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Just when you thought swashbuckling on the Wii could be enjoyable, a tiresome and muddled movie-game comes into the picture.
June 27, 2007 | 2:35 PM PSTby: Ray Almeda
Even though last year’s Pirates of the Caribbean movie (Dead Man’s Chest) ultimately achieved the highest grossing opening weekend in silver-screen history, many hardcore fans like me were saddened to see that there wasn’t a game tie-in during the same time-frame. Luckily, Disney Interactive Studios is making up for that big mistake this year, with the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. The movie game, which was actually released on numerous consoles and gaming handhelds, actually goes in-depth with plot storylines from the recent movie and the previous sequel as well. The Wii version in particular, remains one of the more intriguing gaming options, despite its direct sacrifice towards next-generation graphics, allowing the player to whiff around their Wii remotes, rather than mashing buttons in this action adventure.
To keep things chronologically sound, the first half of the game follows the events of Dead Man’s Chest, with some filler content included. We see the all-familiar fiasco of Captain Jack Sparrow who is trying to recover the heart of Davy Jones to avoid becoming a permanent part of his underwater-monster crew. The conflict arises in the second half of the game when Lord Beckett jumps in and tries to claim the heart for himself, either to abuse the power of controlling Davy Jones’ future or end the man-turned-waterbeast’s fate once and for all. If you haven’t seen them movies, then most of the game’s cutscenes initially feel forced and subtle, without showcasing much backdrop to the reasoning behind the actions by many of the game’s characters. However, hardcore Pirates fans still might be searching for answers at the end of every level, since a good majority of the game contains side-quests that only refine some of the less-featured characters in the film itself.
Throughout the game, you’ll be using Jack Sparrow mostly, with the chance to play as Will Turner and Elizabeth progressively. From Tortuga to Singapore to the Black Pearl, you’ll be playing in numerous film-familiar locales, most of which are bland and pretty linear from the get-go. The ship war and duel stages are usually the most exciting, because they require moving from one end of the stage to another back and forth to keep an overabundance of enemies, but these types of levels are far too scarce and fall in points during the game when repetition really starts to set in.
Obviously, the Wii version has the most intriguing control option, but that doesn’t mean that it’s well-implemented. You have both light and heavy attacks, as well as a close proximity attack, that allows you to mix a string of alternative moves to create devastating combos. For the Wii version, these attacks are done by waving the Wii remote up and down, and left and right, but for the most part, remain incredibly imprecise and dull. Most players will think the same thing – the Wii remote just adds a bit of tiresome waving movements that shorten the time-span of play-time. Each level are usually decorated with swarms of enemy hordes anyway, so trying to enjoy the game is more like a survival fighting mode actually. Combos are unlocked as you gain more experience with the fighting system, and although these combos are effective when done correctly, they’re extremely difficult to pull off on the Wii system consistently because of the terrible control scheme. On the other side of the controls, the Wii nunchuck is mostly used to control your character and block attacks. However, because of the number of enemies usually presented on screen at the same time, blocking attacks usually isn’t as effective. You’ll have to flick the nunchuck in a desired direction to switch from engaged enemies too, which is really just a poor implementation of game design. Eventually, the difficulty of the game becomes so difficult that you’ll have to constantly shake the nunchuck and swipe your Wii remote fast enough just to avoid getting hit in the back. Sure, there’s some variety in the game as far as weapons are concerned – guns, grenades, knives, and health-healing turkeys – but other than the grenade, these types of weapons aren’t so useful when six or seven foes are slowly creeping in on you. The game rewards its players for alternatively using different ways to defeat the enemies (by way of weapons and combos), but these type of rewards are usually only for the most hardcore of fans.
