Gameplay
Gameplay
Although loosely based around the film of the same name, Pirates of the Caribbean (POTC) is essentially an individual tale. You play as Nathanial Hawk, a man with his own ship and crew that is looking for adventure, money and fame in the Caribbean. Who your character Nathanial will become is up to you, as you get skill points given to you as your levels increase. If you want to gear yourself up to be a dreaded pirate then you can slap skill points to focus on ship boarding and sailing, if you want to be a loyal mercenary then slap your points in leadership and commerce, if you want to be a fearless warrior then concentrate on combat skills. The POTC manual is true in the respect you can customise your character to suit your own personal playing style.
You start on an island called Oxbay where you learn how the game operates, but as soon as you leave the island an attack occurs by the French and you’re the sole survivor. You must head to the British island of Redmond and tell the governor of the situation, and that’s where the story develops from.
After that you are (relatively) free to go wherever you please. How you progress is your choice. You may decide to gain money by doing trade runs, or you may think the best way to get better riches is to prey on unsuspecting ships, it’s up to you.
The game itself is split into two distinct playing modes. The majority of the game is played in third person, where you explore islands talking and battling the inhabitants when necessary.
This side of POTC is pretty standard, with nothing particularly inspiring to write home about, or anything truly terrible (in exception to the control system, mentioned later) to moan about either.
The other theatre of play occurs on the sea, and is far the most entertaining. In your seaworthy vessel you engage other vessels in combat, ranging from cannon fire to boarding their ships (in which case you change back to your character in third person, and must battle your way to take the ship).
Ok, so this type of ship to ship combat isn’t exactly new. My girlfriend has an older game for the Playstation 2 called Pirates: Legend of Black Kat which Pirates of the Caribbean has more than a striking resemblance for  . However this type of game isn’t commonplace on the PC, so at least it ‘feels’ unique and different to the hordes of FPS titles PC gamers are used too.
Sea battles are really great though, and are actually the sparkling gem of Pirates of the Caribbean. The combat is fairly strategic, which is often what the battles were like during those times, with players having to rely on the good fortune of the winds and the skills of their crew to win battles. Not only are these battles entertaining but the graphics portraying it are lovely, with fabulous explosions, awesome burning effects, and water spray from missed cannon shells being my favourites. Not only do you have beautiful changes in day/night graphics but occasionally you get fierce storms sweep in which add a whole new dimension to the game! The waves move realistically, with breaking waves hitting the sides of your ship with awesome force. You often feel like your battling with the storm yourself down on deck, desperate not to let your ship succumb to the waves. Luckily you are watching the action unfold safely in the comfort of your bedroom...phew.
In fact, visuals are the real plus point of POTC. There are a few graphical sore spots like any game, but the majority of visuals in the game are superb. Just check out the screens for yourself to make your own mind up.
Freedom, but linear??
Those who assume that because the game is created by Bethesda soft works (the same people who made Morrowind) and that therefore the game is as free as the wind will be disappointed. Although you can travel between islands at any time, and complete many sub-quests in between the main story, the game feels intolerably constricting. The majority of sub-quests for example are mostly simple “take cargo here” and “take passenger here” missions, with unique ones much harder to find (and often relatively short-lived when you do find them).
Compare this title to Morrowind, where you spent more time doing the sub-quests than engaging in the story, and you feel like your in some kind of old fashioned console RPG of following A to B to C to D religiously.
Even the missions themselves follow a set formula. One mission for example is to free a kidnapped son by paying the ransom off. However, I thought I’d be smart to look for where they were holding him captive and rescue him, rather than go to the arranged meeting place and pay them. I found the house and killed the sole guard, yet nothing happened. The captive was scared of me and wouldn’t talk to me! The ONLY way of doing that mission is to pay the captors… yawn.
True you can choose to fight for one or more of the different colonial powers sailing in the Caribbean to add to the experience, but even this feels constricting. You can’t for example decide to join the English and get your own English crew, uniform and ship. You just work as a mercenary for these powers, and you can switch to whichever side you want relatively easy. The choices you make here also don’t really affect the way the story pans out.
Magic Barriers
Travelling around the islands is interesting, but again is very limited in where you can actually go. Unlike Morrowind and other RPG’s most houses you find in town are locked, not encouraging you at all to explore to find the hidden secrets that are present within the game. Why bother knocking on every door in a town to find only one that actually opens?
My old favourite in FPS’s also rears its ugly head very frequently; Invisible barriers. These beauty’s are my personal pet-hate as they lead the player to assume he has free space to roam around in, but in reality is not. I’m a very curious game player, so if I think I see a path present in the undergrowth leading to a hidden beach I’ll try and walk through there. However that particular beach isn’t an actual area to explore, it’s for aesthetic purposes only so the developers prevent the player walking there by placing an invisible barrier there. I’d rather have the developers placing physical objects like rocks to block paths, rather than winding me up with false hopes.
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