When players first look at the cover
of Watchmen: The End Is Nigh Complete Experience, they will think: “Sweet…a game
that comes with the movie!” It gets even better because the movie is the
Director’s cut with extra features and footage. Once players get a chance to
play the game, they will realize it is the other way around, a movie that comes
packaged with a below sub-par game.
There are two separate games in this
collection: Watchmen: The End Is Nigh Part 1 and part 2. These games are the
exact same ones that have been available on PSN for the past few months, all in
one nice package. While this is a great idea, it ultimately fails due to the
gameplay issues it contains. Both the first and second parts of this game star
Nite Owl and Rorschach, which are two of the masked vigilantes featured in the
movie. The premise of the game is for players to punch, kick, and generally
incapacitate wave after endless wave of enemies that are attacking them.
The first game starts off with
players choosing between the two characters. Each character only has a select
amount of moves. As the level progresses they will pick up cards or batteries to
learn additional moves that will inflict pain upon any enemies that dare come in
their way. The game slowly ramps up in difficulty allowing players to get
accustomed to their new moves before giving them additional ones. The second
game starts off with players having all of their moves available and the enemies
seemly know this. They are ruthless and relentless against the players. This
makes players really step up in their game and make sure they use as many combos
as they can in order to defeat the onslaught of enemies that appear before them.
The problem with this game is that
it is too repetitive. From the minute players load the game and until they sit
the controller down them, they will be doing one thing – pounding the faces of
enemies. At times this can be fun and it is a great stress reliever; but it
would be nice to throw in a little gameplay variation. Anything would be better
than constantly mashing down the same buttons over and over again until player’s
fingers become numb.
A nice option players have is they
can play this game with a friend, and this is a very welcome addition. The
reason for this is the AI is not very intelligent. Many times I would be
surrounded by numerous enemies while my partner is off in the corner writing a
novel about how exciting the adventure was. Other times the AI got lost and
players will have to backtrack quite a bit just to get past the next part of the
game. This is very irritating and gamers will be infuriated with the lack of
help. That is why the co-op is very much appreciated. The only issue is that the
developers decided not to make the co-op playable online, which is weird since
this game was originally only available to download via the PSN.
The graphics for this game are
pretty good, with nice details on the heroes and inmates. The locations where
players will go through are also have a high level of detail and really gives
players a sense of desperation at how the city actually looks. The only issue
with the graphics is the lack of variety in character models. Many times
throughout the game players will fight against five enemies and three of them
look identical from their face to the clothes they were wearing. It is very
annoying to fight the exact same enemies three times in a row just to get past
the section of the game due to lack of extra character models.
The sound for this game is great.
The soundtrack really sets the mood for the entire game and matches the
environmental locations. The voice acting is also top notch. The only thing that
will annoy players is the lack of variety (a common theme in this game) or
“battle chatter.” Players will hear the same thing over and over again when
beating up characters or enemies trying to taunt the heroes before a battle. Is
it really hard to get some more diversity in this game?
This collection is a good deal if
you are a diehard Watchmen fan. Here is the breakout if purchased all
separately:
$20 for Part 1
$15 for Part 2
$29 for the Blu-ray movie
$64 total if purchase separately versus $49.99 in a nice convenient package.
Watchmen: The End Is Nigh Complete
Experience is rated mature.
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Gameplay: 5.1
Fans of repetitive games with little or no break in the monotony will
enjoy this game.
Graphics: 7.3
The graphics are really good, but the issue is the lack of variety in the
everything; from the locations to the enemies, it all looks the same.
Sound: 6.1
The voiceover and musical score is solid.
Difficulty: Easy
This game is not challenging. The only issue players might face is when
they are having to fight five or more enemies and their AI partner decides to
take a break instead of help.
Concept: 4.6
It is good that the developers made a game based off this very dark
comic book universe, it is a shame they didn’t try to expand upon it instead of
making a mindless beat-em-up game.
Multiplayer: 5.9
Even though this game is extremely redundant, the co-op mode really
helps liven up the fun a bit. It is always more fun to play through a game with
a friend. It would have been a lot better if the co-op mode was playable online.
Overall: 5.7
When looking at this game, players will see a decent movie stuff with a
sub-par game. The movie in this compilation really outshines this game. If
players want to watch the movie it would be better for them to just pick up the
Blu-ray disk instead of wasting their time on a mindless and very repetitive
game. On the upside hopefully this is a trend that future studios will follow –
releasing a combo package of the movie and the game. (My vote is for X-Men:
Wolverine Origins)
