Jak & Daxter Review
Until Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, there hadn't been many platforming action games on the PlayStation 2, and there certainly hadn't been a lot of good ones. After Naughty Dog moved on from Crash Bandicoot, there were questions of where they might go from there. It wasn't long before gamers got their answer in the form of Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, which has become arguably one of the console's major selling points. And why not? Jak & Daxter offers up a lot of action, smooth, crisp graphics, an interesting (if a little campy) story, and enough of a challenge to keep the average gamer on their toes and always trying to improve.
The mercifully simple story begins with two young men, surprisingly, named Jak and Daxter. The silent Jak and his buddy wander onto an island that's supposed to be off-limits to their village and run into a sort of cult gathering forces and talking about "Dark Eco." Ever the graceful duo, a brush with an unpleasant-looking creature sends Daxter tumbling into a pit filled with Dark Eco. When he emerges, he's taken on the form of a cartoony orange weasel-otter (an ottsel), though he of course maintains his smart-mouthed demeanor. The two boys return home to be scolded appropriately, and then set out on an adventure to solve a mystery regarding the people they saw on the island. The story is admittedly fairly shallow, but interesting characters, plentiful action and exploration, and a lot of funny dialog help it flow much more smoothly.
Unlike most previous platforming titles, Jak & Daxter has a lot of free-roaming through some fairly large environments. Most of them look pretty good and aren't a hassle to navigate, and there are a surprising amount of secret nooks and crannies you might miss without referring to a guide. Fortunately, most places you know you're supposed to end up are fairly straightforward in that you can see where you're supposed to go, but how to access it is the real question. There are still a lot of environmental hazards like random explosions, lava, pitfalls, spikes, electricity, and so on; all of these, along with the host of enemies, are dead set on stopping you from getting where you want to go. It's good that all those things add to the fun more than take away from it, and there never seem to be any all-too-common cheap deaths in Jak & Daxter. Most often, you'll die trying to learn how to tackle something, and once you have it down pat, it's just a matter of when you succeed.
Collection has been a trapping of action platformers, in the minds of some, and Jak & Daxter has its fair share of item collection. Naughty Dog seemed to realize that many gamers don't entirely enjoy collection and made the task of collecting items a great deal less painful than in many other titles; instead of having to constantly go out of your way to collect the many Precursor Orbs and Power Cells throughout each of the many areas in the game, you'll actually find most of them right in front of you as you progress. Even more helpful is the fact that the game keeps track of how many items you're missing in a given level and tells you once you've collected everything.
Movement in Jak & Daxter is deceptively simple. You can run and jump, obviously, but there are several other methods of movement and attacking to keep in mind as you explore and fight. First, and arguably the most important, is the long jump. Holding a trigger to roll and executing a jump as you come out of the roll will propel you forward across a large distance and at a greater speed than you can run. This is useful both in catching up to something that might be running away, as well as in crossing large gaps. You can also high jump, which is a jump executed from a crouch. High jumps allow you to reach higher places as well as jump and grab items higher in the air. During a regular jump, you can also press the Circle button to give Jak a little bit of extra height and distance to his jumps. All of these techniques will prove invaluable, and if you don't learn to make extensive use of them on the fly, you'll probably be seeing the Game Over screen fairly often-good thing you don't have an actual life count.
Speaking of dying a lot, the combat will probably give you only slightly less trouble than the landscapes themselves. Jak can only take three hits before going down, unless he finds enough Green Eco to restore his health (it takes 50 small orbs or one large one to restore one of the three chambers you have). Jak also doesn't ave a whole lot of moves at his disposal, so it's important to know when to run or dodge just as much as it is how to attack an enemy. He has a simple punch, a spinning attack, and a powerful dive attack used from the air. Most of the regular combat isn't very deep, but that's also partly because you don't need a huge arsenal to get by, and there's only so much you could have had in Jak & Daxter before the fighting became a little too easy. Still, the game features some wild, challenging, and indeed quite impressive boss fights. You'll fight a gigantic lava beast on a series of shaky platforms or do battle with a giant robot atop a tower that slowly opens up and enemies gradually pop up to do battle with you. Perhaps the only problem with the boss fights is that there just aren't that many of them.
One unique aspect to both combat and exploration elements is the inclusion of Eco, which comes in several different varieties, such as Yellow, Red, Green, and Blue. Each of these different types produces a unique effect, and as you progress through the game, you'll open Eco vents across the world, allowing you new abilities that will grant you access to new places. Yellow Eco allows Jak to fire homing energy projectiles at enemies and objects, Red powers up Jak's physical strength and extends his damage combo a bit, Green vents completely restore Jak's health, and Blue Eco increases Jak's running speed temporarily, allows him to break crates without touching them, draws in items automatically, and activates doors and platforms. Needless to say, you'll be seeing a lot of the various types and making liberal use of them over the course of the game.
Jak & Daxter is one of the best looking games of its time. The environments are all detailed, clean, and colorful, sporting a high polygon count and very detailed textures. The artistic style of the game is very distinct, and most any character you see would be instantly recognizable anywhere else. It seems like Naughty Dog was going for a sort of cartoon style with the design, and it works brilliantly for both the characters and the world the game is set in. The characters are also all nicely animated-especially both Jak and Daxter, and seeing them in motion is quite a sight. Sometimes, facial expressions may appear a little awkward, but they typically look great and go marvelously with the dialog. Lighting effects almost always run perfectly, and the water and heat blur effects are also both of excellent quality. Particle effects on things such as Eco vents are surprisingly detailed for how little a place they take up in the environment; probably because you'll be seeing them so much, and they play a significant role in both gameplay and story.
The sound effects are occasionally somewhat goofy, but they fit the overall atmosphere of the game, so it's hard to fault anything that sounds intentionally silly or cartooney. The same can be said for the music, which, while it isn't exactly memorable, fits the style and the situations in which it's played. Voice acting in most games isn't all too good, but Jak & Daxter offers strong voice work almost entirely. What's more, the dialog is generally funny and engaging as well, despite there not being a whole lot of actual depth to it.
Jak & Daxter offers up some strong gameplay and a ton of charm. Most anyone can find something to like in it, whether it be strong action or a challenging outing that'll occupy some time, or maybe just silly characters and amusing dialog on top of a more serious and somewhat dark undertone. While there's admittedly little to do after actually beating the game, there's a completion quest for a secret ending that may keep some players going. Even without any true replay content, the game will probably have you playing it again sometime soon after beating it, simply for how enjoyable it is across the board.
