Watch Dogs 4: 5 Features We All Want

Although Ubisoft has yet to formally announce the fourth entry to the hack-heavy action-adventure series, Watch Dogs 4 is still very much on our minds. So much, that we've already set our hearts on drawing up potential scenarios for it, many of which we, in our collective mind, believe would enhance the series as a whole. In reality, though, we're just the kings and queens of rambling about things that'll likely never happen.

Of course, it may not be out just yet, but we can all agree that Watch Dogs 4 is on the cards. After all, with Legion selling just over 2 million units in its opening weekend, it's clear Ubisoft has stumbled upon a pretty sturdy cash cow, therefore the question lies not with will it happen—but when. And until it does pop its head up, we'll just have to settle for fantasy. Speaking of which, these are the five things we'd love to see in the next leg of the journey.

5. Beyond North America

As much as we enjoyed rummaging through the hackable streets of Chicago and San Francisco back in Watch Dogs and its sequel, a few similarities definitely kept it loosely connected to games like Grand Theft Auto. Though, that's a relationship that can't be helped, seeing as Rockstar's poster child is front and center to the Northern America setting. That's why, in all fairness, Legion was a complimentary surprise, as it broke out of the cliché territory and opted to take London for a spin.

Now, let's say Ubisoft maintain that momentum, then we could very well see a number of original settings that go beyond the US borders. For us, we'd be content with the idea of visiting Tokyo, a phenomenal city known for its technologically advanced AI. Picture that, as well as a palette of tools that allow for players to hack anything and everything, and you're on to an award-winning concept, for sure.

4. In-depth characters

Granted, the whole ability to recruit anyone in London was a great concept for Legion, but it fell short due to the generic voiceovers, lack of personality, and loss of charm. Without in-depth characters to lead the narrative, we honestly felt zero connection to the people we were playing as, which made the whole experience a little lackluster and dull.

Sure, an assassin granny is great. But then, without a voice to aid said granny, it's more or less just a shell with no vigor, and there's no real trait that sets her apart from the millions of other recruitable characters. With that, we'd enjoy seeing a close-knit clique with actual personalities return for our future exploits, similar to Watch Dogs 2, perhaps. Just, you know, four or five Wrench's to flesh out the roster. Now there's your starting point, right there.

3. Customization, please!

The thing is with Ubisoft is that, regardless of the game you pick up, you'll never really know what sort of customization tools you're going to get until it's too late. Take Watch Dogs, for example; the most you could do customization-wise was change the colors of Aiden's duffle coat. For that, we think having countless clothing stores dotted around Chicago was a pretty redundant feature. Watch Dogs 2, on the other hand, evolved from such, and went on to give players far more options to choose from.

What we're saying here is, well—we want more of that. To go one step further, we'd like to actually create our own character from scratch and go from there. Give us more clothing stores, tattoo outlets, and barbers—basically anything to add a few sparks to a motionless carcass. Do that, Ubisoft, and we'll be more than happy to forgive and forget Legion's uninspired nexus of fleshy drones.

2. Hacktivist contracts

Remember how Assassin's Creed gave you the opportunity to send new recruits around the world to complete various tasks for perks and experience points? Well, that's the sort of thing we're picturing for Watch Dogs 4, only with an elite team of Dedsec hackers storming the globe to help whittle down opposing firms.

Let's say you're able to bring a set number of recruits along with you on certain missions, then surely having them equipped with more experience and better skill trees would be of better use to you, right? Well, that's our train of thought, and we're seriously hoping Ubisoft consider it for the development phase.

1. Hacking, and lots of it

Say, what ever happened to the hacking puzzles and side quests that made up a huge portion of Watch Dogs and Watch Dogs 2? Seems to us that, post-Legion, the series became less about hacking the world, and more about stealth-based missions and reckless antics. Truth is, we stopped feeling like full-time hackers the moment Marcus fizzled from the spotlight, and we'd do anything to have that returned to us.

Although the hacking segments were somewhat shortsighted in the first game, they did provide the foundations for a lot of ambitious puzzles. Unfortunately, that soon started to slip away when Legion came about, which is around the time Ubisoft made the call to focus more on switching genres and summoning ludicrous innovations instead of keeping to what the series was originally built on. So, here's hoping hacking plays a much bigger part further down the road. Hint hint, Ubi.

So, what's your take? Do you agree with our top five? Let us know over on our socials here or down in the comments below.