Each level usually begins with a simple cutscene, and then an objective to complete within the area. Although these cut-scenes are nice to look at, the objective part of the stage is what will bother most gamers most. There’s not always a clear message to explain exactly what you have to do, and since some levels require many different tasks, this occasionally becomes a huge problem for progressing throughout the game. Even worse, pausing the game doesn’t allow you to check your objective either, making the confusion an even bigger issue. These levels, linear ones at that, are usually defeat-all-enemies or flip-the-switch type stages. Although simplified, it would’ve been nice if Disney Interactive would’ve allowed control of the camera or even separate fixed-camera options to make the action a bit more varied. There’s some cool instances in the game called Jackanisms, which requires you as Jack Sparrow to press a button at the right time to continue a certain dynamic gameplay situation (such as sneaking past guards, or fending off enemies back to back with Will Turner), but these little flashes of innovation simply aren’t enough. Levels where you aren’t able to continue fluidly (by way of invisible walls) are even more frustrating, because level-design can sometimes dates back to the old PlayStation days, where movie-games were usually the shame of the heap.
There’s some mini-games plugged in there, such as Pirate Dice and Poker, but they’re confusing board games that only patient gamers will spent most of their time in. The PS2 and Wii versions both have competitive multiplayer modes that allows you to take on swarms of enemies in timed challenges, but they’re too short and repetitive. You can also duel against a friend, but again – these distractions are only short-lived, underwhelming experiences from a tiresome story mode.
On the visual side of things, the frame rate for the Wii version specifically is generally solid, if a bit muddled during some extreme circumstances. The attack animations and in-game cut-scenes look OK, but the game’s textures are mid-tier PlayStation 2 graphics at best. This is not a surprise, as both Wii and PS2 versions are identical with the exception of motion control. As a positive note, the Wii version does support widescreen and 480p (as does the other versions), but gamers will be left baffled whether or not the game actually lives up to a release on a next-gen system, especially graphics-wise.
Probably the better aspect of the game is its audio, which features a fully-orchestrated score by Klaus Badelt, known for his outstanding work for the music for the motion-pictures. Disappointingly however, the game isn’t voiced by Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley, or Orlando Bloom at all – as it is done by sound-alike instead. Although these sound-alikes aren’t necessarily horrible, it wouldn’t have hurt the game’s authenticity to include these small additions. The sound effects are good, but again, the repetition of each level is heard by repeating sound bites over few minute-spans.
Looking back at it all, At World’s End doesn’t really do anything to demand a purchase of any kind – even for fans who loved the film-trilogy finale. It seems as if Disney Interactive tried to push in too many locations, too many characters, and too many plots into one thing – a familiar complaint that some movie critics even had with the recent trilogy finale. This is a movie game that’s average at best, and should only be considered for a rental in dire straits. But when the day’s done, many will realize that this video-game was really intended for the kids, especially when the Wii version’s involved. At least they’re the ones that are less prone to carpel-tunnel these days.
To keep things chronologically sound, the first half of the game follows the events of Dead Man’s Chest, with some filler content included. We see the all-familiar fiasco of Captain Jack Sparrow who is trying to recover the heart of Davy Jones to avoid becoming a permanent part of his underwater-monster crew. The conflict arises in the second half of the game when Lord Beckett jumps in and tries to claim the heart for himself, either to abuse the power of controlling Davy Jones’ future or end the man-turned-waterbeast’s fate once and for all. If you haven’t seen them movies, then most of the game’s cutscenes initially feel forced and subtle, without showcasing much backdrop to the reasoning behind the actions by many of the game’s characters. However, hardcore Pirates fans still might be searching for answers at the end of every level, since a good majority of the game contains side-quests that only refine some of the less-featured characters in the film itself.
Throughout the game, you’ll be using Jack Sparrow mostly, with the chance to play as Will Turner and Elizabeth progressively. From Tortuga to Singapore to the Black Pearl, you’ll be playing in numerous film-familiar locales, most of which are bland and pretty linear from the get-go. The ship war and duel stages are usually the most exciting, because they require moving from one end of the stage to another back and forth to keep an overabundance of enemies, but these types of levels are far too scarce and fall in points during the game when repetition really starts to set in.
