Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End Hands-on

If they wanted to, Disney Interactive Studios could probably put together a Flash-based game where players attempt to toss bottles of rum into the mouth of a poorly animated Johnny Depp and sell the thing to thousands of ravenous Pirates of the Caribbean fans. Thankfully, that's not the plan for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

This week, the House of Mouse let IGN get its hands on the videogame that combines action from the movies Pirate of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and unreleased Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. The first thing that jumps off the screen with At World's End is the detail developers have already put into this tale. Orlando Bloom's face is spot on, the drunk-like stagger of Captain Jack Sparrow is recreated with the push of the joystick and vocal doubles for the cast of characters are perfect.



Nice hats.With the theater release of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End about a month away, it's about time for the marketing machine to kick into high gear and bring "Yo-ho" back as a household word, and videogames are going to be a big part of that - seven incarnations of the film are being released simultaneously. The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions are identical, the DS is its own entity, and the Wii, PS2, PSP and PC all share the same version with some slight variations when it comes to control. While the 360 and PS3 focus on recreating the look and feel of the movies, the other models focus on unique gameplay.

There are three basic attacks for a pirate - a light sword attack, a heavy sword attack and an item attack. Although the swordplay will be the meat and potatoes of this high-sea adventure, plucky pirates can pick up guns and knives along the way. A HUD in the upper-left corner of the screen keeps track of how many bullets, throwing knives and chickens - that's health for these sea-lovers - remain as well as how many "Black Pearls" are left. Rather than just let you be a yellowbelly and hold down the block button for the duration of an attack, developers instituted the Black Pearl system to keep you honest. Each time an opponent lands a hit on your block, a quarter of one of your pearls disappears. If you exhaust the pearls, your blocking is disabled until it has time to recharge.

Although the scurvy dogs showing At World's End wouldn't say how the movie will end end, they were happy to showcase select levels from the game, which feature key battles and extended stories from the films. One level - Isla de Pelegostos - put players into the swashbuckling sneakers of Will Turner as he teamed with Jack to escape the savages holding the duo captive. The setting drew heavily from Dead Man's Chest as Will freed trapped pirates and jogged across bridges, but wasn't limited to what happened in the flick. As the savages attacked young Mr. Turner, he had multiple choices as far as how he could dispatch them. Will could hack at them with his sword, shoot them, grab them or perform the special move called "Ole" - when enemies rush at a the main character, the player can hold the correct button and move the joystick to one side to perform a sidestep maneuver that, in this case, sends bad guys past Will and over the cliff.

Can't we settle this in a dance contest?The game even made use of interactive cinemas as Will and Jack battled a trio of natives on a rickety bridge. Once the bad guys met the duo on the walkway, the game cut to a movie where buttons would pop on screen. If a player hit the right buttons quickly enough, the cinema progressed with Will and Jack laying the smackdown on some natives, but if a button was missed, the scene started from the beginning.

At World's End won't drop anchor on consoles for another month, but it's clear Disney is on the right track and keeping with the humor and character of the movies -- and if that doesn't excite fans, the pirate's booty of unlockable characters to plays as, pirate rankings and more should have them eager to set sail and pick up this title.

via IGN