Watchmen: The End Is Nigh Hands-on Preview

It always feels like, somebody's watching me

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the world’s hugest comic fan. There have been series I’ve dug into, usually upon the recommendation of friends who know my tastes. Preacher was great. I loved Sandman. But the one comic that really blew my mind was Alan Moore’s and Dave Gibbon’s Watchmen, a sublime deconstruction of the superhero mythos that I read in graphic novel form over and over.

As you probably know, the movie version is finally headed to the big screen, so you knew the accompanying video game wasn’t going to be too far behind. But this adaptation isn’t just a straight up interactive re-telling of the movie’s plot. Far from it. Watchmen: The End Is Nigh is the first of a series of planned episodes that should cover many different aspects of the Watchmen, bouncing around the timeline of the universe and featuring different characters in different combinations.

This first installment of what we can only expect to be a fairly long series (there’s more than enough ground to explore) focuses on Rorschach and Nite Owl, and takes place ten years before the beginning of the movie’s events, which follow more closely to the plot of the graphic novel. This prequel explores the working relationship between the two in the years before the Keene Act outlawed superheroes, following them as the clean the streets of criminals and bad guys.

The End is Nigh lets you play as either Rorschach or Nite Owl, or both if you want to play split-screen co-op with a friend and take turns. The action will feel very familiar to anyone who has played an action/brawler before, though splitting time between the two characters should yield fairly different experiences. Rorschach is an old-fashioned street fighter who isn’t afraid to get dirty, and loves disarming enemies and beating them with their own weapons. Night Owl on the other hand uses his advanced martial arts training to kick butt, in addition to some of the technical gadgetry made possible by his suit.



The controls are fairly simple, dividing your attacks into light and heavy. But well executed combinations of the two will yield some interesting and powerful moves. Don’t think you’re just going to button mash, because if you do the A.I. will get wise and start blocking and countering. So you’ll need to be a bit more organized. You’re a superhero, fight like one.

Fights can get really intense too, with crowds of enemies surrounding you and making it tough for you to fight your way out. That’s why it’s good to have a buddy on your side, as well as uber-powerful finishing moves like Rorschach’s rage attack when the going gets rough.

Fans of the comic will surely enjoy the graphic style cutscenes which look like panels stripped directly from the printed page and animated. They even licensed the lettering font of original artist Dave Gibbons to enhance the authenticity of these portions. But there are a lot of things I think fans will really dig on. Seeing Rorschach’s mask move in real-time is mesmerizing, and the way he puts his hands in his pockets when he’s not fighting are iconic to his character. Nite Owl’s costume and ship look super awesome too, remaining faithful to the original, but looking totally awesome in 3D thanks to a seriously high-end graphics engine.

Watchmen: The End Is Nigh may be short – only 6 chapters – but it looks great for a game available on Xbox Live Arcade, and gives us hope that the continuing episodes will only be more and more awesome, exploring the other characters and events that make up the Watchmen universe.

the damn movie has'nt even come out yet man they'll make a game outta anything

sounds gay!!!!