It's not a complete washout. At World's End does a good job of following the story of the movie; there are some wonderfully rendered environments, and the cut-scenes are very nicely done. The voice acting, whilst not done by the original cast, bears a very close approximation to Mr Depp's own vocal talents, and the animations capture the caricature of Sparrow most admirably. Things just go to pot when everything else kicks in.

Playing as the outlaw pirate, Jack Sparrow, the tale leads the player through a merry chase of hacking, slashing, collecting and jumping around various recognisable locations, liberally strewn with CG cut-scenes in an attempt to try and break up the repetition. Within the first thirty minutes, everything this game has to offer has been revealed, which begs the question why anyone would play past that point. There's no combo system to learn, there is no skill mountain to climb and become a master, no mass of secrets to unlock. The only thing that will be challenged is patience; it's more of the same over and over, 99 per cent of which is accomplished by bashing the X button.

Jack will enter a level and seconds later, a bevy of enemies appear for a bit of one-on-one action. This particular title subscribes to the classic movie premise that the hero only fights a single foe at a time, whilst his fellow workers watch on at their lame attempt at swashbuckling. A couple of taps on the joypad, and they literally turn their back and wait for Sparrow to unleash the death blow. For variation it is possible to kick them or throw them across the room, or even shoot them with limited ammo. Jack can build up a power meter from successful bashing to unleash a special attack, something needed for the senior officers leading the battles, but it essentially all amounts to the same thing, so doesn't add a lot to the combat system.

Throughout each level there are a number of different items that can be collected, such as bottles of rum. Finding them can be a bit of a challenge as they're out of the required pathway to continue the story. However, there's not really much of an incentive to look for them, and the sooner the level is over, it's one step closer to trading it in for something more interesting.

There is the occasional bit of platforming promise that shows the game could have offered a lot more than it delivers, such as climbing the rigging of sailing vessels and dodging the poisoned darts in cannibal-infested Islands, but get this: Jack Sparrow, a man who spends his life at sea come hell or high water apparently can't swim. Yes, Jack drowns if he falls in the wet stuff, he didn't get that bronze certificate it seems.

PotC boldly claims to offer a unique sword-fighting experience, and this is not a lie. At certain points in the game, a duel mode begins for boss fights. Here the action slows down and a fencing-with-foils-style mini-game plays out. As a swordsman, you'll either be attacking or defending three points of the body: High, Medium and Low. When defending, the game highlights one of three lights, encouraging the player to push the thumb sticks in that direction. Successful parries and blocks eventually give the player the upper hand allowing him to attack, and can now boldly thrust lovingly away. If this sounds somewhat boring, it's because it is. Unique maybe, a good addition to the game? Not really as it slows down the already treacle-like action.

At World's End does pay tribute to the movie on which it is based, but it's difficult to find much here to make this game anything other than an average hack and slash adventure. PotC proves once again, that movie tie-in games are very rarely worth the amount of money thrown at them.