Sunday, September 19
Jak 3 was a game developed by Naughty Dog and published by SCEA in 2004. 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 -
In this stunning conclusion the story once again revolves primarily around Jak. As with the second game Jak 3 takes place in the same world, however it is now expanded. At the immediate start of the game, through the intro cut scene, you find out that you are banished from Haven City and thrown into the Wasteland. After this you see what happened after the end of Jak 2, which is the metal heads invading Haven City.
Since most of the world in Jak 3 was already explained in Jak 2, the story this time around has more of a focus on the characters themselves especially old characters like Jak and new characters like Damas, the king of Spargus which in the new Wasteland area. Unfortunately many of these new characters replace older ones like Samos and Kiera, who do make a few appearances but even at that are rarely in the game. Another unfortunate thing is that not all the new characters are that great. Some like Damas and Viegar, a new villain, are quite fantastic but others just are uninteresting.
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| Visually, This is not the game. |
Even with some of the lame new characters the story in Jak 3 is just as fantastic as Jak 2, if not more. Not once has the Jak series felt like the story was just put in place to make a second or third game (the first may have been tacked on). It has always felt like it was planned and Jak 3 is no exception. How the story flows is great, it never slows down, but doesn’t go so fast that you won’t understand it. And what the story covers is very interesting, but much like Jak 2 it is slightly confusing (time paradoxes are always confusing). One of the ways Jak 3 makes the story interesting is with the foreshadowing. It does it quite well and you will often think back and remember and at some times it will blow you mind when you realize you should have noticed it back then.
The story of Jak 3 is just as great as Jak 2. Not much can be found that is wrong with it, aside from a few bad characters. It is just a fantastic story that will keep you interested into the very end.
-- Story Score = 9 / 10
- Visuals -
Visually the game is not a much improvement over Jak 2. It contains many of the same features like wide screen and even adds some new options like the brightness and contrast, but other than that is looks pretty much the same, which isn’t a bad thing.
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| Even still the visuals are nice. |
One of the visual improvements of Jak 2 is one of the things that makes Jak 3 just great. And that is what must be some form of anti-aliasing. What anti-aliasing does it remove jagged lines and make them straighter. As an example take one of Jak’s arms. Normally the edges of the sleeves covering the arm would create a straight line. But without anti-aliasing that line would most likely be jagged. This is extremely noticeable in the series first game, Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. The anti-aliasing that is used may not be entirely perfect, but it makes Jak 3 just fantastic.
What Jak 3 does do over its predecessor is expand the amount of different locales. Instead of being stuck to a mechanical city and a few forest areas Jak 3 moves into deserts and stone ruins. Plus there is a new “alien” metallic area then just looks phenomenal. Not only do the environments of Jak 3 look good in terms of pretty textures, it also has nice effects such as a sandstorm and more. The new scenery added in Jak 3 is something that is greatly appreciated. It allows the game to never get boring, even with its environments.
Jak 3 isn’t what would be considered eye candy as of today, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t look great. For a game released on the PS2 in 2004, it just looks fantastic and shouldn’t disappoint anyone that plays it.
-- Visual Score = 9 / 10
- Game Play -
The formula is not changed when it comes to Jak 3. If you have played Jak 2 expect much of the same. Jak 3 still focuses on platforming, combat, and driving, with more focus on combat much like Jak 2 did. However what Jak 3 does do is improve on everything.
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| For the most part, the game play hasn't changed. |
The platforming hasn’t really evolved from Jak 2. You still hop from platform to platform and use your hover board to grind rails, which still has one or two bothersome spots. The jump much like Jak 2 still feels correct meaning the double jump doesn’t feel slightly delayed or off. The platforming is still a very solid experience. Not much gets in the way to hinder it even the camera is fine for the most part, at one point it is slightly bothersome. However the platforming in the game is given a back seat to the combat. So if you want a pure platformer there are definitely better games to play.
