LEGO PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN
Lego Pirates Of The Caribbean -
Positives
Negatives
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Full Review
Travellers Tales have been extremely busy recently, churning out Lego games like there's no tomorrow. After Lego Star Wars III was released back in March, it was announced that Lego Pirates would be coming to the consoles to celebrate the fourth film being released in cinemas. So does Lego Pirates live up to expectations and do Travellers Tales outdo themselves here?
The game starts with a skippable intro taken from the first Pirates game before thrusting you straight into the first level, Port Royal. Anyone who's played a Lego game will be right at home here as the controls are unchanged from other Lego Games. This is fine to some extent but I always felt Pirates was an odd choice to turn into a Lego game and I'll explain properly a little bit later in this review as to why that is.
After the first level is done and dusted, the hub area opens up where the ability to play through the four Pirate films becomes available. To be honest, all the levels are pretty standard and none really jumped out at me as being amazing but the effort gone into the 'On Stranger Tides' levels is excellent and a step up from the average levels plaguing this game.
The later levels are well designed and feature a number of new gameplay mechanics including some ingenious simple puzzles and for the first time-a car chase where you have to jump from one roof of a car to another. Its clear to see all the effort has gone into these levels to try and promote the film but I would have liked more from the previous three films.
The story can get confusing at times via the speechless cut-scenes so anyone unfamiliar with the story, I suggest steering clear here as even I got confused with the story for Dead Man's Chest and At Worlds End. TT tried their best to produce some cut scenes that tried to explain what was going on, but unfortunately it doesn't work here and could have been simplified somewhat. Having said that though, the humour used throughout them is excellent and there were a few moments that had me laughing out loud which is obviously only a good thing!
Lego Pirates is a strange one for TT as for me it feels like a step back for the series rather than a giant leap forward. The diverse range of abilities on Star Wars and the ingenious magic system on Harry Potter make Pirates pale in comparison as there's nothing new here that hasn't been seen already. The ability to walk underwater is the only thing Pirates can boast but that quickly grows old and isn't much fun.
All the controls are the same but the swordfights, although just button bashing, are surprisingly fun and the snippet of music that cues when you release your sword is a stroke of genius and one that makes me whip my sword out all the time, simply to hear that music.
Lego Pirates is like a bridge game in many ways, thrown together to make the wait for the next Lego Harry Potter less substantial and of course to try and generate some extra cash. The sound is brilliant as you'd expect with the licensed themes enhancing the audio quality of the game and the sound effects being just as effective.
Overall then, Lego Pirates is a mediocre Lego game with plenty of replay value but not much in terms of innovative gameplay mechanics. Everything on offer here is just a rehash of what's come before and although its nice to play as Captain Jack, the variety of characters isn't that exciting. The game is good fun but I doubt you'll stick around for the long haul to collect everything after playing through the levels.
Conclusion Scores
Graphics -
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Story -
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Gameplay -
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Trophies -
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Sound -
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Lasting Appeal -
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Overall Score -
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