Watchmen: The End Is Nigh

Watchmen: The End Is Nigh is the first part of a series of episodic downloadable video games that serves as a prequel to the film adaptation of the comic book Watchmen. The game will be released in installments in March 2009 to coincide with the film's release, with the first episode released on March 4. It is currently available to download for the Xbox 360 via the Xbox Live Marketplace for the PlayStation 3 via the PlayStation Store, and for the PC via Steam. It features single-player as well as split-screen 2-player co-op gameplay. Its story takes place before the main storyline of the graphic novel, taking place before the Keene Act. It follows the adventures of Rorschach and Nite Owl as they fight crime, searching for Underboss.

Appearances
Featured Characters: Supporting Characters: Villains: Other Characters: Locations: Items: Vehicles:
 * Rorschach (Walter Kovacs)
 * Nite Owl II (Dan Dreiberg)
 * Owlship

Gameplay
The game allows players to take on the roles of either Rorschach or Nite Owl II in single player or cooperative multiplayer. Rorschach and Nite Owl are the only playable characters in the game's first episode, which comprises six "chapters." Cutscenes that look like animated comic panels, similar to those seen in the Watchmen motion comics released on iTunes, bookend each chapter. Two of the film's actors, Patrick Wilson and Jackie Earl Haley, provide their voices for their characters Nite Owl and Rorschach, respectively. The game features a mix of beat-em-up and puzzle gameplay, with the two characters having different strengths and abilities. Rorschach is faster but weaker and makes use of improvised weapons like crowbars and chairs; Nite Owl is slower but stronger and uses technological abilities, such as "screecher bombs." The characters must work cooperatively to pass puzzles and defeat enemies.

The game is set in 1972 during the Crimebusters (for the film adaptation, The Watchmen) era. The first chapter of the game is a tutorial taking place while Rorschach and Nite Owl infiltrate a prison. Big Figure, a minor villain Rorschach and Nite Owl mention in the comic book as having been defeated by the pair in the past, appears in the game, as do other adversaries who are only mentioned or briefly shown in flashbacks in the original comic. Nite Owl's flying craft, Archimedes, appears in the game, but the player never has control over it during the game.

The game's focus on teamwork between the two characters: in single-player mode, the AI controls the other character aside from the main character, while the game can be played in Local Co-op with two players as both characters. The article also mentions there will be no online Co-op mode.

Plot
The End Is Nigh takes place before the main storyline of the graphic novel and film adaptation which is during the Crimebusters era (renamed Watchmen for the film adaptation) in 1972, when Rorschach and Nite Owl II were crime-fighting vigilantes taking place before the Keene Act passed in 1977. It follows the adventures of Rorschach and Nite Owl as they fight crime, searching for Underboss. Upon hearing a police bulletin, Nite Owl and Rorschach make their way to Sing Sing prison to help quell the rioting that has erupted there.

Once there, they find out the riots were a ruse to cover up the escape of The Underboss, a crime lord. They make their way to a bar, the Rumrunner, and question one of the patrons to find out who orchestrated the escape. They find out Jimmy the Gimmick was behind it, so they chase him down the docks to an abandoned amusement park. They corner him on the tracks of a roller coaster, where someone activates the carts to try and kill Jimmy. Nite Owl holds them back with his grappling hook but a mysterious sniper shoots the cable, causing the carts to fly right into Jimmy, causing him to be severly injured. Before his fall off the roller coaster, Jimmy managed to tell them the Underboss is in his old hideout in the sewers, so after calling an ambulance for Jimmy, that's where Nite Owl and Rorschach go.

They don't find him, but they do find the missing FBI associate director, Mark Felt, tied up and bleeding heavily, seemingly tortured. He tells them that someone (who the heroes presume to be Underboss) means to kill two reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the would-be informers of the Watergate scandal. Upon leaving the sewers, Nite Owl and Rorschach are ambushed by the police, Rorschach chiming in that they've been set up.

They fight their way through them to get to the construction site where Felt told them Underboss is, only to find that the reporters are already dead. Underboss claims he had nothing to do with it, that he was set up. The duo chases him up the construction site and manages to corner him, but the Comedian snipes him from afar. It turned out the Comedian was the mastermind behind all the events, which means the United States government was involved, as he works for them. Presumably to be concluded in the next installment.

Cast

 * Patrick Wilson - Nite Owl II / Dan Dreiberg
 * Jackie Earl Haley - Rorschach / Walter Kovacs

Links and References

 * Official Site
 * Watchmen: The End Is Nigh at the Internet Movie Database
 * Watchmen (Movie)