With all these new games hitting the systems like clockwork, last year was arguably the year of the platformer. But if the sales charts have anything to do with it, the decline of the traditional platformer isn’t happening anytime soon. Naughty Dog, best known for their PlayStation 2 1/2D platformer series Crash Bandicoot (though I’ll admit that Naughty Dog made a big commercial breakthrough with the 3DO’s “groundbreaking” Way of the Warrior), has once again taken a stab at the genre. Bite.

But this time they’ve taken it all away. Whereas Jak and Daxter was a deep, seamless platformer with great graphics and a low-key, Disney-esque comedy routine, Jak II is essentially an entirely new creature. At least that’s what the clever kids at Naughty Dog are aiming for. With a huge Grand Theft Auto-style open city, breakable cars, and a population that lives and breathes over a crazy platformer, Jak II is like a platformer for teenagers discovering drugs for the first time. Suddenly, teenagers who like sex, drugs, and rock and roll now prefer guns, darkly convoluted plots, and platforming experiences that stray from their roots as quickly as possible. What’s next? A green goatee? Oh wait…

The Story

In the teen metaphor, who are we? What exactly is Jack II? Is it a platformer or a character action game? An adventure game? An action platformer? These questions have been on our lips many times, and while the jury is still out, it’s clear that they urgently need to come up with something new. (My suggestion: how about a Practioner, or an Action Former? To be continued…)

The point is that, while undoubtedly born from its platforming roots, Jak II is an expansion of the genre: highly polished, beautiful, and, fortunately, more difficult. It all starts with the story, so let’s start there. The game begins with a long cutscene depicting Jak and Daxter’s anguish at the end of their first adventure. Long story short: Jak, Daxter, Samos and Qi’ra are shot and separated in the future. They land on what appears to be a new planet, but in fact it is their own world in the future.

Jak is taken away from Daxter and taken into custody by a new character, Baron Praxis, the oppressive ruler of Haven City, where they landed in 1984. Two years pass during which Jak is experimented on and injected with Dark Eco. Daxter eventually finds and frees Jak, and witnesses his companion, unable to control the chemical changes in his body, transform into Eco-Hulk and wreak havoc on the city’s Crimson Guard.

This affects Jak, not only making him angry for his unjust imprisonment and even more unfair torture, but he has also changed. He can talk, but he is not as friendly, he likes to break things, and more importantly, he wants to fight. Of course, this is just the beginning, the first plot, but it works on several levels. Naughty Dog not only makes it clear right away that this is not your ordinary platformer, but then tells a story that is worth listening to.

This isn’t the first time a platform game has had a worthwhile story (I suppose Ratchet & Clank and Jak & Daxter have delivered solid stories before), but this is the first time in the history of the genre that the story has been worthwhile. The player takes the lead. That it actually matters and is pivotal to how the game plays. Unlike just about every other platform game in the world (not including the upcoming and very good Ratchet & Clank Going Commando), the story here is full of characters that you’ll either love or hate. It’s the story that makes this game feel like an Indiana Jones or Max Payne kind of adventure. Jack can now talk, which makes him even more likeable. And the fact that he’s angry and has a giant gun adds an undeniable new layer of emotion to the story.

In that sense, Daxter is once again the comedic sidekick. Ready to deliver a barrage of obnoxious one-liners, filthy jokes, and long-winded monologues in every cutscene, Daxter fits perfectly into the role of the unsympathetic but lovable neighbor. You love him, but you wish he’d grow up, even just a little. But this time, Daxter is the vehicle for a new thematic element: he drunkenly stares at girls’ breasts, makes bad pick-up lines to the ladies, and basically embarrasses Jak with his deliciously bad taste. Is he funny? He delivers humor in the simplest sense, but it’s “hahaha” funny, not laugh out loud funny. You know the punch line is coming, you know he’s going to say it, but all that’s missing is a laugh track.

I’ll keep plot details to a minimum as they’re a vital part of the game, but suffice it to say that Jak II tells a fascinating story that lasts between 15-25 hours depending on skill level. The tale is packed with insightful characters, twists and surprises. The Baron’s shady relationship with metalheads, the strange fascination with the Old Kor and artifacts, and the love triangle between Jack, Keira, and the Baron’s daughter Ashelia. Naughty Dog doesn’t hide too much for long, and the not-so-subtle speeches and odd dialogue allow players to distinguish the good guys from the bad guys without much outside help.

Gameplay

In contrast to previous collection-thons approach, Jak II has a narrative-based yet open design. Naughty Dog again takes a cue from Grand Theft Auto, allowing players to choose missions from a variety of characters. Players will encounter the underground commander Torn, the unethical triple-chinned, heavy-breathing Jabba-like Crew in his hovercraft, the warrior Sig, the hidden market trader Brutor, and many other characters from whom Jak can accept missions.

