Grand Theft Auto V vs. Watchdogs

Grand Theft Auto V is one of the, if not The, best game of the century, right after The Last of Us. But a new contester has come into the game earlier this year. Hacking, explosions, and feelings are what makeup Watchdogs. Watchdogs might just be the best game of this year (So Far). Two reviews in one…Say What?!

Watch Dogs

Watch Dogs’ charm is all in hacking, Aiden Pierce uses Chicago’s All-Controlling ctOS software to hack EVERYTHING hack-able around him.

STORYLINE

Watch Dogs shoots you right into the game from the beginning, this means lack of a tutorial, though you can find your way after a couple of seconds. Some of them are sort of useless, like the traffic lights that I only successfully used once or twice.

          And in a police chase you have to be very skilled and time your action perfectly; if you hack too early you risk affecting yourself when trying to blow a steam pipe or raise blockers. But if you act too late you might not catch the moment and miss the hack.

          Aiden doesn’t only hack for the fun of it; it’s his vendetta that drives him. Aiden and his former partner Damien Brenks were the artists of a bank heist at the Merlaut Hotel, which caused the Northeast Blackout of 2003. Another hacker gets in their way and when Damien confronts him, he gives himself and Aiden away.

          When Aiden rounds up his family, he tries to bring them to safety, unfortunately a hit man was hired to shoot Aiden. Causing a terrible accident and his niece is killed. This, by the way, is the source of his vendetta against whoever he finds guilty of anything even relating his niece.

          The Fox (Aiden Pierce) has become the vigilante and hunts down his niece’s killer. By the way, the strange thing is, you don’t hear “The Fox too much in the Story, only in the background in some newscasts.

          Aiden finally tracks down one of the hit man and the other hacker of the Merlaut job; when he does, he is intercepted by his very old friend, Damien Brenks. Damien kidnaps Aiden’s sister, Nicole, too bad for Damien, Aiden takes her back.

          He finally kills Lucky Quinn, the man who ordered the hit on Aiden’s family. Mr. Quinn confessed he did what he did because he thought Aiden was after some blackmail on his closely acquainted friend, the mayor.

          Pissed, Damien hacks ctOS and unveils Aiden’s true identity. Even though every police man in the city is out looking for him, Aiden hacks back in and finds him. When Damien and Aiden are confronted against each other, Aiden’s “partner” Jordi betrays him. Aiden then kills Damien and injures Jordi.

          Jordi has survived; he calls Aiden and tells him where his niece’s killer is; why? Well nobody knows, Aiden just explains that Jordi has to eliminate his problems and the hit man was one of his problems. Aiden has the choice to either kill Maurice (The hit man) or let him live.

          During the credits, ctOS announces on newscast that it will extend its services to other major cities (If you’re reading this in the future check out what I thought about that in my blog, if you’re reading this as it came out it will come soon).

          The game is super action packed, full of explosions, shooting, and driving. The shooting is very smooth and the weaponry is very wide; weapons like IEDs, Proximity IEDs, Blackout, Jamm. Comms etc… make the way you approach a mission unique.

          Even though the game is exhilarating in every aspect, the city’s AI is very primitive and predictable. The reputation system keeps you in line: If you, as far as accidently, run over a civilian your Reputation will drop some, and in missions where you have to chase after somebody or have to confront the police it is inevitable to drop a great deal of reputation.

          The AI certainly doesn’t help, when you sound the horn people don’t move, do as much as slightly touch them and they’re dead. They will even move aside when you’re half a mile away. This doesn’t work as you think, as they move in your way 50% of the times.

          Watch dogs’ map is huge, and across it are a million ways you can enjoy it. While going through the map you can find minigames, side missions, and collectibles all spread across the map and some are very hard to find.

          The map has two regions, Pawnee and Chicago City. In all these places you can observe the astounding graphics in all their details; like sundown, sunset, etc… and even little details.

          While exploring the map you can buy/call for vehicles using your smartphone; I have to say, the choice for vehicles is very wide. Whether you engage in a chase or you’re shooting a gang, you can slow time and take it easy. This helps you kill enemies and not get spotted or avoid cars in your way.

          Unlike the streets AI, the enemies AI are very realistic, so much that when you move behind cover they’ll still think you in your previous cover.

          The bitch is when you’re in a car chase or evading the police you cannot shoot from your car. The only thing you can do inside a car is hack, or ram another car, or evade the police. As I said before you have to time your hacking perfectly, but when you do and take down a car the little scene displayed makes you lose your focus and it might kill you.

Verdict

Watch dogs is an amazing game and the hacking system makes your tackling the game unique in the way you want.

