It’s hard enough to understand the plot of AWE while watching the movie, so it’s no surprise that deciphering tiny lines of text in a stylish but nigh-unreadable font doesn’t make the goings-on any more bearable. Will, Elizabeth, Jack Sparrow and so forth are swashbuckling their way around the place, talking to other pirates, killing other pirates and putting/breaking curses on other pirates. Where are the non-pirates? What’s the point of being piratey without innocent people to plunder from? In any case, don’t expect to have some amazingly theatrical and enthralling plot to follow on such a tiny device.
AWE has good graphics. Therein lays the merit, and fundamental flaw of the presentation. While it’s impressive to run around in full 3D, slicing and dicing foes until you can’t slice no more, the DS screen really is small, and much of the detail merely clutters the screen you’re already squinting at. This isn’t a game-breaking problem, but some levels are a little too convoluted. The rest of the time, though, the graphics are simply impressive for the DS, and animations hold up nicely. When the action gets up close for the duelling segments, it really a provides them a chance to shine.
A pirate's life for me...or not.
Gameplay takes place in a level-hub fashion; your trusty ship can take you to various locations as the game progresses. Once maps are assembled, simply navigate to the new area, and then walk down the gangplank to begin exploring. Various characters are dotted about the ship to offer help and even play that stupidly confusing dice game, and the Captain’s Quarters serve as an information centre of sorts, displaying maps, game progress, and soforth. It’s a pretty interesting system, and serves the DS well when compared to the strictly linear, one-path-to-follow action games that we so often see on handheld systems.
Combat is smooth and responsive, and enemies flash bright red upon contact with a cutlass. Your chosen character (yes, you can switch) has a range of attacks and blocks, as well as a selection of explosive and bonus combat items. In some instances a stealth kill can be initiated by actioning a pop-up indicator that appears when close to an enemy, but it’s a pretty flaky system and can’t be relied upon for consistent kills. When not laying waste upon a considerable number of foes, you’ll spend time hippity-hopping your way across may platforms and areas aptly designed for pint-sized acrobatics. The controls work well, and despite the lack of analogue control for the 3D movement, you’ll rarely encounter difficulties concerning poor game design. Your finger didn’t slip, chump.
During each level, you’ll also come across context-sensitive actions, requiring an item to be equipped to the centre circle on the touch screen. At any time the item (vaulting poles, a compass, fire torches, etc.) can be pulled out to use with the brightly indicated environment puzzles. It’s never particularly difficult adventuring, but it is good fun.
En garde, swine!
The best part of the combat involves cinematic duelling sequences, usually against a boss or other significant character. The duelling is handled via the touch screen with swiping and slashing motions, and works extremely well. It’s somewhat reminiscent of the duelling sequences in one of the other pirate games, aptly named Pirates! While Sid Meier’s Pirates! is a considerably better game in the grand scheme of things, it’s always nice to keep a solid pirate theme to the combat, and duelling fits the bill here.
The whole presentation is very good. The music, while repetitive, has a good quality to it, and a select few voice samples flesh out the interactive sequences. You’ll find a few cutscenes of high-flying battles and pirate ship in peril, and even the camera angles (while static) when running about have a certain charm to them. The menu system works, touch screen implementation is good, and it looks pretty to boot.
So while we have a bunch of positive things to say, these must be taken with caution. It’s still just a hack-n-slash game with some running and jumping, but At World's End seems to have been put together with just that little bit more love than most in the genre. You’ll get a few decent hours of fun here, and if you loved the movie, and love your DS, then this may be worth a look.
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