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So here we are yet again, another film tie-in, and likely another
disappointment. Lately there seems to have been a lack of good
quality film tie-ins - games like X-Men
3: The Official Game or The
Da Vinci Code are average at best - or anything that is new,
innovative or different in this genre. A game like Pirates
Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest has lots of potential and
has an opportunity to change things. The new film itself has of
course been highly-anticipated since the astonishingly successful
first chapter; Pirates Of The
Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl, and even though the
tie-in game was not that spectacular, the life of a pirate brings
with it many possible options for a developer.
In this Third-Person Action game you control Jack Sparrow, the
protagonist from the film. Your main weapon is of course, like with
every pirate game, your sword. To kill your enemies you have a
series of Button Combinations that will appear above their heads and
following these instructions will bring them down, and slice them
up. Along the way you pick up extras like bottles to smash over
enemies head and knives and axes to throw at them. Progression is
mainly limited to small tasks like throwing switches to swing
bridges around, and getting barrels of TNT and blowing gigantic
holes in wall’s, doors and even prison cells. Throughout the game
you defeat wave-after-wave of changing enemies whilst looking for
Map Pieces and accomplishing tasks to unlock your way through the
Level. There’s  plenty of freedom and expressionism within the
title; the ability to swing across huge gaps jumping from
rope-to-rope, dropping chandeliers on your enemies head and
releasing huge battering rams to smash them into pieces against the
wall, however, the painstakingly familiar additions to a generic
Adventure formula doesn’t endear Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead
Man’s Chest to the experienced player any more than the
average Spongebob Squarepants release. The Map Pieces that
you collect are the main key to progressing in the game, and
unlocking the final Level to take-on Davy Jones, the Final Boss.
Although there’s plenty of side-tracking objectives and comedic
additions the main past-time is just killing enemies. In titles such
as God Of War, Beat Down: Fists Of Vengeance and Spartan:
Total Warrior, this gameplay basis is well-founded and the
inherent appeal, however, as you only have three pre-set Button
Combinations to attack the enemies, throughout the entire game, it
gets quite boring after a while. It does suit, as there is actually
only three different types of enemies anyway; ones with one swords,
ones with two swords and enemies with an axe. If you try to be
different and kill them with a different Button Combination, they
just dodge out the way and manage an incremental stab at you. The
idea seems one that would work on paper, but with very little
variety in execution, each enemy is treated less as an individual
and more as an identikit construct purely created for you to
dispose of.
Graphically this game is not spectacular, but it does a have some very
good detail – especially the Character Models. The scenery can be
a bit blocky at times, and you occasionally get things disappearing
into walls - including yourself when you spin the camera round - but
overall the graphics are of a comfortable standard.
The
sound quality is OK, but there is lots of repetition - especially as
you only have three different types of enemies, that all say the
same  things and sound the same. One good point of the sound is the
Voice-Acting; in the in-game video clips Johnny Depp reprises the
role of Jack Sparrow for a more tangible Pirates Of The Caribbean
experience.
Overall,
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest does have lots
of cool little fun things to do, picking-up some cool extra weapons
or swinging across huge gaps from rope-to-rope. But that just
isn’t enough and there is just too little to do in the way of real
objectives of the game, and there is only so many of the exact same
enemies you can fight in the exact same way till you get bored. In
the face of releases such as Lara Croft; Tomb Raider: Legend,
Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time and even Death Jr., Pirates
Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest pales into becoming a
lack-lustre convergence of many of the traits of the genre, with
very little though as to how they should actually work together. The
game is enjoyable and has its good points, but too little of them
for it to be a huge hit. For those who enjoyed the film or who are
fans of the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise, Pirates Of
The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest is a nice invitation to delve
further into the universe of Jack Sparrow, but those who aren’t,
the game is a bit pointless.
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