LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game

Story 4/10

The point is that it’s Pirates of the Caribbean... in LEGO. There have been several instalments in the LEGO series, including Star Wars, Batman, Indiana Jones and now we get to play as our favourite Pirates of the Caribbean characters.

The premise is that it follows the story of the films but does so in LEGO form which is great. However it differs from the story of the actual movies as the LEGO, and probably the age certificate, mean that the scenes can’t play out as they do in the movies. They are much less gruesome with no LEGO blood, however there are several LEGO decapitations which is always good for a laugh.

Plus the main problem with basing a game on a film is that everyone already knows the outcome so ‘finding out what happens’ isn’t a reason to get to the end.

Picture 7/10

It would be unfair to mark the game down for picture as the whole thing is LEGO. There are areas that could be improved though. Sometime the background and interactive objects get in each other’s way and sometimes you can’t work out if you can go through a gap to the left or right of the screen because you can’t see it.

Sound 8/10

For any movie based game (I now realise two out of three o my reviews are movie based...) Having the original music is a big win for me. So it gets a thumbs up. However, after a while it started to grate on me which, if you are looking for a direct comparison, means that the Star Wars music is far more epic that Pirates.

Gameplay 7/10

LEGO games, at the heart, are just simple fun for all the family. I bought the game for three reasons:

1. It’s a game to play with the kids.

2. Easy Achievements.

3. I was a tad hungover and my friend ‘insisted’ we pay a visit to Game.

The gameplay is relatively straightforward and is user friendly for kids and adults alike. The kids can play through the main story easily enough with minimal supervision and for the adults (bigger kids) there is the extra challenge of reaching 100%, which requires some out of the box thinking.

However reaching 100% can be a massive frustration and not because of difficulty. NPCs can go fuck themselves in this game, especially when they are required to help you progress through the levels. There are several instances where you need both characters, you and the NPC, to flip double switches.

Certain characters have different skills which allow you to progress. A good example is that Captain Jack Sparrow can use rope to ascend to higher levels. In free play mode where you can change to any character at a whim, so I can switch to Jack and use a rope to ascend to a different level. However,  the NPC will not do this and will wait at the beginning of the section while you go on ahead, meaning that you then have to switch to the NPC and navigate them through the level for a second time.

This is problematic enough but is made worse when you make the switch back to the beginning, the fucktarded NPC you leave where you want to get to will start backtracking to your current location. Which means that level navigating is totally fucking stupid when trying to collect all minikits and compass items.

I also experienced a few crashes and a lot of lag in the hub once I had unlocked all the other characters but I think this could be a problem with my disc more than the game itself.

Oh, and then there is the issue of Blackbeard. Blackbeard appears in a set location in the hub for unlocking and he is required to get to some of the optional areas. He doesn’t always appear there which means I had to wait until the game decided to place him there before I could proceed with my minikit collecting. On top of this, when he did appear, I didn’t have enough coins to buy him so I had to do it again.

Achievements – 1,000 points - 40 Achievements

In terms of achievements the game ticks all the right boxes; No online, no secrets and all can be obtained through player skill as opposed to luck. Granted, they aren’t that tricky and because the in game extras don’t disable achievements (in fact, there is even an achievement for having them all active at the same time) the ones that would be normally very time consuming (Get 88,888,888 coins) can be done relatively quickly.

Downloadable Content – Not Applicable

Summary

LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean is a great family game. It probably isn’t challenging enough for serious gamers and can be repetitive for those who want to think about what they’re doing, but it was great for me to play when I was ill and it’s also a straight forward 1,000 points.

Deadly Premonition

Story – 9/10

In terms of storyline, Deadly Premonition is one of the best I’ve ever seen in video games but not for the usual reasons. The storyline focuses on the main protagonist, York, who is an unorthodox FBI agent investigating a serial killer in a small town. 

A big highlight for me is that the game refuses to take itself seriously where the characters act accordingly based on your gameplay decisions. For example there are various points where you have to travel with other characters but you can also choose not to. Not doing so can cause some hilarious dialogue mainly aimed at York being an unaware lunatic - something that York continually disregards.

I really like that the gameplay interlinks with the story but the main highlight is comic value portrayed throughout, even during moments of seriousness.

Picture – 4/10

The visual quality of the game is very poor for Xbox360 standard. It’s very blocky and even during cut scenes, the characters appear rigid and if they are being forced to act. They also make strange gestures during conversations which leads me down the poor development path as opposed to being done on purpose for comedy.

Sound – 7/10

Going in line with the comedy elements described under the story, the accompanying music adds to the comic element. Some reviews have criticised this approach but I think it is genius, especially when playing light-hearted Jazz music during tense situations.

Gameplay – 2/10

This is where the game falls on its comic-horror ass. ‘Glitchy as fuck’ is a generous description of the gameplay which is a shame as all the good points above are undone by the game failing to do what it is created to do – be PLAYABLE.

