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It’s fairly unlikely that any buccaneer-based
game will ever surpass the outstanding gameplay of Sid Meier’s
Pirates! series, but that doesn’t mean that pirate games don’t
have a lot going for them, think of them like Grand Theft Naval.
And, as pirate-brands go, the hugely popular Pirates Of The
Caribbean series of films are about as strong as they get. Well,
you could see it coming. They’ve made another Pirates Of The
Caribbean game, except this time they are the esteemed
Bethesda Softworks and the game; Pirates Of The Caribbean: The
Legend Of Jack Sparrow, isn’t strictly a direct film tie-in. Now
that was slightly harder to predict, wasn’t it?
Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Legend Of Jack
Sparrow is set to break the mould of
sloppy by-the-numbers tie-in games by actually being a decent title
that just so happens to be based in the world of a blockbuster
series of films. The premise of the title is that you will primarily
control Jack as he tells the stories of how he gained the title of a
legend. All of references to his exploits in the films, such as the
sacking of Port Nassau, are planned to be covered over the games
twenty-four Levels.
Predictably the game is a Third-Person
Action-Adventure title, mainly of the Hack-N’-Slash variety, but
suits the context well. Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Legend Of
Jack Sparrow features several Context Sensitive Control Systems
to break up the action, nothing new there, but a nice touch
nonetheless. In general players will control two hot swappable
characters from the films cast, including Will and Elizabeth, each
with their own moves and abilities, and Pirates Of The Caribbean:
The Legend Of Jack Sparrow will also feature Co-Operative play.
The game also features light RPG elements to spice-up the action
somewhat, allowing the development of player characters. Multiple
routes through Levels are also available, hopefully allowing a
little more re-playability than is usually the case with these kind
of titles.
Another big plus for Pirates Of The Caribbean:
The Legend Of Jack Sparrow is the inclusion of Johnny Depp as
the voice of Jack, something that should seal the deal for fans of
the films. Judging by the E3 demo, the
 writing is also pretty sharp;
making for an experience slightly more entertaining than the norm.
Perhaps the most unique feature of Pirates Of The Caribbean: The
Legend Of Jack Sparrow is the inclusion of the Moonlight Dynamic
which allows individual limbs to change from human to skeleton
similar to the films depending on the location of moonbeams, which
apparently should all work in real-time. This is quite an
achievement for the aging PlayStation2, although this feature was
not on display in the demo. General graphical presentation was of a
decent standard and although the demonstration was not on
PlayStation2 hardware, it certainly did not seem out of the consoles
reach. Animation in the Cut-Scenes was a slightly flawed, but
nothing that should adversely affect play - however there were
indications of Frame-Rate problems in the Preview Code; not a good
sign since the game is scheduled for release with the new film;
Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Dead Man’s Chest, sometime this
summer.
It’s unlikely that Pirates Of The Caribbean:
The Legend Of Jack Sparrow will be a game that brings the
industry to it’s knees, but it does show signs of being a solid film
tie-in, and in the days of the abysmal Zathura, that should
be good enough to guarantee it the status of a decent game. |