Obviously, the Wii version has the most intriguing control option, but that doesn’t mean that it’s well-implemented. You have both light and heavy attacks, as well as a close proximity attack, that allows you to mix a string of alternative moves to create devastating combos. For the Wii version, these attacks are done by waving the Wii remote up and down, and left and right, but for the most part, remain incredibly imprecise and dull. Most players will think the same thing – the Wii remote just adds a bit of tiresome waving movements that shorten the time-span of play-time. Each level are usually decorated with swarms of enemy hordes anyway, so trying to enjoy the game is more like a survival fighting mode actually. Combos are unlocked as you gain more experience with the fighting system, and although these combos are effective when done correctly, they’re extremely difficult to pull off on the Wii system consistently because of the terrible control scheme. On the other side of the controls, the Wii nunchuck is mostly used to control your character and block attacks. However, because of the number of enemies usually presented on screen at the same time, blocking attacks usually isn’t as effective. You’ll have to flick the nunchuck in a desired direction to switch from engaged enemies too, which is really just a poor implementation of game design. Eventually, the difficulty of the game becomes so difficult that you’ll have to constantly shake the nunchuck and swipe your Wii remote fast enough just to avoid getting hit in the back. Sure, there’s some variety in the game as far as weapons are concerned – guns, grenades, knives, and health-healing turkeys – but other than the grenade, these types of weapons aren’t so useful when six or seven foes are slowly creeping in on you. The game rewards its players for alternatively using different ways to defeat the enemies (by way of weapons and combos), but these type of rewards are usually only for the most hardcore of fans.
Each level usually begins with a simple cutscene, and then an objective to complete within the area. Although these cut-scenes are nice to look at, the objective part of the stage is what will bother most gamers most. There’s not always a clear message to explain exactly what you have to do, and since some levels require many different tasks, this occasionally becomes a huge problem for progressing throughout the game. Even worse, pausing the game doesn’t allow you to check your objective either, making the confusion an even bigger issue. These levels, linear ones at that, are usually defeat-all-enemies or flip-the-switch type stages. Although simplified, it would’ve been nice if Disney Interactive would’ve allowed control of the camera or even separate fixed-camera options to make the action a bit more varied. There’s some cool instances in the game called Jackanisms, which requires you as Jack Sparrow to press a button at the right time to continue a certain dynamic gameplay situation (such as sneaking past guards, or fending off enemies back to back with Will Turner), but these little flashes of innovation simply aren’t enough. Levels where you aren’t able to continue fluidly (by way of invisible walls) are even more frustrating, because level-design can sometimes dates back to the old PlayStation days, where movie-games were usually the shame of the heap.
There’s some mini-games plugged in there, such as Pirate Dice and Poker, but they’re confusing board games that only patient gamers will spent most of their time in. The PS2 and Wii versions both have competitive multiplayer modes that allows you to take on swarms of enemies in timed challenges, but they’re too short and repetitive. You can also duel against a friend, but again – these distractions are only short-lived, underwhelming experiences from a tiresome story mode.
On the visual side of things, the frame rate for the Wii version specifically is generally solid, if a bit muddled during some extreme circumstances. The attack animations and in-game cut-scenes look OK, but the game’s textures are mid-tier PlayStation 2 graphics at best. This is not a surprise, as both Wii and PS2 versions are identical with the exception of motion control. As a positive note, the Wii version does support widescreen and 480p (as does the other versions), but gamers will be left baffled whether or not the game actually lives up to a release on a next-gen system, especially graphics-wise.
Probably the better aspect of the game is its audio, which features a fully-orchestrated score by Klaus Badelt, known for his outstanding work for the music for the motion-pictures. Disappointingly however, the game isn’t voiced by Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley, or Orlando Bloom at all – as it is done by sound-alike instead. Although these sound-alikes aren’t necessarily horrible, it wouldn’t have hurt the game’s authenticity to include these small additions. The sound effects are good, but again, the repetition of each level is heard by repeating sound bites over few minute-spans.
Looking back at it all, At World’s End doesn’t really do anything to demand a purchase of any kind – even for fans who loved the film-trilogy finale. It seems as if Disney Interactive tried to push in too many locations, too many characters, and too many plots into one thing – a familiar complaint that some movie critics even had with the recent trilogy finale. This is a movie game that’s average at best, and should only be considered for a rental in dire straits. But when the day’s done, many will realize that this video-game was really intended for the kids, especially when the Wii version’s involved. At least they’re the ones that are less prone to carpel-tunnel these days.
February 8, 2010
