33.1 hours played
Written 20 days ago
[i]LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean[/i] is a genuinely solid installment in the LEGO game series, even if—as an older title—it lacks the modern polish and voice overs of a film adaptation, and is guaranteed to suffer the crashes characteristic of the legacy LEGO games.
[quote][h3]CORE CHARACTERISTICS[/h3]
[b]• STYLE:[/b] Story Instances launched from a Central Hub
[b]• AVG. SESSION:[/b] 30 minutes
[b]• CHALLENGE:[/b] Easy
[b]• MOOD:[/b] Casual Family Friendly
[/quote]
[hr][/hr][h1]⚠️ IMPORTANT NOTES[/h1][hr][/hr]
[quote][b]⚠ WARNING: The game defaults to a NON-NATIVE screen resolution. ⚠[/b] Consider closing all other windows before launching the game and adjusting it to a suitable resolution.
[/quote][quote][b]⚠ Consider adding the following arguments to your launch shortcut (-dxlevel 90 -32bit -heapsize 2048) to dodge some inevitable crashes.[/b]
[/quote]
[hr][/hr][h1]🟢 THE POSITIVES[/h1][hr][/hr]
[b]➕ [i]PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN.[/i][/b] It’s obviously why you’re here, and the goofiness of the [i]Pirates[/i] movies fits perfectly in the LEGO universe.
[b]➕ IT’S A LEGO GAME.[/b] LEGO games have a long-established formula that has worked swimmingly for over two decades. The games are all about collecting, building, and feeling rewarded for EVERYTHING you do. If you enjoy LEGO and the subject matter, you’ll enjoy the game!
[b]➕ The CUTSCENE and CINEMATIC ART.[/b] The papercraft-styled loading screens and cutscenes make for gorgeous recaps of all four films.
[b]➕ A SIMPLE WORLD.[/b] This was before the time when LEGO games started leaning into large, explorable, open worlds with hundreds of collectables. The focus on story missions without the distraction of side adventures is nice when you’re looking for a concise game with a reasonable 10-20 hours of gameplay.
[b]➕ INTERESTING and VARIED LEVEL DESIGN.[/b] The 20 levels covering all four movies (plus one bonus level) are all well-built, and offer a variety of interesting settings and mechanics that ensure the game is fun from start to finish!
[b]➕ BLACKBEARD.[/b] Your power-character in this [i]Pirates[/i] universe. Plus: snatching your second player and throwing them into the water is a great way to start a friendly mini-war!
[b]➕ REMOTE PLAY![/b] Like all the LEGO games, this one is another fantastic “couch co-op” game: whether playing together at home or remote playing together from anywhere in the world!
[hr][/hr][h1]🟡 THE..."TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT"[/h1][hr][/hr]
[b]〰️ UNLOCKING CHARACTERS.[/b] The game has you hunt characters you need to unlock as they randomly spawn and despawn in the game hub. It can be a slog as you search for a specific character or need to find the last few last characters you’re missing from your roster.
[b]〰️ CHARACTER ABILITIES ARE NOT CLEAR.[/b] A characteristic mechanic of LEGO games is the character “skill” system—where characters have particular abilities to overcome certain challenges you encounter throughout the levels. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t make it clear [b]which[/b] characters have [b]what[/b] abilities in the selection menu, meaning you’ll be memorizing the character list until you’ve found your favorite few that can accomplish the majority of your needs.
[b]〰️ CHARACTER CUSTOMIZATION ISN’T IMPORTANT.[/b] Unlike other LEGO games where you can create your *perfect* custom character, character customization is rather limited in [i]LEGO Pirates[/i].
[hr][/hr][h1]💢 THE NOT-SO-GREAT[/h1][hr][/hr]
[b]➖ ⚠ The DEFAULT WINDOW RESOLUTION. ⚠[/b] Consider closing out your other windows before you launch the game; otherwise, enjoy all of them being squished into Monitor 1…
[b]➖ CRASHES.[/b] As is characteristic of the older LEGO games, expect to encounter regular crashes and other game-breaking softlocks throughout the experience. While you can expect the game to crash fairly consistently every one or two levels—enough to highly recommend relaunching your game regularly—there are also a few problematic levels that are guaranteed to crash:
—[b]The Curse of the Black Pearl: Tortuga[/b]
—[b]Dead Man's Chest: The Dutchman's Secret[/b]
Consider adding the following arguments to your launch shortcut to avoid these inevitable crashes: [b]-dxlevel 90 -32bit -heapsize 2048[/b]
As for softlocks, be very careful about fighting bosses so quickly that their phases break or fail to progress to the next scene—whether dueling with Jack, Barbossa, or Davy Jones. Doing so will require a restart of the level.
[b]➖ Some levels are NOT BUILT FOR TWO PLAYERS.[/b] Several levels will not work as intended if you’re playing with two players, requiring one to drop out so the other can solve a puzzle, trigger the next scene, or chase down a boss. It’s unfortunate—especially since LEGO games have *always* been better with two players.
[b]➖ UNSKIPPABLE CUTSCENES.[/b] Particularly when you’re replaying a mission due to a crash, being forced to sit through the (sometimes long) cutscenes can feel like a slog.
[b]➖ RED BRICKS DON’T STAY ENABLED on re-launch.[/b] A minor annoyance, but having to re-enable your Red Bricks every time you launch the game is frustrating—especially since you’ll be repeating the process due to crashes and other errors.
[b]➖ The game would benefit from DIALOGUE FROM THE FILMS.[/b] While more recent film adaptations have lifted audio lines directly from their films, the older games are limited to grunts, mumbles, and gestures to convey what’s happening. To that end, consider watching the films so you know what’s happening in the stories!
[b]➖ NO STEAM ACHIEVEMENTS.[/b] As one of the older LEGO titles, the team at Traveller's Tales ne’er returned to add Steam achievements. It’s a sad tale for us completionists and achievement hunters!
[hr][/hr][h1]🏴☠️ THE FINAL WORD…[/h1][hr][/hr]
[i]LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean The Video Game[/i] is a solid installment in the LEGO series and well worth playing if you have the patience to troubleshoot crashes and blockers that come with an older game. And ultimately, it captures the most important elements that make the LEGO games so sticky: [b]IT'S FUN, IT’S SILLY, and IT’S REWARDING[/b]—especially as a two-player co-op adventure!
[quote][h2]⭐ [b]OVERALL: 7.5/10[/b][/h2][/quote]
