British grime artist Stormzy appeared during the Ubisoft Forward livestream today to announce that he's appearing in Watch Dogs Legion. "I'm honored to be a part of it," said the rapper, setting up a motion-captured music video set in virtual London. You can watch it all in the video above.
According to creative director Clint Hocking, Watch Dogs Legion's themes are "speaking up for the oppressed and holding those in power accountable," which is why Stormzy's name came up "over and over again" among Londoners involved with the game.
As one example of what Hocking's referencing, Stormzy called out Theresa May and company over the UK government's response to the Grenfell Tower fire, in which 72 people died, at the 2018 Brit Awards: "You should do some jail time, you should pay some damages, we should burn your house down and see if you can manage this," he rapped.
Watch Dogs 2 was about a group of hackers battling a San Francisco tech giant bent on world domination. In Legion, the same group is taking on a private military that has taken over London and turned it into a surveillance state on the government's orders. Whether the game has anything noteworthy to say about oppression remains to be seen, and it's slightly hard to take Hocking at his word given that Ubisoft just apologized for a mobile game which presented modern-day protests as fronts for an evil conspiracy. Though Ubisoft is a big company, to be fair.
At the very least, Legion looks fun—Chris enjoyed his hands-on session back in July. And beyond the virtual music video, Stormzy's appearance is apparently part of a full mission in the game. It's unclear exactly what that'll look like, but it wasn't presented as an add-on or something extra, so it should be in every version.
Ubisoft also didn't say whether or not Stormzy will be a playable character. I'd guess not, but the game's hook is that you get to play as just about anyone in London, so it's not entirely outside the realm of possibility.
Watch Dogs Legion will be out on October 29. Here's everything else we know about it.
