	Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
	Developer: Eurocom Publisher: Disney Release Date: Out Now Players: 1	Words By:
Fans of the Pirates movies will have no doubt been delighted to see the timely release of this game translation of Captain Jack’s latest (and final) adventure, and will be even more pleased to know that the game encompasses events from the second movie (Dead Man’s Chest) as well… From the start Pirates is a pleasing game to look at, with good likenesses of the main characters, detailed textures and some decent spot effects like rain, smoke, fog and suchlike. I was immediately disappointed to note that the voice acting isn’t done by the movies cast, although the Johnny Depp/Keith Richards-alike is at least somewhere close. Next in the firing line is the gameplay. A game that starts with some enjoyable exploration and gentle tutelage of its various combat types and combos soon becomes more tiresome than watching a village cricket game, with paint drying in the background, on NASCARs, in the House of Lords, on budget day. A combat system that allows you to progress through 99.99% of the game just by pressing X repeatedly deserves to be slated, but frankly I can’t be bothered – the developers clearly didn’t spend too much time on the game so why should I waste mine and yours describing it in any detail? Safe to say that at some points the combat changes to a different mode and you’ll need to use the shoulder buttons as well (it’s like the designers found them half way through the game and said “hey we better use these for something!”), but seriously the combat isn’t going to challenge you dextrously, physically or mentally – it’ll just challenge your patience. On the up side the motion capture is superbly done, and moves link together well – Jack has some pleasing (if not too representative) finishing moves and the game at least attempts to convey the movies’ humour across. These won’t exactly make you laugh out loud but you’d expect some humorous moments in the game. What I wasn’t expecting to see were some frame rate problems that weren’t present in the Xbox 360 demo that I played – very disappointing. A few easy-peasy boss battles and (what I’ll laughingly call) puzzle sections get slapped together with some Lara Croft/Prince of Persia-esque balancing, clambering and running up walls, but the variation seems desperately lacking throughout, and the game isn’t very long either, as I finished it, in a near vegetative state, in 5 hours or less …. Yes, I’m that dedicated. Some half-hearted attempts at RPG-style skilling up don’t really suit either the source material or the game itself, and add little to the game, and certainly won’t make you want to play it through again to better yourself. It was always going to be difficult to produce a likeable and playable game for the remarkably successful movie trilogy, and unless you’re a true die hard fan (no, not the Die Hard movies, silly) of the Pirates movies then I’d stay well clear.

Best Bits
- Good character likenesses
- Um…

Worst Bits
- Repetitive
- Lacking in challenge
- Repetitive
- Frame rate issues
- Repetitive
- You’ll wear your X button out


by: Sloppy Sneak