GS said: "The PSP version of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest will feature a total of 10 story missions, and based on what we've seen of the game thus far, you'll be spending much of your time in those missions engaged in melee combat with all manner of cannibals, zombies, pirates, and zombie pirates. We were armed only with a sword at the start of the game, and the combat moves available to us included a fast attack, a heavy attack, and a "dirty moves" button with which we were able to stun opponents with either a kick to the groin or a head-butt. We encountered a few different types of enemies during our time in Sparrow's shoes and found that many of them required slightly different strategies to beat. Some of our adversaries could only be hurt with heavy attacks after we'd repeatedly used fast attacks to wear their guard down, for example, while for other enemies the exact opposite was true.

As we explored locales that included the interior of a prison, a tropical island, and a swamp, the time that we didn't spend locked in battles with enemies was mostly spent destroying crates and barrels to find gold and food and swinging from ropes and chains to reach areas that were otherwise inaccessible. There were hazards that we needed to avoid as we progressed through the levels, including fires coming up through the ground and large logs covered in spikes swinging pendulously across corridors.

In addition to the single-player story missions, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest will feature a sea battle minigame that supports up to four players on an ad hoc wireless network. Played from the perspective of a camera situated above and behind your chosen vessel, the sea battle minigames are quite reminiscent of those in Sid Meier's Pirates!, which was released for the PC toward the end of 2004 and for the Xbox in June of last year. You'll steer your boat using the analog stick while using the square and circle buttons to fire your port and starboard cannons, respectively. The shoulder buttons are used to switch between the three different types of ammunition available to you: cannon balls, which damage the hulls of enemy ships; chain shot, which tears apart their sails; and grape shot, which hails down on enemy crew members. Each of the five different ship types available in the game will have different strengths and weaknesses, and some of the items that you collect during battles can later be used to upgrade them. Although the sea battles are primarily designed to be played with up to three friends--as evidenced by the fact that three of the 10 maps can be played against people without their own copy of the game--you'll also have the option to play against CPU-controlled adversaries. "