playable for kids, a poor rip off for adults
I should know better than to buy games that are movie tie-ins but this one looked like it was fun.
Whats good?...well..you can be Jack Sparrow and the graphics are pretty decent.
Whats bad? Camera angles are quirky, the game is too dark and you need to play in a very dark room to see, there are no items to look for, you just go from level to level hacking and slashing.
no matter how good the movie is, this is my last tie in game.
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A Treasure Isn't Always Brilliant
Movie tie-in video games have a little curse of their own. They're almost never all that great. Every now and then you come across some really good ones. Often, however, you come across mediocre games. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is right up that alley. In reality, the game shows true potential, but like a lot of movie tie-in games it doesn't quite go the distance it's capable of going. In the end, Dead Man's Chest comes off as a watered down hack and slash game, and that's really sad considering the potential this game really had.
As far as the story goes, it follows the movie quite well. Although, if you haven't seen the movie yet, you may not want to invest in the PSP version just yet. The game is more of a companion to the film than anything else. It has a way of filling you in on things the movie didn't explain. Johnny Depp also lends his voice as Captain Jack Sparrow.
The gameplay is a little more than just simple hack and slash. You'll play as Jack Sparrow engaging in battles against your enemies. There are only three "types" of enemies, though, and that's where some of the gameplay gets sucked out. Each time you approach an enemy an icon appears over their head and you'll have to press a button combo in order to battle them. This becomes really stale after a while, though. Mostly because each "type" of enemy has the same button press. If you run into a pirate, for instance, a pirate will always have the same button press. All the time. In time this becomes rather stale and boring. If there was more varietyt he game could've been incredible in terms of the gameplay.
When not engaged in combat the game has it's other moments. You can't really get lost throughout the game. The game makes sure of that on its own. You might have to solve a puzzle or break down a door or something otherwise. You'll also be faced with dodging obstacles. There's a lot to welcome in the gameplay outside of combat. The controls, however, do need work in some of these moments. They aren't always precise, and more than not they may lead you to your death. Luckily, though, it's not too frustrating, but it can be a killer. Especially when you're stuck dying over and over again... and there's no Aztec Gold this time around for Jack should he meet his demise.
There's more to the gameplay. As you progress through the game, you'll find pieces of a map that'll lead you to the Kraken Arena. You'll need to go into the Kraken Arena to battle with monsters to get a piece of the Kraken statue. Once you've done all this you'll be able to find Kraken. The game doesn't track which pieces of the map you've got, though, and that's really annoying. If you've missed a piece of the map, you'll have to go back through each and every level looking. Because the game doesn't tell you, you might spend more time than not looking for map pieces when you might have actually found all of them in a level.
The mini-game involving ship battles is rather fun, though. You only need one copy of the game to get it started, and it works out just fine. If you can't find three other friends, AI takes over for you. Battling is quite fun, and you've got plenty of ships to choose from. There's also a good variety of gameplay modes as well. The gold you collect during the game can also be used to upgrade your ship. In the end, this makes up for some of the short comings of the single player mode.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest certainly looks good on the PSP. It's a little dark at times, and it suffers from what a lot of PSP games suffer from... long load times, and a few frame rate issues every now and then, but for the most part, the game doesn't look bad. Even better, the music in the game comes directly from the film and it sounds absolutely fantastic coming from the PSP.
Overall, the PSP version is definitely better than the Nintendo DS version, but as with a lot of movie tie-ins, it's just not as fantastic of an experience as it could be.
The Good
+You can play as Jack Sparrow
+Fun Multiplayer
+Fantastic music
The Bad
-Not enough variety to the combat
-Some textures are too dark
-Getting to fight Kraken is really annoying
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