(XLBA) Watchmen: The End Is Nigh

There are no ’Who Watches The Watchmen?’ references in this review

Posted 4 years ago By - Marko Djordjevic

The wait is finally over and the Watchmen movie is now in theatres. As you would expect, a game has also arrived in the hopes of riding the film’s huge waves. Rather than going the route of a quick tie-in to the film, the developers over at Deadline Games and Warner Bros. Interactive have decided to offer gamers and fans a pseudo-prequel with Watchmen: The End is Nigh. It’s nice that they went the way of expanding the Watchmen universe; ultimately, this is a short experience that lasts almost as long as the film but costs more.

Gameplay

The plot behind The End is Nigh is connected to two of the story’s main characters, the sociopath Rorschach and the gadget heavy Night Owl II. Prior to the events of the film/book series, both characters were partners in crime and the game expands on this by giving players the ability to play as either ’vigilante’ in 1973. The story begin’s with a power outage at Sing Sing Prison which allows the crime boss Underboss to escape. Now, both Rorschach and Night Owl II must try to find out not only who helped him out but to stop him before he manages to cause chaos in New York. 

Both Rorschach and Night Owl are playable in the game. Each character utilizes regular and heavy attacks. As you progress through the game, you find ability pick ups to expand your skills, including stun combos, throwing abilities and counter attacks. Both characters also have a special ability that fills up as they engage in combat. For Rorschach, his special ability bar is called Rage. Once filled up and initiated, he becomes ultra violent to the point that he seems invincible. Night Owl’s special ability is called Charge. Since his suit is electrified, he will be able to shoot out a bolt of electricity that will stun all nearby enemies.Both special abilities are nice, but it does take a while to fill them up. For Rorschach, his ability dies down when he’s not beating on people, so you’ll want to move fast in the hopes of taking advantage of it. Night Owl’s does not diminish over time, but can only be used once, so again, timing is key.

On top of the regular and special abilities, both have the option when prompted, to unleash a strong finishing move. If you’ve timed your attacks properly, an icon will appear hovering over the enemy’s head. Hitting that button will give you a really sweet looking assault clip that essentially slows the game down as you witness your character unleash on his foe. Night Owl’s are nice and acrobatic, but it’s Rorschach’s absolutely gruesome attack that will impress you most. There might be only about four or five different finishing animations, but all of them are really nice to watch over and over again.

The story in The End is Nigh is extremely linear. You will go from section to section fighting a gang of thugs until you reach the end of the chapter. There is almost no deviation from this outside of a few sections where the two characters will split up. In these cases, instead of fighting together, you will battle enemies alone. The parts of the game that are individual usually only last a few moments.

The variation in the enemies you encounter is very small. Regardless if they are goons, mercenaries or police officers, they all sound the same and attack in similar patterns. You will encounter either unarmed enemies or ones with weapons such as batons or crowbars. Attacking them is fairly straight-forward; you simply need to dodge a first attack, and time your button presses properly and you can clear out an area fairly quickly. It’s only in those few moments when they manage to rush you with a large group will you encounter problems. After playing through the first chapter, you will wish there was more variety in their attacks,the enemies and your objectives. Even the only boss battle in the game is just a series of doing the same thing a few times before he is defeated.

Considering this is clearly a co-op brawler, I was surprised about two things. First, there is no online co-op, which would seem like a given considering this is a download-only title. The second is that there are no team-up moves for the characters. You would assume that at some point, these two characters would do a double-team move to finish off an enemy. In fact, when playing with two people, you can’t attack the same person. If one is hitting an enemy, the only way the other can also participate is for them to have the enemy face their character or to get in the way of their partner. The weak co-op hurts the game which so desperately should be enjoyed by two people.

Graphics and Sound

You will be hard pressed to believe when looking at this game that this is a downloadable title. The graphics here are really done well as both main characters look absolutely stunning in High Definition. The game goes so far as ensuring that Rorschach’s inkblot mask changes design. Night Owl’s suit is also really well done as his cape flutters nicely when moving. While both characters look great, there isn’t a lot of variety in the enemy models. There are some differences between the models, but for the most part it seems that the only noticeable variations between the prisoners in the first chapter and the mercenaries in the 4th are the clothes that they wear. The environments that you will play through are nicely done but also suffer from too much repetition. There is a significant difference between the looks of the Prison and the Sewer, but within each chapter the same area layout is used.

The six chapters that encompass the game are bridged with some really nice looking comic book styled cut-scenes. These sections are extremely similar to the style of the comic book because the original artist from the series, Dave Gibbons, assisted with these. Fans of the comic will be glad for this, while those who haven’t read the comic might feel this gives the game a cheesy 70s feel to it.

Both Night Owl and Rorschach are voiced by their movie counterparts. Patrick Wilson can sound a bit dry at times as Night Owl but Jackie Earl Haley’s Rorschach really stands out and continues to give the character the praise it deserves. The generic thugs only have about two noticeable voice actors but thankfully the voice work of all the other characters in the game are done really well. The musical score is also very strong and effectively enhances key points of the game. As a good chunk of the game is played on the streets of New York City, you also hear outside noises of cars, sirens and raindrops, all of these successfully add to the atmosphere of the game and give you a better indication of just how bad the city has become in the 70s.

Value

You can finish The End is Nigh in about 2-4 hours depending on how quickly you run through the story. Once you complete it the first time, there is really no incentive to go back and play it again, unless you want to experience the story from the other character’s perspective. There are some points where the two characters separate but these are very short sections and fail to give you any added experience. As stated earlier, there is no online co-op but you can still have a friend play with you offline.

Conclusion

At $20 dollars/1600 MS points, the cost is too high for a roughly 3 hour experience, slightly longer than the film. The story is good and the action is fun, but the repetitive gameplay and lack of replayability make this a really hard game to recommend. If this was offered at half the price or with double the content, then this would be a stand out title. There are plans for at least one more game from the Watchmen Universe, so we can all hope the 2nd attempt learns from the mistakes made here. Fans of either the book or film who love Night Owl and/or Rorschach will like to see how their relationship was before the events of the film. I would recommend at least giving the demo a try. If you enjoy the short trial, you might have a reason to see how the story ends, but otherwise, only die-hard fans will want to drop the money here.

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