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- Reviewed on: 05/23/2007
- Updated on: 05/25/2007
- Released on: 05/22/2007
- Originally published on GameSpot: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (Xbox 360) Review
It's almost hard to believe in this day and age of movie and game tie-ins, but other than a couple of handheld games, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest didn't have a companion game on consoles. Disney Interactive Studios is making up for lost time with Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, which features plotlines from both the second and third Pirates movies. While the game does a solid job of capturing the look and humor of the movies, it fails to emulate the films' action sequences very well. The combat is extremely simple, and you'll grow tired of mashing on the attack button well before you reach the end of the game.
Fighting is so easy you can do it with your eyes closed.
The first half of the game follows the events of Dead Man's Chest, specifically Captain Jack Sparrow's attempt to recover the heart of Davy Jones to avoid becoming a member of his crew, and it culminates with Jack's encounter with the Kraken. The second portion of the game sees Sparrow and his not-so-merry band of misfits joining together to take on Lord Beckett and retrieve the heart of Davy Jones once and for all. Even if you've seen the second film, the story is quite difficult to follow since it's told by way of a mishmash of well produced, yet disjointed, cutscenes. You'll recognize several scenarios and locations from the movies, but there are many things you'll do that aren't in the movies.
During the course of At World's End, you'll sword fight your way from Tortuga to Singapore, which may sound exciting, but it's really not. There's only one button used to swing your sword, so all you do is run up to enemies and mash that button until they turn their back and you finish them with a final slash. Enemies literally appear out of thin air and put up little resistance as you pound the attack button. Occasionally, you'll come across a tougher character that can only be killed with a special move. As you kill a bunch of lower-level baddies, your attack meter fills, and eventually you'll be able to perform a cool-looking finishing move. You can punch enemies, and when you don't have a sword handy, you can kick them, though you're rarely forced to result to fisticuffs. The only move in your basic arsenal that's consistently fun is the sometimes useful ability to grab and then toss enemies. You can sling them into each other, or toss them off the sides of buildings and docks, which is great fun. There are a handful of weapons, such as guns, knives, and grenades, which are scattered throughout for you to use. Unfortunately, they're not very useful. The guns work OK, but knives and grenades are particularly difficult to aim. If you mix up your attacks (or pick up bags scattered throughout the levels), you can raise your notoriety, and your notoriety score will be uploaded to an online leaderboard. The game makes a big deal about notoriety, but it's utterly pointless.
Most of your time in At World's End is spent as Jack Sparrow, though you'll also get to play as Elizabeth, Will, and a few other characters. Sometimes you'll even get to fight as all three at the same time, switching from character to character by pressing the D pad. These are the worst parts of the game because characters you aren't controlling don't do much in the way of defending themselves. This means you're constantly switching characters trying (often futilely) to keep them alive. There are plenty of checkpoints in the game, but for some reason when these three-person battles come up, you're forced to start with the same amount of health every time, which is a big problem if you came limping into battle with a limited amount of life left. The rest of the game is quite easy, so dying shouldn't be much of a problem.
The duels look cool, but there isn't much to them.
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Where to buy
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (Xbox 360):
$13.05 - $39.99
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$39.99 | Yes |
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$38.99 | No |
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Buy.com
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$37.99 | Yes |
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