Despite being the writer and author (along with Dave Gibbons) of the original graphic novel, Alan Moore’s name does not appear in the film adaptation of Watchmen. This is due to a request – or rather demand – expressed by Moore himself, who preferred to stay on the sidelines before seeing how another of his works was ruined. And you won’t see his name in the Watchmen game either – the end is near.
Although the film liked some and failed to penetrate equally well in others, the truth is that its adaptation to consoles and PCs was, and is, something difficult to defend against Moore himself. Despite the fact that in his day he fulfilled his mission .
the way the sagaBatman: Arkhammanaged to masterfully capture all the key aspects of the DC Comics Dark Knight, matching his best works, you could say thatWatchmen: the end is nearleads us to the opposite case, offering us a sadly generic proposal, whose main purpose was to support the premiere of the film.
A game, by the way, that opted for the episodic format.
It would be unfair to say that the problem around Watchmen: the end is near (title adopted for the occasion in reference to the Rorschach banner) is, in itself, a lousy game. It did not look bad for the time and the fighting had its own. However, it is the ultimate reflection of everything that Moore wanted to avoid when creating the original story. Among other things, offer the same as always.
The Impossible Art of Adapting Alan Moore (to Alan Moore’s Taste)
Alan Moore is a genius. A bright and restless mind . An anarchist according to what for. That is unquestionable. But also the greatest protector of his own work. Even some co-authors he worked with, like V for Vendetta cartoonist David Lloyd, felt that Moore would only be happy with a full and faithful adaptation of the book to the screen .
And the truth is that adapting the original Watchmen narrative is, in itself, a challenge.
In fact, for decades a film adaptation was tried in vain. Something that Warner was interested in since the characters, if not used, would become the property of Moore. But what really worried the Englishman is his – really justifiable – position that each medium has its own type of narrative, and when turning it into a different medium , the essence is lost.
My book is a comic. Not a movie, not a novel. A comic. It was created in a certain way and designed to be read in a certain way: in an armchair, placidly by a fire and with a hot cup of coffee
In other words: it is possible to make a movie with Mario, Sonic or Lara Croft or the Final Fantasy license, but the moment you take those characters and ideas to another medium they end up being something else . And very seldom does it end up making everyone happy.
When Warner managed to start bringing the Watchmen movie to life (at the fourth time) he wanted to play it safe: filmmaker Zack Snyder captured the comic 300 panel by panel with enormous success and despite the fact that his vision of Watchmen does in most of the The same footage with the story of Moore and Gibbons, licenses, changes and cuts are inevitable.
In spite of everything, the powerful popcorn investment of Warner, DC and Snyder would be accompanied by a very powerful marketing campaign (from which Moore ignored at all costs) led by the first of the two episodes of Watchmen: the end is near , the Official prequel to the movie in a video game code.
What makes Watchmen so important and the trajectory it has had in video games
We find the germ of Watchmen in an idea by Moore: to bring together a group of heroes from the DC publishing house who were not active to create a unique work around the murder of one of its main members. The publisher, pleased with Moore’s talent, accepted the idea after suggesting that the used heroes be created for the occasion in order to avoid losing characters unnecessarily.
Although in principle this affected Moore’s initial plans, since the impact of the loss of a well-known hero is much greater among readers, in the end he managed to take advantage of this by daring to go even further in his initial premise and enjoying some academic freedom, shamelessly creating heroes based on other great characters in the comic world and putting them at the service of their history.
There are many themes that are addressed in Watchmen, although one of the axes is the heroism of its protagonists. Above all, when at heart they are people in eccentric disguises with the sole exception of the practically omnipotent Dr. Manhattan, who is not only lacking in heroism and motivation, but lacks any iota of humanity.
In this way, the characters of Watchmen are loosely organized vigilantes, belonging to times gone by and who, at best, are still active in the interests of the United States government in a very concrete context. An excuse for Moore to rewrite the history of North America at the convenience of his work , speculating on the consequences of having a being with practically divine capabilities in conflicts such as the Vietnam War or the Cold War while the rest cope with this alternative reality with better or worse fortune.
Watchmen is not a comic to use. Not like those that DC and Marvel published at the same time, where justice is colored in black and white tones and the fights mark the rhythm of the action. What’s more, in the twelve numbers that Watchmen is divided into, the number of fights is counted on the fingers of the hands, and the vast majority are resolved instantly. Which does not mean that some of them have a twisted – and brutal – sense of justice through other methods.
