Watchmen: The End Is Nigh
Genre: Fighting
ESRB: M for Mature
BBFC: 15
Developer: Deadline Games
Platform: PSN Network: March 5th 2009 (Part One), Xbox Live & PC: March 4th 2009 (Part One)

After writing my short preview on Watchmen: The End Is Nigh, I was really eager to get my hands on the full game… and Xbox Live being its usual laggy self, it decided to download the 1.3GB game at a rate of 1% every 20 minutes — needless to say, I’ve been screaming at my Xbox all damn day.

However, my download literally just finished, so I am now happy to bring you a hands-on review of the first installment of the episodic adventures of Rorschach and Nite Owl II. As soon as you load the game, you’re treated to animated cutscenes just like the Motion Comic DVD, setting the scene on Friday 13th October 1972. The tone of these cutscenes blend well with the dialogue in the graphic novel, and Rorschach’s narration via his journal is spot on. Both Rorschach and Nite Owl II are voiced by their movie counterparts Jackie Earle Haley and Patrick Wilson, which I always see as a valuable asset – I can’t stand it when movie-to-game adaptations use crappy voice actor soundalikes.

Watchmen: The End Is Nigh’s opening cinematic

For my first play-through, I started the single player game and chose the psychopathic Rorschach as my instrument of justice. The first mission involves rioting at Sing Sing prison, and despite politely offering their assistance Rorschach and Nite Owl aren’t given a warm welcome by the prison guards, and are advised they will be shot on sight.

Something that immediately struck me as I gained control of Rorschach for the first time, is that the controls were very intuitive and easy to use – that being said, the game is a standard beat-em-up, so the controls aren’t exactly complicated. The X button will land a light attack, whereas the Y button lands a heavy attack. The left analogue stick controls movement, and the right controls the camera, as is the staple in most 3rd person games these days.

The second thing I noticed is that the game is beautiful… in a grimy, blood-soaked way. I’m meaning that for an Xbox Live Arcade title, this is quite possibly one of the best-looking games I’ve seen. Graphically, the game stands up to the tone of the movie and comic – The second level really shows off the game’s graphic detail though, taking place in the city streets and back alleys fighting off biker gangs. The lighting effects from streetlights and windows are lovely, and the rain-soaked alleys reflect almost everything.

The sound and music accompanies the game perfectly and the narration and voice acting is great. Sound effects are great, including some bone-crunching punches and arm-snapping that will make you cringe.

Gameplay is fast and furious, with attacks from inmates coming thick & fast from the start – thankfully you don’t really have much trouble with these until you get outnumbered 4:1, and you do later on… regularly. As you progress through the prison in the first chapter, you pick up what look like pills with Rorschach glyphs on them – these are your special abilities. So far with Rorschach I’ve unlocked a stun combo, a throw (which uses the B button) and a knockdown combo and a counter attack. Also during the more frantic fights later on you get prompted for what you think will be the dreaded quicktime events (ie Press X to avoid certain death). Thankfully these are just finishers, and they’re extremely satisfying.

With Rorschach these range from breaking an opponent’s arm, to a solid uppercut followed by a headbutt and a couple of solid face punches while your enemy is on the floor. If you have a weapon equipped like a nightstick (which get dropped a lot), the finishing moves are that much more visceral. They’re brutal, bloody, and great fun!

In the second level, you unlock a “Rage Attack” – with Rorschach there is a rage meter below his health… when this reaches it’s maximum level, a tap of the left trigger will make him roar loudly… then almost every attack you do will end in a finisher.

Playing through the game using Nite Owl seems less entertaining, as the character is more orientated towards finesse and martial arts. Some of his attacks are still pretty vicious, but Rorschach is more fun to use for the pure brutality.

At the end of each level (or chapter as they’re called) you’re treated to more motion comic cutscenes, and it seems more of the Watchmen cast will make an appearance in this guise as Dr. Manhattan and Silk Spectre II dropped in at the end of the first level to offer their assistance.

One of my few gripes with the game is that it’s quite repetitive in a Double Dragon-style button-mashing kind of way, but performing the finishing attacks are thankfully frequent enough to distract you from this. There’s also a nice lock picking minigame, which is trickier than it first looks – you have to lift barrels of a padlock in a particular sequence, and flick the lock to make sure they stay up while you lift the other barrels.

The best way to describe this game is that it really doesn’t feel like an Xbox Live Arcade title – it feels like a well-made and polished Xbox 360 title. The game stands up to comparison with full titles from the same genre easily… so the fact that it costs 1600 Microsoft Points (just under £15) makes me feel like it’s a bargain, though I miss having a game box.

Overall I’d say Watchmen: The End Is Nigh is a great buy. However as it’s the first installment of an episodic series of games, this initial bargain will more than likely end up costing the same as a full game anyway. Even still, the game is great fun – even more so if you’re a Watchmen fan.

If you want to live out your Watchmen fantasies at home and you don’t have access to a PC or home console, then take a look at some awesome Watchmen cubecraft printoffs of Rorschach and Dr. Manhattan:

Watchmen: The End Is Nigh Screenshots