Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

Just in case you are one of the few who aren’t familiar with the film, Dead Man’s Chest follows Captain Jack Sparrow, who seems to owe some sort of debt to the ruler of the ocean, Davy Jones. If Davy Jones has his way, Sparrow will be forced into a lifetime of servitude among Davy Jones’ crew on board the Flying Dutchman. Of course, Sparrow isn’t too keen on this idea, and will stop at nothing to save his soul.

One of my personal favorite things about the combat system is that, throughout the levels, Jack will be able to obtain alternate attacks. Aside from using his sword, Jack will be able to pick up random weapons that include pistols, hatchets, throwing knives, bombs, and, my personal favorite, glass bottles. These different weapons will be placed throughout each of the levels, and whenever you pick them up they will go into Jack’s stash of alternate weapons. When using an alternate attack, normally they should be a one-hit kill, and, to be honest, I really enjoyed these weapons, especially smashing the glass bottles over the heads of random enemies.

Obviously, with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, the main focus of the gameplay is the combat system. While the combat is fast paced and heavy on action, the real problem is that the combat easily becomes very repetitive, especially considering that you will basically be using the exact same actions to defeat every enemy throughout the game. Plus, it would have been nice to see some more abilities or even more combo attacks to defeat your enemies.

Throughout Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, the player will also have to rely on the occasional platforming to complete certain levels. One specific level I recall is where Jack would have to jump across a large section of water using pieces of debris from nearby sunken ships. During some of these platforming puzzles, the camera will occasionally change, giving a view similar to that from a side-scroller. Naturally, with any platformer, a good camera is necessary, and while Dead Man’s Chest normally is pretty strong, there are those times when the camera tends to be a little difficult.

While Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chestdoesn’t feature the voice work of Johnny Depp himself, it does have someone who sounds awfully similar. The voice work throughout the game is very good and the game features a whole lot of it, both during combat and in cutscenes. Considering that this is Jack Sparrow, he will be making smart remarks to himself or the enemies. As for the music, the game features some good background music and the Pirates of the Caribbeantheme that we are all used to hearing in the films.

With a little lengthier quest, some tweaking with the combat, and maybe a little better camera, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest for the PSP could have been a great action title. While hardcore fans of the film might be able to look over some of the flaws, it is a little difficult to recommend spending $40 on a game that could easily be completed in a day.