TT games has established a proud legacy of humorous and enjoyable Lego
homages of the classic Star Wars & Indiana Jones trilogies. Their latest
effort features the Pirates Of The Caribbean series, the origins of which lay in
a Disney Land theme park ride.
Like any other modern Lego game the original story is squashed and retold in
Lego format; common Lego pieces and bricks make up objects and vehicles, and
Lego caricatures of the cast (often including very minor cast members) make up
the players while vocals are reduced to grunts and mumbles.
Players are given a selection of characters and play through key scenes and
events from the films, letting the Lego heroes run loose in a 3D platformer on
beautifully detailed locations and backdrops. The goal is to amass currency in
the form of Lego studs, which is collected by breaking and building Lego
objects, props and defeating enemies. Combat is very basic and simple button
mashing will prevail, while the only consequence of dying is the loss of some
hard earned studs.
Two player co-op is handled with the ingenious split screen from the Indiana
Jones series that only appears once both players separate a certain distance.
The screen split is not fixed in any plane and rotates to allow maximum view
while providing an indication on direction back to your partner.
The biggest downside is that the game is so drastically short. Each of the
4 movies is broken down into only 5 chapters, compared to 6 in all other
games. The sole bonus level is an underwhelming trip on the Disney ride, whereas
the previous games had bonus levels for each film. Vehicle (or vessel) levels
are completely absent from this game. This is made more confusing as all of the
minikit collectables build into ships, which normally feature in a minikit bonus
level found in other titles. This lack of content is most damning when you
consider TT Games made two fairly robust Lego games based on the 4 Indiana
Jones movies!
Unfortunately, the game lacks the charm of the previous titles. Other than
Lego Jack Sparrow, who may or may not have been voiced by Johnny Depp, the
supporting cast lack the lego charisma or enough individuality to do anything
other than make up the numbers. This is most apparent in the story cut scenes
where Jack is typically the only character not acting as set dressing.
Obviously, in a game with no vocals the story is difficult to follow, but all
Lego games trim the story to a point that it will be impossible to follow
without prior knowledge of the original films. This will leave casual or even
uninformed players/fans at a disadvantage, and remove a lot of the
enjoyment.
The game is compounded by numerous bugs; players will often fall off
perfectly stable ledges or become wedged in the background; friendly AI is
challenged at the best of times and will often get lost or stuck; I encountered
several lock ups and situations where critical characters would not be present;
changing characters in freeplay almost always results in you turning into the
mostly useless Lego dog and bonus items can disappear from the game completely,
preventing the player reaching 100% completion. In addition, when compared to
other Lego titles, there are fairly long loading times. This could normally be
explained by larger levels or improved graphics, but neither of these are
present – leaving the inclusion far more baffling.
Overall, this title feels rushed. While still Lego and an enjoyable game, the
source material is obviously too thin to begin with and the characters (other
than one) are not as individual, developed or as iconic, at least not yet, as
those in other Lego franchise titles. The raw ingredients are there for a great
Lego title but when compared to what has come before, this title falls short of
the established benchmark of the previous titles.