Take on the roles of more than 70 characters
With five levels per movie on offer and a variety of characters with different abilities to unlock there’s a lot of content to get through. And part of the appeal of LEGO PIrates is smashing everything in sight collecting studs, before switching in-between characters to solve some cleverly conceived puzzles. Like previous LEGO games, there's still an element of trial and error, where you'll smash everything in sight to try and find something you can build that will allow you to progress, but there's more direction in this game than ever with floating icons helping to eliminate some of the guesswork - prompting you to perhaps look for a carrot to feed a donkey, or showing you where you need to place a crank to turn a wheel.As a solo experience, it's great fun trying to puzzle your way out of an area and switching in-between characters to use their skills, but it's really the drop-in and out co-op mode where the game really excels - allowing you to really work together to solve puzzles, of which many are designed with two players in mind. Indeed, the level design is fantastic with an appealing backdrop inspired by the film complementing some clever and enjoyable puzzles, including underwater sections and the opportunity to explore a pirate ship and numerous islands.
Among the characters and skills on offer, you’ll use Jack’s sword to trigger levers and batter enemies; Mr Gibbs hammer to repair objects; Anamaria who can double jump high up to platforms; and Marty who can destroy glowing silver objects with his gun . With over 70 unlockable characters, there’s a fair degree of thought needed to go into solving some of the challenging puzzles, and a vast amount of replay value to be had in returning in free play mode to search for any collectibles you may have missed.