Watchmen:End is Nigh Review Page 2

03 Aug 2009 at 12:20:00 by Andy Alderson
Systems used to review this title: (PS3)

By successfully scoring attacks on enemies, Rorschach builds up his Rage meter, while Nite Owl accumulates charge. These can be used as special moves with the trigger buttons. Rorschach can charge his foes or (when his meter is full) unleash his Rage all in one go. Nite Owl, on the other hand, can stun nearby enemies with a grenade or activate his suit’s electrical charge to zap attackers. Once you have done enough damage to an enemy you will sometimes be given the option to finish them, shown by a button indicator over their head. Simply match the button and you’ll enter an automated – and unfailingly brutal – finishing animation.

Even though there is not a huge amount of depth to the game’s fighting system, it still manages to be fun, animations are well done and there’s a healthy weight to the impact of attacks. When you get to grips with the controls, which won’t take too long, you’ll soon be chaining your combos together and, when you combine this with the game’s counter attack system (right trigger and square) you can pull off some fluid, cool-looking manoeuvres. The game cleverly zooms in to focus when you counter and finish enemies and, while a few more combos wouldn’t go amiss, knocking the shit out of the bad guys in Watchmen is a pretty enjoyable experience.

Unfortunately that’s pretty much where the positives end and by the time you get to the start of episode two, you’ll see just how thin the game really is. The overwhelming problem with The End is Nigh is repetition – put simply, there’s not enough variation in the game. Almost all of the game’s enemies fight in exactly the same style and the only variation comes from the kind of weapon they may (or may not) be carrying.  While the fighting is fun, it would be nice if you were forced to alter your approach every now and again by an enemy with a different fighting style. The game quickly settles into a routine of fight-explore-fight-explore and this isn’t helped by the completely mundane level design. While everything looks appealing (the visuals are impressive and remain faithful to the style of the film), the levels are awkwardly designed using some of the worst tried-and-tested exploration clichés. Without wanting to give too much away, if you think that lever-pulling and door-opening are underutilized in modern gaming, this is definitely the game for you.

As if the repetition in the first episode wasn’t bad enough, by the time you get to the second it gets worse. At least throughout the first episode there was a sense of pace and progression as you unlocked new combos and special moves. At the very start of episode two, all of the moves are unlocked meaning there’s really nothing to look forward to. Although, while I complain that episode two does not feel different enough from its predecessor in terms of gameplay, its biggest problem is that there’s no consistency in the story. While the narrative in episode one feeds into the overarching conspiracy at the core of the Watchmen comics, episode two is pretty much just a standalone story; Rorschach persuades Nite Owl to help him find a kidnapped girl, drawing them into the sleazy world of prostitution and porn.

It seems fundamentally strange that there’s no central story theme tying the two games together and there’s a definite ‘cut and paste’ feel about the second part. So much so, in fact, that you even have to select which episode you want to play at the menu screen and will have to quit out of the game entirely if you want to change. However, an even bigger issue is the lack of online co-op. Although you can play split-screen on the same console you cannot play across PSN which seems like a glaring oversight. It’s yet another aspect that makes the game feel under-realised, sloppy and a little incomplete. While there are some good ideas – and a fundamentally decent fighting engine – at the heart of The End is Nigh, it is sadly too repetitive and lacking in imagination to do justice to its inspiration.

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