Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End Review

The multi-billion dollar success of Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean seems to have caught the videogame industry unaware. Although publishers tend to fall over themselves, squabbling for the rights to the latest action-packed, special-fx strewn Hollywood blockbuster, it was left to the last minute for Ubisoft to "adapt" Akella's Sea Dogs 2 into something at least bearing the original film's title back in 2003. The 2006 sequel received little more with a low-key release on the handhelds, whilst Bethesda took an opportunity with a game based on Jack Sparrow's previous adventures.

For the concluding part of the trilogy, things are at least a little different. Primed with a renewed vigour for the videogames industry, Disney Interactive Studios has collaborated with Eurocom to release a tie-in coincided perfectly with the release of the film - surely the unstoppable powers of merchandising cannot fail to bring Disney a chart-topping success?

Making an appearance on the full range of consoles, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End gets off to a reasonable start. Players take control of Jack Sparrow as he attempts to break free from the confines of the Prison Fortress and makes an odd early entrance for Captain "Keith" Teague. What initially transpires serves as an indication of what to expect from the rest of the game, levels based loosely around the second and third movies, comprised largely of third-person combat, with occasional puzzle and platforming elements thrown into the mix.

Unfortunately, At World's End starts the game with the momentum of an anchor resting on the seabed and refuses to pick up the pace. Accounting for the vast majority of At World's End gameplay, combat is a laughably bland affair, providing some of the weakest experiences seen in the third-person action genre. Beyond offering little more then the most uninspired take on button-bashing tedium, At World's End suffers from a severe case of being able to dispatch virtually every opponent you'll come across with nothing more than a few jabs of the A button.

Having watched the first opponent comically turn around for a finishing blow without putting up a fight after three jabs of the standard attack button, it seemed as though the game was determined on tip-toeing through the most fundamental basics, presumably a result of the game's mainstream appeal to an audience unaware of the genre's better efforts. Several hours later, it's apparent that the same repeated jabs of the standard attack are the most efficient and easiest way to dispatch virtually every foe Jack has to face. Rarely do the East India Trading Company's guards, Sao Feng's militia, or Davy Jones' army of freaking fish mutants even manage to land a successful blow, the only time Jack's life seems to be in peril comes from the waters that surround most of the stages - a pirate who can't swim, why didn't Disney think of that!

Although there's the option to throw a punch or grab an opponent to throw them away, the efficiency of the A button renders combat a rigid and turgid affair. In a futile attempt to spice it up a little, occasionally a harder character will appear on the scene; however, the insistence on using a special attack to defeat them removes any necessity of skill from the game. Instead of using a myriad of moves and sword-slashing prowess to defeat them, it's more a case of wading through the waves of repeated goons that follow them, with the same-old A button technique, before amassing enough 'Swordsmanship' to unleash a pathetically bland take on the God of War quick-button sequence. There is the occasional hint that combat could at least resemble the swashbuckling action that Depp, Bloom, and Knightley get up to in the films. On the rare occasion that an enemy is about to strike, you'll have the opportunity to launch a counter-attack (yes with the A button), resulting in a meagre selection of jumps, pushes, and repels. Raising the intensity to a notch above insomnia-curing boredom, ultimately there's never enough to dramatise the wearisome repeated presses of the A button, whilst the ludicrously long time you have to prepare ensures that moments of difficulty are few and far between.

Although the mundane and exceptionally repetitive combat represents the vast majority of gameplay, At World's End attempts to throw a little variety with the inclusion of platforms to leap across and puzzles to solve. Any hopes that these might somehow rise above and provide reason to suffer through the combat are quickly dispelled, with the same failures continuing throughout the rest of the game. Compared to the likes of Prince of Persia, , shimmying around ledges, sliding down ziplines and walking across beams, feels unmistakably antiquated and dates back to an age when Lara Croft first began searching for artefacts. The situation isn't helped by the few "puzzles" that are featured in the game, although it seems hard to label the simplistic block moving and switch pulling as anything that will even begin to tease your cerebral skills.

Undoubtedly, the game's strongest moments come from the duels peppered throughout the game. Seamlessly blending into the preceding action, duels pan the camera to something closer to Street Fighter as you attempt to attack and defend with high, low, forward thrusts and a handful of special moves and counter-attacks. Portrayed with stylish effect, the feature still wreaks of the rigidity that runs throughout the game, but at least they provide a rare glimmer of stimulation amongst

Given the quality that should be expected from movie tie-in's and the fact that Disney are handling this one themselves, the poor production of At World's End comes across as strangely puzzling. A large portion of the game features events from the second film, and the overall plot progression feels erratic, hard to follow and fails to provide any sense of engagement to what's occurring. Although Depp's stand-in does a good job of capturing the inebriated madness of Jack Sparrow, cut-scenes fail to build a sense of atmosphere or emotion and above all else demonstrate a surprising lack of dialogue and fail to capture the magic of the movies or the cast of characters.