The Watch Dogs Legion delay helped Ubisoft create more believable missions and characters

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Watch Dogs Legion has "a lot of cool characters" thanks to last year's delay, says its game director

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

Ubisoft says the Watch Dogs Legion delay, which pushed the game's release date back by over a year, helped it create more believable missions and characters for when it finally launches this October. 

Speaking to IGN, game director Clint Hocking admits that the news of the delay - which was a decision by Ubisoft's executives rather than the development team itself - initially came as a blow, but the studio eventually saw the brighter side to the timeline shift. 

"We were very close when we were ready to ship," he explains, "and the delay has allowed us to really look at the things that were out of reach for us back then, and how to incorporate those things and add a layer of polish and realization and clarity to the game."

"So the most important thing I think we've done is added a lot more refinement to traits and the abilities that you find on characters in the world, and better ways for aggregating those into individuals. As a consequence of that, we have a lot of cool characters that kind of emerge out of these great traits."

Hocking also says that the extra time allowed Ubisoft to bring more life to what he calls "Liberation Missions", endowing them with a sense of gravity and scale that previously wasn't part of the experience. 

"Once you do all of those activities in a borough, you get a borough liberation mission, a really custom beat with unique gameplay and a really cool challenge." he tells IGN. "And then that causes the people in the borough to rise up and that makes them much easier to recruit, and it gets rid of the Albion checkpoints and reduces the Albion presence in the streets. It really makes it feel like you're actually taking the city back." 

In other words, it sounds like the game's push back ultimately made perfect sense in the end, even if it means fans have to wait just a little longer to play it, once Watch Dogs Legion launches on October 29, in just a few months' time. 

Excited for another certain upcoming Ubisoft game? Here's where you can preorder Assassin's Creed Valhalla, or watch below for our hands-on preview.

Alex Avard
Alex Avard
Former Features Writer

Alex is a former Features Writer at GamesRadar+, which once made him responsible for gracing the internet with as many of my words as possible, including reviews, previews, interviews, and more. Lucky internet!