How much I really wanted to enjoy this game. I recently bought the Watchmen "Complete" experience that came in bundled with the PS3 version with both parts and the movie as a weird excuse to see the latter again. I viewed this game as an a fun bonus. To put it simpily, I enjoyed the movie a lot more. The sad thing is, this game isn't even a title I consider awful. What annoys me is that the DNA of a solid game is here. It's just held back by a lot of monotony and half baked ideas. At first when I played this, I was wondering, "where's the cult following for this like with Spider-Man 2(2004) or X-Men Origins: Wolverine?" I was even surprised that there's even a game based on a DC property at all not featuring Batman that seemed decent. The more I played, the more I realized why it wasn't the case.
At first, everything seemed like it was on the right track. The cutscenes have the same art style as Dave Gibbons' art work in the graphic novel which was a charming way of bypassing the lack of in engine cutscenes. Rorschach and Nite Owl are both voiced by their actors in the movie and both do a solid job. They also have great banter with each other during the down time sections where there's no fighting. It's one of the better aspects of the game's story. Pretty much everything that shares connections to the various source materials like with the movie or comic is where the game shines.
Everything outside of that is where things get muddy. It's a prequel to everything that happens before the events of either version of the story with having it take place before the Keene Act. It also has Dr. Manhatten conveniently written out to avoid not having a game at all. Outside of the aforementioned banter, it's really just an excuse for Rorshach and Nite Owl to go beat up various criminals and cops. Despite not really knowing much about the various villians the characters of the Watchmen universe go up against before the Keene Act both in the graphic novel and movie. This could be a decent excuse to develop and make interesting or at the very least memorably detestable villains out of Underboss and Twilight Lady.
Not really, they are just kind of there until you get to the final levels of both parts and the levels drag on where all you do is chase them around. Doubly and obnoxiously so for Twilight Lady. With how Rorschach's ending plays out in Part 2, it's a little hard to believe that Daniel doesn't outright detest the latter when they first meet in both the movie and comic.
The cutscenes and voice acting does do much of the heavy lifting and this is a game where most time is spent playing.
Gameplay is where once again there's some cool ideas here but it gets more monotonous and one note the more it goes on.
End is Nigh is basically Streets of Rage and Final Fight in 3D which there aren't an over abundance of those in of themselves. Like the story, first impressions are good. You can do various combos attacks and dodging can get take a little getting used to but I eventually got the hang of. Countering is where the main bulk of defense lies. The counter window is very generous and isn't overly strict. The camera is also zoomed out during combat. Both would pop in Batman Arkham Asylum which would release the same year. Rorschach has a charge attack and a rage mode as well scripted finishing moves when an enemy is at critical health.
There are some weird and cool naunces one major example being that when successfully countering an enemy holding a weapon, you can disarm him and take the weapon for yourself and attack enemies with it. The second is that you can keep Rorschach's rage mode going when performing takedowns on enemies.
At first, I was annoyed by regen health but then using the charge, rage mode, and countering, I was able to have it regen very quickly after being put to critical. I do wonder why takedowns don't get back health, it's the same idea.
Takedowns animations do look nice even if they can really get samey and how samey the game can be. It almost reaches a point where they are ingrained into my head due to how much I see them play.
This is where the problems lie. Enemy variety despite fighting cops, mercenaries, hookers and different gang members are just reskins of each other and don't require any different tactics to defeat them. Levels can also look copy pasted and samey too.
With Part 1, this isn't too bad since at least the levels aren't overly long and due to this, you can write the game off as brainless fun.
Part 2, however is where I was getting more apathetic. There are 3 levels but are much longer, dragged out and have even less story. The more I was going through Twilight Lady's masion, the more I wanted the game to end and my hand was getting more and more tired from playing it. I had to take a break when fighting Nite Owl due to how much combat there was prior to that. My patience was being tested here.
Overall, there's a solid foundation here held back by monotony.
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