Video-game London in Watch Dogs Legion shows us the darkest timeline

In Ubisoft's next game, populism has morphed into authoritarianism in a virtual, futuristic London. It's up to you to lead the fightback

Armed militia stroll around London, picking fights where they please and shutting down small gatherings of masked protesters demanding their freedoms on street corners. Drones buzz above, monitoring citizens' movements and following anyone suspicious. In Watch Dogs Legion's future dystopian British capital, Brexit happened years ago, Scotland has seceded from the union, and the country has been overtaken by private, corporate interests who've wrested control from the government and framed a collective of hacker protesters, DeadSec, for a series of terrorist attacks. People are pissed off, and ready to rise up. You, the player, are the catalyst that makes that happen.

Like Grand Theft Auto, Watch Dogs conjures a huge living city out of code, filled with thousands of individual characters who go about their lives, going to work, visiting their sister, driving around in the rain. But unlike Grand Theft Auto, your weapon here isn't a gun: it's a smartphone. You can hijack drones and security cameras, hack into laptops and terminals, and view a precis of someone's recent internet search history and talents by looking at them and pressing a button. If they seem useful, you can recruit them to your cause.