Gamer Finds The Last of Us’ Joel In Watch Dogs: Legion

A gamer has made an extremely cool discovery, finding The Last of Us' Joel as a character in Watch Dogs: Legion. It's a good fit, given one of Watch Dog: Legion's DLC packs added zombies to the game.

The critical reception of Watch Dogs: Legion was mixed upon release. It tried plenty of new ideas, including not having a dedicated protagonist for the game. This was a unique way to introduce permadeath to the open-world genre, but as a result, reduced the story stakes dramatically. DLC would later re-add Watch Dogs protagonist Aiden Pearce to the game, but it did little to improve matters for the majority of players.

Redditor Prinz011 pointed out the cool reference, finding a "Joel Miller" patrolling the streets of London. He's described as 52 years of age, with a yearly salary of £800 and a status of "Released from mental hospital." While the character model doesn't look exactly like the Joel seen in the Last of Us games, there's certainly a passing resemblance to speak of. According to the Redditor, Joel can even be recruited and played as in Watch Dogs: Legion, making him the protagonist of two major series.

Gamers in the thread were certain that it was a direct reference, with one user pointing out that Joel is 52 at the start of The Last of Us. It certainly seems too coincidental to not be a direct reference. The system in the game for matching backstories and occupations has come up with some strange creations in the past, and this might just be a fun coincidence. The Watch Dogs: Legion algorithm accidentally created a highly inappropriate character a while ago, so anything is possible.

There were rumors last year that Ubisoft was quietly retiring the Watch Dogs series, but hope remains that this isn't the case. While the series hasn't lived up to its early potential as a GTA competitor, it has shown enough ambition to earn its place among the plethora of open-world games out there. In a way, it's a victim of that ambition. It has tried new things when the safer option may have yielded better results, and hopefully that hasn't ultimately been what has killed the franchise. It will soon be three years since Watch Dogs: Legion was released, and news about the franchise has been quiet for a very long time. All hope is not lost – there were four years between Watch Dogs 2 and Watch Dogs: Legion, so Ubisoft could just be having a period of reflection for the franchise.