Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Score: 80% ESRB: Teen Publisher: Disney Interactive Developer: Eurocom Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Action/ Adventure/ Themed
Graphics & Sound: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End takes the events of the movie with the same name and puts you in control of Captain Jack Sparrow. Quite frankly, this game looks good. With the exception of a somewhat plastic shine to everything, the characters and levels in the game look like they were just about lifted from the film. Yet, the visuals aren't without their flaws. I found the cut-scene animation of Jack Sparrow to be way too over-the-top, even for Jack Sparrow. I found it quite annoying to see the slightly drunk-swagger that makes Jack such an interesting character taken to an extreme that makes it seem more like a parody of Sparrow than a likeness. Just like the game's visuals, the audio aspects of Pirates of the Caribbean also feel like they are straight out of the film. I can't find any documentation stating that the main actors and actresses of the Pirates movies (Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley) reprised their roles for the game, but if they didn't, then the people they got to play these characters do a really good `job.
Gameplay: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End takes you through the events of the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie (as well as a quick run through of the second film) in a swashbuckling adventure very fitting of the series. During the adventure, you will face off against tons of enemies. You will face off against everything from your run-of-the-mill pirate to Davey Jones' best henchmen. Often times, you will find yourself in the middle of a group of five or six enemies, but typically, these baddies only attack one (or at most two) at a time. So while you might feel like you are being overrun with foes, in reality you only need to focus on one or two at a time. When facing off against enemies in normal combat (as opposed to the one-on-one dueling covered in Game Mechanics), you see a red circle flash under some opponents' feet. This means they are about to perform a powerful attack, but if you tap the analog stick towards them before they actually execute the attack, you can counter it and perform a devastating blow.
Difficulty: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End starts off with a pretty good tutorial that does a good job introducing you to everything from basic combat to finishing moves and one-on-one duels. But it isn't long before you are left on your own. Thankfully the skills you started to get the hang of in the tutorial come in very handy and it make the game a lot easier. In At World's End, I found the enemies and missions I had to go through to be a bit harder, but for the most part the toughness of the game stayed fairly constant throughout.
Game Mechanics: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End has more interesting mechanics when it comes to combat. More specifically, the one-on-one combat that occurs when you are dueling. There are two aspects to dueling: attacking and defending. In order to perform a high attack, you just push up on the Left Analog Stick, to perform a low attack, flick the stick down. In order to lunge at your enemy, tap the stick towards him. These same principals apply on the other side of the fence. When you are on the defensive, you need to pay attention to the three dots behind your enemy. There is one high, one low and one in the middle. Each dot lights up when the enemy is going to attack and you need to counter with the same type of defensive move. Again, you tap up to defend a high attack, down for a low one and back for a lunge. As you successfully defend your opponents' attacks, your special move meter builds up and eventually you will be able to counter the attack and go onto the offensive yourself, but be careful because the same applies to the other fighter. At World's End is a fairly solid game that, while not the best title out there, isn't all that bad for a license game. Fans of the movie will definitely want to check out this game as well as fans of the swashbuckling, action genre.
-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications AKA Chris Meyer
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