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| Source // PlayStation |
When I made the decision to stick with Ratchet over Jak, I knew that I was making the right choice. For me. I was more into the Ratchet universe, and once hooked, no amount of 'yeah, but, look what this Jak game offers!' could get me to turn my head. I was only ever vaguely aware of what the competition was doing, I never knew the details.
But I knew Jak II was different. I knew it was darker and moodier and took a few cues from Grand Theft Auto III, of all things. To me, that didn't sound great. Whether it was still humorous or not was almost irrelevant, because I wasn't attracted to the idea of Jak turning all emo on everyone. And besides, back then, I never played Jak and Daxter outside of its demo. I didn't know how good that game was until much, much later.
Now, it's time to dive into the sequel, which hopefully doesn't spoil too much of the first game...
Frustrations
Here we go again. I've got Jak II on a disc, but I keep hoping for an easier time of things via emulation. Cranking up the settings to keep the framerate high enough to make the game playable is one thing, but I'm not going to get many useful screenshots when nobody has eyes, and the textures pop in and out of life.
Well, Jak at least has one eye. I fire ol' faithful up, which then scares me by being somewhat slow to read any discs. A couple of restarts later and things start going well.
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| Source // Jak and Daxter Wiki |
Fun Times
Jak II starts as bright and colourful as the original game, but it doesn't take long to descend into darkness. Our heroes find themselves opening up a portal which inadvertently releases some ne'erdowells into town.
On the other side of this portal, Jak gets captured by the local police (I assume), and Daxter legs it, vowing to help free Jak in no time at all.
Two years later, Daxter finds Jak, pumped full of Dark Eco in experiments that haven't yielded the expected results but have permanently altered Jak. He can't control it and turns into a darker, more vicious version of himself when his Dark Eco levels get too high. Also, he speaks now, which doesn't sound as you might expect.
After a brief tutorial escape, where we jump, roll, dive, punch and kick ourselves to freedom, we emerge on the streets of Haven City, which it turns out is not really a haven. Baron Praxis, the man who tortured Jak for years, is in control here, and he's not the kind of chap to give a damn about the peasants on the streets.
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| Source // PlayStation |
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| Source // Moby Games |
Further Frustrations
In this screenshot, Jak II seems like an interesting game. We're blasting someone with a weapon, there are flying cars everywhere, the city seems to sprawl out in every direction... but something is off.
The inclusion of weapons (at least, as far as I remember, Jak II introduced weapons to the series) and a far darker story make this game look almost nothing like the first. Running through the streets, I was nearly always given the option to press triangle and leap into the air to forcibly grab a vehicle off someone. The city is a big space, but the vehicles feel slow and cumbersome, even with the ability to near-instantly drop to the floor or shoot back up to the sky to dodge around traffic.
Jak, in general, feels a little funny to control. That may partly be down to a possibly dodgy analogue stick, but the camera control was also throwing me off. In a game that requires precision jumps and an awareness of your surroundings so you don't get hit from off-screen, stopping to alter the camera (because moving at the same time would always throw me for a loop) was a big deal.
He's got a good few moves at his disposal, allowing him to roll, dive and high jump right from the start of the game, but something about him didn't sit well with me. Maybe I'm just not used to how he controls, versus how Ratchet does.
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| Source // Moby Games |
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| Source // Moby Games |
I don't have screenshots for it, but I took on a few missions for the local resistance, including showing off my skills by stealing a banner from a ruined tower and then doing something far more useful in turning the water supply to the slums back on.
Both missions had me travel through the city to an airlock at the city walls, serving as a loading point for a level outside of them. I'm sure that later on levels and missions will take place inside the city walls, but at this moment in time, it felt like the city was just there to show off that such a large city could be there in the first place.
It is a big place, don't get me wrong, full of people on foot, in the skies, and enemy forces on patrol, waiting for you to do something stupid. Its various districts are all different, with one existing over the water, full of piers and walkways. You could explore on foot, or just fly right over the top of everything in a hovercar.
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| Source // PlayStation |
At some point, there's a hoverboard you can use as well. I am relatively sure it's not locked into some kind of Tony Hawk challenge area, but I wouldn't know for sure. It's an example of throwing something else into the game to make it new and different.
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| Source // PlayStation |
Final Word
But at what cost? While Daxter was his stupid self, I found Jak to be an annoying grump of a character. The resistance fighter I was getting my missions from wasn't helping either, he was just as moody. I understand that he was fed up with the Baron, but come on mate, lighten up.
Jak has spent two years being tortured in prison and does have a reason for revenge, but it seems to be in stark contrast to his character in the first game (not that I've seen much of it). Yeah, sure, spending time behind bars will change you, but this is a drastic change. The whole game is, and I'm not getting the same enthusiasm with it as I got with Jak and Daxter.
I have no knowledge of where the plot of Jak II goes, but I do know that in some places it gets really ridiculously hard. Do I want to play it more and find out firsthand what the fuss is about?
That's a tough sell. It's a playable game, thus far, despite my irks with it. I wondered whether I had the Jak and Daxter Collection when I was playing the first game, and it turns out that I do... but only for the PlayStation Vita, and not the PS3, like I probably hoped. A hard game on a console that doesn't have all the buttons... there better be an excellent reason for me to play Jak II...
This is definitely a different game to what you might have expected or wanted from a Jak and Daxter sequel, and I've no doubt that it does some things really well. It hasn't won me over yet, but I will investigate the collection on the Vita, and see how I fare there before deciding how to progress with Jak II.
At the very least, I would like to finally see what it's about, but I think I should crack on with getting through the first game first. The third isn't on this 1001 list, is it? No? That's good. I've got plenty of time now.
Give it a bash. See if I'm making any sense. I wouldn't be surprised if I'm not, and will gladly update this if my views change.
FORGET ABOUT THAT
I played Jak and Daxter on the PS Vita this afternoon. Never again. And that's the easy title of the series...
If I come across the collection on PS3, it might get a look in. If not, I'll be watching someone with far more patience than I play Jak II. Maybe I'll enjoy it then.
Fun Facts
Maybe I'll like Jak as a character more if all the voice-overs were in Japanese, which is possible, for some reason, in Jak II.
Jak II, developed by Naughty Dog, first released in 2003.
Version played: Jak II: Renegade, PlayStation 2, 2003.