Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End

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Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End is an action adventure RPG that was developed by Eurocom, published by Disney Interactive, and was released for the Microsoft Xbox360, the Sony Playstation 3, Playstation 2, Playstation Portable, the Nintendo Wii, DS, and for the PC on May 22, 2007.

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Developer: Eurocom
Publisher: Disney Interactive
Release Date: May 22, 2007
Platforms: Xbox360, PS3, PSP, PS2, Wii, DS, PC
JustRPG Score: 62%
Pros:
+Appealing characters.
+Fun for die hard fans of the franchise.
+Action oriented combat system.
+Good music.
Cons:
-No replay value.

-Very short.
-Typical movie inspired video game.

Overview

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End Overview

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End is an action adventure role playing game that puts the player in the role of their favorite characters from the movie, Pirates of the Caribbean. This multi-platform game has an action oriented combat system, and follows the story from the movie fairly well. Overall the game is a typical movie based video game that has pretty poor visuals, poorly designed game mechanics, little replay value, and gets boring very quickly. This game is hard to recommend unless you are a real die hard fan of the movie franchise.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End Screenshots

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Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End Featured Video

Full Review

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End Review

Since Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl hit theaters in 2003, the series has grossed more than $700,000,000 in US theaters alone. At World’s End, the third installment in the series, is looking to add a few more million to that total when the movie hits theaters on May 25, 2007. However, fans of the series have something to look forward to a few days earlier when Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End is released for all the major gaming systems (PS3, PS2, PSP, Xbox 360, Wii, DS, PC).

The storyline in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s Endfollows both the second film in the series, Dead Man’s Chest, and the upcoming third film of the series. In other words, players will relive the moments of Dead Man’s Chest as everyone’s favorite Captain, Jack Sparrow, as he tries to reclaim the heart of Davy Jones and travels through the Black Pearl trying to avoid the reach of the Kraken. Aside from Captain Jack Sparrow, players will also be taking on the role of some other characters, including Elizabeth Swan and Will Turner, throughout some of the key moments from both of the films. Naturally, if you’re a fan of the Pirates of the Caribbean films, then chances are you are more than likely going to be enjoying the storyline that is found in the videogame. While the videogame doesn’t reveal the storyline for the upcoming film completely, players can easily get a relatively good idea of what’s going to happen from playing the videogame.

In order to not spoil the story for any of our readers, I’ll go ahead and talk about the combat system in the game. No matter what character you play as, the majority of the time the sword will be your main source of attack. In order to perform your basic sword attack, players simply need to press the A button, and can press this over and over again to eventually defeat your enemies. However, there is a downside to simply mashing the A button over and over again. Whenever the player defeats an enemy, that individual character will start to fill up a bar in the upper left corner known as the swordsmanship meter. In order to properly fill your meter though, you will have to do more than just mash the A button because that won’t fill your meter, and instead must pull off a few different combos. So what is the point of this swordsmanship meter you ask? Well, while the majority of enemies can be defeated by merely pulling off combos or beating them with the A button, there are some different enemies that can only be defeated by pulling off a finishing move. Rather than being some random enemy, usually these types of enemies are taken directly from the cast of the film, and often will be easy to identify for anyone who has seen the films. As I already stated, in order to use a finishing move, you must first have enough of your swordsmanship meter filled. Once you have that done, you must then attack the enemy enough with your basic sword attack until they become stunned. After that, the player must hold down the left trigger and then press the appropriate button that appears on the screen. It is nice to see that players aren’t able to basically mash one button throughout the game, but the combat still has some problems with becoming a bit repetitive.

While the main weapon throughout the game will be your sword, players will also be able to come across some other types of weapons. Each player has access to a pistol, which comes with three shots, and additional weapons including knives and bottles, which can be thrown at your enemies. Other than that, players can pick up bombs and throw them at enemies and blow up barrels of gunpowder to devastate groups of enemies.

Like I said, easily one of the biggest flaws with the game’s combat system is that battling can easily become a repetitive and somewhat boring task. The game does feature a few combos that players can perform, but the small list and the repetitive usage of each attack button will easily become a bit of a bore. Also, while the game does feature different playable characters, the fact of the matter is that each character plays the same way. The different playable characters basically fight the exact same way, each with the same types of combos and moves, but at least there are a few different finishing moves.

