While Ubisoft's Watch Dogs franchise may have been successful initially, it seems to have drastically fallen from grace. Its three entries showed a franchise that never quite knew what it wanted to be, and it failed to amass as big a diehard fanbase as other Ubisoft titles. The release of Watch Dogs: Legion may be the end of the franchise as rumors suggest that Ubisoft has quietly canceled future entries, but if it wants to try again, it will need to take Watch Dogs to a whole other level.
The main focus of the Watch Dogs franchise is on a sci-fi dystopian world where hacker vigilantes try their hardest to combat the system. It has stayed within the confines of a version of the real world, but Watch Dogs 4 could bring it somewhere else entirely. Instead of causing havoc in the streets of iconic cities, the fourth game should go all in on the sci-fi genre by bringing players across the stars.
Watch Dogs 4 Needs to Go Absolutely Wild
Each entry in the Watch Dogs franchise seems to be quite different from the last. The first game told a gritty revenge story in the streets of Chicago, Watch Dogs 2 told a more colorful lighthearted story in San Francisco, and Watch Dogs Legion took the series in a completely new direction by going for a virtual sandbox in London adventure. These variations have led to a unique and uneven franchise, and the fourth game might as well continue this trend.
While it would be nice if Ubisoft was able to nail down a more cohesive direction for Watch Dogs, it should now commit to the bombastic surprising nature of the franchise's current trajectory. This time around, it should take the entire concept to a space setting. Sci-fi dystopian worlds fit right into a space setting, and it may be exactly what the franchise needs to one-up itself.
The Watch Dogs franchise has barely touched on what is happening in space, but there are likely a lot of things occurring throughout the stars. The technology that the world has is pretty advanced, and these powerful organizations have probably been poking around the galaxy. While they may not have gotten far, there should at least be some type of installation on the moon that would be an excellent location for some hacking mayhem.
Ubisoft could also introduce a major time skip between Watch Dogs Legion and Watch Dogs 4. This time skip could see the likes of Blume and Albion expanding their presence offworld because DedSec chased them out of numerous major cities. Instead, the organizations have set up shop in space, and it will be up to the player to take them out. A new space setting would help reinvent Watch Dogs once more and could lead to even more wild hacking shenanigans. This new locale would mean new fun things to hack like airlocks, oxygen machines, and dozens of little robots. It could also mean new enemies to take out, and new obstacles for players to overcome as they try to rid the galaxy of these powerful organizations.
Watch Dogs in space may be jumping the shark a bit, but this series seems to really try to one-up itself with each entry, and this could be a fantastic way to do that. It is very unlikely to happen, and Ubisoft may never explore Watch Dogs again. If a fourth game does come out, there is a strong chance that it returns to the basics or expands upon Watch Dogs Legion's framework. Space may be reserved for a completely different IP, but there is a chance that Watch Dogs could benefit from a massive change in scenery like it.