One Of The Most Impressive Open Worlds Of This Generation Hits Xbox Game Pass Next Week – Pure Xbox
GuestGuestLogin | Sign UpPure XboxGuestLogin or Sign UpTime to soak it all inThis week, Microsoft revealed a rather slim Xbox Game Pass update containing just three additions to the library – which is understandable given that we’re set to get more reveals during an Indie Showcase next week. However, despite slim pickings until that event goes ahead, one title in this latest batch contains one of the most impressive open worlds we’ve seen on Xbox Series X|S to date – and it’s well worth a play.With its 2020 entry in the franchise, Ubisoft took its DedSec crew to London in Watch Dogs Legion – and we still think this is one of the most dense, diverse and well-detailed open world games this generation. Not every one of Legion’s series shakeups landed in the same way – but its rendition of the UK’s capital is a seriously impressive feat.What’s most apparent straight away is that this isn’t one of those pristine open world games with gorgeous vistas and sun-soaked lands – Legion’s London is a grimy, lived-in location complete with near-endless graffiti, plenty of pothole-laden roads that could do with some serious council attention, and some rather shady characters hanging around on most street corners. You could say that Ubisoft Toronto understood the assignment, then.There is beauty in this sort of used-and-abused world though. On loading the game up again for the first time in a good few years, we still had to stop every now and then and just soak it all in. There’s such granular detail to what Ubisoft put together here that we can’t help but admire it – and zipping around London’s tight-knit streets and awkward one-way systems is a proper thrill, even four or five years later.If you’ve ever visited England’s capital in real life, you’ll likely spot some familiar locations pretty quickly – it doesn’t take much exploring in Legion to spot some of London’s most iconic landmarks, in rather impressive detail. We’ve snapped a few of these for your viewing pleasure down below, but it’s not just the tourist spots that Ubisoft covers with great attention here – plenty of hidden spots within the city have been given their time in the spotlight as well.Having said all of this, Watch Dogs Legion isn’t a game that sticks to modern day rules – there’s plenty of nods to futuristic sci-fi in here – fitting for the series’ overall theme. If you like a bit of fictional flavour to your open world games, Legion delivers on that, and it quite masterfully mixes those themes and mechanics with an authentic take on London that we’ve come to really appreciate over the years.Anyway, this big old Ubisoft adventure heads to Xbox Game Pass next week on February 25th, and if you’re craving a highly detailed open world to play around in – Watch Dogs Legion is still a great showcase for Xbox Series X|S.Along with new content and bug fixesThe latest confirmed (and rumoured) revealsAre you excited to try out Legion on Xbox Game Pass? Talk to us about this upcoming addition down below.About Ben KerryBen is a News Writer at Pure Xbox, and is a fan of action, racing and straight-up shootin’ in any Xbox game he can get his hands on. When he’s not clutching an Xbox controller like his life depends on it, Ben spends his time listening to music that’s far too old for him, watching football on the telly and probably eating somewhere.Comments 76Come on… We all know how this game was received by the audience.I picked this up cheap on disc a few years ago and traded it in that same day, the world does look nice but I didn’t like the game at allLooks like it got decent reviews from what I found?? I never got to play this, so this is a nice surprise for GamePass 👍Their version of London was extremely ugly, and very repetitive. I don’t think it has ever been highly regarded as an open-world map.I’ve never had the chance to play this – from what I can see here the world building looks ace! I’m a sucker for a good city scape so will be trying this out – thanks for the heads up!!if its similar to GTA I’m all for it!!It looks nice but the game play gets very repetitive as you progress through the game.It is fun to just explore though I guess.I honestly forgot there was a third Watch Dogs…I’ve considered getting this in the sales a few times, but glad to see it on GP.I’m finishing up Cyberpunk 2077 so maybe I can move over to