This June, gamers will finally be able to play as pirate captain/drunken Keith Richards impersonator Jack Sparrow when the game adaptation of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest hits the PSP. A 3D slash 'em-up adventure, the game pits players against traps, cannibals, pirates and zombies as they battle to save Jack's soul from the ghost pirate Davy Jones.
The single-player mode in Dead Man's Chest looks to be an average-y hack-and-slash brawler. Playing as Jack, you'll be able to use light, heavy and "dirty" attacks, chaining together flowing combos as you fight your way through locales like a cannibal-infested island and a Turkish prison. We'll spare you our best Turkish prison joke - we're pretty sure you don't do anything like that in this game.
There is more to Jack than just a sword and a glazed stare, though, and he'll be able to lay into foes with throwing knives, axes, pistols and thrown furniture. If you fight like a pirate, using acrobatics, style and the environment to your advantage, you'll build up "notoriety"(the game's equivalent of leveling up). This nets you sword upgrades and other rewards, which in turn unlock new combos and power attacks that can lay out multiple foes at once.
This being a game about piracy, it just wouldn't be complete without naval battles. We've spent some time with Dead Man's Chest's four-player ship fights. Completely separate from the hack-and-slash, the multiplayer mode looks and plays like Sid Meier's Pirates! on speed, with ships maneuvering about and lobbing cannonballs at one another by the ton.
