DedSec one too many times (and their family/friends), intentionally or otherwise, will hate DedSec's guts to the point that they will never consider joining DedSec. Going through the game causing random acts of violence and destruction like Grand Theft Auto will make recruiting an extremely difficult task.
  • Clan Kelley and Albion Mooks have family and friends too. If they are killed by a DedSec operative, their friends will not be happy and if they belong to the same organization they may track down the operative that killed their friend and kidnap them as revenge. What else would you expect from violent gangsters and power-tripping mercenary cops?
  • As DedSec starts being more and more of a thorn in the side to Clan Kelley and Albion, both factions will respond by deploying better equipped Mooks to better deal with the threat that DedSec poses to them.
  • After the death of Mary Kelley, Clan Kelley is still alive and well. Even though DedSec disrupted their human trafficking operation they, like Real Life organized crime syndicates, likely have multiple other sources of income, large reserves of funding, and a network of high ranking underbosses that are more than ready to fill the leadership void.
  • A large company like Albion in Real Life would have contingency plans for continuity of business in the event of the death or departure of their CEO. When Nigel Cass is killed by DedSec, Albion quickly bounces back as if nothing had happened. Similarly, even after the exposure of the crimes of Nigel Cass they are able to successfully leverage their PR and connections to sweep the incident under the rug and continue operating, much like how in the previous game Blume can still operating even after their CTO's illegal operations were being exposed to the public by DedSec and T-Bone.
  • Though you can recruit elderlies or handicaps to the team, they are certainly not a Cool Old Guy or Handicapped Badass as these characters tend to have negative perks (such as Low Mobility) which render them useless during a fire fight. That being said, if these characters come equipped with heavy weapons, this downside can be balanced out if you know what you're doing.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The game starts with you playing Dalton Wolfe, Ex-MI5 Tuxedo and Martini super-spy. Then he's killed by Zero Day to kick off the plot. Later, you can recruit 'Spy' type recruits who look and dress exactly like Dalton did, and will have similar banter with Bagley as he did.
• Static Stun Gun: Some operatives come with tasers to quickly knock out mooks.
• Title Drop: During the confrontation with Zero Day/Sabine, the Operative will namedrop the title of the series, stating that they are watch dogs protecting people from dictactors.
  Wrench (Determinant): No you're wrong. See all you've done is given up hope, but us? We're watch dogs baby! We believe there's still good out there worth defending.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Downplayed and eventually Subverted Trope. In the early game DedSec has a policy of killing only as a last resort, but as the game progresses it becomes increasingly difficult to non-lethally neutralize enemies. DedSec also will end up directly killing certain characters such as Nigel Cass and (depending on their choice) Sky Larsen in scripted cutscenes. Even in regular gameplay there are certain missions where the player faces human enemies, and they are only given lethal means to deal with them (i.e. using a Counterterrorism Drone, which is armed with machine guns and missiles). Resorting to lethal means will be inevitable no matter how hard you try.
• Thrown from the Zeppelin: Nigel Cass shoots the police commissioner In the Back after he wants to delay Project THEMIS in order to discuss the ethical issues, afterwards telling the rest of the board he was "assassinated by terrorists".
• Tuxedo and Martini: A Bond-flavored super spy's an occupation people can hold, complete with access to a Weaponised Car.
• Utility Party Member: Certain characters have abilities that don't really benefit field work but provide passive benefits to your overall team, such as lawyers who can get your characters released from custody quicker, doctors/nurses who help your team recover from injuries faster, and so forth.
• Vocal Dissonance: Because voices are randomly assigned you can end up with operatives who look to be in their 20's or 30's but have the voice of elderly people or vice-versa. There are other issues as well like a graceful looking spy having the voice of a rough and tumble punk, Anarchists that sound soft-spoken or even the wrong nationality.
