E3 06: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow Impressions

LOS ANGELES--Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow is the inevitable video game tie-in for the upcoming summer blockbuster The Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, but it looks particularly pretty on the PC, and it has the advantage of featuring the likeness and voice of Mr. Johnny Depp himself as the pirate Jack Sparrow.

The game, which is also being readied for the PlayStation 2, will let you control Jack, Will, and Elizabeth as they negotiate 24 levels, some based on the movie and others that provide some interesting windows on Jack Sparrow's adventures. Unfortunately, though Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley provide their likenesses to the game, their voices are not present. The good news is that the voice actor for Will is really close to Bloom's voice, besides which, you'll be preoccupied listening to Depp's dazed Sparrow anyway.

The level that we saw in action had Jack and Will battling a bunch of Spanish troops looking to capture them, and there was the requisite swashbuckling and sword-fighting that you'd expect. You control one character at a time, while the other character is handled by the computer. You can switch between the two characters instantly, though, and that sounds like it'll be useful in some situations. Pirates will support co-op mode with two players, though there is no online capability.

Pirates of the Caribbean is almost finished, and we can expect it to ship in time for the release of the movie sequel later this summer.