Tea Time with Bagley - Introducing Resistance Mode

Coming next month, Title Update 5.5 is the next major content update that we’re excited to bring to Watch Dogs: Legion. In addition to featuring Darcy and the Assassin’s Creed cross-over event, and the highly requested Invasion PVP, the update will also bring the new Resistance Mode to the game.

But what is the Resistance Mode? We sat down with Associate UX Director Gregory Kozma to dig into what you can expect from the new feature.

What is the Resistance Mode and how did the idea of it come about?

Resistance Mode is a challenging new way to experience Watch Dogs: Legion’s single player campaign.

When we started working on the Resistance Mode, we took a holistic view at all the systems in the game to see where we could make significant and meaningful adjustments that would dramatically impact the experience for endgame players and create more of a resistance fantasy.

What are some of the changes made to the game when playing in Resistance Mode?
One change that we’ve added is how London’s oppression affects you, the player, and DedSec. In Watch Dogs: Legion, you see how the authoritarian powers affect the lives of others—with Albion in the streets, drones in the skies, ID checkpoints, and people being arrested and detained. With Resistance Mode,we wanted to make sure that the element of the city’s oppression was more felt by players

Navigating around the city with this mode is a lot more dangerous and riskier. Going through an active checkpoint? You’ll get noticed. Are you getting too close to an Albion soldier in the street? You’ll get noticed. Even some of the Tech Points around the world have been trapped by Albion, so grabbing them without a decent plan of escape is a dicey proposition.

Since using the public transit would also be too much of a risk for DedSec, the Underground fast travel system is disabled in this mode. For fast travel options in Resistance Mode, we focused on expanding the operative swapping system. Not only will all your operatives appear on the map now, but they will also periodically scout out missions, placing themselves close by for a convenient operative swap. We’re really happy about the immersion that this type of fast travel system provides, because there’s more of a sense of playing as a team, and you get additional peeks into the lives of your operatives when you aren’t playing as them.

Combat is even more dynamic. All of the enemies you encounter in this mode are Elites, and they will use their advanced abilities and behaviours a lot more frequently. They’ll also call reinforcements faster, so going in guns blazing stands a much higher chance of getting into hot water.

For DedSec operatives, we’ve balanced t abilities while ensuring that they still have great impact when used. For example, hack cooldown times have been increased to make their use more strategic, and that gives more room for operatives with the Fast Hack ability, which reduces hack cooldowns, to be felt a bit more.

Finally, since all of this comes together best when the stakes are high, permadeath is always on in Resistance Mode.

Multiple Save Game slots on Consoles

As we worked on this mode, another feature we wanted to make sure that we brought to our console players was the much-requested addition to save game slots. Two additional save slots have been added in TU 5.5, so now starting a new campaign won’t come at the expense of previous or concurrent playthroughs. You can, of course, use these save game slots for a new, classic campaign as well.

We're really happy about how this mode has turned out, and we can’t wait to hear players’ thoughts when they try it.

Thank you very much to Greg and the team! TU 5.5 and its Resistance Mode launches in late August.

Thank you for joining us for this week’s Tea Time With Bagley. Make sure to
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