So I bought the game only last week simply because of the “A Pirate’s Life” expansion since im a POTC fan. Now that I’ve seen and experienced the 4 tall tales, it was worth suffering through the week of figuring out all the coordinating it takes to keep up with the game. So here are all my “novice” thoughts and opinions of it; spoilers follow.

-I have the dark warsmith skeleton skin so playing with that (and my undead parrot) was different but fun

-all the POTC references and stuff were great, especially when clarified that it takes place after the events of the films and is canon with them. It’s explained that because will turner being free from the Dutchman in the 5th film somehow allowed davy jones to return and reclaim the dutchman, filling in the after credit scene of that movie.

-Playing with and being with jack sparrow and part of his adventure is a dream come true, plus great seeing so many other POTC characters than I expected (gibbs, scrum, anamaria, ghost beckett, mentions of will and elizabeth)

-the castaway is confirmed and revealed to by calypso, which most people already kinda figured. Its very cool in the final battle to finally see them have it out over their past and relationship and see it resolved(in a way).

-the cursed skeleton captain was a super fun new character; I love when pirates are designed with all three impairments (hook hand, eye patch, peg leg)

-we are reunited with some beloved departed SOT faces in the tavern of the damned.

-a large part of enjoying the experience was purely from the music; whether new scores or remakes of old SOT or POTC music, it was always deep and able to elicit such emotion in me every step of the way to make it an astounding gameplay.

-all the levels were equal challenging and enjoyable, even those that were pretty difficult to get through; if I had rate the 5 tall tales on enjoyability, they’d be
1. Captains of the Damned
2. A Pirate’s Life
3. The Sunken Pearl(this was tied with dark brethren but won out because of the haunting singing/music)
4. Dark Brethren
5. Lords of the sea

-“A Pirates Life” and “Captains of the Damned” were great highlights that I know I will play multiple times for their easy and fun explorative gameplay and nostalgic inspiration from the ride.

-The Ocean crawlers, while hard to fight, look awesome and were great stand-ins for davy jones’ trademark crew.

-we get a bit of ominous world building with the dark brethren; gold hoarder being alive(and hilariously being gifted the cursed gold from the first POTC), captain warsmith(wanda) appears to be human again and is revealed to have been the masked stranger associated with the Reapers, and Duke, former associate of the Bilge Rats, apparently gone rogue.

-these also lead into serious consequences for future events in the game; davy jones is now imprisoned on the ferry of the damned(I wonder if we’ll be able to see him when we go there); the dark brethren are still loose(unclear if gold hoarder is still around or gone for good now); whether the ocean crawlers, ghosts, sirens and the kraken will continue to be enemies in the game; will the portal to the sea of the damned stay open; Rose and George being restored to life and joining jack’s crew and returning to his world. There is also the question of two mysterious unrevealed characters; first is the “her” that jack keeps mentioning he made a promise to regarding the treasure. The other is the mysterious “Captain” who evidently stole Jones’ heart, commanded his actions and is the grand mastermind of these events.

Cons

-all the time spent in the sea of the damned, and we never get to see captain briggsy(my fav character)

-flameheart is talked about by the brethren in the past tense, as if he’s gone and no longer a factor; I sure as hell hope not, he’s the primary and best villain of this game, the guy’s awesome.

-3 of the 5 tall tales felt way to hard/complex except for the most skilled of players(thank god for crews).

-No Barbossa; Captains of the Damned mentioned him quite a bit and I thought we were building up to him being introduced but it never happening. A small part of me suspects he may be the mysterious captain with jones’ heart.

-Bill Nighy and Geoffrey Rush not reprising their POTC characters.

-wish we got to spend more time with the cursed captain

-I know it’s typical for this game and others like it, but not getting a bit more close up interactions with davy jones.