Customer Reviews

Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's Chest

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've got to admit that I generally have low expectations of movie-adapted video games. They're often associated with rushed deadlines, broken gameplay, and a waste of time. So, when I received this copy of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest for the DS, I was dragging my fingers as I pushed the "on" trigger on my DS Lite. Five minutes into it, however, I was thinking, ok, this isn't as bad as I expected.

Yes, Pirates isn't a fantastic game. It's not even close to that. However, for a platform that's so lacking in a solid hack-and-slash action adventure (the last good one was Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrows), Pirates comes very close to filling that gap. It has all the ingredients for a classic: a smooth-frame-rate 3D engine; a reasonable menu of combos to execute; a host of weapons to use and enemies to defeat; three playable characters; and even a two player multiplayer feature. Unfortunately, the game's emphasis on having the player repeatedly fight through a wave of enemies, only to be greeted with another wave, ultimately makes the playing experience a little less enjoyable.

As mentioned, you'll get to play as three characters in this game, namely Jack Sparrow, Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann. If you've watched the Pirates of the Caribbean movie, these characters won't be strangers to you. The game (supposedly) takes you through the Dead Man's Chest movie story, as you control different characters through various levels. You won't feel much of a difference though, since the rather linear levels are mostly confined to repetitive hack-and-slash sequences, and the controls for each character are basically the same.

To its credit, the game does provide some alternatives in an attempt to reduce the boredom of mere button-mashing. Basic combo moves can be executed from the onset. As you progress, you'll pick up pieces of gems that will eventually unlock an advanced combo. Some of these special combos may include the ability to perform a powerful downward swipe, an audacious upper cut, and even a cheeky "punch `em in the eye" move. Some gems are easy to find, while others may take more effort, but that's why the word "exploration" was invented. Apart from these combos, each character also has a signature move that works like a "magical attack" in a RPG. These moves require the use of the character's "Savvy", which is like a typical "MP meter" that deteriorates once you perform such a move. You can, of course, replenish lost Savvy when you fight enemies. Although the execution of these moves can be quite awkward, it's really not a bad idea.

The game also throws in a fair amount of weapons for your disposal. You'll always have a primary weapon, but defeated enemies sometimes drop weapons (some very powerful) that you can pick up for use. Strangely, the game doesn't include an opportunity for you to wield two weapons at one time. Instead, this temporary weapon has a health bar that decreases as you use it. Once its "health" depletes, you'll automatically switch back to your primary weapon again. The concept is a little silly, since it feels rather restrictive when you can't wield your primary weapon once you pick up a secondary one. A Prince of Persia-style double-weapon combos would definitely increase the playability of this game. Nevertheless, the game does allow you to interact with the environment when fighting. This is usually done in the form of throwing, and the game has a lot of "throwable" items. These include crates, bottles, coconuts and even chickens (!). Throwing aside, you can even fire a cannon and watch the minions scream in pain - without doubt, one of my favorite moments of the game.

Pirates plays over two screen, but the main action happens actually on the top screen. The touch screen is used sparingly, usually to depict your quest's information like your gold and gems count. The touch screen also shows the on-screen dialogue when required, but seriously, I'd take a voice-over any day. It's a pity, really, because the sound effects of this game are quite good, and even includes some utterances of corny one-liners from the characters. I'm not entirely sure whether these are voiced by the respective artistes, but I think not. The tracks are a little weak in comparison, and comprise mostly of predictable action-style music that feels tired and recycled. The graphics, however, are a great advertisement for the DS, especially when blasted with the brightness of the DS Lite.

Like many games in the market now, Pirates boasts a wireless multiplayer mode. By "multi", I actually mean up to two (duh!) players. This feature allows the players to play through the entire story campaign as a team. The game also has three mini-games that have a very arcade feel to them. You can kind of expect what they're about, especially when one of them is titled "Shoot the Monkey". These mini-games are also available to play in the two-player mode. However, the game doesn't have a single card support, which means that, to play the co-op and challenge modes, both players must own a copy of the game. This may turn off some potential players.

In a nutshell, Pirates feels like a lost opportunity. It has several elements that can make a game great, but it doesn't explore these elements well enough. Nevertheless, it's still one of the better movie-adapted games out there right now. It doesn't exactly provide a swashbuckling experience, but it's adequate enough for a play through because an old-fashioned beat-`em-up is just so hard to find on the DS.

Me and my brother got this game for christmas. We started playing and thought the game was really fun. The game is more fun if you play the multiplayer mode. The game starts out with the playable characters being Jack, Elizabeth, and Will, but as you collect gold coins and statues you can unlock playable characters such as the voodo doll, captain pirate, Norrington, Jack as tribal cheif, and many others. The best of these in my opinion is the captain pirate(He waddles like a penguin, but can beat a guy in 2 hits). The game takes less than 5 hours to beat ON NORMAL SETTING.The game follows the storyline of the movie pretty well but skips a few parts like how Will gets the key. I dont understand why they didnt make the Flying Dutchman a level . It would have made the game longer. You start out with a cutlass but as you collect coins you can buy weapons. The best weapon you can buy is the native blade.

I bought this game because I thought the movie was filled with the type of kick-butt action and adventure that I am usually drawn to. The game did incorporate this element fairly well, and I can not deny that I enjoyed it. However, I found that it was much too easy - I beat it in a mere two days. And while it follows the storyline of the movie quite well, I found that it left some areas in the gray, and also, it ended way too abruptly. So while it was fun, I did not really feel I got my money's worth out of it. You are much better off buying the PS2 or XBox version.

