Bethesda first unveiled Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow at E3 2005, a title in the earliest of stages relegated to the back corner of the company’s booth. The concept was there, a third-person action/adventure game featuring Jack Sparrow, but little more than a rough graphics engine was actually in place. Fast-forward to E3 2006, and Bethesda had much more to show.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow still looks rough at times, at least the PS2 version (Bethesda wasn’t showing the PC iteration), but only as far as the graphics are concerned. In terms of the gameplay, it looks pretty entertaining. The game definitely caters to fans of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, so it doesn’t attempt anything dramatically different for hardcore gamers, but movie fans should find the action fulfilling.
The game takes place partially during events of the first movie, or at least during parts of that timeline, and it may flirt at times with the sequel, due out July 7 this year. The meat of the game, however, explores the back story of Jack Sparrow, filling-in some of the mysterious details about the drunken pirate’s adventures before the first movie’s opening credits even rolled. For example, did Jack actually capture Nassau Port without firing a shot? It’s one of the escapades mentioned in the film, but with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow, players will be able to experience that adventure for themselves to find out the truth.
While Captain Jack Sparrow is the prominent playable character, the game also includes his cohorts, Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann. Since the characters each have very different personalities, their fighting styles differ as well: Jack is a pretty loose, free-flowing fighter; Will is a by-the-books fencer; and Elizabeth, well, let’s just say she has more than a corset to fight with. Concurrent with the different abilities, each character also has his (or her) own special moves, which can be upgraded and evolve into more powerful combo moves by collecting gold in each level.
One of our favorite such moves is unique to Jack. You see, the good Captain, as we all know, has a certain affinity for alcohol. Well, never one to turn down a cocktail, Jack has the ability to use some of his health-giving rum as a Molotov cocktail. If they’re in a bind, players can also choose to use all the axes they’ve collected (like an upgrade “currency”) and make Jack’s sword a flaming rapier for a short time, which will make any attack a one-hit kill.
If this sounds somewhat like an action RPG, you’re not too far off. Although the upgrades are minimal, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow definitely shares some aspects of that genre. Most notably, the game is focused heavily on melee combat, although there are some ranged weapons (Will has hatchets, for example). The kicker, though, is the inclusion of two-player co-op, which gives one player control of Jack and the other player control of whichever is the second character in that level (Jack is the only character to appear in every level). Players don’t have to worry about starting an entire campaign in co-op, though, as a second teammate can join in at the beginning of any level, even if the game has only been played in solo mode up until that point.
Outside of the melee third-person combat, the game also includes several minigames, including one for opening treasure chests and one in which players aim the on-ship cannons to bombard landlubbers’ forts or British ships from long distances. An unintended “minigame” for movie buffs will also be luring pirates into and out of the moonlight, as the character models actually go from human to skeleton and back again depending on their position in the light. This is more graphical effect than anything else, but going in and out of the light will surely be a diversion just to see the effect alone.
In other words, there’s a surprising amount of gameplay in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow, even though none of it pushes the envelope. For fans of the movies, what’s there should be more than enough to satiate their desire for more Captain Jack, especially since Johnny Depp did the voiceover work. And since Bethesda isn’t trying to win awards for gameplay, just to entertain fans of the films, they’re on track to release in July precisely the game they set out to create.
— Jonas Allen
