Achievements Review - The Watchmen: The End Is Nigh
First off, you don"t have to worry about any spoilers if you play the game; The Watchmen:TEIN is a side story based on some of the dialog between Rorschach and Nite Owl in the comic book (which isn"t an action story, trust me), and isn"t going to ruin the movie for you, either. Even though this arcade title is being sold for a whopping $20, it"s beautiful graphics make up for any buyer"s remorse. The game however, only takes a few hours and is divided into six chapters. You can play as either Rorschach or Nite Owl, and if you have a buddy, you can play as a crimefighting duo through the game. Be warned though, this must be done on one system as Online co-op is not available in this title. This takes care of three easy achievements ("Psycho", "Hero", and "Teamwork"), completing the game as each character and with a friend.Now, into the action! It"s your typical beat"em up game, but not one that you can spam the same move over and over onto witless enemies. Your foes will be smart enough to block and counter attacks, so as long as you give some thought to your fighting you will be able to work through the game more easily, unlocking achievements along the way. By adding variety to your fighting style, four more achievements can be unlocked just playing through the game normally. These are "Shield" for blocking incoming attacks, "Strong Arm" for knocking over others by throwing people into them, "Retaliator" for performing counter attacks", and "Exterminator" for performing finishing moves.
The last five achievements are challenge achievements, which means you"ll have to spend some time polishing your skills or giving 110% to find pickups in the game. These include finding all pickups and abilities as each character ("Thief" and "Detective"), taking no damage for an entire level ("Untouchable"), eliminating twenty enemies in 101 seconds ("Vigilante"), and completing the game in 80 minutes without restarting from a checkpoint ("Turbo").
Creating achievements for a beat"em up game isn"t easy, but there is a good mix of different types of achievements. You"ll feel rewarded when you unlock achievements by playing through the game, but doing it three times might get a bit exhausting with the redundant gameplay. The fighting style achievements are a good bonus to thoughtful gameplay, but the challenge achievements are your typical collect this, do this quickly, and don"t get hurt. While these take skill, it would have been nice to see some achievements that integrated both Rorschachò€™s and Nite Owlò€™s personalities.
"The Watchmen: The End is Nigh" has 12 achievements worth 200 gamerscore points and is available on the Xbox Live Arcade.