Aside from the normal combat, At World’s End also features another type of combat where the player will go head to head with another character in duel with their swords. While participating in a duel, the player must use the left analog stick to both attack and defend against incoming enemy attacks. When the player presses the analog stick up, your character will either attack or defend a high attack, and when the player pushes the analog stick down, the player will either attack or defend a low attack and so forth. Once you have defended against enough of your enemies’ attacks, you will begin to fill your special move bar at the top of the screen. Once you have filled your special bar, you can press the A button to pull off a special attack, or you can counter an enemy’s attack after successfully defending against one and then pressing the X, Y, or B button. The dueling is actually a kind of interesting idea for the game, and works well, but they do tend to happen a little more often then I personally would have liked, and after a while it can become a tad bit boring. Still, at least it makes sense to have a dueling system like this in a game based on a film such as Pirates of the Caribbean.

So you’re a hardcore Pirates of the Caribbean fan and you’re worried that the game won’t share the same characteristics as everyone’s favorite Pirate, Captain Jack Sparrow? As a fan of the films myself, I can honestly say that I was a little worried, but after playing through the entire game I can say the game captures the character perfectly and fans shouldn’t be disappointed. Granted, the game is based on the film, so chances are it shouldn’t be that difficult, but nonetheless, the game does it very well. Everything from Captain Jack Sparrow’s movements, attitude, and voice seem to be captured perfectly throughout the game. In other words, if you’re a fan of the film, chances are you won’t be disappointed, at least not concerning the characters of the game.

Sadly, anyone looking for a long game isn’t going to be finding one with Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. The game does feature some unlockable content that will help expand some of the storyline of the game, and for any Xbox 360 owners the game does feature a number of different achievements, so there is a little bit of replay when it comes to the different levels of the game. The game also features some multiplayer action, which might sound better than it really is. Unlike Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow that was released by Bethesda Softworks in 2006, At World’s Enddoesn’t feature any sort of co-op play throughout the story mode. This is kind of a bummer, especially when considering that throughout many of the missions there will be moments when the player is able to take control of more than one character. However, there is multiplayer action in the form of dueling, which might be interesting for a couple of times but can easily become a little boring. The game also features timed challenges where players can compete against one another to see who can defeat the most enemies, or where players can team up to receive an even higher score. On the downside, the multiplayer function can only be accessed offline, and players will not be able to hook up to Xbox Live and play online with their friends or complete strangers. While these features do add a little extra value to the game, sadly I can’t see too many gamers continuing with these features after a short period of time.

Graphically, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End is a pretty impressive looking game. The game features some memorable sequences from Dead Man’s Chest such as the Kraken attacking the Black Pearl and the group traveling to locate Davy Jones’ heart. These environments are usually colorful, fairly large, and definitely resemble those seen in the films. Still, as good as the environments are, the best thing about the graphics is the look of the character models, especially that of Jack Sparrow and Davy Jones. The character models, especially those two that I just named, look so similar to the film’s characters during the cutscenes that at times it seems like you are actually watching the film.

The sound department in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End is also quite impressive. The actors from the films don’t actually do the voice work for the game, but there are several characters who actually sound great and very similar to the film’s actors, including the voice actor of Captain Jack Sparrow. The rest of the cast also does a nice job, with Will Turner, Barbosa, and Davy Jones sounding nice. As far as the soundtrack, some of the music is taken directly from the films, so if you’re a fan of the movie soundtrack then you will enjoy a lot of the music in the game. However, the sound effects aren’t quite as impressive, with some of the random enemies making some rather annoying and repetitive sounds. Players will more than likely become tired of hearing some of the same sound effects throughout the entire game, which is quite understandable.

All in all Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End isn’t one of the most impressive videogames to be based on a blockbuster film. The game can be downright gorgeous at times, and does a nice job of capturing some of the feel of the films, such as the sound and the personality of Jack Sparrow, but the repetitive combat and gameplay mixed with the fact that the game feels too short kind of dampers some of the overall experience. If you’re a hardcore fan of the films, then you might be able to overlook some of these flaws, but if not, then you may want to just give this one a rental.

Final Grade: 62%

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End Overview

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End Screenshots

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End Featured Video

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End Review

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End Screenshots

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End Videos

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