And it is precisely at that point where all the Watchmen adaptations to video games have failed: all three Warner proposals drank (to Moore’s presumable chagrin) from the same Final Fight formula.
As we discussed, coinciding with the release of the movie Warner Interactive published up to three Watchmen games. Or rather, three extensions of Snyder’s film (and vision).
The first, Watchmen: The Game, developed by Glu mobile veterans, was beat-em-up crafted in Java for keyed terminals that traversed two scenes from the movie. Two selectable characters (The Comedian and Night Owl) and little new to contribute.
The second of them, Watchmen: Justice is Coming , was designed for touch screen mobiles (basically iPhone) and its biggest claim was to allow us to create our own superhero. Or rather, our guy in disguise and a predisposition to knuckle down in the streets.
In both cases we are talking about two games that did not transcend given that, despite the noise of the film, they hardly contributed anything . Something that, on the other hand, was really contrary to the material on which it was based. And the truth is that Warner’s biggest bet for its deployment on consoles and desktops did not go much further.
Watchmen: The End Is Near – How The Movie’s Official Video Game Failed
The launch of Watchmen: The End Is Near took place two days before the film’s premiere, and despite the fact that it is entirely based on Zack Snyder’s vision of the comic and his treatment of the characters, Warner was concerned to build ties with the film. original work with animated scenes that looked like moving vignettes and, above all, trying to tie up some of the loose ends of the plot.
In this way, the official video game not only served as a prequel to the film, but also delved into the past of Rorschach and Night Owl during their joint stage as street vigilantes, spinning a story created for the occasion, showing for the first time with some that another character mentioned during the original work and being exclusively available in digital worldwide during the time that the film was in theaters.
Or at least the first of the two episodes.
Warner divided the plot of Watchmen: the end is near in two installments, and definitely, the decision to split the plot in half has nothing to do with the length of the experience: together, getting through both can take about six hours. or less of the game , the first part being somewhat longer.
The reason for this was multiple, but everything in the end comes down to taking advantage of the film’s premieres and availability and, in turn, offering previous and unpublished material to comic fans. Unfortunately, Watchmen: The End Is Near is a manual example of how to use a license without taking too much account of the author’s vision.
At the playable level, it is the classic beat’em up in the third person in which we must limit ourselves to hitting everything that is seen on the screen. There are combos and the phases end up fulfilling the clichés of the genre: the prison, the factory, the sewer … so on until reaching the mansion of the final big boss.
The second of the episodes and the complete version would arrive in the summer of that same year, taking advantage of the film’s launch in domestic formats . In fact, Warner would edit an edition known as The Complete Experiencie on PS3 which also included the Director’s Cut of the Watchmen movie and the short films.
Warner’s proposal was not badly misguided. Rorschach refers to the times when he went out on patrol with Night Owl in a single comic strip and, on that premise, this entire original plot was built.
However, that does not prevent that in the end it has ended up being a superficial vision of Moore’s work , reducing his characters to clichés in an experience that, without being bad, was a lost opportunity to do something really interesting.
Is it possible to make a good Watchmen game? Alan Moore’s legacy in video games
To say that Alan Moore disliked the Watchmen games is almost trying to guess the unpredictable behavior of Moore himself. But we have real reason to think that he hasn’t even approached them. Basically, because he has not wanted to see his own adaptations either.
I’m not going to see [the Watchmen movie], obviously. At least I can stay neutral as long as they don’t put my name on the movie or do their thing like in the previous times [in V for Vendetta or From Hell] and how well they turned out
Anyone who has read the Watchmen comics partially understands Moore’s motives: although the English left Gibbons the final details regarding designs, their joint way of composing each panel and leading the reader to squeeze each page, playing with compositions and flashbacks and even inviting him to turn numbers back is impossible to adapt to other media. And that’s how he conceived Watchmen.
As a result, approaching his work through video games the way we play today is really complex. Which implies exploring other alternatives to use custom-made heroes that, as we said, are really just a group of people with eccentric costumes, firearms, some gadget and, occasionally, their own vehicle. And a little more.
Still, despite Moore, his readers and fans have found a way to include bits of his legacy in video games . We refer to subtle or really overt references in the form of nods to works such as The Killing Joke , his stage in the Swamp Thing or the V for Vendetta itself .
To date, Moore has not been directly involved in the creation of a video game, but we are sure that if one day he takes the step, as with all his work, he will not leave us indifferent.