Review of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is another movie tie-in game that feels a little incomplete sometimes.The good news is it's got simple gameplay mechanics, gorgeous graphics and even manages to follow the story of the movies rather well.The problem is that for any hardcore gamer (or some gamers in general) its all so basic that it's stiff, boring and really repetitive.

The game actually spawns Dead Man's Chest and At World's End.You'll begin the game playing through the plot of Dead Man's Chest and then you'll get into At World's End.This is fitting seeing as how the console never got a game for Dead Man's Chest... and let's face it the handheld games were nothing really to write home about.It also adds to the game's length.

Let's get the good out of the way first, shall we?The game is absolutely gorgeous looking.There are some moments when you forget your watching a video game and you actually feel as if you're watching something from a movie.The characters are nicely animated and nicely done.Everything also runs really really smoothly, and for once we've got a movie tie-in game that doesn't have bugs up the wazoo.There's hardly any (if there is any) clipping, or enemies getting stuck on objects or anything of the sort.On a technical aspect, At World's End is marvelous.Almost completely flawless.The music itself comes from the movie, so if you liked the movie soundtrack, you'll like the music here.And while the voice acting in the game could be a little better, it's really not so bad given that the actors didn't jump on board and lend their voices to the game.Its here where Pirates of the Caribbean At World's End succeeds.

Unfortunately your game being really gorgeous looking can't save it.Sure the game is great to look at, but the gameplay is rather stiff and basic.Any hardcore gamer will be bored of this game before it even gets a chance to get good.

The combat, as I said, is pretty basic.You just swing your sword until the enemy is dazed and then finish them off.Even from the get go, you get the feeling that you're in for the long hall.There isn't a series of buttons to make the combat somewhat interesting.Hardly any combat moves at all.You've got different ways of finishing your enemies off, and you're even given some neat things to work with like guns, knives and grenades, but none of these items adds anything to the gameplay.You're mostly stuck just doing this basic combat throughout the whole game with little variety.It would've been cool had they had moves in there like other games in the genre.Instead it's just one button that does everything, and in a sense it's really a drag to be pressing one button throughout the whole game.Of course, it wouldn't be such a drag if your enemies put up some kind of fight.The enemy AI is terrible and there's also a lack of variety of enemies you'll encounter.The game is just too easy, and really, that makes the combat very stale and boring.If the game had been more challenging and strategic I probably wouldn't mind pressing one button throughout the whole thing because I'd be too busy thinking about how to stay alive.

The game tries to throw more interest at you by giving you some moments in there to switch between characters in the middle of combat.There are moments when you'll find yourself switching between characters like Will, Elizabeth, Jack, etc.The problem here is two things.First of all, each character plays the same.So essentially you're still losing some variety that this game could've had.The characters don't have different moves or have their own faults like one being slower than another or anything like that.The second thing wrong is that you have to watch all their health, even when you're not playing as them, and the computer doesn't do a very good job of keeping them alive.You'll constantly be switching characters not because you want to, but because you need to keep them alive.It's more frustrating than challenging.

A moment that should've worked out for the game but didn't were the duels.The gameplay was already mediocre enough, but the duels could've really been so much better.All you do is keep blocking attacks until you can get a hit in.It's boring and slow, and the game will tell you how to proceed anyway.These one on one duels probably would've been better had they just been set up like a fighting game.

The mission objectives at times seem just as bad as the gameplay.A lot of the game consist of you running around fetching items more so than anything else.There are some interesting moments, like the Kraken, but aside from that, it's pretty dull stuff.Not only that but the game is almost completely linear.You'll find yourself in places like Port Royal and Singapore, but you'll never be able to explore these places, and that's a shame because they really don't look half bad.The game also sends you back and forth a lot within each mission.Again, its annoying.Especially because the enemies repeat themselves a lot and just don't put a fight.

In the end, Pirates is a pretty good looking game, but the gameplay is so stale and boring that its not worth the trouble.The game might suffice as a rental, but its not really worth a buy.Its sad because like a lot of movie tie-in games, there was a lot potential here, they just didn't use it, and once more opted for a way to get the game out by the time of the film's release.This time, they opted not to take the gameplay as far as they could.



Click Here to see more reviews about: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End