9.0/10

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Grand Theft Auto V

Continuing its long lasting legacy GTA comes rolling back into the field with its latest addition, GTA V after 5 years.

STORYLINE

          Even though it’s been 5 years after GTA IV, it’s been 9 years after Trevor Phillips, Michael Townley, and Bradley Snider failed their bank heist. What happened? Well… Michael wanted out, Bradley got killed, and Trevor got screwed over.

          Turns out, Michael talked to the police; he told them about the heist because he wanted out of the business. The FIB after being tipped off, traps them, kills one of the accomplishes, Brad, and leave Michael “injured.”

          The FIB sets up a funeral for Michael, but buried, is really Brad. So Brad’s dead, Michael alive and well, under the protection of the agency with his family, and Trevor thinks his two best friends are dead.

          Now, or rather nine years from then, Michael Townley is really Michael De Santa under witness protection by the agency with his family. Life seems to be going so well for him; but it really isn’t, Michael’s son is a douchebag, his wife cheats on him, and his daughter hates him. Life is going so well.

          Now someone else has stepped into his life. Michael meets Franklin when he is offered to crash the car he was supposed to reclaim into his boss’s shop. But when Michael finds his wife in bed with another man, he destroys “his” house. Turns out, it wasn’t really his house, but rather, Mexican drug lord Martin Madrazo; he requires one and a half million dollars, which Michael doesn’t have, to repair the damage.

          To achieve this amount of money Michael and Franklin plan and achieve a heist, they then repay the drug lord and all happy and well.

          It seems like everything is back to normal but after all these years Trevor finds out about Michael and goes to visit him. Things don’t go so well. Michael’s life sprouts out of control and his family leaves him. One of Michael’s fuckups involved getting Devin Weston, a billionaire corporate raider, pissed, turning Devin against him.

          Now Franklin makes someone angry too; a gangster going by the name Stretch, makes BFFs with one of Franklin’s friends, or rather, his BEST friend.

          And finally, there is no two without a three. Trevor makes enemies with almost everyone because Trevor… well… is Trevor. Wei Cheng, a Street Gang, mercenaries, Meth dealers, and, a motorcycle club.

          Now they think they’ve defeated all their enemies. Unfortunately Trevor found out about what happened to Brad and snapped. He learned that someone wanted to kill Michael and demanded him being Michael’s killer.

They still decide to go after their big score; the gold deposit at the Union Depository. After that they’re very, very, very, very rich. But another problem has surged; two parties approach Franklin and each make him kill both of his friends. This is where the alternate endings come in; you obviously know the three choices; he either kills Michael, or Trevor… or no one. Depending on your choice you’ll either have two rich guys or three.

Rockstar did a great job making all these characters very dynamic and with a, rather interesting personality.

          During a heist the new character switching system comes in useful a great deal. You can have the characters do multiple jobs and helping in different ways. Though I did not like how there are only 2 heist in single player.

         

          I did also find strange how easily you can go flying off a car windshield and suddenly you’re dead.

          Every character in the game has their own unique ability based on their personality. Michael can stop time and pick his targets one by one. Trevor can enter a Rage Mode and raise his weapon’s damage.  And Franklin slows time while driving.

Verdict

GTA V brings back the true meaning of Free-World.

9.0/10

NOW TO THE GOOD STUFF

Alright… by now you’re probably asking “WHY?!”

Well… one of my friends lately said that Watchdogs is better than GTA V, is it true?

DISCLAIMER – This is purely my opinion and I know you’re going to crucify me in the comments, but hey… Haters are Motivators.

The answer is YES. Watchdogs isn’t even close to the amount of details GTA V has, but the idea is very original, and hacking gives you more ways to tackle a mission than character switching. In GTA V you can take part in real life-like entertainment, that’s because it’s a “normal/simple” life the characters are having; Aiden is an outcast, he is not even close to normal; he is vengeance driven. The story behind Watchdogs is much shorter than GTA’s but it’s also much more thought and sentimental than GTA’s. After finishing GTA all you can do is play Online with other people but you cannot take part in many side mission; that makes offline players forget about their game as soon as it’s finished; in Watchdogs you have a thousand other things you can do to level up, or just have fun. All of the highest ranked gaming websites rated GTA a 10 or 9, as did I in my old blog; but the decisions were surely even if partially biased by the outstanding successes of the old games.

 Watchdogs didn’t break nearly as many records as GTA; but it surely is a must have for this year if not century, it broke boundaries, and certainly changed how many companies see their games.

Did you like Watchdogs? Which one did you like more, GTA or Watchdogs (and if you have anything disrespectful to say, be quiet and courteous to others)? Do you think there will be a sequel to it?

As always Say What?! In the comments.