DAVY x JONES is a first-person adventure game developed and published by Parasight. It was released on Steam in early access on 28 August 2025. For an early access game, DAVY x JONES is already in a very advanced stage of development, providing a fairly accurate idea of its mechanics.
Set the sails
DAVY x JONES reimagines the legend of the pirate Davy Jones. In the game, players take control of Captain Jones’s headless body, aided in combat and exploration by his skull, Davy.
This unique duo enables us to explore the afterlife of pirates, known as ‘The Locker’. Here, an open-world environment awaits, filled with enemies to be vanquished.
The game currently has great potential. The chaotic gameplay is reminiscent of Doom, and the story is intriguing.
As an open-world game, once we progress beyond the initial stages, we are presented with a vast map to explore. However, exploration is complicated by the fact that the map does not always show the objective marker, which makes the gameplay frustrating as we wander around looking for it. This happens repeatedly as the plot progresses. Even after freeing the ‘guide’, who is supposed to lead us to the ship, we are not shown how to reach them, and the same applies to subsequent objectives that are not indicated on the map.
Furthermore, when we return to an area that we have already explored, we have to fight the same enemies again, even if we defeated them just a few minutes earlier. This increases the level of frustration.
The map is confusing: the symbols in the map legend do not correspond to those on the map, and it does not indicate the main objective. Furthermore, it is difficult to tell which areas are land and which are empty space.
In DAVY x JONES, there are crypts, but they are not correctly marked on the map. In fact, the map shows one symbol, but the legend shows a different one. The crypts allow us to unlock new executions. Other places to visit include the ‘Forest of Sins’, where we can deposit stars to permanently increase our health.
The gameplay penalises gunplay, which means we are pushed to use melee combat instead. By performing certain combos, we can reload our gun, which has a maximum capacity of three bullets. Therefore, DAVY x JONES is a title that will push us to be creative in combat and optimise our movements to attack our enemies effectively. It would be good to have a greater variety of enemies in order to make the most of the combat system’s features.
Over the Horizon
DAVY x JONES has great potential, but at the moment it is not being exploited to the full. The lack of clear objectives makes the game feel disjointed. More work is needed to make it clearer to players how they can progress.
It is commendable that the game continues to be developed — the recent “Kraken Hunt” update, for example, allows players to take to the skies. Unfortunately, the release of this update wiped out all previous progress.
Nevertheless, we appreciate the technical realisation of the game, particularly the graphics, which provide excellent scenery and a high level of detail. Furthermore, the game is well optimised, at least on AMD hardware. In fact, we played with an average frame rate of 40 fps with the high preset on an RX570 8GB, experiencing few drops thanks to the adoption of upscaling technologies such as AMD FSR. However, the upscaling selector should be changed to a drop-down menu or a key should be set to apply the changes; otherwise, when we try to access AMD FSR, the game crashes, probably due to Nvidia DLSS being activated instead.
We also liked the voice acting and the setting’s style, which makes the plot very interesting and engaging. We hope that the minor issues that can transform a rewarding gaming experience into a frustrating one will be resolved.
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