Watchmen: The End Is Nigh

Fortunately For Fans, Deadline Games hasn't shat out a steamer with the official game of the official film of the official graphic novel. Watchmen: The End is Nigh is actually good fun if taken in short doses after you switch off all higher brain functions. It's also advisable to watch 10 episodes of Hollyoaks in a row before playing, just to make sure you've wiped your mind clean of all thought or intelligence.

You play either Rorschach or Nite Owl II (with a friend taking up splitscreen duties if you have one willing to play) on a quest to find out why there's a riot in Sing Sing prison. The gameplay consists exclusively of drubbing enemies into unconsciousness using a variety of hand-to-hand attacks. Weapons such as crowbars, glass bottles and big pipes crop up as the enemies get tougher, which you can wield in your defence if you want. The combat is actually surprisingly good fun mostly. Finishing moves and special abilities can be pulled off and used often, so you're only ever a few seconds away from a brutal limb snap or crushing skull blow.

However, it is also incredibly repetitive, considering you'll be doing essentially the same thing throughout the entire game. It is also buggy, with my AI companion getting stuck on a wall and forcing me to restart the level at one point. On the whole though, the combat is decent as long as you don't play too long, the voices are provided by the actors from the movie and the controls are simple and quite responsive.

But the game is very, very repetitive and very, very dumb, falling light years short of the novel's depth. Dr Manhattan wears pants as well. Most annoyingly though, by being reasonable it's prevented me from using "Shite Owl" or "Bore-schach" in the summary below.