Jak 2 was a game developed by Naughty Dog and published by SCEA in 2003. It is a 3D platformer that follows the story of the primary protagonist Jak and Daxter, who is Jak’s friend.
Jak 2 was played on the PS2
- Story -
As a departure from the previous game, The Precursor Legacy, Jak 2’s story now primarily revolves around Jak and this time in a completely different place. Jak 2 picks up very close to where “The Precursor Legacy” left off, it is exactly after, but probably roughly 2 weeks after. At the end of “The Precursor Legacy”, Jak and Daxter, along with their two friends, found a giant door. At the start of Jak 2 you find out the door is a portal and obviously enough… you end up going through it. The portal ends to taking you to a seemingly “new” world that unlike “The Precursor Legacy” this one actually has technology… and a lot of it. The story follows Jak and Daxter’s journey in this “new” world and all that, that involves. You learn about it and much like the first game you must become the heroes.
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| Jak and Daxter. They still don't look this good. |
The story of Jak 2 is surprisingly good, albeit slightly confusing. Unlike this first game, Jak 2 packs a massive story and it doesn’t just randomly show up at the end either. Through most of “The Prescursor Legacy” you didn’t actually have an antagonist, besides boredom. In Jak 2 that is a different story, there is not only one antagonist but also two, the Baron and the Metal Heads.
The progression of the story takes place through missions that are given by a large cast of characters, who are all quite different and interesting. Before each mission, and sometimes after, a short cut scene is shown. Not only do the short cut scenes describe the mission to come, but usually shed more light on the story. In this way there is always a steady stream of new story through the entirety of the game, rather than massive amounts in small intervals. They pace the story flows is one of the better parts of Jak 2 because it never lets the game get boring. There are always new things being learned around every corner.
Jak 2’s story will keep you on your toes and will keep you coming back for more all the way to the end. It has an astounding pace to it that will never become boring, like the first game did. If you play Jak 2, expect a very good story.
-- Story Score = 9 / 10
- Visuals -
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| The visuals are still a big improvement though. |
Much like the story Jak 2 just keeps improving on its predecessor. The graphics are improved quite a bit. Each character has more detail and it is the same with environments, especially the environments. What “The Precursor Legacy” did was have a very clean, simple look. Jak 2 gets a more war torn look that doesn’t necessarily look messy. Along with the cleaner look is the reduction of jaggies. Jaggies are what happens when a straight line isn’t perfectly straight but is in fact jagged (this can be from anything like characters to vehicles or buildings). Jak 2 must use some form of anti-aliasing, which removes jaggies, which makes Jak 2 just look phenomenal. It makes every character look in a way, cleaner.
One very nice addition in Jak 2 is wide screen, and progressive scan. This is a great option that will open Jak 2 to even more users. Most of the current TVs are wide screen and this can only be beneficial.
While “The Precursor Legacy” looked ok, Jak 2 decided to surpass it and decided to just look great, for a last generation game. In terms of visuals Jak 2 is incredibly pleasing..
-- Visual Score = 9 / 10
- Game Play -
For the most part Jak 2 still stays true to its platformer roots, but it decided to still take a step in a new direction, primarily in combat. Jak 2’s way of doing that was by adding guns. Much like its predecessor, what makes the game great is its game play and especially its combat. Anytime you punch, kick, or shoot it all feels just right. There just isn’t any complaint when it comes to the combat system in Jak 2.
While the combat system is seemingly flawless, the rest of the game play doesn’t meet that same level of goodness. Some of it is close, but others not even close at all. What is very close it the platforming itself. What Jak 2 did improve in terms of platforming compared to its predecessor was the jumping. No longer does the double jump feel slightly off. However while the controls feel right the platforming in the game isn’t always as good. Much of the jumping is good, but there are some times, especially when you get the hover board that the platforming can become frustrating. It can become frustrating by either camera angles or just awkwardly positioned jumps and ledges. Now while it can become frustrating it really only affects a very small portion of the game. For the most part the game is absolutely fine in terms of platforming.
