Review: Watchmen: The End Is Nigh - The Complete Experience

Platform PlayStation 3

Developer: Deadline Games

Publisher: WBIE

# of Players: 1-2

ESRB Rating: M (Mature)

Official Site

Score: B

Other than the 2006 limited edition of Midway's John Woo Presents: Stranglehold (which
came packed with a DVD of Woo's classic action film, The Killer) the Playstation 3's Blu-Ray format has been very woefully underused in terms of movie/licensed game combo packs. Warner Bros. Interactive adds another game/Blu-Ray combo to the list with Watchmen: The End is Nigh - The Complete Experience, a 2-disc set featuring the Director's Cut of the 2008 film and both parts of the arcade-style beat 'em up game, making for a great collectible for hardcore movie and game owners. Provided you waited for this full meal combo version of the game and didn't buy either part separately over PSN or Xbox Live (or don't mind that you already bought one or both chapters), this is a great value for the money.



The film features 35 minutes of deleted footage, interactive online segments as well as a few hours worth of bonus material. Director Zack Snyder's version of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' 1985 graphic novel is packed to the gills with so much detail that the film requires a few viewings in order to take in all it has to offer. The attention to detail that mimics the comic makes the film hold up to repeated viewings and the film absolutely earns its “R” rating (costumed heroes aside, it's not for young kids at all). While a few of Snyder's (along with writers David “Solid Snake” Hayter and Alex Tse) plot alterations may rankle Watchmen graphic novel purists (one late major revelation, for example, fails the source material somewhat awful), there's no denying the film's intensity and raw visual power.

As for the game experience, Watchmen: The End is Nigh is a prequel to the events of the movie, but you'll need to play it to see how it fits into the big picture. It's a supremely brutal and visually beautiful arcade-style brawler that's more style than substance overall, yet it's a total blast as a co-op game. As the team of Rorschach and Nite Owl, you'll need to beat down a boatload of bad guys and gals while trying to rescue a kidnapped child. Between the knockout visuals and actual knocking out of enemies you'll be doing, there's a great Final Fight/Streets of Rage vibe here that's hard to ignore. There are a ton of moves, all of which look amazing as you go to town on a nice assortment of goons. That there's no online play may rankle the nerves of some, but the game wouldn't be the same with it. Like any decent arcade-style beat down, you absolutely need
that second player camped out next to you on the couch.

Controls are pick up 'n play simple with the occasional tricky combo as well as plenty of objects to pick up and use as weapons. There are short segments where characters need to split up to unlock doors or tackle minor puzzles and yes, these sections work best with a real-life buddy along for the ride, as the AI can be a tad slow in getting to a switch at times. While both games are the same sort of rapid-fire repetitive action you'd expect from the genre, Part 2 ups the difficulty level by quite a bit, assumes you've blown through the first game and pretty much lets enemies kick your ass six ways to Sunday once you let your guard down. Granted, expert players will manage to get through both games in roughly 8-10 hours or so, but casual players (particularly those going solo through both games) will easily add a few more hours to that time.


As noted above, the game looks fantastic. Characters and environments are well rendered and lit perfectly, the game has few dull moments (unless you count the endless fighting you'll do) and overall, it's hard not to see this in action and not be impressed. On the other hand, the sole visual downside here are the assorted "animated" cut scenes created to resemble the comic art. It's a nice gesture trying to stick to the Watchmen graphic novel format, but the limited animation here looks like a mash-up of those ancient Marvel cartoons from the 60's done in a poor, less detailed Dave Gibbons swipe. In other words, they really don't mesh with the lush visual style of the game. If the in-game graphics (and film) were done in a cel-art style closer to the comic or the excellent 2006 film A Scanner Darkly), the cut scenes would come off a tad better. Still, as an addition to and extension of the film (and if you go all the way and have a copy of the Tales of the Black Freighter Blu-Ray or DVD) the game is more than welcome as it adds to the overall Watchmen experience.

The great thing for PS3 owners is the exclusivity of a physical package version and the best one at that. Physical product is indeed an awesome thing in this age of DLC, so I'm happy that WBIE had the sens to not abandon those of us who love to collect games as they should be collected. Xbox 360 owners can either download both games separately or buy the complete edition, but they can only rent/buy the film over Netflix and store it on their hard drives. My only complaint about the package is the construction. The laminated cardboard case with a plastic tray glued to it just doesn't work as a solid package and I'm wondering how many of these will get crunched in the mail if not shipped boxed and well-padded.

Overall, this is a solid deal for PS3 owners looking to show off what the console is capable of as an all-in-one system and I'm sure Sony is pretty darn pleased about that fact. Hopefully more movie/game tie-ins will see this format, even if it means we start to see more and more licensed games ship to retail well after the film has come and gone in theaters. Given the general rushed quality of too many licensed titles, it would be great to see that extra time used to give gamers move tie-ins that are as good as can be, right?