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Watchmen: The End is Nigh
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive
Developer: Deadline Games
Genre: Action
Release Date: March 5, 2009
Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC
ESRB: M - Mature
Reviewer: Eric
I don’t know what happened but Watchmen: The End is Nigh is not what I was
expecting. The End is Nigh looked like a impressive game about a year ago and it
was slated to be released, in stores, when the movie came out. They got the
release correct with the movie but the game was no where in stores.
The End is Nigh is a downloadable game that feels like it needed more time to be
completed. Somebody dropped the ball with this game and I am sure Alan Moore is
throwing a fit as well. The game does provide some back story to the famous
graphic novel. It follows the adventures of Nite Owl and Rorschach. Both men
shared a partnership that we only knew about but never saw a whole lot.
Nothing comes close to Watchmen. The graphic novel is a classic. It changed the
way future comics were released, giving stories an edge that it needed to stand
on its own two feet. If it wasn’t for the Watchmen then modern comic books still
might be all about saving Person X and taking down countless, stereotypical drug
lords, while at the same time getting them clean without any jail time.
The Watchmen game on the other hand ruins brawlers. It’s a boring button masher
that will only make you want to dust off your old copy of Streets of Rage of
Final Fighter. A cheap brawler for $20 is only good when you have nothing else
to do and your entire case of beer is empty. There is no way to make this game a
gem, not even with its price.
Set ten years prior to the events in the graphic novel, Rorschach and Nite Owl
are going through kicking some ass. The story is much better than my one
sentence explanation but it does drift away at a few points. These are pretty
much the years when these two heroes were saving us from the bad guys.
You can play as either man. Both of them have their own unique fighting styles
but that doesn’t matter a whole lot because you are just mashing the same two
buttons for two hours. Combos are easy to do and the enemies really don’t put up
much of a fight.
Along the way you can pick up power-ups and weapons. I found weapons in the game
to be pointless. They only seem to slow you down from your swift light and heavy
attacks. There are some graphic finishing moves you can do to your opponents.
This factor does make up for a few, tiny things the game is failing in. Still
there is only so many times you can see Rorschach beating the shit out of Random
Guy A and B.
There are only 5 chapters in the game, giving you around 2 hours of real
gameplay. The AI in all of the stages is poor to the very bone. Enemies
sometimes appear from the middle of no where but you can always seem to manage
to pull off a victory without making your fingers tired.
If you can manage to play through the whole game then you will fight the one and
only boss battle in the game, Underboss. The fight is boring and it only makes
you wish that the hordes of enemies were taking over the screen.
Watchmen: The End is Nigh does offer some top-notch cinematics. The cut-scenes
look like they were ripped right from the pages of the Watchmen comic book.
Voice acting is provided by the cast from the film, giving the game a polished
sound when compared to the audio.
Co-op does offer some replay value if you have some buddies that have two hours
to spare. To me it would have made more sense to add multiplayer. For $20 it
would have been amazing if the developers added some online play. I guess it is
at least good that the game doesn’t slow when the screen is split in half for
co-op.
Final Verdict
Though I am a huge Watchmen fan I am not sure if I can recommend this game to
everyone. I think if the game had some polishing up and a much better release
then we’d have a better product. The End is Nigh is a decent game but it is not
worth the price at all, not one bit.
Rating Breakdown
Gameplay: 7 out of 10
+ A decent brawler for only $20.
- Stages are repetitive
Graphics: 9 out of 10
+ One of the best looking downloads on the Sony Store.
- Animations could use some polishing.
Audio: 7 out of 10
+ Voiceovers are a gift from
- Music looping.
Replay Value: 2.50 out of 10
+ Co-op mode is g
- Nothing groundbreaking when the game is over.
Overall
6.375 out of 10
More reviews:
MetaCritic: 6.2/10
TestFreaks: 6.7/10
IGN: 5.5/10
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