The summer blockbuster movie season is here and many gamers know what that means: tons of games based off the summer blockbuster movies. The sad thing is that all gamers know that most of the games based off movies tend to be less than stellar, and that is due to shortened development times and being constrained by the limits of what they can do since the game is based off the movies. With that being said, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is out in theaters now, so the game based off of it is now released upon the gaming world. How does it stack up, and does it fall into the crummy “movie-to-game” world we know so well?

This is a platforming game with combat and puzzle elements thrown into the mix. As you go through each of the game's various levels you will be tasked with trying to locate various items, collect treasures, and try to solve simple puzzles to continue on. Most of the game will revolve around you trying to collect some item, then fight hordes of mindless enemies, solve a simple puzzle or two, ending with a duel before you can progress on to start this all over again.

The combat for this game is a joke. All you have to do is hit the A or X button three times or more (depending on the enemy) and then your enemy will be “stunned” and let you strike the finishing move by turning around. When I first started playing this game, my wife was watching me and she even noticed how lame the enemies where and was asking why do they just turn around and await the death stroke. All of the movies in this series have feature really good combat sequences, and it has not translated well at all in this game. To help break up the repetition you can do various special moves, throw knifes at enemies (which is fun but gets old quickly), or even shoot them with a gun, but even with these options the combat will disappoint you.

I think the developers realized their combat engine was lacking so they added in another feature called “Dueling” that occurs at specific points during the game. What happens is that you will see three orbs on your enemy’s side of the screen. At certain times they will light up a green color and it is your cue to hit either up or down to try to defend your self, and if you do it in time you can even counter and go on the offensive to try to beat him. The problem with this is that even though this is fun the first few times, it gets extremely repetitious in later parts of this game.

The graphics for this game are really outstanding. The way that the developers were able to make the likeness of each major movie character is just striking. When you are playing this game you will be amazed at how much the in-game characters look like their movie counterparts. The best part is that even the animations matches up to what you see in the movies, even Jack’s flamboyant mannerisms, even though at times it is a bit overdone, it is really appreciated. The only bad thing about the animations is that there is not enough variety of them, especially when you are in the midst of battle. No matter which character you are, you will see the exact same moves over and over again.

The environments that you will be traveling through are also really well done. There is always a lot of detail in each one of the places you visit to make it really look as close to the movies as it can be. Beside the characters the other thing that is really well done is the ships (The Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchman) as they look like they have been at sea for a very long time. The only issue that I really have with the graphics in this game is the camera control. It felt like I was fighting the camera as much as I was the onslaught of enemies that I must subdue in order to progress in this game.

I was really disappointed in the audio for this game. The minute I loaded up the game and started playing I knew something was amiss. Captain Jack Sparrow rarely talks, and when he finally does mumble something you realize that the developers didn’t get the actors from the movie to lend their talents here. This is a huge miss on the developer’s part because half of what makes the movies so great is the dialog that the main characters have. While the animation of the characters is down pat, not hearing some of the quips the characters are known for is a huge disappointment.

This leads me to another point, since the developers didn’t get the original actors to fill in their roles, they compensated this by rarely having Jack speak at all during the game. It is really rare when you hear him spout some dialogue, even though it sounds silly; it is almost unnerving not to hear the main character speak at all, especially since this is based off a movie character that is always known for shooting off his mouth. The music and sound effects sound like they were taken straight from the movie, which is a good thing to help compensate for the lack of actual talking.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is rated Teen.

Gameplay: 5.7
The gameplay is really mediocre. All of the puzzles you face are extremely easy. The combat and platforming elements are also ridiculously simple.

Graphics: 8.4
The graphics look really great for this game, especially the outdoor environments. What I really enjoyed is that the developers really captured Captain Sparrow’s mannerisms.

Sound: 6.0
Unfortunately Disney didn’t get the voice actors from the movie to reprise their parts in the game adaptation. The imitators do a decent job, but it will leave you disappointed. The music for this game is decent, but will not blow your socks off.

Difficulty: Easy
This title is obviously made for the younger generation of gamers, as it takes no time to breeze through this entire game.

Concept: 4.9
This game is as “cookie cutter” as you can get.

Multiplayer: 6.0
The multiplayer for this game is nothing special. First off, you and a friend can duel to see who the better swordsman is. The other option is to play through six levels and try to take out all of the enemies in the way; you can play this mode either competitively or cooperatively.

Overall: 6.0
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End could have been a better game, but the repetition in battle, lack of character monologue, and its “been there, done that” gaming approach really hold this game back from being something special. Fans of this movie might have the urge to buy it, but I would just mark this game as a rental.