Mission variety is good, combining traditional platforming settings with a wealth of shooter levels. There are occasional caravan-protection style missions, familiar pursuit missions (such as Jak and Daxter 1), and a ton of GTA-like missions. These include obstacle races, vehicle theft, time trials, rescues, and more, and they work well. Luckily, the game’s difficulty has increased significantly, so players won’t be able to complete it in a day like they did before. It took me over 21 hours the first time around, and I still didn’t solve all the secrets or collect all the Precursor eggs (which are crazy goals, anyway). Plus, they won’t get bored. If it’s not the story that drives players into action, it’s the side quests, the city exploration, or the challenges of racing.

Oh, and did we mention how cool the vehicle jack is? It’s awesome. All of these vehicles can be ridden at two heights, so if Jak needs to steal a vehicle and is underneath it, an icon will appear indicating it’s ready to be jacked up. Players press Triangle to jump onto the vehicle and hang on to the side, then press Triangle again to jump into the driver’s seat. The vehicles all drive exactly like the crazy vehicles from the first Jak and Daxter. There are around 10 different types this time around, ranging from slow and sturdy to fast and explosive on impact. Players can also steal security vehicles, the largest of which comes equipped with its own weapons (but moves like a bus).

Adding weapons makes a huge difference to the gameplay (grrr). Naughty Dog has created a very good hybrid action-platformer (“action-former!”) that brilliantly combines gunplay with platform melee combat. The controls are perfect – Jak moves with unparalleled grace and fluidity. He switches between attacking, rolling and charging, and handles rifles, shotguns and miniguns with amazing ease. The jumble of movements and weapons creates intense combat scenarios unlike any other game of its kind. You can shoot enemies from afar, run towards them and attack them with a traditional spin attack or hammer them with the butt of your weapon. And it’s different from Ratchet and Clank because these are traditional weapons and not Gloves of Doom. So the rifle has a thin red sight that allows you to aim. The shotgun has an incredibly powerful boom (I mean, a boomstick, naturally), and the minigun rocks your body like a jackhammer. And yes, Daxter is playable, with moves that are sure to bring a smile to fans’ faces. But the most interesting part is that the first mission is a tunnel from Crash Bandicoot where you have to hunt rocks.

This is to be expected as the civilian AI is docile, but if you accidentally or intentionally kill a civilian, the guards will come after you. I found the enemy AI to be consistently good, apart from a few questionable points. Every time I was alerted by the guards and tried to hide, they usually found me. You’re not stupid. Plus they come in endless streams, so of course you can be warned if you’re in the middle of a mission. What I particularly liked is the huge variety of enemies: there are so many different types, and the best part is that they fight in completely different ways, like firing blue fireballs or attacking you head-on.

Adding weapons makes a huge difference to the gameplay (grrr). Naughty Dog has created a very good hybrid action-platformer (“action-former!”) that brilliantly combines gunplay with platform melee combat. The controls are perfect – Jak moves with unparalleled grace and fluidity. He switches between attacking, rolling and charging, and handles rifles, shotguns and miniguns with amazing ease. The jumble of movements and weapons creates intense combat scenarios unlike any other game of its kind. You can shoot enemies from afar, run towards them and attack them with a traditional spin attack or hammer them with the butt of your weapon. And it’s different from Ratchet and Clank because these are traditional weapons and not Gloves of Doom. So the rifle has a thin red sight that allows you to aim. The shotgun has an incredibly powerful boom (I mean, a boomstick, naturally), and the minigun rocks your body like a jackhammer. And yes, Daxter is playable, with moves that are sure to bring a smile to fans’ faces. But the most interesting part is that the first mission is a tunnel from Crash Bandicoot where you have to hunt rocks.

This is to be expected as the civilian AI is docile, but if you accidentally or intentionally kill a civilian, the guards will come after you. I found the enemy AI to be consistently good, apart from a few questionable points. Every time I was alerted by the guards and tried to hide, they usually found me. You’re not stupid. Plus they come in endless streams, so of course you can be warned if you’re in the middle of a mission. What I particularly liked is the huge variety of enemies: there are so many different types, and the best part is that they fight in completely different ways, like firing blue fireballs or attacking you head-on.

While GTA missions are a nice change from the traditional collecting ethos, it has to be said that Naughty Dog’s giant city does have its drawbacks: Haven City is littered with people and their cars, barely anyone has anything (or anything interesting) to say to you, and the roads are clogged. The big city is great, so there’s no reason to complain. (In fact, Jak often explores the “unexplored” areas outside the city.) The roads are very irregular, non-parallel, and constantly congested, making getting from A to B a logistical nightmare. You can’t just bump and run freely through the streets. You can’t avoid accidentally bumping into or kicking civilians or annoying security guards, but the regularity of this city’s patterns, the redundant conversations of the guards, and the colorlessness of the city’s personality are obvious. After driving 15 hours back and forth from Torn to the crew and others, you don’t want to struggle in traffic. Jak II does its best to imitate and borrow from GTA, but it’s not that good in this respect.

