Jak 3

Overview

Jak 3 is an action-adventure/platforming game and the third installment in the Jak and Daxter franchise, as well as the final chapter in the original trilogy. Taking place a short period after the events of Jak II, Jak and his smart-mouthed ottsel companion, Daxter, find themselves outcasted by Haven City, and its new leader, Count Veger, as the city continues to fight a seemingly endless, and increasingly hopeless, war against the Metal Heads and a new enemy called the Dethbots.

The game follows the duo's fight for survival and acceptance out in the Wasteland, their fight back into the city, their revenge against Count Vegar, and the final battles against the Metal Heads and Deathbots.

Jak 3 was developed by Naughty Dog, Inc. and published by SCEA. The game was released on the PlayStation 2 on November 9, 2004 in North America and on November 26, 2004 in Europe.

Gameplay

The gameplay, which continues off of the combat-heavy, open world gameplay introduced in its predecessor, returns with new abilities and weapons while staying true to the platforming elements introduced in the The Precursor Legacy. While Jak's Dark Eco form returns, which allows him to use stronger attacks for a short time, the game introduces a "Light Eco Form", which gives him non-combative, but still useful, abilities. Additionally, Daxter is given more playable scenarios: including a Dodge 'Em -style minigame and his own platforming levels in areas inaccessible by Jak.

The Morph Gun, which was introduced in the previous game, returns in this installment. This time, however, there are a total of 12 "weapon mods" that Jak may use on his enemies. There are four different color-coded mods (Red, Yellow, Blue, "Dark") and each with 3 different variants. As in the last game, weapon mods are unlocked by playing through the game and appear in a linear order.

Vehicles also return in this installment, and have also been given more focus gameplay-wise. In most of the Wasteland chapters, Jak can drive unlockable cars and engage in open-world vehicular combat and treasure collecting, the latter being similar to the gameplay of the Smuggler's Run franchise. Jak can still commandeer vehicles, ala' Grand Theft Auto, which also controls the same way in Jak II, but with less traffic. In the Wasteland, Jak can ride on bird-like creatures, called Leapers, to traverse the desert and streets of Spargus City. Finally, the hoverboard also returns but since, in the story, the Arena district has been destroyed, players do not compete in the Tony Hawk-esque minigame from the predecessor.

Setting

Jak 3 takes place in a fictional universe set around 500 years after the events of the first game, and a couple of months after the second. Unlike Jak 2, the locations have been expanded to include Haven City, Spargus City, and the Wastelands.

Haven City has become a war-torn city due to the war between the Metalheads, the Deathbots, and the Crimson Guard. Unlike in Jak 2, there are very few safe locations in the city and Jak will need to fight either Metal Heads or Deathbots in order to survive and open once-accessible areas.

Spargus City was a city built by Damus in order to help protect those who were stranded in the desert. Even though Spargus is a city for refugees, citizens must earn their place by fighting in the city's arena. That means that unlike the denizens of Haven, Spargus' people are all heavily armed and happy to fire off a few shots if Jak bumps into them. Spargus City's technology is far behind Haven City. Even though Jak can travel via hovercraft in Haven City, he can only travel by foot or by Leaper in Spargus.

The Wasteland is a dangerous location filled with giant Metal Heads and vicious Marauders. Both will force the player to defend themselves with their weapon-equipped buggies as they traverse the land. Some of the landmarks in the Wasteland include: a Metal Head nest, the Marauders' camp, the monks' tower, and the abandoned city.

Weapon Mods

Jak's main weapon in the game is his Morph Gun, which he acquires early on in the game. This gun doesn't function as a single-purpose firearm. Instead, it uses different weapon mods, collected throughout the game, to deal different amounts of damage for almost every combat situation. There are four different styles of mods, each having three different versions of their variant.

• Red Mod: Shotgun variations for close-quarter combat.
• Yellow Mod: Rifle variations for long-range.
• Blue Mod: Machine Gun variations for taking out waves of enemies.
• Dark Mod: Power weapons that have small amounts of ammo but deal devastating damage.

Red Mod

Yellow Mod

Blue Mod

Dark Mod

Bosses

Dark Maker Satellite (Desert Oasis)

Precursor Robot (Eco Mines)

Cyber Errol (KG War Factory)

Dark Maker Terraformer (Wasteland)

Cyber Errol [Dark Maker Terraformer] (Wasteland, on Terraformer)

Soundtrack