Pirates of the Caribbean

"Great game dragged down by incompleteness"

Graphics
9/10 - Easily one of the shining points of the game. Especially while at sea. The water is fantastic looking with good depth and nice reflections. The ship battles look great with nice explosions, fire, and debris. No permanent damage shows on the ships with the exception of the sails. The storm graphics are by far the best with lightning, rolling waves, lighting effects, damage, etc.

The land graphics, while good, pale in comparison to the sea graphics. The colors are rich and fitting for a pirate environment. There are also plenty of nice little touches such as brush moving when your footsteps disturb it. However, you often see the same faces over and over, especially with the officers you can hire and the people you meet on the streets.

Story
8/10 - Decent story. At least it is more involved that the typical 'You're a man who was wronged and are out for revenge as a one-man killing machine' type plot you see in many games. Bonus that no Princess rescuing is involved. Otherwise, it is good enough to keep you involved in the game and move you along. Also, there are nice sub-quests that you can participate in or not.

Game Controls
8/10 - Fairly steep learning curve. I haven't played a game with a 3rd person fixed camera in a while. I keep wanting to swing the camera around with the right joystick. Unfortunately, you can only move the camera up and down. You are at the whim of the computer controlled camera otherwise. The camera isn't that bad except for when you come into a room with your back to the door and the camera facing the front of your character.

The quick menu system that you can access via the 'Y' button is simply a joy to use. You can easily access a myriad of commands to exchange items, open chests, send your boat to certain locations, and best of all, 'Fast Travel' to different points within town! This saves the time of having to walk your character in and out of buildings and across town. Unfortunately, I do not know why they did not include all places of interest outside the Store, Tavern, Shipyard, Townhall, and Port. Including places on the 'Fast Travel' menu such as the Church, Loan Shark, and in-town dungeons once you've discovered them would have been a great help.

The ship controls, like the graphics, are the best part of the game. Here, you get the free-ranging camera that should have been part of the land based action with the ability to zoom in and around your ship. You can easily perform all ship function such as firing cannons and raising/lowering sails. You also get the opportunity to go to the deck of your ship to direct your firing via the use of your periscope. Again, well done here.

Game Play
9/10 - This game plays well. Simply put. Once you get the control mechanics down you can quickly move around towns, sail your ship, and fight with the hardiest of swashbucklers. The varying gamestyles of this title is clearly its greatest strength. You can concentrate on the style of your choice whether it be commerce, smuggling, gambling, swashbuckling, pirating, exploring, or dungeon-crawling. The main quest and side quests will keep your entertained as well.

Sound
8/10 - The background music is appropriate with dainty pirate tunes, adventure tunes, and caribbean tunes. Not a whole lot of variation but enough to avoid monotony. The background noise is where it is at though. Plenty of pirate talk while on land. It can be entertaining at times just to hear the sailor noises in the Tavern. The ship related noises are well done too. From the cannon fire, to the creaking of wood, to the whistling of wood, to the sound of a thunder storm.

Completeness
3/10 - This is where I have to bring POTC down. This game simply feels incomplete. After the experience with Morrowind you would think Bethesda would have worked out issues with DDEs and corrupted save files. Alas, this is not to be. I know this game was sub-contracted out and not everyone experiences them but when you have issues such as these and experience with a previous game, the issue should have been corrected prior to release.

There are also several in-game exploits, bugs that can prevent you from finishing commerce quests, bad programming that can cause your ship to sink, more bad programming that forces you to work around officers refusing to sheath their swords in dungeons, and on and on. When you are told to save your game often and you realize that it is because of bugs and not because of difficult gameplay, that does not bode well.

Lasting Appeal
? - I really don't know how to score this one. It really depends on how much you can deal with the silliness of bad programming/poor QA and if your Xbox is not susceptible to DDEs. If this is not a problem, then I would rate it a 9/10. Otherwise, I give it a 3/10. There is lots to explore and plenty to do in the world of POTC. It is not as vast as the world of Morrowind but it will provide many hours of entertainment.

Overall
7/10 - There is a 'AAA' game in that box with the skulls and crossbones on it. One that can send you sailing the high seas and swashbuckling with the best of them. However, I don't know if it is poor QA, poor programming, or a rush to get this game out to coincide with the movie, but this game is incomplete. More thank likely, it was a combination of all three.

If you are unsure of the game, go rent it and try it out. You may be pleasantly surprised...or not.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/07/03, Updated 07/07/03