Now, the next point is jetboarding. The jetboard section is probably my least favorite section. The jetboard controls are solid and the amount of movement is amazing, but just like the GTA stuff doesn’t quite work, the jetboard level leaves a lot to be desired. It’s like the Tony Hawk Lite of hoverboards, or the Airblade if you’ve played it. Oh well. Honestly, having a hoverboard with you at all times is a great idea. Very practical, very functional. The hoverboard levels are not as polished as those in the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series. There aren’t that many, and none of them are bad, but when I want to play Tony Hawk’s Underground or SSX 3, I play those games instead.

But there are hundreds of things to do in this game, and I can’t remember them all. There are great chase scenes with scouts, hunting levels in the forest, excellent turret levels, an outstanding puzzle level with boxes over a pond in a dark environment, and competitive races, and these races are very fast, exciting, and satisfying. There is also a great homage to FantaVision. So, although there are complaints, the excellent content of the vast amount of levels, the great gameplay, and the challenging missions definitely outweigh the less impressive content.

Graphics

Jak II is an excellent graphical treat. Whether you love or hate the character design, the level of what’s on screen at the same time, the advanced level of vehicle physics, the level of detail on all the characters, and the outstanding graphical brilliance of Jak and Daxter all show that Naughty Dog has confidently mastered the PS2.

Like Jak and Daxter, Jak II features vast landscapes, amazing vistas, and seamless transitions from the interior of Haven City to the vast outdoor areas. Naughty Dog’s designers have created clear differences between levels. Some areas are dank and ruined, with browns, beiges, and blacks as the main colors, but outside the city it’s a Garden of Eden of forests, meadows, wildflowers, butterflies, lakes, and rivers. While the textures aren’t as stunning and complex as Naughty Dog’s style, the game is designed to have variety, polygon count, and cartoon-like character and background design. The scenery is beautiful and striking. Jak II is darker than any platformer the team has made before, reflected in the more urban environments, crowded houses, and well-worn streets. Very cool designed characters include Sig, the crew, and the racing mechanics.

At this point, Naughty Dog has figured out how to fit more and more stuff on the screen while still making nearly everything look good. My favorite effects are the traces of fired weapons, the heat spots on the back of vehicles and burning fuel for example. And of course there are the animations. Characters always have very smooth animations. I could go on and on about the animations, but if you saw the first game you’ll notice that this is an improvement.

Something I noticed more than I expected: LODs are very crisp. This means that objects coming into view have noticeable changes in texture detail and polygon mass that are distractingly noticeable. The characters are all so tiny. Did they always used to be that small? Jack doesn’t look very dark or evil. He looks like a regular angry steampunk half-elf guy. There was some lag in larger areas and animations sometimes failed in some areas. Oh yeah, one question: why do fruit boxes explode when you touch them? Are they filled with exploding grapes?

Oh, and for all you techies out there, Jak II supports widescreen and progressive scan, so it’s perfect for flat screen HDTVs with progressive scan.

Sound

In an attempt to rewrite the platforming book with sound, Crash Bandicoot’s evil dog added millions of lines of dialogue to Jak II. There’s a healthy amount of dialogue here, thankfully broken down into small packages (unlike, say, Knights of the Old Republic), and players have the opportunity to meet a ton of colorful characters with plenty of accents, ways of speaking, and styles. Listen. Daxter talks too much, but that’s his trick. Jak talks in moderation, and fortunately never comes off as too cool or stupid. He’s just so cool all the way.

The sound effects are impressive; the sounds of car ignitions, shotgun roars, and race cars all make a positive impression on the auditory senses.

Musically, the Tiki-style Casio music from the first game was unfortunately not removed, and if players know the style of the first game they will undoubtedly be familiar with these tracks. These tracks are all original, but they’re not the kind of tunes you’d want to collect on a CD. However, the music in the game changes dynamically depending on your actions, sometimes completely out of sync. It suits the game very well, but the best way to describe the music is as something you hear in the background.

Finally, Naughty Dog offers players six languages ​​simultaneously in addition to Dolby Pro Logic II, so lovers of different languages ​​and high-fidelity sound will also have a great time.

Verdict

Here’s what I’ll say: Whether you call it a platformer or not, Jak II comes from the tradition of platform games and retains many of the elements of that world – the controls, the goofy characters, the childlike playfulness. As an evolution of the genre, it does a great job of stimulating, maintaining and inspiring my interest. When I am suffering the most from Attention Deficit Disorder, this game grabs my attention. When I am totally relaxed and not at all distracted, I am drawn to the variety and difficulty of the missions (difficult but not demanding, just right for me).
If you consider this game as an action or adventure game, it is surprisingly good, packed with great shooting levels, vehicle theft, hovercraft missions and some good racing tracks. Of course, what drives this game is the story, but it is the perfect combination of platforming elements and action shooter, very good, feels very appropriate and the weapons are also very comfortable, so ultimately it is me. The genre this game actually falls into. What is it? One of the best games for the PS2.