Watchmen FEVER!!

My newfound obsession with Watchmen entered phase II today as the first of a series of downloadable episodic games, The End is Nigh, was released on the Xbox Live Arcade. The game stars Rorschach and Nite Owl in their dynamic duo crime-fighting days, set a decade before the events in the novel and 2 years before the costumed-vigilante-banning Keene Act. Despite my fever-pitched enthusiam, I decided to be sensible and download the free trial before dropping $20 for the full version.

My run-through of the trial was pretty positive. The presentation and production values are through the roof, and this game stacks up to a lot of retail games in its look, sound, and ambiance. The graphics, animations, and textures are great, voice acting is superb, and the comic book-style cutscenes harken back to Gibbon's original drawings. The only real drawback is the fairly repetetive brawler gameplay, although even during my time with the trial, the game got much deeper as I unlocked a bevy of new moves. Also notable are Rorschach's finishers, which are particularly brutal and satisfying. Ultimately, I'm going to wait to see if I really crave playing this again later on today before taking the $20 dive. 

As for early reviews of the game, I found 1up's to be pretty spot-on, and I recommend that one to anybody on the fence. I have to bring up IGN's unabashedly cynical trashing of the game as spiteful and not what you'd expect out of a traditionally solid reviewer. The reviewer doesn't really give the game a chance, dismissing the very notion of a "Watchmen brawler" as blasphemy, despite the fact that it does not taint the main story in any way. In addition, he continually shortens the estimated play time of the game, notable for adding to his cynism.

Next up, the movie in IMAX on Sunday!