I just got back from watching the movie and wanted to bust some heads superhero-style, so I downloaded Watchmen: The End is Nigh figuring it would be worth checking out because we all know Ironman didn’t do it for me.  Watchmen is a decent 3D beat-em-up in the spirit of Double Dragon, but it does lack a bit in the excitement department.

The game starts off with an animated comic book style cut scene, which I enjoyed for giving the feel and credit to the medium that originally made Watchmen possible.  You can play as Rorschach or Nite Owl, with each character having their own signature moves and fighting style enabling you to have some fun bashing heads as you make your way through a prison on fire (similar to a scene in the movie).  The voice acting is done by the actors of the film reprising their roles, so the sound is decent and meshed well with the game.  Controls are solid, responsive, and easy to use, making the combo based hand to hand combat a pleasant experience that doesn’t result in frantic button smashing.  The graphics are good at best for a console game, but for a downloadable title, they are downright impressive. I took a huge issue with the lighting of the game, though. I understand The Watchmen is dark and gritty, but some of the levels were so dark, you could not see what the hell was going on and it often hid some level design and unlockables.  You can adjust your brightness on the TV way up, but that should not be necessary.

What Watchmen: The End is Nigh really lacks is variety in the overall gameplay. You enter a room, corridor, street, etc, fight some thugs with poor AI, easily kick their ass, and then repeat. Sometimes you will have to split up which can be confusing as hell on split screen, partially due to the lighting, and other times you will pull levers or raise doors to advance. This is all you do for six levels until you fight Underboss, who himself is underwhelming.

The game is not bad. The graphics are top notch for XBLA and the controls are easy to use and the combat is fun, but for $20, I cannot recommend this. You can beat the game in 2 hours if you play through it. There is no reason to play it again unless you want to change Watchmen, which there are only 2. There is no online co-op which sucks because split screen is annoying. Give the demo a try because any Watchmen fan will appreciate the great cutscenes and voice acting and inevitable cameos from NPCs, however, $20 is way too much. GTA DLC was the same price. Though I fully understand they are very different games, twenty bucks is still twenty bucks. I’d wait until the price drops on this one.

[Editor's Note: Keith Carter and Steve Kohlbecker collaborated on writing this review.]

Overall: 6 out of 10

Click here to see what our scores mean