• Publisher: SCEA
  • Release Date: Nov 9, 2004
Metascore
84 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 55 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 46 out of 55
  2. Negative: 0 out of 55
  1. 100
    Stunning graphics, an amazing range of highly imaginative and sprawling locations, endless variety, engaging and challenging gameplay, loads of mini-games, cool weapons, super powers, vehicles, races, a grand and exciting storyline, great music, superb voice acting and plenty of humour- did I forget anything?
  2. The action is incredibly smooth and responsive, the plot is fun and the game-play is quick and exciting. Even when you die, it's no big deal to get back in the action (and you will die, a lot).
  3. 100
    It's all about presentation, and Jak 3 presents the action in an engaging, meaningful way that keeps you glued to the very end. [Dec 2004, p.100]
  4. Compelling and addictive, and far more fun that we'd have expected after slogging through the confounding Jak 2. This is the action platformer refined to perfection.
  5. A near 20-hour-long rollercoaster ride that stacks missions of perfectly manufactured platforming, tactical shooting and everything in between. [Dec 2004, p.72]
  6. This game looks absolutely gorgeous; it is one of the best looking games out for the Playstation 2. The controls are very responsive and it plays like a dream.
  7. 96
    If you're looking for art and technical achievement, Jak has it...Jak is it. Characters animate so smoothly it actually makes playing other games painful. Painful, I say! And it never stutters, never glitches, never hitches, and never, ever lets up.
  8. A great game, and it is the best of the Jak series. It is the perfect way to end it all.
  9. After I beat the game I almost cried. Not from disappointment however, because the ending was great and it gave a great conclusion to the epic trilogy.
  10. The graphics are buoyed by the exceptional voice acting for the characters in the game.
  11. It's better than Jak II in how it's simpler to move around from place to place. That's a plus. Its range of difficulty has diminished since Jak II. That's a bit of a plus and a minus. The game's more action-oriented than it is platform based. That's a bit more of a minus than it is a plus.
  12. Naughty Dog has done a tremendous job of creating multi-layered personalities that really strike a chord, and plot hooks that will keep you guessing and on the edge of your seat up until the explosive finale. [Nov 2004, p.153]
  13. The variety of missions/gameplay types is refreshing.
  14. While it improves upon the chief complaints from the first sequel, it still does not offer much that's fresh besides new weapons and Light Jak powers. [Feb 2005, p.NP-9]
  15. I like how the game has been tightened up. The new driving missions are much better, the difficulty has been toned down (though maybe a bit too much), and the new weapon mods and Light Jak powers add something new.
  16. Although this game may also be the most difficult game in the series it also still retains all of the fun and enjoyment that has been with this series since the very beginning.
  17. Daxter's shtick notwithstanding (he hasn't made me laugh since the middle of last year's adventure) Jak 3 stands tall and proud as a testament of what polished gameplay and cutting-edge graphics can do when the host system's Emotion Engine is maximized.
  18. Despite the sweet new weapon upgrades and other new features, Jak 3 didn't have the same impact on me as "Jak II" because it wasn't as fresh - it feels a little too much like extra "Jak II" chapters. It's still great, don't get me wrong - but maybe not as mind-blowingly fantastic as what came before. [Nov 2004, p.70]
  19. It's fair to say that, despite all its new content, Jak 3 does feel a lot like "Jak II." Many of the animations and sound effects have been recycled, along with huge portions of Haven City.
  20. Nowhere near as tough as "Jak II" is. Those of you who pride yourselves on your old-school hardcore platforming skill may find this disappointing, but it's great news for the rest of us. "Hard" does not necessarily mean "good," and most of us don't like feeling as though a game is trying to give us an aneurysm. [Dec 2004, p.104]
  21. The game’s mission-based structures makes for a lot of opportunities to show cutscenes, and Jak 3 takes full advantage of this.
  22. The one thing keeping it from breaking 90%, I found the conclusion of the story to be a huge letdown. While several of the threads come to satisfying (And even surprising) conclusions, the major plot thread started in the first game was revealed to be, and I might be getting a little mean here, stupid.
  23. Graphics wise Jak 3 is stellar. The backgrounds are fantastic and they seem to go on forever. The player models look grand as well.
  24. With Jak 3 everything seems so passé and normal again, as if the well had run dry and the developers had lost their passion for the franchise.
  25. If you haven’t played either of the predecessors to Jak 3, it’s highly recommended that you do so before playing through this one, or at least Jak II that is.
  26. A truly fantastic game that is without a doubt the best game in the series. However, it is disappointing that the control and camera problems from the last game weren't fixed, and the new focus on vehicles was too overemphasized for my liking.
  27. This game simply builds on Jak II's winning formula by adding more weapons and abilities, varied kinds of action, and an interesting and well-told story; in short, all the stuff that made its predecessor a great game.
  28. I thought the graphics and gameplay were the 2 most outstanding features of the game.
  29. 85
    It isn't as evolutionary as "Jak II" was but it is still a fun platformer which puts up a great challenge.
  30. Though it sticks very closely to the franchise's formula and has a few flaws, the excellent story, great presentation and varied gameplay make this 'final' episode a good one.
  31. By ironing out the wildly unfair difficulty spikes, cutting down on the dullsville between-mission backtracking, and offering kinder, more frequent mission midpoints, Jak 3 (unlike Jak II) succeeds at making you not want to snap it in half.
  32. Offering so many well implemented elements of gameplay into a title along with stunning graphics and nicely set out controls is sure to be a winner and Jak 3 does everything so well you cant help but enjoy it.
