Watchmen: The end is Nigh PS3 Review
Watchmen: The End is Nigh — The Complete Experience is a hardcore mature action brawler featuring bloody visceral combat in settings reminiscent of the film. Watchmen: The End is Nigh Part 1 takes place more than a decade before the film’s main story, delving into the partnership of urban vigilantes Rorschach and Nite Owl before the hero-banning Keene Act. In Part 2, the duo team up again as Rorschach contacts Nite Owl to help solve the case of a missing girl, Violet Greene.
Part 2 follows a storyline that is drastically seedier than the first episode. For this outing, Rorschach and Nite Owl find themselves fighting through strip clubs and whore houses against enemies that fit their surroundings. Gimps, dominatrixes, and seedy clientele are your foes along with general street thugs. Rorschach, with his uncompromising attitude, can beat these baddies to death using various weapons, dirty tactics and his oft-executed rage mode. Nite Owl, being the kinder soul that he is, uses electric armor and love taps to polish off anybody in his way. Each character has a small set of combos, performed by timing the presses of the Square and Triangle buttons. Add in the Circle button to throw smaller foes, some seriously bloody finishing moves, and the occasional counterattack or block and you’ve got your move set.
This second episode suffers from the exact same faults as the first. The fight continues across three more chapters as the duo hunt down the Twilight Lady. Every battle feels exactly the same as the one prior. The enemies never change behaviors and only a handful of enemy character models exist. The only things that exist to break up the monotony of fighting the same fight over and over and over are a few levers to pull and doors to squeeze through. The game can be played co-operatively, but only locally on a split screen.
Beat the game and you’ll unlock the option to fight Rorschach against Nite Owl. It isn’t very thrilling.
Despite all the hype, this game turned out to be merely another game that could have been much more. It’s a shame that Watchmen: The End is Nigh is just flat out boring because the game looks sharp, has some well-executed cutscenes and comes with a great license. If only more time was spent making the gameplay as exciting as the look and feel. As it stands, this package is more style than substance. The repetitive brawling wears thin long before Part 2 is complete.
Though this disc is labeled as parts one and two of an episodic game, there is a total disconnect from one episode to the next. Sure, the gameplay remains the same boring mix of repetitive brawling and lever pulling, but the two story arcs are wholly separate. Even worse, upon booting up the disc the player is asked to select either Part 1 or Part 2. Once you make your pick, you’ll have to exit out to the XMB using the PlayStation button to load the other episode up. There is no way to move between the two parts in the game itself. There isn’t even a option to quit.
Source: IGN
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