Watchmen: The End is Nigh

It's actually two downloadable games.

I loved the movie and the book, so I had to play the first one, that was just released. I thought the demo was bad, but after I saw the movie... Well, for 20 dollars/Euro, it's worth it.

The first thing that impressed me is that it looks very good. The AA works, unlike in the demo.

You get to play as either Rorschach or Nite Owl. It's a very brutal beat'em up, with tons of (different) enemies. You unlock new moves and abilities, and the two characters are different enough to play the game twice. It's split into 6 chapters, each with a different visual style and different enemies. The level design is simple, but smart; I only played the full game with Rorschach, and here be spoilers: while fighting, you accumulate RAAAAAAGE, which acts like mana for some special abilities. Usually, after a big fight, there are some basic puzzles and empty sections that allow the RAAAAAAAGE to dissipate, or some stuff like drain pipes that you have to escalate, so you can't carry your wrench in the next fight.

It can be played in split-screen co-op... not online, unfortunately.

It's great that R and NO are voiced by the actors from the movie. The lines are pretty bad (although they're written by some comic book author), and the story didn't seem like a big deal... until a good plot twist. It definately fits the Watchmen universe.

I don't know about the performance, since I have a good system. The game is only playable in 16:9 ratio, but this adds to the cinematic feeling. A nice touch is that when you're hurt the camera adopts a Dutch angle that increases with each hit you take. The finishing moves (again, very brutal) are treated like some sort of fast cutscenes, that I never get bored to watch.

The music is AWESOME.

The controls are very simple: WASD, Mouse 1, 2, 3 for kicking ass, Space to block, Q and E for abilities, F to use.

Verdict: if you liked the movie and the book and have some money, buy it. It's even better if you have a controller and a friend (I only have a friend though). It's about 3 hours of solid, simple, old-school fun. Or 6, if you play with both characters.

Can't wait for Part II!

I am on Chapter V of the game and overall it is a fun, simple, arcade-type game. The graphics are very nice and impressive for a cheap game and it is relatively short, which I actually like in games (cause I like finishing them and moving on). I haven't read the comic books or seen the movie but that didn't affect my opinion on the game.

yea it was fun. and the graphics are good too.

From what i heard its the same thing all over, thats why i never bothered.dakan45

Yeah... Fun if you can get some co-op goin.