Pirates of the Caribbean Review

A Treasure . . . . Or A Curse ? – you decide.

By dkpatriarch

© 2008 David HIlton

“`I still remember my excitement as a kid when I first sat in the boat on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. I must have waited four or five times to ride it again and again. Then I grew up. When I last went several years ago the ride seemed to have lost its gloss, the special effects weren’t magical anymore, and the excitement I had felt so strongly turned to profound disappointment.

“`It may have been the jet lag or just that my imagination died with age. Or it may have been that it was indeed old and tired…much like the third Pirates movie inspired by this ride. This is unfortunately also true of the latest 360 Pirates of the Caribbean game based on the film, based on the ride.

“`Pirates, the game, is a typical movie tie-in and more than that, a typical hack n’ slash. It starts off with the events of the second movie and then continues through to the end of the third. The characters are even more lifeless than in the movie of the same name and actually the game’s voice actors (who weren’t the movie actors) seem to be used only sparingly even though they are mostly pretty good (with the exception of high strung Elizabeth).

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Sure, the Jack Sparrow in the game does do all the fantastically strange mannerisms that Johnny Depp has come up with, but most of the time he is miming and not speaking, making for strange cut-scenes. The level design is linear and, worst still, repetitive.

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There are some really good looking locations, but they are as lifeless as the characters, with blocked off areas everywhere and few interactive or destructible environments. Clipping issues abound, as do camera problems, so the question becomes: does this Pirates game warrant your hard earned pieces of eight or is it more akin to a piece of crap?

Well it depends how you approach it. I approached it with low expectations just wanting a game that was a hack n’ slash and some fun with the kids to tide us over until the AAA titles started filtering in right about now. It indeed is a fairly simple game that will appeal to the kiddies, but there is no co-operative play, which a game of this sort should have.

I mean, even the pedestrian Eragon had it! The second problem is that Pirates has very annoying duel sequences with bosses where you have to press the left anaolgue stick up and down depending on where you or the enemy are swinging your swords. While this does make for a bit of fun in the limited split-screen multiplayer mode tossed in the game, this really is painfully dull and frustrating in the main game. This second problem meant that I had to get the kiddies past these sections over and over whenever they got stuck there. Not fun Jan.

Another problem was that the kids (nor I) could understand why you couldn’t kill the mini-bosses when you fought them until you had charged up your special moves meter by beating other baddies first. Over and over you had to make sure you don’t fight the mini-bosses until you beat up on enough of the underlings. It took the kids awhile to get used to this or even to identify which were mini-bosses, which isn’t always obvious.

The gameplay for each level starts with find and seek mini-missions with some primitive ‘talking’ (reading words on screen actually) to find out what you do next, followed by some combat with underlings until you’ve filled your meter up, then killing the mini-boss with some simple button combinations, followed by a boss duel that makes you want to throw your controller across the room (but you don’t because your wife will take the 360 away from you if you do…). So, not very inspiring stuff.

That’s not to say that there aren’t any positives about the game. The graphics for the most part are really good. The great soundtrack from the films is featured. The levels do have some diversity of fetching tasks and the kids like the limited offline multiplayer duels and co-op fights.

In the end, though, this game is budget bin fodder, flashy but low on substance, like the latest film. The gameplay is old and basic like the Disney ride, but does offer some fun while it lasts. Arrrr, best to give this one the “booty”.

“5.5/10

© 2008 David HIlton

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Filed under: Console gaming, Xbox 360, Xbox 360 3rd Party Games, Xbox 360 Game Reviews, Xbox 360 News Tagged: | Jonny Deep, Pirate of caribbean world end, pirate of the caribbean review, pirates of caribbean review, To worlds end