Nothing spectacular good price and distribution though
We all know movie tie-in games generally leave a lot to be desired. For forty of your finest English pounds you get a repetitive game play mechanic. Compared to mainstream games, movie tie-ins lack both quality and fun.
Watchmen the end is nigh is more of the same in terms of movie tie-in trends go. You play as either Rorschach or Nite Owl as the pair clean up the streets whilst on the trail of a recently escaped Underboss.
Most of the game pans out with the hero's delivering some rather deadly looking combos on enemies that are broken down into three groups. Goons, goons with weapons and slightly larger goons. The enemies are all the same under a few different skins. They only get more health and can block some of your attacks as the levels progress. There is little more to the game play than pressing X (light attack) and Y (heavy attack) in various combinations. Also there are the seemingly mandatory Easter eggs in the form of cards (for Rorschach) and batteries (for Nite Owl) that you collect for new combination attacks and a big special attack bar.
Co-op is available but there is no feeling that you are watching each others' backs because it is too easy to get separated in a group of attackers and the game play mechanic is so simple.
So far so dull. However there is something going for this game, its price and distribution. Watchmen the end is nigh has been distributed via Xbox live with the price tag of 1600 Microsoft points. Now for an arcade title that is a bit pricey, but end is nigh is a condensed movie tie-in title rather than a normal arcade title. So you get the same production values as a normal boxed movie tie-in at a fraction of the cost. Also the game is much shorter than a boxed game so it's less likely that the inevitable boredom will set in from the shallow and repetitive game play.
If games developers insist on making below par games as movie tie-ins I suggest that they go the route of Watchmen the end is nigh. At a price point of 1600 Microsoft points these movie tie-ins won't be contending with the triple A titles. Instead movie lovers could spend a much more preferable £13 on more back story or just spending a few more hours with their favourite characters.
The game isn't much of an improvement on existing movie tie-ins but I do think the distribution and price of such a game is a vast improvement.
©July 2009