If you've seen Pirates of the Caribbean the movie, some of the settings and events in Bethesda Softworks' upcoming game, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow (for the PC and PS2), will seem somewhat familiar. Only 'somewhat' familiar because this time the story is told from Jack Sparrow's perspective, and let's just say his version of the way things happened isn't exactly the way you saw it in the movie.The game is called The Legend of Jack Sparrow because it is his story. You'll play through all of the tales he tells that made him the pirate he is today. It's a 3rd person hack and slash romp through Jack's recollection of his greatest adventures (not all of them from the movie), with a bit more flair thrown in from his own imagination. Johnny Depp plays Jack Sparrow in the movies and lends his voice to the game.
You play as the swashbuckling, ale-chugging Captain Jack Sparrow himself and sometimes Jack's friends Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann will tag along. They are apparently present while Jack is narrating his tale, as they'll often interject comments about the liberties he sometimes takes with the truth.
The gameplay harks back to the old days of cooperative martial arts brawl-fests like the Double Dragon games. Each character has their own unique fighting style, for instance Captain Jack is a somewhat sloppy sword fighter, while Will Turner is graceful and disciplined. You can switch between characters with the press of a button whenever you need to take advantage of their special abilities or you can play along with a friend in co-operative mode.
The environments are very interactive. You can pick up barrels, chairs and other objects and hurl them at enemies and you'll even recognize the moonbeam transformation effects similar to the first Pirates movie. As you play, you'll locate better weapons that unlock special combo movies and new special abilities.
The game is family-oriented. The violence is more comical than gratuitous and if you approved of the movie for your kids, then you probably won't object to the game. There wasn't much to see in the E3 demo, but there should be about 8 to 10 hours of gameplay once it hits retail later this year.
I'm a thirty-something computer programmer. I live in Delaware, but I grew up in Arkansas in a tiny town of 2500. We didn't have video arcades. Heck, it was nearly an hour's drive to anything as sophisticated as a Wal*Mart. Needless to say, my exposure to video games as a child was somewhat limited.
In the mid 80's, I cut my teeth on a used Atari 2600 bought at a flea market and a handful of games like Space Invaders and Pac Man. I was hooked in a blink. In the decades since, I've become a big fan of many genres of games. From first-person shooters to role-playing to strategy and everything in between. The only games that categorically don't interest me are sports games.
The easiest way for a game to win me over is to have a gripping story. I'll forgive a lot in a game that grabs me and keeps me interested. The inverse is true, too. If a game does not have a killer story, its gameplay had better be pretty darn compelling to make up for it. That doesn't happen very often
