Pirates of the Caribbean Online Preview

E3 2006 First Look Preview

There’s obviously no shortage of MMORPG titles out there on the market, and as a parent, one of the things that worries me is setting my kids loose in an unsupervised world where anything can be said, things can be done that I may not approve of or they may not want to see, but at the same time … I’d like them to be able to experience MMO online play if they want to. Disney Interactive released Toontown a few years back with good results, and now they plan to enter into the MMORPG world once again with a title that can be a lot of fun for adults as well as kids, without having to worry a lot about what kids might be seeing.

As in any MMORPG, PoTC will allow players to make their own unique character and change options like hair, face, facial hair, eyes, nose, body height and size, and so on and so on. From there, you will enter the world based on the movies (you will even get to meet and run into Jack, Will, Elizabeth, and a multitude of their enemies from the big screen in both movies). You will also get to pick up quests, go out leveling up (which is actually expressed in reputation versus leveling), accept and complete quests, buy, upgrade, and sail ships around the world, or join up with your friends to head out onto the high seas and of course get into multiple different adventures.  

The game isn’t actually divided into classes, but you will be able to choose from specific professions like swashbuckler or pistols, which will give you bonuses to those abilities, and each weapon that you use will have timed presses which can activate combos. The game will actually level up individual stats the more you use them though, so using swords all the time will increase that aspect (to make you more of a tank) while using voodoo (equivalent to magic) will instead boost that ability and allow you to play as more of a support character offering buffs or healing to those who are working the front lines.  

Now with a game about pirates, one thing that the game needs to have is a decent amount of ship to ship combat, and PoTC has plenty. When you start the game, you will have a dinghy, but as stated before you will be able to buy and upgrade from classes like merchants or galleons. In the demo, when the ship ran across a ghost ship, a flurry on cannon fire ensued until the ghost ship was destroyed. While you can’t board ghost ships, you will be able to board human ships, and the next encounter showed his opponent getting pummeled with three different types of cannonballs, then a green targeting reticule came up, and grappling hooks were launched and the opposing ship was boarded. One nice feature in the finished game is that any friends that you invite to group will act as the crew on your ship, and can man the cannons and will swing over to board enemy vessels with you as well … in both player versus computer enemy and yes … PvP gameplay (which will take place in a specialized arena). 

In the opening paragraph, I mentioned my concerns about some of the language and such that goes on in a lot of MMORPG titles. PoTC fixes this in a couple of ways … first off, character names are generated by a set list that the game already has loaded in, or you can type out your own and use it only after it has been sent to the server and cleared as OK for all ages. Also, dialogue in the game won’t be you typing whatever you want to type, but instead the finished game will include multiple pre set statements that you will choose from in order to make sure it stays clean out on the high seas.   

While some of these things may make it seem like it’s geared towards children, be assured that the game contains all of the elements that make MMORPG titles a lot of fun, so your kids and you can have a good time playing in the world of Jack Sparrow together. The game is scheduled for a 2007 release, and is already shaping up to be a good, solid, fun title with lots of creatures, adventures, and fun to make it worthwhile. 

For All E3 2006 Previews