Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End Review

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End Review (Wii)

Review by: Fire Fox
Platform: Nintendo Wii
Number of players: 1-2
Rating: ESRB - T(teen)/PEGI - 12+
Other platforms: Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, PSP, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows
Genre: Action-Adventrue
Developer: Eurocom
Publisher: Buena Vista Games
Release date: US - May 22, 2007/Europe - May 25, 2007/Australia - May 24, 2007

Introduction

It is an age of piracy. The world is becoming smaller, and piracy is becoming extinct as well. You play as captain Jack Sparrow along with his crew of pirates. Cuttler Beckett is out to get all of you pirates, and you have to stop him. With the power of Davy Jones at his control, things seem impossible, and it's rare when a pirate comes upon something which he can not handle. As you play through a part of the second film, titled Dead Man's Chest, and progress and eventually play through the events of the third film as well. Movie games are notorious for not living up to the standards of original games, and as great a movie may be, it is very possible that the game would turn out a failure as the movie gains all the fame. I myself am a big Pirates of the Caribbean fan, so I will be the judge to say weather the game can stand up to the movie or not.

Gameplay

The gameplay for this version of the game is probably its best feature. Unlike all the other games whose sword movement is controlled by button input, this game uses the Wii-mote's motion control. It works pretty smoothly, and does recognize the movements well. The other spects follow basic action-adventure style. You go through the level, and eventually end up fighting some sort of boss either at the end or mid-way through the level. There is a decent amount of "sub-levels" in the game, which will keep you coming back for more. And if that doesn't get you coming back, multiplayer will and challenge mode will as well. The challenge mode is the variation of the levels where you try and get either loot, combos or other things, and in turn get rewards like swords, characters, and levels. Plus, this can all be done with two players. You can also duel with a friend playing as over 30 characters, which is pretty entertaining. It is fairly basic, with some worth while gimmicks thrown in, but definitely not perfect.

Will Turner, fighting the islanders on Isle De Pelegostos

Graphics

The graphics for this game are not the Wii's finest. If you were to compare this game's graphics to Super Mario Galaxy's, Galaxy would be hogging the lime light. The graphics are kinda what one might say, "last gen". They had a lot more potential, but were not very great. They are some what grainy, and lack some depth. The character animations are decent, especially the sword fighting, which is this games strong point. It could of had better graphics, but it didn't.

A screen of a Jackanism.

Controls

The controls are very unique in this game. As I said before, you can use the motion sense controls of the Wii and essentially swing the Wii-mote as a sword. You still use the analog stick for walking and the B trigger as a weapon button, but mainly the Wii-mote is used. I have also tried playing some of the other platform's version of this game, and I must say, the Wii version is much better, and ultimatley feels much better. The camera sometimes does impair your controls, but usually, the controls work well and a very responsive.

Sound

For those who appreciate classical music, Pirates of the Caribbean salutes you. All of its music is classical music, most of it from the movie soundtrack. I myself truly enjoy the movie's music, but was kinda let down by the game's soundtrack. Not all of it is from the music, and the one's that were from the movie were usually just crappy variations of the songs. Though, if you aren't too familiar with the movie's soundtrack, the music shouldn't be too bad. The sound affects mainly consist of sowrds clashing or sheathing, which isn't that bad, but does tend to get annoying. All in all, an adequate soundtrack.

For those of you who have not experienced Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack, listen to it here: YouTube - Jack Sparrow

Longetivity

For an action-adventure game, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End has quite the amount of replay aspects. You have three things that you could do after completing the main story.

-Challenge Mode- In challenge mode, you will go through the levels you have played and do one of these three things. 1) Make combos 2) Get loot 3) Kill enemies. It can keep you coming back for more, since if you complete the task, you are rewarded with things such as swords, characters, etc.

-Sub Challenges- These are thing that you come across while playing the main story, like item collection, loot challenges, and Jackanisms(a DDR style minigame where you have to play as jack and push buttons as they appear on screen).

-Duel Mode- Duel mode has to be one of my favorite parts of this game. This is where you get with a buddy and take your Wii-motes, have a good old fashioned pirate duel. You choose your character and level and fight to the death. It is very amusing.

Scores:
Graphics: 4/10
Gameplay: 6/10
Control:7/10
Sound:8/10
Longetivity:7/10

FINAL SCORE: 32/50

Closing Comments

Pirates of the Caribbean is a wonderful movie franchise, and I highly reccomend seeing it. I would suggest getting the video game if you're a fan of the series, but even then if you truly are a fan, I might not suggest, since it doesn't follow the movie quite exactly and doesn't live up to the standards the movie set up.