Pirates of the Caribbean

The Good
Pirates of the Caribbean was once known as Sea Dogs II. Alas Disney came in waving around cash for the developer Akella, to change it to a movie tie-in. Unlike the film the game is quite enjoyable.

In Pirates you play as Nathanial Hawkins, a captain who knows his way around the sea. The plot in this game is fairly bare bones, so there is not much I can say about it, but in the end you and your crew go after an ancient and (gasp!) cursed treasure. There are tons of side quests, and endless sea battles. The quests range from escorting a merchant safely to port, surviving a deadly storm, and even saving villagers from crazed cultists.

The Graphics in this game are fantastic, as expected from a Bethesda game. Everything is incredibly detailed. Just take a look at the water! It almost looks like a Xbox 360 game. Every village and port looks unique, and all the different ships, swords and guns are equally unique.

The Sound and Music are good. The score is powerful when engaged in a ship to ship battle, and quaint when exploring a village. So the score always fits the situation just like a good score should. The sound effects are better than what you usually find in RPGs. The explosions and clanging of swords are all convincing.

The Gameplay of Pirates, consists equally of exploration and combat. Either ship to ship or sword to sword. The ship to ship combat takes some getting used to, but once you do it is a blast, if a little lengthy. Sword to sword battles are realistic in the fact that you must parry and riposte to stay alive, and each weapon type has its strengths and weakness. For example: a Rapier is fast but not to powerful, while a cutlass is powerful but lacks speed, there is also a variety of special weapons. You can also shoot your pistol in battle, a powerful one can often pick off an enemy before they close in on you. Beware as the enemies pack heat as well. There are tons of quests to undertake, and endless sea battles. You can even trade or smuggle goods. You can have up to four ships under your command which is cool, and you can name all of your ships. The story of the game is short, but the side quests make up for it.

The Bad
The story is short. The game is a little too hard, even when you get up in levels. And some ship battles take too long, the final battle at the end of the game takes about an hour. The bugs in this game are horrible, some corrupt your game, and therefore you cannot finish the game, others make the game lock up, there is really no excuse for this crap.

The Bottom Line
If you liked Sea Dogs check this one out. And honestly the Xbox version is better as the game feels like a console game meant for a controller, then again with the PC version you can always download a patch to fix all the bugs.