Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

"A Decent Movie Game That Could Have Been Better"

Were you a fan of the Pirates of the Caribbean series? If so you may have missed the video game version of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, which is a run up to the last movie. At World's End is a rather unique game with what it all has to feature. Obviously you have to keep in mind that Pirates is a Disney movie and its video game compliment is very much geared toward a Disney audience. Typical gamers are not going to pick this game up unless they are diehard fans of the movies. My brother just so happens to fall into this category so here I am going back and giving this game a review. For what At World's End is worth, it has some neat game play features and the graphics are spot on. There is a two player multiplayer, but no cooperative story mode and nothing to do online. Also lacking are the original actors to do voiceover work for the game, but this is not really a major drawback.

Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's For Me!

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End incorporates some of the highlights of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest as well as the third movie. The game is not a game version of the movies and you will notice this when you start the first level as Jack Sparrow along with Captain Teague as you escape from the island prison. The game skips with all of the highlights of the movies by bringing back the kraken along with the big whirlwind storm near the end of the game. A lot of the adventures will have you playing between Jack, Elizabeth, and Will as you fight off plenty of British and pirates as well as the tentacle pirates of Davy Jones. All of the other characters in the movies have some sort of role and appearance in this game and you will be able to play most of them in the multiplayer.

Fancy the Sword Play

The controls make heavy use of the LB and RB buttons. In fact the controls are kind of complex. I would classify Pirates as a beat 'em up game where you have to clear a gang of enemies or find a switch to get to the next area. You can pick up items like knives and flintlocks to easily knock out enemies and there is a combo system in place to perform special take out moves on enemies.

The sword fight system is rather unique. When you go one on one with a boss you will have to dodge attacks and then make up your own attack patterns to make your opponent start dancing. You use the control stick to perform all of the dodging and attacking moves with three directions: up, forward, and down. It's actually fairly simple and very fun to do on multiplayer.

The levels retain a lot of variation from having to go hunt things to rescuing prisoners to defeating the East India Trading Company.

Table For Two

A short lived multiplayer bonus allows you and another player to either take each other on in the sword fight duels or compete with or against in a time challenge mode. The time challenge is simply taking on more gangs of bad guys with a competitive scoring system keeping track of who is winning. There really is not much to the multiplayer and I think that being able to duel online would have made this awesome. Is it a good two player game? Not really.

Sound/Graphics

The real actors are missing from the game and so is a lot of the great music that makes up the soundtrack of the movies. The graphics on the other hand, are great and the likenesses of the characters are well portrayed. The effects also make this a great visual game with things like the kraken and the whirlwind.

Hunting for Treasure

The replay value is somewhat there. The multiplayer is okay if you need to keep somebody occupied for a half hour, but it is not really worth it. A lot of bonus items in this game may get by you the first time and some will require that you play through the game again to unlock some of the achievements.

Final Recommendation 6/10

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is an okay and decent movie based game that would go well as a kid's game. The single player mode will last some time and the achievements and bonus items give this game some credible replay value. The multiplayer is limited and could have been great online with sword duels or having added in a cooperative story mode. At World's End is good for a rental because it lacks too much to be a good buy.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 03/13/09

Game Release: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (US, 05/22/07)