7/14/2003

The best part about the story in Pirates of the Caribbean (read: Sea Dogs 2) is that you make it for the most part. Sure there is the mildly entertaining main quest line and the very generic "escort rich boy to another island" quests, but the main draw is the game's free-form story. The link to the movie is next to nill, with a few hints of it here or there, a familiar ship name, that sort of thing. The hints that were put in seemed thrown in and completely out of place... poorly tied in. It seemed that Disney just needed a game to go with the movie. Look! Cheap advertising!

Graphics look incredible, play ljust ess than. Don't let screenshots fool you: Moonlight reflecting off the rippling ocean onto your ship looks beautifull, however the game suffers framerate issues on occasion. All in all they are better than average.

So so. Repetative dialogue and a ho-hum soundtrack get the job done, though there are some mis-cued victory scores (enemy ship out of range, music cued even though ship is turning around for another have at you)

Two points here. First, the interface - Awfull. A rabid pit bull is easier to control. Pointless menus, and poorly laid out screens lead to many a frustration and needless button pushing. and mashing in combat, for that matter. A bit of logic would have gone a long way to make this game seem more polished (read: finished). That aside, the gameplay is incredibly rich, deep, varied and customizeable. You want to be a swashbuckling pirate? Go ahead. You fancy being a trader and selling your goods all along the archipelago? Go nuts. You play the game however you want. The learning curve might be a little steep for those who haven't played the first installment (errr, I mean the unrelated sailing title Sea dogs by the same developer that came out a few years prior to this one). The game may even appear so daunting that the learning curve may seem unscailable for the casual gamer who doesn't care to take the time to get lost in the game and would rather join a Live! fragfest of Unreal (not that there's anything wrong with that, just don't buy this game. Those who enjoy deep RPG and open-ended gameplay (Morrowind) or who were fans of the original (oops, that's twice now.. I mean sea dogs) can easily get past the games flaws to enjoy the experience. Those who are curious about the game because of it's lacking connection to the movie, or who hope to see Orlando Bloom or Mr. Depp, stay away. Go buy another ticket to the movie instead. Finally those casual gamers looking to shoot it up on the high seas, try a more arcade style game- try Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat... it will be more to your liking.