Producing a sequel to a popular video game is something of a catch-22. One one hand, if you recreate more of the same game that brought your initial success, you’re likely to be accused of milking a franchise and not having any original ideas to bring to the table. On the other hand, mess with the premise too much, and you’re doomed to be seen as ruining the franchise and alienating the fans.
Naughty Dog found themselves in this situation after the kid-friendly smash hit Jak and Daxter was released for the PlayStation 2 in late 2001. With the sequel, Jak II, they decided to take the road less traveled and completely turn the series on its ear, keeping many of the core gameplay elements but completely changing the tone and focus of the game. While this was obviously a risky move, and some fans of the original Jak and Daxter may not appreciate the shift in the direction of the series, the result is easily one of the best PlayStation 2 games to be released this year.
To set the stage for the new game, Jak and Daxter are accidentally hurtled through a sort of warp gate in an experiment with Precursor technology gone wrong, and land in the dystopian Haven City. Upon arriving, Jak is imprisoned by the sinister Baron Praxis, and subjected to experimentation with dark eco (the substance that originally turned Daxter into his animal form in the beginning of the first game). After two torturous years, Daxter finally manages to break in to the Baron’s palace and free Jak, who now has strange new powers, the newfound ability to speak (he was essentially a mute in the first game, as Daxter likes to point out occasionally) and a single-minded focus on revenge against the Baron. Of course, the Baron is not the only dark force to worry about, as his government is battling against (and losing to) the “Metal Heads” that are assaulting the city, threatening to kill all who dwell within. Soon after escaping, Jak joins an underground resistance movement, who seek to bring down both the Metal Heads and the Baron.
To explain any more would be to give away some of the surprises in the storyline, which is well crafted (if a bit slapstick at times), and contains lots of twists and turns to keep you guessing along the way. This dystopian city provides the genesis of the game’s dark new tone; while Daxter is still his wisecracking, goofy old self, Jak is just plain angry for most of the game, and the two provide an interesting contrast. Despite the distinctly darker feel, which may turn off some fans of the series who appreciate the original’s light-hearted tone, the story is really a big incentive to keep playing through the missions, so much so that I would often pause the game before each cutscene so that my wife could finish up whatever she was doing and come in and watch. (As a side note, if you ever wondered what Daxter would be like if he was drunk, you get to find that out along the way too!)
The first Jak and Daxter was essentially a game much inspired by Super Mario 64, which is to say that there were a lot of objects scattered around a large world, and Jak and Daxter had to collect all of them in order to progress to the next area. The game was fun, but not as revolutionary as it could have been. Jak II, on the other hand, takes inspiration from a number of different sources, combining its own gameplay mechanics with some elements from the ever-popular Grand Theft Auto games, as well as from last year’s Ratchet and Clank (which, incidentally, was built around the original Jak and Daxter engine). So instead of wandering around lush environments looking for something to do, Haven City serves as a large hub which you traverse to well-defined missions marked on a GTA-style city map. Since the city is so big, you can (and often want to) take (or steal) a zoomer to get you from point A to point B more quickly.
The city hub will likely make or break the game for most players. Controlling the zoomers, especially at first, can be akin to wrestling a greased watermelon, and take a bit of getting used to, especially since different types of zoomers handle extremely differently. Add to this the fact that one wrong move will alert the Baron’s Krimzon Guard, who will mercilessly case after you until they lose your trail or you die, and going from mission to mission can be extremely frustrating. Once you’re used to it, however, the city’s size actually adds to the atmosphere of the game, and traveling on the zoomers isn’t nearly as annoying as the sailing component of Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. It should also be noted that you can run from one end of the city to the other and into a mission without so much as a second of perceivable load time, which is an incredible achievement given the sheer size of the game world.
The missions themselves are very nicely varied, starting off as standard Jak and Daxter platforming outside the city walls but eventually changing dramatically thanks to a number of tools that Jak has at his disposal. The change that the most has been made of is that Jak now has a Morph Gun, which has adaptors to let it behave as a short-range shotgun, long-range rifle, rapid-fire machine gun, and the Peacemaker, which is essentially the Jak II equivalent of Quake’s BFG. Again, while it may seem out of place in the Jak and Daxter world, the guns really fit in nicely, and the missions are designed to make them feel natural. Jak also has a JET-Board made available to him about halfway through the game, which is initially used for a couple of Tony Hawk-style missions, but is actually integrated into standard platforming missions, as there are rails between platforms that you have to grind across, and areas that you can only reach by boarding off a ramp. I just recently started playing Tony Hawk’s Underground, and was disappointed that that game tried to implement platforming elements and did so poorly, which only gave me more respect for Naughty Dog because they were able to seamlessly integrate a skateboarding element into their platformer without it feeling out of place. Finally, after collecting enough dark eco, Jak can turn into Dark Jak, who behaves sort of like a Berzerker Wolverine, with longer, more powerful attacks and devastating special moves. Since it takes quite a bit of dark eco to be able to turn into Dark Jak, and the Dark Jak form only lasts for a few seconds, it really doesn’t make as much of an impact on the gameplay as he could have, but this does add another element of strategy to the game.
