Game Review | March 14, 2008 10:12 am
Alright, here is the first in a series of "Bargain-Bin" reviews focusing on past games that can be picked up for a nice price. You probably didn't care about these games when they came out, but I'm going to focus on why you should care now. First up, Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End. The swashbuckling adventure was on clearance at Target for $12, or picked up at GameStop for less than $20.
Released during the summer game drought of last year, At World's End takes the name of the last film of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, but basically contains the second (Dead Man's Chest) and third (At World's End) PotC movies. I enjoyed the movies, though I will admit it took me a while to watch them. While I am a big Johnny Depp fan, I was still wary on how the Disney movie was going to be. Eventually I took the plunge and watched it, and really liked it. Will the video game be another diamond in the ruff, or simply something to be cast overboard.
Given the history of games based on movies, I did not have much hope for this game to start out with. At $12, though, I could not resist. The game didn't prove to be all that bad: Compared to other games based on movies this one stepped it up a bit. The graphics were pretty well done, and all of the character movements were right on (ie Depp's performance as Captain Jack Sparrow). Big fans of the films may find this quite an enjoyable experience, though some of the story does get lost in translation it seems (I've yet to see the final film in the trilogy, so I began to get lost towards the end of the game).
You mainly play as 1 of three characters: Jack, Elizabeth, or Will. Yes, you do play as Jack more than any other, which I give points for. Elizabeth and Will need to be there for the story, but what we all really want is Jack! ... And Rum! You'll hack and slash your way through eleven levels of mayhem, with many enemies to fight, items to explore for, and achievements to be gained.
The graphics are beautiful for a licensed game; the developers had full access to special effects assets from the movies and it shows. They also had full-body scans of the actors, making the character models look damn-near impressive. Everything looks great, from the environments to the characters, making it a little more appealing than the average licensed game.
The audio quality is high, too, especially the in-combat sound effects and amusing chatter, and while the score got a bit repetitive, its suitably sweeping and epic. Onto gameplay:
Combat, that thing you will be doing a lot of, is quite drab and uninteresting. It consists of waring down your opponent with sword slashes (...press the A button 3 - 5 times) until they stand there groggy. Then you hit the A button one more time to finish them. Rinse and repeat. There are special moves you can perform on enemies when they are groggy, but they are not really all that necessary. You can also mix it up by throwing a punch combo in there or pulling out your pistol and firing for a one-shot kill. Fun, and entertaining at times, but again not necessary. It seems like they designed the combat system for five-year-olds. I realize this is based on a Disney movie, but the movie was rated PG-13 guys!
Quite the opposite of simple combat, boss fights become needlessly complicated. When battling a boss, you go into "Duel Mode". There will be three orbs on the screen, and as your opponent attacks you the orb will glow; you must push the joystick in the direction of the orb before it goes out to parry, otherwise you get hit. Block enough, and it will be your turn. Repeat, again and again. I liked how the duel mode gave combat a non-stop flow to combat. Sword strikes and parries can be strong together almost non-stop until someone falls to the watery depths to be picked up by Davy Jones.
With combat subpar, unfortunatley the platforming elements fall one coin short of a full chest, although they do offer a much appreciated break from combat. You can sprint, jump, hang, shimmy and all sorts of other antics. However, from simply jumping to puzzles, which mainly consist of you finding a lever, is not all that fun. Like combat, the platforming elements feel a bit underdeveloped and not very challenging because the levels are so linear. The only reason you will spend time exploring the environments are for the collectibles strewn about. That brings me to the achievements, the real reason you gamers are reading this review. Read on...
There are a total of thirty achievements, and Pirates offers a great way to beef up your gamerscore with little effort. A few achievements consist of simply completing levels, while others require you to find the seven collectibles found in each level (these range from paprika tins to tarot cards to gold bars), but you will need to explore a bit if you want to find them all. Your searching will also nab you a Calypso Piece in each level, which will give you a really nice 150 point boost. Finally, there are the Jackinism Chests; found only in the levels in which you play as Jack, these require you to find three shrunken heads before being able to open it. Opening each, however, does net you 25 points. The final achievement, collecting 100 souls, will take you a little while, but is not unfeasible. A quick 850 points can be made in a day or two (if you are really ambitious), with the entire 1000 following soon after.
At World's End is a testament to something that could have been awesome, but was simply only a head above the rest. I had a bit of fun while playing, and there is a multiplayer feature that I did not get into. I do not regret purchasing it, but those of you looking for a quick achievement boost may be more suited to simply renting it on a Friday night and donating your weekend to the seas. I give it a 5.5 out of ten: The graphics and character models are great, but the gameplay needs some work. It is about halfway there; it is alright the way it is, but with some work it could have been much better.
Overall Score: 5.5 of 10.0
Reviewed: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Keywords: None