another sci-fi near future open world game Legion’s London is a grimy, lived-in location complete with near-endless graffiti, plenty of pothole-laden roads that could do with some serious council attentionClearly, the dev team took inspiration from Hull. Lol.I’m looking forward to jumping in. Watch Dogs 1 is the best of 1 and 2 imo, but having never tried 3, I’m keen to get hands-on.I was so so disappointed when I seen this article was about watch dogs had my hopes up for something actually good 😭@Ricky-Spanish yh same lmao, Legion was the last thing to come to mindThis game is known for putting the Watch Dogs franchise in a coffin. Too bad because I really liked the first 2 games.If this is “one of the most impressive open worlds of this generation”, I guess that says much of how uninspired this generation has been… 😒Very underrated game. Loved the world and the stealth, and has some incredibly written missions.Oh yes! I forgot about this one. Def going to download and play it.I played through Legion at launch and that’s 98 hours of my life that I fully regret.Let’s be honest, first game was ok but a overall kinda messy, second game was(and still is) a masterpiece(in my opinion, I love Watch Dogs 2 so much that I took the platinum trophy twice) but Legion?Legion is one of the worst open-world games I’ve ever played.I had more issues with Legion than I ever had with Cyberpunk 2077 on launch.On top of technical issues that only got worse the more it got patched, Legion was just not a fun game and its central gimmick got tiresome in the first few hours of playing.The “Play as any NPC” gimmick is a cool concept but the execution was very under-cooked with characters that sounded like none of the few voice actors had gotten the same script to read and then it all got thrown into a mixer and then got randomized whenever anyone had a thing to say.Story-wise, it was pretty bland.When I call what the twist is, 5 minutes into the game, it probably is not a good twist.Conclusion:Legion is a travesty and I feel bad for anyone who will try it.I got this on the cheap so I could prance around in London.It’s awful, not a single redeemable thing about it. It plays terribly, and doesn’t look very good@Fishysensei Legion is one of the worst open-world games I’ve ever played.98 hours though? Surely it can’t be that bad if you opted to spend that much time there?For just a second I thought Xbox was publishing an official release of Fallout London….Colour me disappointed…@KaloudzThat was me desperately trying to take the platinum trophy out of spite so I would not leave things unfinished but the game broke me and I just walked away from it.@Fishysensei “Worst game you ever played for 98 hours?” What kept you going then if it is as bad as you say? 🤔Update: I see you already answered, still… 98 hours? 😏@RetroMan71See the comment just above yours.@Fishysensei Brother, you’ve more patience than me haha. If I hated something that much, I’d turn tail and cut my losses.@Kaloudz i was thinking the same thing to be honest.. no offence intended @Fishysenseibut if you didnt like it, why play for 98 hours??@Lordyeet I can’t recall a time where I spent more than a few hours in a world / game I didn’t like that much. Have you played it?@Kaloudz no but if its on game pass ill give it a go!i’m not much of an achievement person though so each to their own, but i’m similar to you in if i don’t like it i wont stay on itI bought Watch Dogs Legion on Series X launch day. I was enjoying it (not the best, but definitely good fun and worth the money), until I encountered a bug where the autosave didn’t work, and with no manual save function, I lost hours of progress. I gave up. I’m certain the bug has since been fixed, so perhaps I’ll go back to it at some point…@Lordyeet Haha same here. It’s the whole reason I’ve yet to buy Crash 4 because I know at some points it’s hitting GP 🤣@Kaloudz @Fishysensei I’ve definitely played games for far longer than I should, when I could have given up. Sometimes there are occasional good moments that keep you going, or you want the 1000GS or, usually in my case, you have a hard time not seeing things to their conclusion.I’ve definitely put 50+ hours into games I ended up not liking by the end (I might have liked them more earlier) and I’ve put over 100 hours into games I ended up thinking were mid, probably most recently Starfield.if you think this game has a good open world you need to play better games@Kaloudz nice! im pretty new to the xbox community after being solo playstation for a long time so im just getting used to game pass! its a lot more in depth which is amazing!