  33. Jak 3 doesn't break much new ground, but it is head and shoulders above most of its ilk and is a fitting - and make no mistake, good-looking - send-off for this beloved trilogy. [Dec 2004, p.124]
  34. What's genuinely disappointing though is that it's all over so quickly... Jak 3 is much, much shorter than its epic predecessor. Indeed, it took us just 10 hours to achieve a 100 per cent rating.
  35. Sublime platform adventure and oodles of varied gameplay. [Jan 2007, p.106]
  36. Its identical nature to "Jak 2" may leave a nasty taste in the mouth, especially given that this is the send-off to the comical pair.
  37. 80
    At times, Jak 3 seems to be scraping the bottom of the idea barrel...While this final chapter is not the platforming clinic of the first, nor the trendsetter of the second, it is an extremely satisfying finish for the series.
  38. A far more varied titles than its predecessors.
  39. Just because there's everything but the kitchen sink doesn't mean it's a good game. Luckily, Jak 3 is a good game.
  40. Jak 3 can be completed in a weekend, minus the egg missions.
  41. The keyword here is variety. If you like to try many different things and fight many different ways, then Jak 3 is the game for you.
  42. 80
    The one down side is that the shooting still feels pretty basic. The game is a little shorter than you might expect, but goes well over 10 hours and it wraps up the series' story nicely with a pretty crazy twist.
  43. Although some found "Jak 2" hard going in places, Jak 3 is better all round, and soundly completes the adventure series.
  44. Players may occasionally feel like they are going through the motions, but there is a wide variety of challenges include races, turret blasting, hoverboard trickery, arena combat and an exciting sequence escorting an explosives-laden train.
  45. Aside from the occasional piece of ropey responsiveness from the game engine, Jak and Daxter's moves are among the slickest on any console.
  46. when I was done I was like… the opposite… I found the game to be extremely amusing and couldn’t really stop playing
  47. On balance, however, this is a great game that outperforms most others in the field, but it's also obvious - painfully so - that it could have been so much more.
  48. While it's possible if you're a fan of the originals to get to grips with this, and enjoy it throughout, for everybody else, Jak 3 is a beautiful, yet disappointing game. It does a lot, but only gets some of it right, and in the end you'll just want to skip whole sections and see the ending.
  49. Overall, it doesn't stray far enough from the parts of "Jak 2" that made it a let-down and, while tolerable, it's a bit of a shame.
  50. I didn't find it nearly as engaging as Insomniac's latest "Ratchet and Clank," as it came up a bit short in the fun department.
  51. Jak 3 too often feels like you're merely going through the motions. As the series' conclusion, then, it's a mild disappointment. [Christmas 2004, p.89]
  52. Sure, it's all beautifully put together, and you'll be hard pushed to find an adventure-lite world as well realised as here... However, despite all the creative effort Jak 3 is exactly the sum of its parts, and feels all the more underwhelming because of it. [Christmas 2004, p.118]
  53. 60
    More importantly, the action at the game's heart is only so-so; it's competent in execution, but just doesn't seem terribly compelling to play through. It passes time, but it's not exciting or fun.
  54. It's relatively easy for the most part, making it a game that some gamers will clear in less than ten hours, which also impacts on its total value.
  55. For all it's technical wizardry, a game is only as good as its gameplay, and that portion of Jak 3 just doesn't measure up.
User Score

Universal acclaim- based on 117 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 39 out of 42
  2. Negative: 0 out of 42
  1. This might just be nostalgia talking, but the game is an amazing game that is very well done. Of course there's going to be flaws, but it's an example of a proper third person platforming shooter done to a tee. There's even a good storyline to follow, this series will forever be a huge part of the PS2 library and truly shows the prime of Naughty Dog. Full Review »
  2. The game is pretty fun, although the camera angle is really bad plus the depth perception is terrible. You can barely see whats ahead of you leaving you vulnerable of walking over a ledge. Full Review »
  3. Takes place 1 year after Jak II and 3 years after the first game. Haven City has become a battleground for 3 factions. Jak is blamed for a lot of things and banished to the desert, along with Daxter and that colourful talking bird, all 3 of them are eventually found and taken to a small village at the shores of the desert and the game will largely focus on the desert where you can drive around, as the story progresses, you will reunite and discover an evil far worse than the Metal Heads, if you get bored of the setting like the desert and the village, just be patient and carry on, it gets much better by Act II. Gameplay has been improved; light eco powers where you do things like slow down time, desert vehicles, several new activities and a new enemy, you get the same weapons but also mods to them as you progress. The story is really good and has a brilliant direction, the humor and voice acting is superb along with the music. Unfortunately, there is a big side of problems to this game: The story needs more work on, should be bigger, as for Haven City, there should be more missions and more story especially at the HQ section. There is no option to traverse the desert without the option to disable marauders attacking you. What is also annoying is that after act II all the parts of Haven City (even when not on a mission and not including the south) are under attack and you should be able to disable that. It's also a shame that you can't go back to areas like the pumping station or dead town or the mountain, I really want to go back and see those places again. The desert doesn't make sense, it's supposed to surround haven city and the small village, the desert would have to be larger for this but still: you don't see a massive impassable area of walls at the edge surrounding haven city, you know what I mean. This game is not quiet as good as Jak II, but it's still brilliant and loveable, it's a shame that Naughty Dog did not carry on the series with Jak 4, huge disappointment, worst abandonment of a series and instead did Jak X. After finishing Jak 3, I can see far more story ahead. That Jak IV The Lost Frontier is a huge mistake done by completely different people, an utter waste of time and doesn't carry on the story properly. Jak & Daxter is a very unique game. Full Review »