 Review By: Nick Arvites |
Developer: | Eurocom |
| Publisher: | Disney Interactive Studios | |
| Genre: | Action | |
| ESRB: | Everyone 10+ | |
| # Of Players: | 1 | |
| Online Play: | No | |
| Accessories: | HDTV 1080i | |
| Buy Now: |   |
I’ve always been a pirate kind of guy. The swashbuckling genre is one of my hidden favorites, and I’ve been known to lose a few hours watching some documentary on pirates on the History Channel. Needless to say, I enjoyed Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean movie trilogy. As big as the Pirates trilogy is, Disney hasn’t really attempted a cheap cash-grab by dumping out a movie tie-in video game. That is, of course, until they released Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.
Let’s take a step aside: movie tie-in games are generally bad. As in, bottom of the barrel, 5.0/10 is a high grade, completely missing the mark bad. In the last two generations (this one and the PS2/Xbox/GCN one), I can think of ONE movie tie-in game that was actually a top tier title. That game, Chronicles of Riddick, has stood by its lonesome for years as the only good movie title I’ve played. Every summer, we get more movie games dropped on our doorstep, and they constantly disappoint or fall short in some way. They either fail to capture the magic of the film franchise, they aren’t solid games, or they’re otherwise lacking.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End is Disney Interactive making up for lost time in the video game market. The game covers the plots of the second and third Pirates movies, putting gamers in control of Captain Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, and Elizabeth as they go through the various scenes in those movies. It also shows a few things that happened “behind the scenes” of the films. Really, that’s what you basically expect and want to see in a movie tie-in, right?
The levels are straightforward. You pop into an area, get a few quests, and perform them. Along the way, you’ll probably have to fight off a mob of enemies. The combat is simplistic enough for a video game novice to pick up in under ten minutes. The X button slashes with your sword, the square button punches or uses picked up weapons (knives, grenades), and the triangle button grapples. If you collect enough voodoo heads, Jack can go into a special mode where he can kill enemies in one hit. It’s sort of silly, and I always forgot to use the heads when I had them. They can be used to open green chests, so it isn’t totally pointless however. It just seems strange because Jack never did this in the films. It just seems unnecessary, since the combat isn’t that horrible to begin with.
At least once per level, you’ll have to engage a boss character in a duel. The duel mode shifts to an almost fighting game point of view, where both characters have their swords drawn. Basically, you can attack high, low, or lunge, as can your opponent, and all of the sword controls are mapped to the left stick. It’s similar to the old Dragon’s Lair arcade machine or the interactive cut scenes in Shenmue. When your opponent attacks, you have to press either up or down to block his attack. If your special bar fills up from the blocks, you can perform a counter and go on the offensive.
Overall, the controls are pretty solid, far more than I expected them to be actually. The game does an excellent job of teaching you the controls through the forced tutorial level, and I really didn’t have to glance at the manual at all.
Posted: 2007-07-10 08:56:02 PST