 Review By: Jared Black |
Developer: | Eurocom |
| Publisher: | Disney Interactive Studios | |
| Genre: | Action | |
| ESRB: | Everyone 10+ | |
| # Of Players: | 1-2 | |
| Online Play: | No | |
| Accessories: | Nunchuk | |
| Buy Now: |   |
Really, the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has never gotten a decent shake in the video game world. Whether due to the surprise success of the first film, or simply a lack of focus on video games in general by Disney, the original movie was represented in video game form by Bethesda with a retooled release of what was supposed to be Sea Dogs II. While the game itself was decent enough (I’ve kept it in my PC collection to this day), it’s a PotC title in name only as it does not feature any plot points or characters from the movie. Inexplicably, the second movie, Dead Man’s Chest, wasn’t even released on home consoles, garnering only a release in the handheld realm. Now with At World’s End (AWE), Disney finally seems poised to capitalize on the success of one of the biggest trilogies in movie history…it’s just a shame that this version is so horrible.
Sword fighting has always seemed like a natural fit for the Wii Remote, yet AWE like other titles before it manages to botch it up completely. The most obvious problem is that the Wii Remote is used in only the most rudimentary of ways – waggle the Wii Remote left or right to perform a light attack, or up and down to perform a stronger attack. Even if it weren’t true 1 to 1 movement, being able to wield the Wii Remote as an actual sword would’ve instantly made duels much better. Instead of that though, we’re stuck with a system that’s really no better than pounding on the A button to attack as you do in the Xbox 360 version, since the gamer is simply flicking a wrist in a direction to attack.
Actually, this is even worse than simply pounding on the A button to attack. Not only does it not represent the chance to wield your Wii Remote as a decent representation of an actual sword, but also the controls don’t even really work that well. The control system generally fails to recognize light flicks of the Wii Remote, meaning you have to flick it with good force to properly attack. There were many instances throughout the game where several enemies attacked me at once, only to have my character stand there and fail to swing at all despite my waggling of the Wii Remote. Keep in mind that enemies almost always attack in waves of three, with reinforcements arriving only if one is dispatched first, making them very predictable. Due to this I experienced a considerable amount of pain in my wrist after playing the game for an hour or so; while it was bearable, no game should ever make you endure physical pain to properly enjoy it.
While using any of the several playable characters, developer Eurocom did at least put in a generous lock-on system (which you need for a game like this), so your character will attack a nearby enemy automatically as you swing the Wii Remote so long as you’re facing in that general direction. Those enemies attack pretty much identically throughout the game unfortunately, with only a few bomb-wielding bad guys and Castlevania-like hands coming up through the ground in Davy Jones’ Locker standing out as unique.
The controls are a letdown outside of combat as well. Sprinkled throughout the game are Jackanisms, which is basically this game’s really lame name for the Quick Time Events (QTEs) found in many titles before it such as Dragon’s Lair and Shenmue. These offer the chance to win bonus charm cards usable in one of several mini-games, but I rarely won anything because the controls were so unresponsive. Time and time again I swore I had pushed the A button in time, or waggled the Wii Remote at just the right angle the game was looking for, and yet I would fail the challenge. It gets annoying pretty quickly when you have to repeat these same areas over and over again simply because the game doesn’t respond like it should.
And then there are the duels, which are perhaps the most disappointing part of Pirates’ controls. Serving as boss fights, duels with major characters aren’t that much different from the rest of the game. Boss characters have higher health than normal enemies, but in the end duels generally boil down to blocking until the right time to counterattack, with perhaps one or two QTEs thrown in along with a little bit of dialog. What really makes these disappointing though is seeing what was done on other systems. The Xbox 360 version uses the left analog stick almost exclusively for duels, with a rudimentary blocking system and location-based attacks depending on which direction is pressed on the stick. The Nintendo DS version takes it even further. Blocking is handled with the d-pad, by pressing the corresponding direction to fend off an enemy’s attack. Attacking is done by drawing various shapes on the touch screen, with several new ones unlocked as the game progresses. To see the Wii, with arguably the most advanced control scheme of any major console, relegated to an extremely basic block and attack dueling mode is a shame.
Posted: 2007-07-07 16:32:25 PST