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| Oh how I hate you vehicles... |
The one major problem with the game, and I mean major, is the vehicles. This is one field that Jak 2 decided to one up is predecessor and in reality… it shouldn’t have. “The Precursor Legacy” proved that the open world full 3D vehicle sections just were not fun and controlled badly while the straightforward only one path to go sections were great. Jak 2 decided to fill the entire game with the open world full 3D sections and they are pretty much essential to play to game. Not only that, but they somehow found a way to make the straightforward only one path vehicle sections be bad too.
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| Look not a vehicle. That means its good... |
The main problem with the vehicles is the bad control. Because the vehicles are hovering they tend to take wide turns, but the controls of the vehicles isn’t really the bad part. What is, is everything else involved with them. During the normal game you do missions to progress the story. Each mission is usually spread around the city, which makes taking a vehicle almost mandatory. Unfortunately the city is also filled with other hover vehicles. So if you decide to fly your vehicle then you will crash in other vehicles all the time making that path frustrating. Now if you decide to drive your vehicle while hugging the ground (there are 2 levels in which you can drive on) you have to avoid guards that spring up almost out of nowhere. If you hit a guard they will chase you making that incredibly frustrating. Along with this the city you drive around in is slow large and they position these missions so far apart that is becomes just annoying.
Then there are the races, and they are not better than the city driving. Again the driving itself is fine, but during the races the AI is insane. If you are behind them they will make mistakes, but if you are ahead they will make every turn perfectly and make no mistakes. Oh and they will also take the shortcuts too. The problem with the races, beyond what I just said, is that the shortcuts are dangerous to take because they usually involve jumping your vehicle at an exact time. If you are just before you crash into a ledge and just after you don’t jump. But the AI never messes up the jumps. And these races are all missions thus making them required the complete the game.
The only way I can put this is that the game play is fantastic if you do not have to deal with a vehicle. If you do then it is just terrible. Unfortunately the vehicle sections take up roughly a third of the game play.
-- Game Play Score = 6 / 10
- Multiplayer -
There is no multiplayer in Jak 2
- Presentation -
This is just where Jak 2 shines. The game is filled with amazing audio, and it presents the story extremely well. The only thing that could be improved is the menus and even that could minimally be improved.
The audio, much like “The Precursor Legacy” is just phenomenal, especially the voice acting. Every voice actor from the first game reprises their role (if their role is still in the game) and the new additions are just great, except maybe one. In my review of “The Precursor Legacy” I complained about Jak’s lack of voice and they decided to fix that in Jak 2. However, his voice actor either took the gloomy slightly brooding hero too far or his script isn’t very good. Either way it is still fine and doesn’t hurt the game in terms of voice acting. The other audio is great too. The music is good and so are the sounds. Everything from the background music to the sounds in combat sounds great in the game.
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| One of many cut scenes that are just great. |
Along with the audio is how the story presents itself. The first game had minimal story and with that had minimal cut scenes. Jak 2 decided to change that. Almost every mission has a cut scene and they are just fantastic. They are all rendered in game and they really suck you into the experience. And Jak 2 doesn’t allow just a few cut scenes to be great, but they have a couple hundred cut scenes in the game with each being as good as the last.
Another thing Jak 2 retains from the first game is that it has no loading screens. The game goes from you running around into a cut scene in the blink of an eye and transitions back just as quickly. It makes the game flow extremely well and looks extremely nice.
The only complaint in the presentation is the menus. It isn’t bad at all, but it could be a little quicker. It isn’t a very large complaint, but it was noticeable how quick the rest of the game is, but then how much slower the menus are.
Even with the minor complaint about the menus it just has no way of making the presentation of Jak 2 to be anything less than phenomenal.
-- Presentation Score = 10 / 10
Final Section Scoring
- Story = 9 / 10
- Visuals = 9 / 10
- Game Play = 6 / 10
- Multiplayer = N/A
- Presentation = 10 / 10
Even with the vehicle sections that were atrocious, the rest of the game makes up for it I couldn’t recommend Jak 2 any more. It is just a phenomenal experience, with the obvious exception, that just needs to be played and played not only by fans of platforming, but just fans of gaming in general.
Average Total Scoring
- Average Score = 8.5 / 10
Total Time Spent To Complete Single Player
- Roughly 12 hours
As a final note I would like to add that the scoring system might not be entirely accurate. It is more in place as a brief overview of my experience, but if you want to fully know what I thought about the game then the actual written portion of the review must be read.