Even without using Jak’s new gadgets, there are interesting challenges that take him away from standard “reach the end of the level without dying”. There are missions which involve manning a moving gun turret and taking down Krimzon Guard on jet packs, various types of races, a whack-a-mole mini-game, and a couple of missions toward the end involving the Titan Suit, which is a giant mech suit that Jak uses to knock down walls and doors. You even get to control Daxter separately, though only for two missions, and he basically just controls as a miniature version of Jak with fewer abilities; it’s not as interesting as the missions in Ratchet and Clank where Clank goes out on his own, but it’s still a fun change. The end result is that there are a lot of missions, yet you never really feel like you’re doing the same thing over and over again. Even at the very end of the game, when most players would assume they’d seen everything that the game has to offer, there are still new enemies and elements to discover. Even though some missions can be incredibly frustrating, especially when there is a time limit which generally leaves, at most, two or three seconds of leeway, the game remains entertaining from the beginning to the very end.
One other thing to note is that Jak II is not nearly the collection-fest that its predecessor was. That’s not to say that there aren’t objects to collect, like Metal Head Skull Gems and Precursor Orbs, but both are completely optional. The Skull Gems unlock Dark Jak moves, and they are fairly easy to collect since enemies drop them when defeated, but not collecting them doesn’t keep you from progressing, like the collectibles in the first game might. That alone was one of my biggest complaints about the first game, and the fact that it has been rectified in Jak II only makes the sequel that much more enjoyable, in my opinion.
The game’s control is something of a mixed bag, tight and intuitive in some places and too loose for comfort in others. The basic control from the original Jak and Daxter is carried forward to Jak II, so all the grounds pounds, spin kicks, and the rest of Jak’s classic moves are available from the start of the game. The guns are introduced slowly, and the four attachments are set to the four directions on the d-pad, which makes them extremely easy to switch between on the fly. A first-person aiming or strafing move might make things a bit easier, but each gun has a laser scope to show where it is aiming, and the game takes care of most aiming for you anyway, so you don’t miss those abilities too much. The JET-board, accessed by the R2 button, controls fairly intuitively, with the exception of performing tricks, but tricks aren’t a necessity after the first JET-Board course anyway, so that is a negligible complaint. The control really does start to fall apart in controlling the aforementioned zoomers, however, and this becomes especially apparent when they are required to complete a mission. Even the best of the zoomers handle like boats, and even after lots of practice, they still take a lot of effort to get them to go where you want them to without crashing. Even despite this, though, Jak II is very easy to pick up and play, especially if you’ve played the first game, and the excellent in-game hints keep you from ever feeling like you don’t know how to pull off any given move.
Graphically, Jak II is simply striking. Jak II’s graphics are head and shoulders above those of its predecessor, and even surpasses the graphics of Ratchet and Clank in some spots. It should be noted that there are some brief periods of slowdown and some minor camera control issues, but these are the exception rather than the rule. While it’s difficult to describe Jak II’s dystopian world as beautiful, since it’s essentially supposed to look cold and ugly, everything is rendered as well as can be expected by the aging PS2 hardware. The cutscenes, however, really showcase the game’s graphics, displaying an impressive breadth of emotion and facial expression. The cutscene animation is so good that it is often hard to believe that it is rendered via the game’s engine, and not full motion video. As a total package, despite some minor glitches here and there, Jak II squeezes every bit of graphical power out of the aging PS2’s processors, and the result is a beauty to behold.
Sound is equally impressive. The background music is somewhat forgettable, but does change to stay in line with the current on-screen action. While you won’t be humming it the next day, it’s never irritating, either. The voice work is where Jak II shines, however. With a handful of exceptions, all the voice acting is believable and enjoyable to listen to. In fact, if they were to take the cutscenes and package them together as a movie, it might not win an Oscar, but maybe a Golden Globe or something like that. It’s games like this that really show how far games have come as a medium; five years ago, this game probably would have been voiced by friends of the designers with no regard to acting ability, and today it’s on par with at least the cheesiest of television dramas. Sound effects are also serviceable, as explosions, crashes and gunfire sound as one would expect. All in all, a nice job aurally.
Overall, Jak II is an excellent advancement of the Jak and Daxter franchise. While the change in tone could have wrecked the series, it instead took it to a new level which it probably could not have reached otherwise. If you enjoyed the original Jak and Daxter, even if the change in tone turns you off, you owe it to yourself to give Jak II a try; even if you can’t get past the considerably darker storyline, there are oodles of platforming gems packed into this title that any fan of platform games would be remiss to skip over. With over 20 hours of core gameplay within, and every minute of it more fun than the last, I can’t help but enthusiastically recommend Jak II as a title to make sure to check out during this game-heavy holiday season.
