One of the best PS2 titles out there. One of the most frustrating titles ever!
Jak II is the 2003 sequel to one of my all time favorite games, Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. Unlike Jak 1 however, this game is much, much, much much much, much much...much more story focused, as Jak 1 really had no story to speak of, other than the journey to find the Dark Eco masters.
And I never explained Eco in my first review...eh go look it up on the Jak and Daxter Wiki.
(This review contains potential spoilers for Jak 1/Jak II)
Jak II opens with something very soon noticed, the graphics have been even more improved since the 2001 hit. Although our hero, Jak, is still seemingly a mute, we're still all more than ready for more Jak goodness.
So remember that big, shiny thing they found at the end of Jak 1? You don't? What do you mean you didn't go back and collect the 20 other power cells for the secret ending? What's that? I diden't either?
Yes, i watched the secret ending on Youtube, shut up.
Anyways, Jak and friends are screwing are with this uh, thing, and, well, bad things ensue.
Jak, Daxter, Samos, and Keria, are pulled through into the..thing.. and find themselves thrown into what appears to be the future.
Upon arrival, Jak is arrested for reasons he is unsure of, and is kept in this captivity for 2 years, as well as being a test subject for the ruler of this futuristic city, Baron Praxis's Dark warrior program, by filling him with Dark Eco, and well, Ill just let you play for any more plot details.
The Story set up is quite mysterious and intriguing, as nothing in the opening quite makes any sense, until the ending of the game, which is one thing that kept me, and I'm sure many other players, involved in finishing this game.
The story is good, as well as the characters, friendly faces return, as well as plenty of new ones. And everything about this section of the game is pretty darn well done.
Now for Gameplay. This game is one of the biggest changes I've personally seen from one game, to the sequel, and they were some pretty good changes too.
Now, if you read my Jak 1 review, you know, and know why, that it took me 10 years to finish Jak 1, so playing Jak II for the first time meant for some major changes to the game I was so used to for the past decade. Jak now wields guns, instead of more open world adventure, Jak II has you spanning in a free-roam Grand Theft Auto comparable, Haven City, complete with the ability to steal hover-cars, etc. This made for a truly different Jak experience.
The gameplay is now focused on completing missions, rather than the somewhat menial tasks you were to perform in The Precursor Legacy. These missions range from killing a certain numbers of enemies in a given area, to delivering goods around Haven City, to entering city races. Sounds simple enough, right? Wrong. This is truly the most frustrating game I've ever played. Ever.
There is no curve to how the difficulty in the games changes, one mission you play may be fairly simple, the next one right after may be the hardest thing you've ever freaking played, followed by something harder, and Harder, then easier, it's seriously all over the place, which is something i honestly had somewhat of a problem with.
Alot of missions were timed for no good reason, making them frankly, unenjoyable. Now don't get me wrong, this game has alot of good, but is seriously weighed down sometimes for it's extreme difficulty. I'm seriously going to say the only people who are going to finish the game are completely dedicated players. I was very very, very dedicated to finishing this game, and unlike Jak 1 which took me roughly four days, this game took me a dedicated month.
Of course, this is good, cause it always sucks to pay high-price for a game, only for it to be at maximum, a week long.
Jak II's gameplay changes also, i should go a bit more in depth into. Instead of mainly standard platforming and like..what, two attacks? You'll have an arsenal of weaponry in Jak II, Machine gun, rocket launcher, thing, a shotgun, and a other gun that..well I'm not even sure what to call it. It shoots yellow lasers if that tells you guys anything. Gah, I suck at reviewing.
The usage of guns is very uniquely implemented, as instead of really focused on being a shooter or anything, guns can actually be used for more along the lines of combo attacks. It's as weird, and cool as it sounds, believe me.
Some other bad things about the gameplay; traveling around Haven City is slow..very..very..slow. If you go around of foot, you might as well..you know what, nevermind, because no one will even bother going on foot considering how slow it is. So your gonna be wanting to use the hover car to get around, right? Well, kinda wrong, as the hover cars have simply some of the worst handling ever, as well as well, they go to fast.
And like any other free-roam city based game, the player is not, *NOT* going to abide to the law, so your going to be speeding and what not. Problem is, there is traffic all over the place. Combine the speeding with poor handling, and you get well, a messy experience. I'll promise you right now, for every mission you embark on, your going to get chased by atleast two squads of Crimson Guards on your way there. By the end of this game, I know the Haven City alert music better than I know my own mother. The only real way out of a chase is to get to your mission objective, as that will end the chase, fighting them off isn't quite ever easy, as well, there are tons of guards.
Oh, remember when I was talking about the plot, and how he was filled with Dark Eco? Well this has advantage to Jak, as he can transform into Dark Jak, a sort of Eco beast which basically, is just a temporary time of highly increased speed and attack damage. Just thought it was worth a mention..I ehm..guess.
One thing about Naughty Dog is this; They love, *LOVE* making racing in their games. Crash Bandicoot 3, Crash Team Racing, A section in The Precursor Legacy, and now Jak II.
In Jak II, you'll enter races for reasons I'm not going to spoil, but here's the thing about these races..They kinda suck.
You see, every bump you might make on a wall or whatever, adds damage to your vehicle..I'm not even kidding. So as the race progresses, your vehicle, unless your quite careful, will become more damaged, therefore making it slower, therefore making it even harder than these races already are. They were fairly fun, and even had you controlling Daxter for the first time, but again was somewhat swallowed by the difficulty of the game.
All in all, this game is good, Good Graphics, gameplay, length, story, but all of this is somewhat put to waste by one particular thing, This horrid difficulty.
All in all though, I personally think any big Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy fan should definitely check out Jak II..If your ready for the challenge of your life, that is.