Game Review: LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean - The Video Game

Another year and another LEGO adventure game ticked off my list.  This time it’s another title which has eluded me for some time on account of it never being properly ported to modern consoles like some of the other more popular LEGO games.  Developed by Traveller's Tales and published by Disney Interactive Studios, LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean served as the developers next big foray into the well-received adventure format they popularized with LEGO Star Wars. It was released on May 10th 2011 to coincide with the release of the then latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie; On Stranger Tides. Upon release the game received a moderate reception critically, with the main console versions generating a 73 rating on Metacritic.  Sales wise, I couldn’t find much to go off besides a Game Rant article from 2021 which noted the title totaled 4.08 million sales.

The narrative of LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean adapts and condenses the stories from the first four movies in the popular franchise. The first film, The Curse of the Black Pearl which sees infamous pirate Captain Jack Sparrow team up with a blacksmith by the name of Will Turner to save a governors daughter called Elizabeth Swan who has been captured by the cursed crew of the Black Pearl and their captain Hector Barbosa. The second film, Dead Man’s Chest follows Jack and co as they seek to locate the fabled Dead Man’s Chest, which claims to hold the heart of Davy Jones who just so happens to be on the hunt for Jack for a debt he is owed. The third film follows primarily on from the concluding events of Dead Man’s Chest, in which the East India Trading company with their ruthless leader Cutler Beckett seeks to rid the world of Pirates once and for all by holding Davy Jones hostage with his own heart.  The fourth and final film adapted into the game was On Stranger Tides which followed Jack on a new adventure as he is kidnapped and forced to serve the legendary pirate Blackbeard on his quest to find the fountain of youth.

The interesting element to note when it comes to this game’s approach to adapting the stories of each of these four films is the fact that this was when LEGO games still utilized a mute-style.  I along with many people adored the fact that the earlier games in the series didn’t rely on incorporating dialogue from the movies they were adapting and instead had to find new and interesting ways to project the story in a way that was understandable for the audience.  In LEGO Pirates case, it does a very good job in translating the narrative through visual cues alone, although I do feel it’s need to condense these hour-long movies into 5 separate missions each does lead to some odd omissions and switch ups for the sake of the pacing. I think what’s here is really solid in any case, the imagery and jokes that the developers put into the cutscenes really help give the game a strong impression and they still follow along the movie’s narratives fairly well for the most part. I think it highlights a gripe I have with more modern LEGO games in the sense that they don’t try as hard to make their interpretation of these franchises their own when they can add the odd joke between existing dialogue from the movies.

On the gameplay front, LEGO Pirates incorporates a lot of the recognizable elements from the prior releases.  You’ll be playing through a total of 20 levels (5 for each movie) as a specific selection of LEGO characters with the purpose of breaking and building your way through enemies and a number of puzzles. Each character in this game holds a unique ability which will make them useful for overcoming specific obstacles layered through the levels.  Again, it’s all very familiar stuff but LEGO Pirates does at least try to base these gameplay ideas around the world and characters.  Jack Sparrow for example has the unique ability to use his trusty compass which will direct him to a plethora of collectable items through each level.  Characters like Davy Jones and his crew are all able to walk under water as well as transition between locations using their merging ability’s. While I appreciate the intent however, I can’t help but feel by the time you unlock a lot of key characters, you’ll find yourself using only a select few like Blackbeard or Captain Jack.  I think the problem is the level design relies too heavily on certain characters rather than having a more even playing field.  What this ends up doing is creating a lot of arguably useless characters to fill up the games 79 total character slots.

What connects a lot of these levels together is the HUB world.  For good or worse depending on your opinion, this LEGO title doesn’t utilize a wide-open world like later LEGO games choose to do. Instead it takes a similar approach to LEGO Star Wars by defining a selection of unique areas which form Port Royal, the iconic location from the movies. Within Port Royal you’ll be able to interact with and purchase unlocked characters as well as use their abilities to seek and acquire Red Hat’s which will offer unique extra’s to make your experience in the game more fun.  While I like the design of the HUB area, I can’t help but feel it lacks the character and charm like other HUB levels from prior LEGO games.  Mos Eisley Cantina from LEGO Star Wars is one of the best HUB levels for me just because it does everything to imbue itself with memorability.  With the cantina band playing and the fact you can start massive fights between characters, it made navigating the environment genuinely fun.  Port Royal however lacks that same energy or life, it’s well constructed no doubt but there’s no genuine charm to be found from exploring it in my opinion.

There’s a fair bit of praise to the game on the presentation end. Visually the game looks really nice, this was developed soon after Traveller’s Tales started using an updated engine and it clearly shows. There’s a lot more detailing in the LEGO character models and their animations and the environments themselves showcase a lot more scale and detail compared to the older games. I love how much detail they got down specifically with characters like Captain Jack, who walks with the trademark swagger of his movie counterpart and even emulates familiar screams.  On the audio front the game utilizes a fair bit of the original movie soundtrack by Klaus Badelt and Hans Zimmer which is nice at first, though when you hear He’s a Pirate for the 100th time, it does tend to get a bit old.

LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean isn’t a bad game; it holds genuine value that any LEGO or Pirates of the Caribbean fan will surely appreciate.  It’s unique approach to adapt the narrative of the first four movies is filled with humour and charm and there’s a nice sense of depth behind the level design.  On the whole though, I can’t help but feel this game isn’t trying hard enough to distinguish itself from the many other games in the franchise. It’s an average game on all accounts which comes off as sadly a bit half-hearted when it comes trying to leave a long-lasting impression.