What is still similar is the combat. It is the primary game play of Jak 3 and as such is given some additions, but they don’t radically change the game. The new additions are some new weapons. While the game uses the four guns from Jak 2, they are given more modifiers that essentially change the weapons. Instead of two modifiers per gun in Jak 2 the game now has 4 modifiers per gun and some of them are extremely useful and fun to use. The biggest and best example I can give is a new electric gun. It is a modifier of the chain gun, but instead of bullets it shoots an arc of electricity. It looks extremely cool and is fun to use. Along with the cool new modifiers is a whole new type of combat, vehicle combat.
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| Surprisingly this is actually... fun. |
Now vehicles are vastly improved in Jak 3 and that is mainly because they are new vehicles altogether. The new combat vehicles are ground based ones with tires and all. Each vehicle, excluding the first one obtained, has its own unique gun. These guns range from a standard forward shooting machine gun to a mortar and also an auto targeting machine gun. But the best part of these vehicles is that they actually handle well and where they are used is a place meant for vehicles. But that doesn’t mean there still aren’t hover vehicles like there was in Jak 2. The good thing is that the environment for them is improved. Once in Haven City you can use these hover vehicles again and the best part is almost nobody else does, which allows you to hover freely without hitting anything. Along with that each mission is closer together making the travel time considerably shorter.
All the things Jak 3 does in terms of game play, especially for vehicles, makes this by far the Jak game with the best game play. Everything is done extremely well and doesn’t feel off especially control wise. Each piece of game play makes Jak 3 just far more enjoyable than any of its predecessors and even its competition.
-- Game Play Score = 10 / 10
- Multiplayer -
There is no multiplayer in Jak 3
-- Multiplayer Score = N/A
- Presentation -
Jak 3 keeps the presentation similar to that of Jak 2. It uses a plethora of cut scenes and the audio is just fantastic. As a bonus the menus are slightly sped up a small amount.
As its predecessor, Jak 3 uses a lot of cut scenes. The cut scenes are used prior to each mission and not only details the upcoming mission but also give some story to go along with it. Even after most missions is a cut scene. This flow of story through cut scene, mission, cut scene allows the game the never get old. You become enticed by some story and then while doing the mission you can’t wait to finish to get a little more story. Jak 3’s use of cut scenes is one of the best parts of the game and they are just fantastic.
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| Like Jak 2, the presentation is phenomenal. |
And of course, like every other Jak game the audio is just fantastic. The music, voice acting, and sound are all great. During the game play and the cut scenes the music sets the tone to be just right. Along with that almost all the previous cast is present, with Keira’s voice actress changing. And all the new blends very well with all the old voice cast. Not only do they blend well but they also have the high quality that has come to be expected from the Jak series. Now the one and only voice acting complaint I had about Jak 2, which was a minor complaint, was the voice actor of Jak. Before he seemed to take the brooding hero just a bit too far, but in Jak 3 he seems to have found the right ground and he becomes one of the great voices too. While all the voice acting it done extremely well, so is the sound. Everything from the vehicles to the weapon sounds good. All the sounds fit into the theme of the game and the quality of them is great.
One of the best features of the Jak series has always been how they have no loading screens and you will find that Jak 3 keeps this going. Jak 3 uses either an elevator or a cut scene as filler for the loading screens. Not having the loading screen keeps the game flowing forward and a good pace. There is never second to put down the controller and with the rest of the game being as good as it is you wouldn’t want to anyway.
-- Presentation Score = 10 / 10
Final Section Scoring
- Story = 9 / 10
- Visuals = 9 / 10
- Game Play = 10 / 10
- Multiplayer = N/A
- Presentation = 10 / 10
Jak 3 is the conclusion to a great series and it only makes the series better. It took what the first two did and improved on everything. Not only that, but many of the new additions, like locations, make the game feel like a much fuller experience. If you ever wondered where the Jak and Daxter franchise was headed then you now know it was headed to one amazing game.
Average Total Scoring
- Average Score = 9.5 / 10
Total Time Spent To Complete Single Player
- Roughly 9 hours
