Davy X Jones Early Access Preview | Slap Me Across the Face

There was a debate going on when I was younger: pirates or ninjas? I was, of course, pirates. Who wouldn’t pick pirates? Then, of course, when Twilight came out there was the “vampires vs. werewolves” debate. And again, I chose pirates. I found Captain Jack Sparrow, Elizabeth Swann and Will Turner waaaaay hotter than the boys from Twilight. And yes, those are all characters from Pirates of the Caribbean. 

That was a long digression that I can’t really justify without trying to explain myself further so I’m going to move on.

Davy X Jones from developer PARASIGHT is a first-person action adventure you play as the pirate (see, that intro had a purpose) Davy Jones. Unfortunately for him, in a fight with Blackbeard, Davy is sent floating down to the bottom of the ocean and, at the same time, is separated from his head. When he awakens, he is two separate entities. Davy, the smooth talking, floating head with a big tentacle sticking out of him, and Jones, the body that does all the shooting and the fighting and not really any talking because he doesn’t have a head. 

It’s a hilarious concept and one that I found myself completely drawn into as I played through the game which is currently in Early Access. I only played a couple of hours so I can’t speak to what all of Early Access has to offer, but what I did play was not only impressive, but fun as heck, gorgeously animated and pretty dang funny. I mean, you can slap Davy across the face just for the fun of it. What’s not to like about that?

In the game, Jones is equipped with a knife and gun in order to attack enemies. You’ll learn a variety of different moves that you can use with these weapons, like a bomb that can shoot from the gun and a charge attack you can use with the knife. Not only that, but you can send Davy in the fray to do some damage as well. Davy can also eat up fireflies in the area to heal Jones during more difficult encounters. Combat feels incredibly smooth, reminding me a bit of Dishonored 2 or even Bioshock. 

Traversal is great as well. As Davy is equipped with a new special tentacle, he can help Jones grapple onto high platforms or over obstacles. Again, everything runs incredibly smooth, so much that I forgot that this was a game in Early Access the more I played it. I’d be remiss to not mention how fantastic the voice acting is as well. Both Blackbeard and Davy have super memorable dialogue and moments all throughout the first couple of hours of the game. 

I don’t want to spoil too much about what’s to come in the game, but the Early Access version includes the core gameplay loop, access to several explorable islands, and all of Davy and Jones’ main tools. The team plans to add the full story throughout Early Access with a full launch in late 2026. Grab the game right now on Steam for $9.99 and consider joining the team’s Discord to voice your opinion and be a part of the final version.