@themightyant That baffles me as a gamer. I mean sure, if I was playing a (let’s say) 10 hour platformer and I was halfway through and felt bored or found it unenjoyable at that point, perhaps, perhapssss, I’d see it through. But nearly 100 hours in something I’m not only not having fun in, but strongly detest it, I wouldn’t commit. But that’s just me.@Lordyeet Welcome to the green side brother!! I hate to throw games around, but if you have game pass, can I suggest Moonlighter? It’s an outstanding game. You dungeon dive at night and sell your goods in your own store at the village by day. Expand your village, upgrade your dude, and go at it again at night – trying to get further in and beat the boss (unlocking the next dungeon along the way). It’s a very good solo game ☺️@Kaloudz I think there is a large difference between “strongly detesting” something and “ending up not liking by the end”.When I hate a game I usually give up in the first 5 – 60 minutes. Which I do on Game Pass risk free. But sometimes there is just enough to keep you going, maybe it gets good every now and again, even if most of it is busywork or a bit boring. And then if the ending doesn’t land, or it gets too grindy at the end, or something else falls flat it can turn from “it was OK” to “I didn’t like it, when all was said and done”. We all play differently.@Kaloudz OOOH this sounds like id enjoy! ill get it downloaded – thank you!@Lordyeet Can also recommend Moonlighter. Good game.@themightyant thanks!!i do catch your drift on what your saying above – perhaps our play styles are just a little different, but you deffo sound like you have more patience then me!! i also like a really rich long game where i can clock 40 odd hours worth of story so if i wasn’t enjoying it to a certain degree, i feel like it would just sour my experience of it@Lordyeet I do have too much patience sometimes. There are definitely times I should have given up a game earlier, but by the time I decide I might i’m so close to the end it feels like a sunk cost and I persevere to the end. Which is often a mistake, but I feel a little compelled to see it through having got so far.There are also games like Starfield that I absolutely loved in places, but I loathed in many others and by the end of the long rollercoaster was not a big fan. That game specifically a lot of reviewers said things like “we won’t spoil it… but it only gets good after you finish it” which led to a big disappointment when I felt the absolute opposite when the ending didn’t hit and you were punished for finishing.Though much better to have a love/hate game like that which makes us feel SOMETHING, than one that’s just mid the whole way through. Happy gaming fella.@Kaloudz I agree that watch dogs 1 was an incredible adventure that still holds up today. Watch Dogs 2 somehow went backwards in my opinion and I’ve never played legions so I’m curious to see how the game lands.I’m currently enamored with Avowed, Obsidians take on fantasy action adventure has surprised the hell outta me. I’m having a ton of fun exploring completing side quests, running into trouble trying to kill bounties, and idk the game feels good to play & it looks great too so I’ll probably be playing Avowed for quite sometime lol.I really loved the setting. It’s rare to get such an immersive environment in London and the mechanics were unique. The best Watch Dogs for me by a mile and 10/10 for myself. I strongly recommend it to anyone who enjoys Ubisoft style open world games. It’s a great addition for Gamepass!@Quickbeamx I finished this one. Granted there is some Ubisoft branded repetitiveness but I had a blast and loved the setting and story. I do recommend itI think I played Watchdog Legion on Series X near launch. The framerate (to me) was so bad that I put it down.I bought this in a sale a while back. Played for a few hours then when I went back it had only saved what I did for the first hour or so. I got in a right strop.@Master_Cthulhu70 Avowed is amazing isn’t it? The only thing that is hurting me is that when I try to use the menu (to spend points or change gear) it lags for like, a minute. I press LB/RB LT/RT and it doesn’t do anything for ages (Series S).But yeah WD1 was perfect for me. I loved Aiden too, which a lot of people didn’t. I also wasn’t too big on WD2. The whole vibe and setting just didn’t feel like the right fit for me. I think darker and grungier (like WD1) is the best theme for the game.