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

Genre: Action Adventure Publisher: Buena Vista Games Developer: Eurocom Players: ?

By Keith B (21st Jul 2007)

Bad controls, dull gameplay, and a directionless narrative all make for a game barely worth renting.

When does a clever, almost honourary, imitation turn into a cheap parody of itself? For a good example, one might look to Johnny Depp’s once-ingenious Keith Richards’ impersonation, Captain Jack Sparrow. After that, one need look no further for its adulteration than Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (the less generous might pitch the roll-over moment at Dead Man’s Chest, an even worse film). For what seemed the first time around like a clever, affectatious rockstar-cum-pirate send-up--from the slightly, sometimes obnoxiously, drunken swagger, to the blowhard bravado--ol’ Cap’n Jack was little more than an flimsy if loveable one-off, dreamed up and spun out, rightly sent to his watery grave one film in tow. But when the big green monster came knocking, Johnny was forced to dust Jack’s sea-tattered garments off once more, larding on the make-up and the affect, and seemingly forgetting the moments of understatement that made Jack more than just risible the first time around, but memorable.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, a sloppy tie-in game pitched for more or less any and all consoles haphazardly willing to adapt and take on the ever-growing list of mediocre Pirates games, does little to undermine the later films’ painfully obvious avarice.

The crux of At World’s End is swordfighting. And more swordfighting. After that, one can only guess at the game’s objective. You are one of several predictable characters: effete Will Turner, sultry Elizabeth Swann, eye-rolling Barbossa, or self-explanatory ol’ Cap’n Jack Sparrow. The game revolves around both Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End, roughly the first third of the game dedicated to the former, and the remainder to the latter. This means, more or less, that the game follows a linear progression as you move through the films’ more memorable locales. In reality, though, you’re more likely to note that the onslaught of enemies is seemingly endless: you are likely to encounter a greater number of people who need a good killing in this game than in fact existed by the close of the eighteenth century.

While swordfighting might be the lone tactical basis for the game, its attendant control scheme is anything but Aztec gold. As most of us who have seen even one Pirates movie will recall, if nothing else--and, really, I don’t really remember the finer (though I do remember the sometimes blunter) points of the narrative--the Pirates series relies heavily on swashbuckling fight scenes, excessively choreographed, teeming with bevies of complex jumps and leaps. The swordfighting was always well timed and well produced. This, though, tells us nothing about the game, unless one were to observe what is so painfully missing: precision. The Pirates swordfighting scenes were all thrust and parry, a hyperbolic fencing match on a volatile Atlantic. In the game, they’re anything but.

Often the motion sensor functions more like motion insensitivity, missing jabs and slashes (not to mention those nearly impossible to execute grabs and throws), thus causing numerous avoidable deaths and counter blows while you attentively and cautiously dance, Wiimote in hand, in your living room. The result is little short of a childish bedlam, as you, frustrated by the Wii’s unresponsiveness , start swinging wildly about the room, and the screen, stabbing when nothing is present and slashing when no one’s near. Think less well-choreographed fencing and more machete-wielding mayhem as you seemingly hack your way through an imaginary congo-like mess of tendrils and branches.

Added to this sloppy bundle of bladed havoc is another smattering of lame defense mechanisms: throwing knives, pistols, and grenades. These help to break up the otherwise tedious--and thoroughly exhausting--swordfighting. To switch and activate your ancillary artillery, merely tap away at the D-pad and rotate through. This might be the clearest and, unfortunately, best part of the control scheme.

And while the sloppy control scheme, narrative indecisiveness, and shoody gameplay are nearly insufferable, the production values are surprisingly high. The game does look good. Maybe its not as advanced, fine, or nuanced as say its XBOX incarnation, but the animation is smooth, the visuals stunning, and the character mannerisms surprisingly accurate. Occasionally the animation is a little jagged, lacking the smooth curves and shapes we tend to associate with human bodies, but for the most part pretty decent. Even when the animation goes out, though, the realism of movement is incredible: digital Jack moves, convincingly, like Depp’s Jack.

Added to these rather positive, if not fully compensatory, aesthetic bonuses, is some surprisingly good voice-over work. But don’t get your knickers in a tawdry twist yet. The voice-overs are performed by voice actors--not Depp, Bloom, Knightly, or Rush--and the effect is mixed. Sure, the voices are pretty accurate, both in sound and tone, but there’s something slightly awry nonetheless, which gives the game the lame overtone of, say, your father dressed as Homer walking around the house saying “d’oh!” The real McCoy is once again spared, and the result is satisfactory if not perfect.

Otherwise, the game’s soundscape is pretty solid. Lots of bangs and whistles, atmospheric noise, voice-overs (both during and succeeding action), and the delightfully cinematic swell of preposterously triumphant music.

The overall result is a not terribly satisfying game. Instead of the high-seas adventure we all crave--a simple, adventure game, with a mix of proficient swordfighting, well-conceived mini-games and challenges, maybe a few arcane pistol fights, and the perennial hunt for lost treasure--we get a muddled mix of endless and poorly constructed hatchet work, sloppily mediated by other lame weapons, while we meander without direction through an obnoxiously dull world. This is an unfortunate end to what appeared to be a thin franchise with moderate potential. No one expected the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy to be the high-brow cinema that makes directors rethink the medium, but none of us expected the drivel, each installment, be it of game or film, worse than the last. Let’s just thank god, simply, that the series’ franchise star, Johnny Depp, has put away Jack for good, and take solace in the fact that this means no more tedious movies and no more unplayable games.