• Video Game Caring Potential: If you see someone getting harassed by Albion/held by Clan Kelley and help save them, they'll be more willing to help DedSec without a mission if you find them again. If they have loved ones that hated DedSec, they'll also see you more favorably because of your kindness.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: The Deep Profiler is mainly used to track down leads that will convince specific NPCs to join you or at least hear you out. It can also be used to track down the NPCs themselves and anyone related to them, which means you can single these people out for anything from annoying pranks to cold-blooded murder.
  • Got too many potential recruits and can't obtain any more promising prospects? Just kill off unwanted operatives so you can make room for other desirable candidates.
• Video Game Cruelty Punishment: If you want to play the game like it's GTA, such as go wild running over people and gunning down everyone in the streets, you'll quickly face the consequences. People close to the random NPC(s) you killed will hate DedSec, making it harder to recruit them; some may even try to hurt/kidnap your operatives.
• Warp Whistle: In addition to the Hackerspaces returning from 2, London Underground stations now also serve as fast travel destinations. You can also switch to another member of DedSec in another part of the city for quick travel.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Sabine calls out DedSec for resorting to increasingly violent methods of resistance. What once started as a mostly nonviolent hacktivist group in the first two games that merely exposed corruption and criminal wrongdoing has now become a borderline militant resistance cell that's all too willing to assassinate its enemies.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist:
  • Sabine/Zero Day claims that this is what they are, as the bombing of London is a necessary sacrifice to save the world.
  • Nigel Cass wants to bring order to London and the world, but has no faith in humanity to be able to police itself, which is why he wants to set up a completely automated system to handle world security.
• When Elders Attack: Thanks to the mechanic of being able to recruit anyone into your ranks, it's possible to have Ded Sec ran entirely by a group of ass-kicking elderly people. It's also surprisingly common to find that the old folks on the street are equipped with powerful machine guns, making them very viable additions to the team!
• Whole-Plot Reference: An evil, totalitarian group has taken over London and nearly destroyed the one freedom fighting group that could oppose them, forcing said freedom fighting group to rebuild from the ground up and fight back to liberate London piece by piece. Are we talking about Legion or Assassin's Creed Syndicate?
• Wrestler in All of Us: Mooks can be taken out by suplexes, even if the operative shows no background in pro wrestling.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Happens numerous times.
  • Malik rats out DedSec to Albion the moment he has Child eliminated.
  • Cass betrays Sabine after her bombs give him practical control over all of London, as he considers her too dangerous to live.
  • Sabine betrays DedSec after she tricks them into obtaining all of the components she needs to destroy ctOS.

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Bloodline

• 20 Minutes into the Future: The Bloodline DLC has Jackson Pearce state that he hasn't seen Aiden for 15 years, placing the game in 2028.
• Antihero: Aiden's a much darker protagonist than Marcus or your typical member of DeadSec in the main game.
• Big Bad: Thomas Rempart's a tech CEO who captures Aiden Pearce, tortures him, and hunts down his family. Ironically, because he assumes Aiden's working with Wrench. He's not.
• Blatant Lies: Wrench tries to use these to get Aiden Pearce to leave his exposed HQ alone.
• Broad Strokes: In the Bloodline DLC, one of the quest-giving NPCs is Angel Lopez, who players may remember as the poor sod who was caught by Albion and handed off to Clan Kelly. If you've recruited Aiden and he's the Operative when you play the mission, he will act as if he has never met Angel.^note Justified since his side-quests are entirely optional.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • The Bloodline DLC brings back Aiden Pearce from Watch_Dogs and Wrench from Watch_Dogs 2.
  • Marcus shows up for one mission as a Voice with an Internet Connection to help Wrench finish a Jimmy Siska movie.
• Call-Back: In the Bloodline DLC Jackson has to use the BrocaBridge to enter Aiden's mind. As part of it he comes across a mental construct of his mother Nicky, telling Jackson that she wishes Aiden had died instead of Lena. Back in the first game Nicky's voice serves as the narrator for the Alone Digital Trip, in which she also makes the same statement.
• Cerebus Retcon: Aiden Pearce is shown to have been suffering from not only PTSD for his role in getting his niece killed but also tremendous guilt from all the people he's killed as the Vigilante. This is a very deep contrast to his ending where he said vengeance made him only feel "woke".
