It doesn't break any boundries, but it serves its purpose in creating a 3D beat 'em up adventure for your pocket.
Some may find it repetitious, but there's no denying that Dead Man's Chest has a solid core gameplay. You play as Jack, Elizabeth, and Will, respectively, and follow the scenes from the movie. The first level will put Jack on Prison Island, where he managed to find the "drawing of a key." The Prison Island scene from the movie was only a minute or so long, so a full blown level out of it may seem a bit over the top, but that's how this game does its levels. Also, Elizabeth's escape from Port Royal on the second level is a bit farfetched. It turns a scene where Elizabeth escapes into beckett's office into a full blown conflict, pitting Elizabeth against half the British Royal Navy by herself. Needless to say it doesn't follow the movie exactly, as in Tia Dalma's swamp, you'll be greeted by melting swamp monsters. Maybe the crime here is that since Aladdin on Sega Genesis, we've managed to forgive movie game levels for not staying tight with the movie. However, in all fairness, the game is what we're playing.
The gameplay, as I said, may seem repetitious, but as is the nature of all beat 'em ups. Games like the new Ninja Turtles series have forgotten that a game like that needs to keep moving to stay interesting. Pirates does just that. You'll be slashing away at pirates, guards, monsters, and whatever else, what have you. You'll defeat two or three (usually) enemoes and then move on. You'll also never feel like you're really stuck, as the camera gives you a side view, and follows you pretty well. The camera presents no real issues at all. You'll unlock combos by collecting four gems scattered throughout a level. This will make the combat a lot more interesting, but it also means you'll have to keep your eyes peeled. Mostly, the gems are hard to miss, but sometimes you do have to go out of your way to look for them. After unlocking all the combos, the second playthrough becomes really interesting, because having all the combos makes it a much more complex fighting experience. There are also plenty of weapons scattered throughout the game that you can use. Except for guns they all fight pretty much the same, though they all have varying levels of strength. More often than not, your standard cutlass is more than enough to get the job done.
The controls aren't bad at all. The combos are easily utilized with usually holding the L button or simply combonations of different main buttons. The combos are never more than two or three buttons long, but there are so many that you may finding yourself finishing one preparing the next. There are some combos, sadly, that you might not even use. For a game that relies so heavily on combat, it's a shame they didn't make these combos melt into each other for endless streams of hurt. The touch screen here might as well no be a touch screen at all. It counts your gold, tells you how many gems you have, and your current weapon. It's a shame they didn't give you an inventory, and the touch screen to pick your weapon quickly.
The graphics remind me of N64. This is a handheld system, so I'm not going to be a graphics prick. N64 graphics on a handheld is more than I thought I'd ever see in life. The sound is pretty good. You'll hear swords clash, and the Pirates soundtrack looped into cool battle themes. The voice acting however, really leaves something to be desired. It's not so much the quality, as it is the horrible lack of it. Between level cutscenes seem particuarly dry without it. When Tony Hawk American Sk8land can put speeches in between levels, Pirate's animated cutscenes could have used full voice.
This is the first game of it's kind on DS. Though it has it's share of flaws, this is an entirely fun and competant game for your pocket. It's nothing new or terribly interesting, but that would be asking too much out of a game that's trying to just make use of the hardware. Like I said, it's loads of fun, just don't expect too much you haven't seen before. It doesn't break any boundries, but it serves its purpose in creating a 3D beat 'em up adventure for your pocket.