Watchmen: The End Is Nigh is a 2009 episodic video game developed by Deadline Games and published by WB Games that serves as a prequel to Zack Snyder's Watchmen film, itself based off the comic book. Jackie Earle Haley and Patrick Wilson reprised their roles for Rorschach and Nite Owl.
The game contains examples of the following tropes:
- All for Nothing: In Part Two, the duo is after a girl who has been kidnapped, only to discover that she wasn't kidnapped but willingly went along with her supposed captor (and became a legal adult prior to participating in the pornographic film that was sent to her parents) so their entire quest was essentially a waste of time.
- Alternate History: A Watchmen staple, with this game specifically covering the Watchmen universe's deaths of Mark Felt
, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein to keep the Watergate Scandal from ever happening. - Ascended Extra: The first part has Anthony "The Underboss" Rizzolli as the (alleged) central antagonist while the second has the Twilight Lady in the same role, both being old-school supervillains only briefly mentioned in the graphic novel but given larger roles here. Another briefly mentioned villain from the graphic novel (Jimmy the Gimmick) has a minor supporting role in Part 1.
- Berserk Button: Rorschach has some very deep psycho-sexual issues and thus he's at his most unhinged when his investigation leads him to a brothel. This cascades into him getting into a fistfight with Nite Owl where he's fully willing to murder a woman (despite the fact she did nothing illegal) largely due the fact she runs said brothel.
- Bloodier and Gorier: Keeping in tone with the original comic, this is one of the first DC games to have gratuitous violence. In particular, the corpses of Woodward and Bernstein shown in a cutscene of Part 1 have visible, bleeding bullet holes in the backs of their heads.
- Bring My Brown Pants: A barfly interrogated by Rorschach in Part 1 ends up wetting himself in terror.
- The Cameo: Dr. Manhattan and Silk Spectre II show up very briefly basically to say hi to Rorschach and Nite Owl before leaving.
- The Cavalry Arrives Late: Dr. Manhattan and Silk Spectre show up moments after Rorschach and Nite Owl solve the crisis at Sing Sing, with Manhattan asking "if they can be of any help". Rorschach just comments "Maybe five minutes ago".
- Disproportionate Retribution: Rorschach tries (and succeeds, depending on the ending) to murder a woman in cold-blood over the fact she runs a brothel and in the final scene of the game he beats up a man for doing graffiti.
- Downer Ending: Both parts in relatively bleak notes, with the heroes failing to achieve anything of real substance. In part two, the events of the story have permanently severed Nite Owl's and Rorschach's quasi-friendship (leading into their notably awkward and distant interactions in the film and graphic novel).
- Historical In-Joke: Manhattan's brief appearance concludes with him noting he's off to keep a a uruguayan rugby team's plane from crashing.
- Hypocritical Humor: Rorscharch, who's wildly paranoid and conspirational, calls Daniel "paranoid" and Woodward and Bernstein "conspiracy theorists" with seemingly no self-awareness.
- Karma Houdini: The Comedian is essentially the hidden villain of Part 1 but he gets no comeuppance for his actions as neither Rorschach nor Nite Owl suspect him. Granted, Watchmen proper opens with the Comedian's gruesome murder, so karma eventually caught up.
- Limit Break: Rorscach can unleash a powerful attack when his rage meter is full.
- Multiple Endings: The ending of the game is decided by who wins the final fight between the two player characters, Rorschach or Nite Owl. If Rorschach wins the Twilight Lady dies, if Nite Owl wins she lives. The change isn't big, however, as either way their friendship is completely destroyed by the incident and they part ways.
- Mythology Gag: The cutscenes use an art style resembling that of the original comic book.
- Prequel: The game is set before the events of the film.
- Prison Riot: The very first mission is Rorshach and Nite Owl stopping a riot in Sing Sing by beating up all the prisoners.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: In part 1, Rorschach and Nite Owl try to save Woodward and Bernstein and fail miserably because they barely understand what's going on. In part 2 their efforts to save a girl who was kidnapped are entirely fruitless because the girl went along with her "kidnapper" completely willingly (plus the films she appeared in aren't technically child pornography because she became a legal adult before shooting them).
