By Osei Tyson on June 27th, 2003

Game Information

Developer: Naughty Dog
Publisher: SCEA
Release Date: October 2003
Genre: Adventure/Platformer
Also On: None
Website: JakII.com

The sequel to Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, the simply named Jak II gives players a wide open, GTA-style action-platforming experience, and this time it gives players guns, lots and lots of guns. Featuring advanced technology and characters both familiar and new, Jak II is a true plot-driven adventure game, where every mission has a direct effect on the storyline. With stunning graphics and animations, Jak II takes gamers on a journey through an enormous mystical world that puts players into a darker side of Jak, and follows him through a massive world or dread, misery and revenge. In a ploy to make to mostly looked at as “kiddie” platformer genre appeal more to adults. And I have to tell you it’s looking sweet.

Building the Jak and Daxter engine with new improvements, and borrowing elements from Insomniac’s Ratchet and Clank engine (who also borrowed from Naughty Dog), the engine powering Jak II improves the game’s looks ten times over, with more characters on screen, triple the amount of polygons on Jak and Daxter, and adding in more special effects, such as more shading, fireworks, and more. Fans of the previous game will be glad to know that everything that could be done in the first game can be done in the sequel. Every move and every attack is here, along with several new ones. Add to that you’ll have an arsenal of guns to make corpses outta enemies with. It’s hard to say if the weapons are the main way to defend yourself against Jak II’s tough enemies. Weapon usage is limited by the amount of bullets you have. More bullets can be found, but since all of Jak’s original attacks have returned, he can also punch the enemies or whack them with this tail. He can also use the gun itself as a weapon and bash enemies with it.

Jak II takes place two years after the first game, when our two heroes jumped into a portal at the end of the first title, Jak and Daxter and left the story open for a sequel, plain and simple. Two years later, our heroes appear in the not so distant future, a dark, miserable city, ruined and corrupt by several controlling factions, the biggest jak ass (excuse the pun), is the Baron. Who within hours of their arrival had Jak arrested for no reason at all, placed him in jail and experimented on him using dark eco. Shortly after Daxter busts Jak from jail and they prepare their plan for revenge. Now after his prison term Jak is no longer the happy guy he was in the past. And with that anger he has something to talk about (yes you heard right Jak talks now). He even changed his look now with a green goatee and his hair slicked back. And I haven’t seen a screenshot yet when he didn’t look angry! But something else happened during his jail term; the experiments that were performed on Jak mutating affect. The dark eco within Jak transforms him into a super-powerful, temporarily invulnerable creature that casts electro-static eco bolts upon his enemies. Talk about a badass!

Outlook…
Jak & Daxter is possibly the best platformer on current-generation consoles. Hell it’s a helluva lot better than Blinx: The Timesweeper (Xbox). And even a tad better than platformer King Mario’s last spin Super Mario Sunshine. So I can’t help but be very excited with the sequel on its way. I do have a problem with Jak’s makeover. Since I’m a big fan of pure nice guy hero’s. And hate the fact that Naughty Dog is following the bad motherfu*ker Hero trend we’ve been seeing lately. But put that aside and I’m ecstatic that I’ll be able to hear Daxter’s wise cracks again. With Jak II coming it makes me wonder why Sony would still publish a Ratchet & Clank 2. Only thing I could ask for is the euro title Jak II: Renegade before its October 2003 release!

~ditto~