On two occasions I have found myself completely stuck because the game has glitched and prevented me from progressing. One of these times was towards the end of a long and arduous section where one of the zombies wouldn’t load and it wouldn’t let me continue until I had killed every zombie in the room. I lost roughly half an hour of my life for no reason due to poor development.

Other situations involve the game not allowing me to progress even though I’ve done the required prerequisite activity. Sometimes the cut scenes won’t load and other times the game freezes completely.

However the one that nearly resulted in the death of my controller was when I was replaying a chapter to finish the trading card collection. It is important to note that you cannot save the game during a chapter replay I had collected about 5 cards which has taken about an hour. I went to the location of the next card and fell through a hole in the graphics, dying and losing all my progress. This is just unacceptable in terms of developer short cuts.

These are my massive gameplay issues. However, I also found the areas of driving and shooting to be sadly lacking, which is shit when you take into account that driving and shooting take up about 90% of the active gameplay.

The driving controls are awful. If you go down a hill, without any modifications to your car, as soon as your vehicle reaches 60mph, you can no longer control it and it veers off to the side of the road and smashes into the invisible barrier, if you happen to be driving next to a grassy embankment.

The combat aspects of the game are just as bad, if not worse. I lost count of the amount of times I’ve shot armed zombies (what is that about?!) with a shotgun from point blank range for them to then shoot me as if i did nothing. And then York falls on the floor holding his face in loads of pain... hmm. Really? Also it is unreasonable, on any level of difficulty, for a zombie to take 16+ headshots AND STILL NOT DIE. Why not just make it harder to shoot the zombies in the head? That would have at least made the combat scenarios more bearable.

That doesn’t leave much else of the game that isn’t poorly developed except for what I’ve already mentioned, making my score of 2 actually quite generous.

Achievements – 1,000 points – 12 Achievements

I’m all for secret achievements under one premise – that they are story linked and are unmissable. Deadly Premonition fails to meet these criteria in that there are achievements for completing the game on each difficulty level and another for completing an in game collection and they are all listed as secret.

Failure number two on the achievement front is having non stackable achievements. To earn 1,000 point you have to play through on all three difficulties. This is really irritating especially when it is mainly a story driven game and there is not that much difference in the challenge level between difficulties. This makes for the most frustrating aspect of these achievements in having to replay a story driven game three times to earn the 1,000 points.

Downloadable Content – Not Applicable

Summary

Deadly Premonition is definitely worth playing from a story point of view, but if you fancy a 100% game I would avoid it. Having to play a game three times when it is exactly the same in each of these occasions is a definite miss for me.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Story – 8/10

First off, like any typical Star Wars game, there are two endings, one for the light side and one for the dark side. What I really liked was that a specific ending is designed to fit in with the franchise storyline. I’m sure there are some errors with this, as would always be the case with a prequel in the middle of the series, however, it really worked for me, especially as a fan of the franchise.

Picture – 5/10

The graphics are not that great, even though the game was released in 2008. There are a lot of background stuff that kind of gets in the way a lot of the time and it’s not very neat and often takes away from the gameplay.

Sound – 9/10

Like any endorsed Star Wars game, it uses the familiar soundtrack which never fails to be epic. Darth Vader and the emperor are almost carbon copies of the movies despite being voiced by different people. Having checked this on IMDb, I also found it very strange that Starkiller's appearance is modelled on the actor that voices him!

Gameplay – 2/10

This is where the game can suck my dick. Getting the above right should always come secondary to making a decent game. However, at some points the game is unplayable. The best example of this is the fight with Kazdan Paratus at the end of level two. There is no pattern or consistency to his attacks. If you use one ability, it will work, if you use it again, it won’t. There is no rhyme or reason for this – it just seems to depend on how the game is feeling that day.

Also the camera controls leave a lot to be desired. Walking close to a wall will upset the camera and often cause it to point directly at wall. This would normally happen when I was fighting purge troopers which means you only have 2 seconds to live on Sith Master and I really resent dying because the camera didn’t feel it was appropriate for me to look at the guy that’s attacking me.

Which links nicely with my next point – the lock on system is a pile of garbage. It is automatic apparently but there is no way for it to differentiate between say... an angry Felucian Warrior and... a rock. So when I’m fighting three bad guys at once and try to do force lightening on them and end up shocking the nearest rock you can imagine the difficulty in not launching the controller at the wall.

Achievements – 1,345 points – 59 Achievements

So in order for a game to be reviewable, I have to obtain all the achievements, which I managed over the course of a month. The main difficulty with this is the Sith Master achievement for completing the game on the hardest difficultly level. This would have been easier if the controls were good, however, this difficulty leaves it more down to luck than skill.

Downloadable Content – Value for money?

The short answer is no. There are two DLCs that feature achievements and they are both overpriced, especially considering the game was released in 2008 and has a sequel. They are also painfully short for what they are.

Summary

Was Star Wars: The Force Unleashed worth playing the whole way through? Probably not. The story drives it and the game play elements feel like interference; something a game should be ashamed of.