Pirates of the Caribbean

2007/06/01

The storyline of the game does not begin exactly where the second film ends. The first half of the film ties in more with the sequel than the third. Thus film buffs will experience a déjà-vu after the tutorial as Jack rows in a coffin with a bleached leg as an oar to the next level. The storyline is not exactly the same as the films, but uses them more as a point of orientation.

As previously mentioned, a tutorial will introduce the operating controls of Pirates of the Caribbean to you. Jack awakes in a prison, but is freed by another pirate who thrusts a sword into his hand. Now it’s time to fight! Using “Jump-n-Run” style you must find your way out of the dungeon - the word “find” is somewhat out of place, however. An arrow under your main character show you the direction which must be taken. The fights are more action based, rather than tactical. Most opponents can be defeated by hitting the “easy attack” key on your game pad. Only the intermediate opponents require tactical maneuvers, which consists mainly of combos or specific action points which you must activate by pressing the “use” key.

There is also the “Jackass”, along with the action-based fights. These are not sequences in which you can make a direct attack, but must press a specific combination on the game pad to execute it. If you fail, the sequence must be repeated.

Comical: the key “grab/combo” allows you to use character specific tricks. Jack Sparrow, for example, points to the air behind his opponent with his finger, and steps on his foot as soon as he turns around to look and afterwards hits him hard on the head.

Aside from the “brawling” missions in the game, there are also some fun gimmicks. In Tortuga you can carry out some small secondary missions besides searching for Elizabeth. For example, Jack must approach all the ladies who are marked with an exclamation point, ending up with a hard slap in the face as we know it from the films. Or as Jack you can help a band of scoundrels steal rum by distracting the innkeeper.

Actually yes, but memory system in Pirates of the Caribbean is not. Since the game was developed mainly for the console, there are only automatic memory/saving points. However, they are fairly positioned. The only downer is that some of the fights can be a bit more intense due to difficultly level of the opponents.

Aside from the story missions, the occurrences surrounding Jack, Elizabeth and Will are peppered with some nice but undemanding, mini-games. These are, for example, pirate’s playing dice or the pirate's poker. These mini-games are financed by the money that you gather in the course of the story missions.

Pirates of the Caribbean is a graphical patchwork. The animation of the character’s movement was not taken from the film. Jack has his loveable, “gay touch”, Elizabeth fights with grace, and Will shows his skills with a sword. The textures are crystal clear at some points, but for the most part, fuzzy and unattractive. What struck us the most during the testing was that, for example, as opposed to Will Turner, Jack had an extremely ugly texturized face. The other graphics in the game are barely average.

However, the sound leaves almost nothing to be desired. The game is licensed to the film, and can thus flaunt the original soundtrack by Hans Zimmer. Incomprehensibly, the voice-over actors from the film were not obligated to use their talents for the game. The protagonists are difficult to recognize until you are accustomed to the “new” voice.