Incorporating elements from a number of other titles, this highly polished and incredibly playable title has taken the bar and kicked it up a notch, and is definitely one of the best platformers currently available.
What do you get when you put together solid controls, a fun story, great action, beautiful graphics, and a game oozing with character? Jak II, one of the best PS2 games of the year.
Having the freedom to tackle challenges in a less linear fashion is definitely a strength, but the open-ended play that comes with traversing a massive city is more of a curse than anything. [Nov 2003, p.136]
The gameplay is rewarding, the story twists and turns more than you'd expect from a game like this, and everything comes together to produce one of the best-looking, best-playing games on the PS2 so far.
The nuisance of the overworld and the poorly controlled vehicles are the biggest drawbacks, causing a good deal of headache. And yes, the game is much more difficult than the original.
These new elements seem to have been thrown in merely for the sake of being different, and the result is a confused mishmash of ideas that is more banal and frustrating than fresh or exciting.
Jak 2 is not just a game; it's a monumental masterpiece that redefines the very essence of gaming. With its impeccable blend of breathtaking visuals, captivating storytelling, and exhilarating gameplay, Jak 2 earns a solid 10 out of 10 without a shadow of a doubt.
Ratings for the time period it came out
Story : 8
Gameplay : 8
Graphics : 7
Fun Factor : 8
Environment interaction : 5
Sound effects : 8
Overall Immersion : 7
Naughty dog began it's journey to darker gritty games by taking a colourful platformer and saying 'nope.'
Whilst the direction thr company has since taken with absolute masterpieces like the last of us and uncharted, quite why they decided to drastically change the genre of jak and daxter is beyond me. The grittier nature of the story is fine however everything that happened in the precursor legacy is irrelevant and almost completely discarded for a more mad max style adventure.
Jak 1 was a successful, critically acclaimed platformer so what moved Naughty Dog to make radical revisions is a mystery. Indeed, when Jak 1 was almost a pure platformer, ‘action-adventure’ shuffling far behind, in Jak 2 roles are reversed. Yep, Jak 2 is a rightful action-adventure title and imagine this: it’s a GTA clone.
Adventure begins with unlucky experiment that results in main heroes being **** into faulty machine and warped into Haven City, futurist habitat controlled by tyrant Baron Praxis and his Krimzon Guard. The group gets separated, Jak is captured and is experimented upon for 2 years, until being rescued by Daxter. The lasting torture is the source of three game aspects. First Jak is now capable of turning into dark eco version of himself, imbued with increased strength, defenses and scariness. Secondly, Jak has grown into serious tough guy now capable of speech. Thirdly, his motivation is revenge.
As you can see Jak 2 goes for darker, more serious approach. Haven City mimics well dystopian works: police force patrolling the streets, brainwashing propaganda sounding in air, the rule of baron is absolute. Jak stays true to his unheroely goal throughout most of the story and to achieve it he is ready to deal even with criminals. Story itself is ten times more complex and sophisticated than “collect 75 cores” of predecessor, there would be twists, revelations, humor, tragedies. But cartoon design and bubbly past are inescapable, the story ever be limited by the fact that people in Jak are hyperbolic farce characters reeking of lightweight humor and design. Daxter in particularly is even more exasperating and superfluous than before.
Jak 2 action-adventure is almost identical to GTA. Like GTA cities, Haven City is the hub filled with people, some walking, some flying in vehicles. Like in GTA, you’re free to roam, attack anyone, steal cars. Like in GTA, cops are ready to pursue you in case of infringement. Like in GTA story consist of mission, each triggered by going into certain place in the city, marked by icon on minimap. Like in GTA missions start with narrative cutscene, involving eccentric job-giver, followed by a task that can compromise almost any activity imaginable. The only ‘like in Jak’ element is that many missions takes places in certain non-city locations that involves classic platformer walkthrough.
GTA-like gameplay structure requires a lot of variety in missions and, quantity wise, Naughty Dog managed quite well. The list of different tasks is long: platforming, fleeing from giant creatures, puzzles, NPCs escort, enemy eliminations, skateboarding, ambush escapes, lap races, sprint races, city races, shooting galleries, taxi, police shake-off, robot suite, intact deliveries, bosses, minigames. Jak now is supplied with a weapon, thanks to which game imitates a shooter (imitates because Jak 2 doesn’t feature regular aiming system).
Activities list sound impressive right? Yes, indeed, I was charmed by the Jak 2 changes at first but illusion was quickly dispelled by two problems. First is simple and objective truth that, ironically, the only thing that Jak 2 does brilliantly is… platforming. Everything else (which is more than half of the game) falls under GTA category and is lackluster. The AI of denizens of Haven City consist literally of two actions: trite walking/driving and running from Jak. Cops system is so basic that it’s nothing but annoying. The Haven City itself is completely empty: no secrets, no interesting places, no motivation for exploration. And all these GTA-like missions about driving and shooting are mediocre because driving feels too arcade and not engaging and shooting, as was mentioned before, is an imitation.
The second problem is idiotic, nerve-wrecking, unwarranted difficulty. Almost *all* mission in Jak 2 forgive no mistakes but at the same time many of them relies heavily on luck (!). For example, many mission involves hordes of shooting enemies all around Jak, you can kill them as fast as you can but you can’t prevent at least some of them from making few shots. And these shots… they may miss and they may not, you can’t control that, it’s random. So two absolutely identical player actions may lead (and often will) to different outcomes. Couple with the fact that platforming locations feature no checkpoints, prepare to spend hours on going through first mission stages only to practice the part where you fail. And this is idiocy: there are dozens of easily-implementable ways to makes game enjoyable and accessible to average player but no, no checkpoints, no health boxes, no mistakes, no selectable difficulty - only hardcore.
And it’s just doesn’t worth it. Platforming is the only fun department of the game while everything else is a living hell. Yes, objectively speaking Jak 2 may deserve 6 or even 7, like original… but no
3/10.
SummaryIn Jak II, Jak has an entirely new move set (Dark Jak) to augment his previous move set. He has more moves with his new toys as well - gun moves (including kick/shooting combos), and entire Jet Board move set and tricks. Daxter has some special surprises as well. There are escort missions where Jak goes into a level area with another cha...