It was fun to play. It is NOT the greatest game in the world, but I am not looking for breathtaking games. Just something to entertain me in my daily 10 minutes of free time.

The graphics are good, and the plotline makes sense.

In all, it is worth it for the price.

My son is a bid Pirates of the Caribbean fan, especially the Lego game, and he really liked this one as well.

I got this game out of the bargain bin at my local store so I had had low expectations. I had been looking for a good fighting adventure game for DS. I had low expectations because movie adapted games are usually not very good. They are about as good as movies adapted from video games. They usually have a story that only loosely follows the movie and are put together in a short time to cash in on the success of the movie. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the 3D graphics in this game. Much of the game takes place in jungles and old castle type settings. The animation is very good. The sound is also very good. There are little "one liners" from the movie that the characters say. During the jungle scenes, the sounds of birds and wind in the trees and water are super (for DS). There are also bits of music from the movie. Many gamers play DS with the volume on mute. You should take a second and put on headphones to appreciate the quality of the sound in this game. There is a storey that loosely follows the movie. This is a great button slammer game you have to defeat wave after wave of bad guys as you advance through levels of the game. You gain additional powers as you move through the game. You can play as Jack Sparrow, Elizabeth Swann and Will Turner. Each player has signature move that you get as you advance through the game. I enjoyed that part of the fighting strategy in the game is looking for things to throw at the bad guys. It would have been nice if there was a little more gore in the game the bad guys just fade away when they die. It would be nice if there was blood splashing and cutting off heads etc. but this is a Disney game. There are little animated vignettes that follow the storey as you move through the game which are surprisingly good for DS. With any DS game review I like to comment on how well the designers use the dual screen, the wireless and touch screen of the game. The game makes some use of the dual screen most of the action is on the top screen. The bottom screen only shows which weapon you are currently using and how much gold you have collected. There is very limited use of the touch screen. There are some mini games between levels that you use the touch screen. The touch screen is used so little that when it switches to the mini game I would die at first because I did not know to switch to the stylus. It would be nice to be able to switch between weapons with the stylus especially since the touch screen shows you the status of each weapon. This game uses Wi-Fi for two player cooperative play. I did not have an opportunity to try this but reading other reviews it sounds like fun. It would be nice if you could go to Nintendo Wi-Fi connect and meet other players to play cooperative adventures. Another complaint with almost all DS games is, while this does have some voices during play, the storey it told through text. Why can't they have voices read the text of each character? Lastly, the entire game is walking around fighting bad guys. It would have been nice if they had a level or two where you pilot the Black Pearl around and have a naval battle against the Flying Dutchman similar to the way Lego Bat Man gives you levels where you drive the Bat Mobile and Bat Boat.

the game is a very fun game with some humor in the dialogues i love how you can unlock weapons,characters and pictures not to menton the music from the game and sounds from it the game itself is quite short but thats what i expect "nightmare" the ultimate diffulcultie (have to unlock) is for. i have seen the movie the game does have some parts from the movie that werent there (like the wheel scene i wanted to do that part) and the part where will and bootstrap play agianst davy jones in liar dice but overall i thought it was a pretty fun game

hey fellow gamers. I realise there are alot of reviews for this game but Im gonna put it plain and simple. I bought this game on Amazon.com for [...]bucks. when i put it into my ds i thought It was probably going to be a pice of cr**. about 30 minutes into it I had a change of heart. the graphics arent anything to worship but for a go anywhere on the ds they are good. the gameplay is fun with a variaty of moves for each persobn you play as. now the unlockables..... ok I admit Im one of the people that really doesnt care about unlocking extras. but after I beat the game I found myself going back over levels to get the unlockables , some of the unlocables include: art from the movie, extra playable poeple , more weapons and many others. buuuut this game does have a downside. the gameplay is hard and unless your a dedicated gamer you will get frusterated. and there are no vioceovers in the cutsences.. just those stupid little words at the bottom of the screen....

over all this game gets a 3 out of 5 there are some great mini games. but you dont use the touch screen. :( so I hope this review helps you make your choice about this game.

[...]

I got this game at the end of October for my birthday and on a normal day-to-day bacis of school, homework (Way too much of it!), and other video games I have, I finished at the end of November. The graphics were really good and I liked being able to buy new weapons and characters and that sort of thing. But the fact is the game is way too short! You might as well just use the characters they give you on the level because you'll never use the characters. At least I didn't. I only bought one weapon which is the Native Blade and well that's all I needed. The boss levels were extremly easy, though I was playing Normal Level. The Mini Games were good but the only one I'd play again and agian is "Shoot the Money." Out of many fighting games there's no guts, blood, cussing (from what I remember but I seriously doubt there is any!) or anything sexual which is a Plus! Overall I liked it and I think you should get.

I am sorry for all the Dead Mans Chest fans that wasted money on this game. It has gameboy color graphics and if you like violence games, this is not one to get.I am only ten and it is not violent enough! The minigames are boring! And thats not all! During the entire gameplay you only play as Jack, Elizabeth, and Will. There are parts of the game that were not even in the movie! Make sure you see the movie before playing the game because the game would be a horrible first impression. I beg of you, no matter what the media says, do not fall into the same trap as me!

Sincerely,
Parker 100.