Sunday Ramblings: Lego Pirates of the Caribbean

But... why's the rum gone!?
 

The Lego Pirates trailer

Lego Pirates of the Caribbean is the fifth series to get the Lego treatment, following ports of Indiana Jones, Batman, Harry Potter, and Star Wars. The game follows the events of all four Pirates movies, starting from the first scene of Curse of the Black Pearl all the way to the end of On Stranger Tides. The style is widely similar to the feel of all of the other Lego titles, telling the whole story that the movie did in a goofy, kid friendly manner with some slapstick humor that even adults can enjoy. Most major scenes from the movies are done Lego style, with no actual dialogue but sound effects and goofy jokes galore. It’s definitely an aspect of Lego Pirates that shines.

The HUD while in combat

The gameplay in Lego Pirates is the biggest sign that the game is made for a younger audience; mash X to attack, jump around with A, switch characters with Y, and use a character’s special attack with B. The camera is essentially stationary and stays with whatever character you’re playing as, but there are certain points where you turn a corner and the camera doesn’t follow. 

The captain goes down with the ship

Each lego representation of the characters are very well done, they all have the look of the movie with the obvious block form of legos. The only one that didn’t look right was Elizabeth, it’s pretty tough to get Keira Knightly correct in lego form. The rest look great, especially with Jack Sparrow who runs around with his patented flailing arms, and he’s even voiced by Johnny Depp himself! 

You switch between characters depending on the special trait that is needed (for example: Jack Sparrow can use his compass to find hidden items, while Bill Turner can throw axes to hit targets and access special areas). The female characters can double jump to reach certain points, some characters have hammers to fix broken lego objects, and others have explosive weapons that can destroy otherwise immovable objects. Being able to switch between the characters to move through levels is a fun strategic concept, but it can get very bogged down when there are more that three characters to switch between. You can control as many as 8 people at once and it get’s very confusing to switch between all of them especially when you have enemies attacking you.

A scene from At Worlds End

Lego Pirates is by no means difficult, but there is enough hidden content to make playing through every movie worth it, noticing what you miss and have to go back and uncover along the way. The Lego games are a completionist’s dream; the “Free Play” mode is unlocked when you finish a chapter, and you can use any character you’ve unlocked on the free run through. The Port is possibly the best part of the game: you can check your progress on each movie, find hidden cheats and buy them using lego’s you’ve collected, and unlock other wings of the port after collecting enough golden bricks.

All in all, Lego Pirates of the Caribbean is a solid Lego title that suffers from a few small issues. If you’re a fan of the movies and can handle the toned down violence, then this is a title you should check out. 

The Jockey’s Grade: 7.5/10