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Thomas Rempart wants Aiden to give up Wrench. Aiden has no idea who Wrench is and offers to track him down for revenge (and possibly the money that Rempart owes him). Rempart instead insists on threatening Jackson, which is Aiden's Berserk Button.
• Crapsaccharine World: London during the early days of the occupation is still largely satisfied with Albion's control.
• Dramatic Irony: A great deal of the DLC's plot is based around Thomas Rempart refusing to believe that Aiden and Wrench aren't working together.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Aiden and Wrench meet most of DedSec as well as Skye Larson in the course of the DLC before the events of the main game.
• Foregone Conclusion: While Wrench and Jackson learn Skye Larson's a lot more unscrupulous than she appears, manipulating them into testing he BrocaBridge in order to awaken Aiden from his coma, they do not learn how depraved she truly is, as Wrench and/or Aiden won't realize that until the 404 questline of the main game.
• Groin Attack: Wrench's favorite takedown maneuver when approaching someone from the rear starts with one.
• Homage: One of the sections of Aiden Pearce's nightmare is a direct recreation of the Silent Hills demo.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Wrench initially trusted Rempart to not steal his ideas and use them for good.
• Humongous Mecha: Rempart chooses to deploy one of these against Wrench in hopes of defeating him. It fails.
• If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: Jackson tells Wrench this about killing Rempart. Surprisingly, it works.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Wrench and Jackson may not look it but the former is about twenty years older than the latter.
• Previous Player-Character Cameo: The DLC adds Aiden Pierce from the first game and Wrench from Watch_Dogs 2 (who, granted, was only briefly playable near the end of that game) as playable Operatives.
• Easily Forgiven: Averted with Jackson who reacts to Aiden with a mixture of disbelief and anger that he thinks he can just walk back into his life.
• The Man Behind the Man: Thomas Rempart's father is actually the head of his company and realizes his son is going to destroy what he's built.
• Odd Friendship:
  • Jordi and Wrench develop one of these over the course of the game. Their shared insanity provides a point of reference.
  • Jackson and Wrench also develops one of these. Wrench and he both being tech heads and oddballs.
• Older Than They Look: Wrench is about 41 by the time of the game and still looks (as well as acts) like a twenty year old.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Aiden assumes that Wrench acts the way he does as a distraction. It's arguable that he's just missing that he's a Bunny-Ears Lawyer instead.
• Prequel: This takes place shortly after the Zero Day bombings but before the return of DedSec, giving us a sense of London before the resistance resumes. It sucks.
• Revenge Before Reason: Wrench's actions are motivated by the fact that Thomas Rempart cheated him out of a fortune but also intended to use his technology as a weapon rather than for space travel.
• Sanity Slippage:
  • Aiden Pearce is suffering this due to decades of being the Fox and his guilt over Lena.
  • Thomas goes from being a Smug Snake to a murderous lunatic.
• Sequel Hook: To the main game, in the post game phone conversations Connie mentions having made contact with a DedSec survivor, who'd been hiding out up north.
• Shout-Out: A toy version of the Jurassic Park style DedSec Jeep from the second game appears in Aiden's Nightmare Sequence. A Call-Back to a Shout-Out.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Wrench throws a homemade stun bomb at Aiden during their initial confrontation. Despite the weapon being non-lethal, a piece of shrapnel's found near his heart since the bomb exploded at point blank range. Had Thomas Rempart not removed the shrapnel, Aiden would have died.
  • Not long after the aforementioned operation, in addition to being tortured and sustaining other injuries before being caught, Aiden does not rest and eventually passes out from exhaustion by the time he reaches Jackson's flat. Even then, he has not fully recovered and goes on with his task. After unwittingly getting caught in another explosion caused by Wrench, Aiden eventually falls into a coma.
  • Even after stabilizing Aiden from his injuries, Jackson and Wrench are unable to wake him up without proper medical care.

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