Watch Dogs has turned into one of Ubisoft’s flagship franchises, alternating release with Assassin’s Creed. Watch Dogs Legion is taking an inventive new approach by letting players recruit andy NPC across the city of London. What this means, however, is that there’s no singular protagonist.
Watch Dogs Legion is, sort of, addressing this by adding the protagonist of the first Watch Dogs game, Aiden Pearce, in a post-launch update. The only problem is that no one likes Aiden Pearce; no one liked him in the first game and he likely won’t be any better in Watch Dogs Legion.
Adding Aiden to Watch Dogs Legion seems counterintuitive to the whole experience the game is built on, the whole “anyone can fight back” theme. Past that, of course, Aiden is simply something that no one asked for.
Aiden Pearce Is a Genuinely Terrible Person
Ubisoft claims that fans have been asking for Aiden Pearce to return, but really who exactly has been asking for that? Taking a glance at any social media platform after Ubisoft’s reveal shows scores of fans particularly not excited about the character. Here are just a couple, from the many that can be found.
The crux of why people don’t like Aiden is that he’s an unredeemable terrible person. Just at first glance, Aiden is a disheveled gravelly-voiced hero, the quintessential “hard” hero. Aiden’s greatest offense, however, isn’t simply being a boring hero, it’s the fact that he’s a genuinely terrible person. At the start of Watch Dogs Aiden’s niece is killed by a hitman who was targeting Aiden himself, due to his vigilantism. The death is inadvertently Aiden’s fault, but he never tries to own up to the mistake he made, and even just blows off his sister when she’s trying to talk about her daughter.
His cold demeanor toward his sister is bad enough, but Aiden commits countless crimes across Watch Dogs, and the game simply explains it away as a means to an end. Aiden can steal money from anyone and everyone, even someone down on their luck that needs that money for medical treatments. He also puts countless innocents in danger, and probably kills some, by hacking traffic lights, bridges, and tons of other infrastructure. Aiden isn’t afraid to murder to see his mission out or invade the privacy of perfectly innocent people. The biggest problem in Watch Dogs is that Aiden never shows any regret for all of the horrible acts he’s committed, as he always just stays laser-focused on his revenge. Equally frustrating is that players are never remotely given a reason to care bout Aiden. From the very start of the game, he’s a gruff unlikable jerk, and Watch Dogs never makes any effort to show another side of the character. Aiden was never meant to be a traditional hero, but even an anti-hero shows some level of awareness or regret about their actions. Aiden is an absolute psychopath that has no limits and is unlikable in every way. It’s baffling that Ubisoft thinks players would want to see this hero again, especially when the company says things like “he’s older, but maybe no much wiser.”
Watch Dogs Has a Much Better Hero It Can Use
While Aiden is as likable as a brick wall, Watch Dogs has another genuinely likable protagonist. Marcus Holloway is the main protagonist of Watch Dogs 2, and unlike Aiden, his mission doesn’t revolve around revenge. Marcus is a self-made hacker who drew the interest of DedSec, and he ends up joining the group to expose the corruption and crimes of Blume. Marcus may have his faults but he generally tries to take the nonviolent, nonlethal options. It also helps that Marcus is a funny and charming character, and unlike Aiden, he takes time to enjoy life and forge meaningful connections with the people that help him.
It’s frustrating then that Marcus isn’t the one making his way to London instead of Aiden, especially since he’d be far more dedicated to the idea of liberating London. Aiden didn’t have some noble goal in mind as Marcus, and if the character is the same as in Watch Dogs, it’s unlikely he’d care much about the authoritarian state in London. Marcus would have been a much better choice for Watch Dogs Legion, especially since he’s a hip young hacker instead of a grumpy old murderer. At least that way there would have actually been people asking for it.
Watch Dogs Legion launches on October 29 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC and on November 10 for Xbox Series X. It’ll launch at a later date for PS5.