@themightyant Yeah I can usually tell pretty quickly if I’m not going to like something – but I try to persevere for an hour or two just in case something “clicks” as was the case with Witcher 3 lol.@Lordyeet It’s really something buddy. You’ll love it. You can even set your own prices for the items you sell to make max profit, but if you set too high, folks will just walk out lol.The games sh1t and you know it is. I’m calling shenanigans@Deljo that may be the case for you, however thats not the point of the article, the point they are making is that the world in the game is impressive personally I’m looking forward to giving it a go just because it looks like a good mapI don’t play Ubisoft games for the most part, but I do remember seeing PC previews for this game and it had really impressive ray traced reflections (IIRC).@Deljo Very nice reference 👏Hmm, article had me quite excited for this, then the comments rather dampened the enthusiasm! I do like Ubisoft open world stuff in general though (we aren’t supposed to admit that these days, are we….?) so I’ll give it a go. Would like to have a look around the open world, if nothing else.Removed – unconstructive feedback@ItsTrippi it’s a 76-80 on metacritic with a 6.5 player rating.. you didn’t like it sure but it wasn’t poorly received by everyone as you claim.Saints Row Remake is the worst open world game I’ve played and it’s not even close.@Lup Really? This game had writing on par with the newest Saints Row flop. It was very dull and repetitive too. It tried way too hard to rely on it’s body changing / recruitment gimmick thing and for the most part it falls flat.@Scrubchub I think if you enjoy the setting of London, a unique open world mechanic or tech based mini games you might enjoy this one. It was fairly well received by critics overall even if it isn’t groundbreaking like a RDR2.@Jenkinss Ubisoft managed to get RT on the Series S which is even more impressive given it’s one of the very few games to achieve this.@Darylb88 PC/PS5/XBSX has a user score of 5.2, if that’s not poorly received I don’t know what to tell ya. In a world where anything below a 7 is considered a failure (I don’t agree with this but it’s the norm). I’d say that’s pretty terrible for a triple A game.It doesn’t mean you can’t like it. But there is no reason to talk it up as some amazing hidden gem of a game like this article is doing. The game was just way too repetitive, buggy, slow, and gimmicky.But to each their own. Right now Avowed is getting ripped apart but I think it’s a fairly good game and enjoying it.@ItsTrippi Its average of 5.9 (Basically 6) on Metacritic isn’t that bad. I am aware the game is acquired taste and the article is designed to get ad click through by not mentioning the game. I enjoyed it a lot and I also am enjoying Avowed too. Tbh I enjoy most games across most genres although the Saints Row reboot was terrible.London is not the UKs capital. You do know that the UK is made up of four different countries? England – London, Scotland – Edinburgh, Wales – Cardiff, Northern Ireland – Belfast. That’s a wee lesson for you Americans.@ItsTrippiI think the A.I questline had topnotch writing. Brilliant and terrifying stuff. It made me uncomfortable in a good way.The writing in general is way better than 2.@KaloudzIf you haven’t played this one, there’s a DLC featuring Aiden (I’ve read you liked him), which is pretty good (kind of a prequel to Legion) but in case you don’t like playing as a random character, you can actually use Aiden the whole game (except some missions where you need to use multiple characters).
