User Rating: 7.3 | Pirates of the Caribbean XBOX
Well it is finally here! To start off I have been waiting for this game since its original annoucement. And what I have experienced so far is a mixed bag. But the mixed bag leans way more toward the good than the bad :) THE BAD: There are a couple of issues that immediately stand out when I am playing this game. #1) The control on land and sea is not the easiest to pick up. By this I mean depending on which mode you decide to play in (1st or 3rd person mode) the controls change ever so slightly as to make it a little confusing as to which buttons control what actions. #2) Battling at sea is not at all easy for the player in any form or manner. Though it might get much easier after building up your character, in the beginning it is downright unfair. The best option to succeed in winning battles at sea in the beginning is to board your foe. It is way easier to win a sword fight than it is to sink a ship. Again this may change the higher your character gets but I find it a distraction when you start sailing the high seas. THE GOOD: Everything else contained in the game seems to be pretty rock solid. If it were not for the "Fast Travel" option for traveling going from place to place would be very tedious. Thank god for that :) It takes a little bit to get used to swordplay but even a novice player should be able handle themselves in a very short period of time. Swordplay comes down to one basic and major strategy.... PATIENCE! Without this you probably will be loading and reloading many many times. So just take your time when wielding the blade!!! The graphics are very nice! The pirating world comes to full life on my Sony WEGA so you will not be disappointed :) THE MIDDLE OF THE PACK: I do not know if it is just me or what but moving around in the world is a little bit on the slow side :( I wish your player could run a little faster to keep up the pace of the game a little better. The graphics are nice but I have noticed many places where the game starts to get frame jitters. Luckily this does not detract from the overall experience in the least bit! You can find treasure laying in the middle of the jungle or on the docks but I do not like the setup of how you find these random treasures. Basically you have to look for a hand to pop up in the upper left corner of the screen. This technique is fine for getting stuff from barrels and chests but it is just pure luck to find something laying on the ground. And if you blink and do not see the hand pop-up you would never know anything was there. Some sort of visual clue would have been much better to implement while out exploring the land on the islands :( SYNOPSIS: Overall this game is very nice :) Not the best, but a very solid pirate game that will eat a lot of your time if you want to be Captain Kidd. It is so nice to be able to play your character as you see fit. This quality makes this game a keeper. I am a veteran of the best ever pirate game Pirates on the Commodore64. I have also played the demo for Port Royale quite extensively. Compared to these two games "Pirates of the Caribbean" keeps its heels planted pretty firmly on the ground. Not groundbreaking or out of this world but a very good Pirating game none the less. It has a lot in common with Bethesda's "Morrowind" when it comes to gameplay. If you liked Morrowind you will no doubt love this game :) If you did not play or like Morrowind it is tough call but I would have to say you might want to rent it first. Because of the slow gameplay and shear amount of things you can do this could possibly cause you to say "Geeze...I will never get through this game!".
