| Product: |
Jak & Daxter (PS2) |
| Date: |
13/02/08 (48 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Fantastic, simply fun to play
Disadvantages: Well the visuals have dated a bit
When Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy was released early in the life of the PlayStation 2, I can't say I paid it much heed. It's main tagline was that it was from the creators of Crash Bandicoot...not a series I had any particular affection for, and to be blunt it simply looked like a generic 3D adventure game, the kind of disposable nonsense that made up about 50% of the console's library. However, after being assured by several people whose view on games I hold in high esteem, and seeing as it can be picked up for under a fiver these days, I thought I would give it a go - and I'm ever so glad I did.
The game is set in a world something like a cross between Nintendo's Zelda and the Star Wars movies. Science fiction meets fantasy, but in a colourful, Nintendo-esque fashion. The world is presided over by 5 Guardians, each of whom are masters of a different form of 'eco'. Eco is the energy used to power the planet, and has several different strains. Green restores health, blue improves athleticism, yellow grants the user the power to fire projectiles from their hands and red grants enormous strength. The final strain is what is known as Dark Eco, resided over by Gol, and is generally thought to be uncontrollable.
Our protagonists in the story are Jak and Daxter, 2 teenage troublemakers who accidentally stumble upon a bizarre ritual on an island, which results in Daxter being doused in Dark Eco, turning him into a strange, ferret like animal. After taking their problem to their local Guardian, he sets them off on an adventure to find Gol and try to cure Daxter. However, as their mission goes on, it becomes clear that there is far more at stake than Daxter's current state of being...
The game's plot may not be particularly gripping, but it serves it's purpose of setting up the fantastic world in which Jak and Daxter live in, and explain their many quests. The heroic characters, from the speechless hero Jak to his motor-mouth sidekick and the pair's would be love interest Keira are all fun and well designed, looking vaguely, yet not totally anime-styled, though the game's enemies are a bit more bizarre. These creatures, known as Lurkers, are never really explained, and range from giant spiders, biomechanical giants and brutish hulks to little frog things.
As I mentioned, the game is a 3D Adventure game, a Platform game to be exact, as the majority of the tasks involve jumping based puzzles, but the game also throws in some neat diversions, such as piloting Jak's A-Grav Zoomer (think a Speeder-Bike from Star Wars) or a giant bird named a Flut-Flut. The various Eco powers naturally come in handy, and add a new twist on the old idea of Power Ups.
The game works in a fashion similar to Nintendo's Super Mario 64, wherein you have a number of stages, each with more than one objective (for example, each stage has a 'Collect 7 Scout Flies' task, but there are variations in the others, finding hidden items, fighting off a cave of enemies etc) to try and earn 'Power Cells' (there are 101 in total) Where the game differs from Nintendo's outing is that the game's levels are not really defined, it's almost like a giant sandbox style platform game.
While on paper it may not seem to offer much that the countless other 3D adventure titles on the console don't put on the table, unlike so many of those titles, Jak & Daxter is just so well polished and playable that it just feels like a real cut above everything else comparable. The controls are simple, immersive and almost perfectly responsive, while there are many frustrating moments, you never feel like you are being cheated...it simply captures the essence of a fantastic platform game, pick-up-and-play action that kids can enjoy, but with enough depth for older gamers like myself to still find plenty to love in. I'd even go as far as to say Jak's slick gameplay puts it in the realms of the true classic platform games like Super Mario Bros. 3 and Sonic The Hedgehog 2, and it's quite possibly the best PS2 game I've played. Even the vehicular stages aren't repetitive, some involve precision driving, others speed, and others a keen trigger finger...like the main challenges, it's variety, without ever going too 'out there' that makes the game such a joy to play.
The game also clocks in at an almost perfect length. What makes it work better in this way is that, as in Mario 64, it's really up to you how fast you want to complete it. It's possible to bomb through, collecting only the minimum amount of Power Cells, but to really get the most out of the game, it's advised to try and collect all of the Cells. As I mentioned, the game is also easily playable by kids, and you can actually see that the game has been designed well in that certain challenges are a lot easier than others, making me think it's probably possible to complete the game based on simpler missions.
It would be a lie to say The Precursor Legacy still looks great today, the early PS2 character models do leave quite a bit to be desired, although the game's cartoony style manages to mask some of this. The worlds look fantastic though. While not exactly original in design (Snow level? Check! Lava level? Check! And so on...) they are wonderfully realised, you can almost feel the chill of snowy mountain or the heat of the lava. While it may not be on par with today's games, make no mistake, for 2001, these levels are spectacular, and I've actually seen much worse in games released later for the console.
Something rarely mentioned about the game that I feel deserves a great deal of credit is the camera. Dodgy cameras have been the bane of the Adventure game since the inception of 3D games, even Nintendo's Mario 64, regarded by many as the pinnacle of the genre, isn't without it's irritating camera moments. Yet not once in my playing of Jak & Daxter did the camera ever pull any dirty tricks on me and contribute to an unnecessary death.
The sound still remains very good, even over half a decade onwards. The voices all fit, and the speech flows naturally, making the characters seem a lot more vivid. The music may not be particularly memorable, but in the context of the game it works well. Things are creepy in the Spider-Cave, desolate in the Snowy Mountains and almost Tropical for the pair's beach home.
While, for a game I enjoyed so much, I don't seem to have been able to write that much about Jak & Daxter, that's actually testament to how good it is. Almost any classic game works so well because it's setup is simple, and while there is undeniable depth to Jak & Daxter, at it's core it's a simple platform game like I grew up with in the 16-Bit era, only the genre has finally been reworked as a total success in 3 dimensions.
It's quite funny though, when the PS2 launched, it sold hundreds of millions of units simply on the grounds of it being 'cool'. Games like Grand Theft Auto 3 were it's selling points, yet this endearing little fantasy platform title that, could easily have come from Nintendo was probably the undisputed best game the system had in it's first year. It's still fresh and fantastic now, while many of the 'edgy, adult' titles the system was using to sell itself are quite cringe inducing in hindsight.
I'd recommend Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy to anyone with an interest in videogames. It captures the spirit of Sonic, Mario and all the other great platform games that came before it, but puts a modern spin on it without ever losing touch of this. I've enjoyed it much more than any other game I've played in the past year (including new ones) and can't believe this isn't a household name.
Summary: One of those minority of games that you just can't help but love every minute of, a must buy!
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