Now, I haven't gotten too far into the game, as I just started playing this one about a month or more ago, but so far, I'm impressed with the game play. While it's not set in a movie and you don't play out the movie's themes or antyhing, you interact with the characters in the movies though, as they give you quests to do throughout the game. So, the game play kind of picks up where the movies left off, so you aren't always wondering why they didn't do a specific scene or anything. To me, this is much better, as you never know what is in store for you next.
As far as the game play goes aside from the main toons you can interact with, the quests and missions are pretty fun. You have to prove yourself as a pirate to the others - fighting British soldiers, stealing boats, and more. It's a load of fun to me, as I love to see what the next quests will be.
The controls are simple to learn, and mimic most of the other main MMO games out there, like World of Warcraft. So, it won't take you long and you will find that you're running your toon through like you've been playing Pirates forever. Overall, when it comes to game play for Pirates of the Caribbean Online, I give it a 4 out of 5.