I used a random (customized by me)one as my main and Aiden as a secondary one.No offense bro but this game is kinda crap. I bought it when it first came out, I think it was cause I just wanted to play something made with the SX in mind and there wasn’t much else at the time but damn is it boring. I should have learned with the first watch dogs game. I think I put maybe 5 or 6 hours in it and never turned it on again .@Weebadtoad London is most certainly the capital of the UK.It looks a good mid game that it’s worh playing on Game Pass.At least they experimented with interesting ideas, even if they didn’t quite pay off.I’ve actually written a book about artistic depictions of London and I agree Legion is one of the best in videogames. Much better than Assassin’s Creed Syndicate which just didn’t feel right.As for the game itself I thought it was pretty good mechanically – I definitely got into it more as the game went on. Mainly let down by the awful writing and painful voice acting.@Lup Ohhhhh!! Do you have to buy the DLC to play as him, or is it included in the game via Ubisoft Rewards (or whatever it’s called these days). I feel bad for Ubi. They get so much crap and I for one love most of their games. I certainly hope Shadows floats them above water level.I hate to add to the warnings about this game, but…I bought this in a sale not that long after launch because Watchdogs 2 was a fine game and as a Londoner born and bred (spent 40 years there) I wanted to roam the city of my mispent early years virtually.The game never grabbed me unfortunately, and though the world looked superficially interesting, it got boring very quickly.The joy of game pass is everyone can see for themselves, but I’d urge you to keep expectations in check and I hope you get more out of it than I did!@Kaloudz inspiration from hull lmao🤣😭@Decimateh 🤣🤣🤣@KaloudzYou have to buy it, I don’t know how much it goes for though. I bought the Deluxe Edition (or whatever it’s called) a long time ago and it was included in that.Game had potential and some good features but the world world is barren. London looks too shiny. The car handling is horrible. NPCs are pretty non existent. Missions are very repetitive and rather boring. Story is quite interesting at times. You can tell it was a rush job with the obvious from the publishers “Yeah looks really good is it finished?” “No we have quite a bit more to add and tweak!” “So it’s good enough to release?” “No!” “Cool we will release it then!”@Ricky-Spanish i love the carnie episode 😀Terrible game though.The second game was more fun.This game was a flop. Even by Ubislop’s low standards this was a failure. Game Pass is going through a rough patch right now: Starfield, Redfall, Avowed… all stinkers.@Lup Argh! Hopefully you can buy that ability separately and cheap. I’d play as that dude in a blink! Easily the best character in the series as far as I’m concerned. I’m not sure why so many took issue with him when the first game came out.@KaloudzI loved him too. The first Watchdogs was great, but half the reason was thanks to Aiden. The DLC is half him and half… I can’t even remember his name from WD2, the mask dude. But the Aiden parts steal the show and it has a very cool mission that feels a little bit like a horror game. Show CommentsLeave A CommentHold on there, you need to login to post a comment…One Of The Most Impressive Open Worlds Of This Generation Hits Xbox Game Pass Next WeekTime to soak it all inXbox Is Running A Strange Buy One, Get Two Free Sale Right NowThere’s a few OK deals to be hadHere’s A Look At The Updated Xbox Studios Roadmap For 2025 & BeyondAn incredible first-party year aheadThese 10+ Games Are Coming To Xbox Next Week (February 24-28)Monster Hunter, PGA 2K25 & much more!Just One Game Is Confirmed For Xbox Game Pass In March 2025 So FarAn early look at what’s aheadGame ProfileTitle:Watch Dogs: LegionSystem:Xbox Series X|SAlso Available For:Xbox OnePublisher:UbisoftDeveloper:UbisoftGenre:Action, AdventureRelease Date:Xbox OneReviews:Review: Watch Dogs: Legion – Visually Impressive On Series X, But Repetitive And ClunkyBuy Xbox Gift Card:€100€50€25
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Feature One Of The Most Impressive Open Worlds Of This Generation Hits Xbox Game…News Xbox Is Running A Strange Buy One, Get Two Free Sale Right NowNews Here’s A Look At The Updated Xbox Studios Roadmap For 2025 & BeyondFeature These 10+ Games Are Coming To Xbox Next Week (February 24-28)News Just One Game Is Confirmed For Xbox Game Pass In March 2025 So FarNews Nine Games Will Leave Xbox Game Pass In Late February 2025News Two Games Are Available Today With Xbox Game Pass (February 20)Feature 20 Of The Best Backwards Compatible Games You Can Play On XboxNews Microsoft Rewards Appears To Be Increasing Its Prices For Xbox Game PassGuide All Xbox Games With Mouse & Keyboard SupportPopular Right NowShow More Join 119,331 people following Pure Xbox:© 2025 Hookshot Media, partner of IGN Entertainment | Hosted by 44 Bytes | AdChoices | Do Not Sell My Personal Information
