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Jak 3 - Paco - 20th November 2005
Developer: Naughty Dog
Release Date: 10-2004
Jak & Daxter are back in Jak 3. This third installment of Naughty Dog’s popular series marks the end of a game trilogy, finally revealing the Precursors and unmasking the mysterious Mar. Those who have followed the series can expect a game that plays in similar fashion to its predecessor, Jak II, which traded the platform jumping of the original for guns and vehicles in an action based romp. While the platform play has taken a back seat, even more so than the second game, the noteworthy accessibility and entertainment of the series remains intact for one of the finest games available for your Playstation 2 or any other console.
To catch you up on the story: Jak is thrown out of Haven City along with his cohorts, Daxter and Pecker, by a man named Veger who blames Jak for the ongoing war with the Metal Heads and for destroying part of the city. Exiled to the desert wastelands, Ashelin, the Baron’s daughter who befriended Jak in the second game, gives Jak a tracking device which allows Damas, ruler of the wasteland city Spargus, to find the dying company. In Spargus, Jak is given the chance to prove himself before he can go back to fighting metal heads.
Gameplay: 9
Spargus is not unlike Haven City in terms of layout or design, but it is different with respect to the challenges Jak must face and this is where Jak 3 sets itself apart in the series. The very first task places Jak in an arena where he must prove himself in front of Damas and the people of Spargus in a shoot’em up obstacle course not unlike one you’d find in a Ratchet & Clank game. Upon completion, you are then released to roam about the desert city where you’ll find the new leaper lizard to get around Spargus faster and compete in races and various challenges. When you are ready to leave you’ll find yourself in a vast and harsh desert landscape where Jak will be given access to dune buggies in order to complete missions handed out by Damas.
The buggies control quite well even though they may seem a bit too bouncy (you’ll be rolling your buggy often which can be a little frustrating). Fortunately, they upright themselves and can take quite a bit of damage. Traversing the hills, canyons, and caves you’ll come across enemy wastelanders and enormous metal heads all while finding precursor statues challenging your buggy driving skills. As you complete metal head raids, destroy onslaughts of enemies, win races, and collect the artifacts you’ll be rewarded with access to different types of dune-buggies. The buggies vary in speed, ability (one can hop, giving you passage on chains of islands), and the amount of damage you can take. You’ll spend a good amount of your time here, especially if you want to find all the artifacts, and the good news is that it’s entirely fun.
Jak himself controls as well as ever. The notable additions, coming from Jak II to Jak 3, is that the four guns you carry are upgradeable and now you have light powers as well as dark. You’ll spend far more time using your guns as most of the game is made up of shoot’em up sections and missions. The variety of firepower lends itself to varied manners of enemies as you’re attacked by powerful single foes or hordes of the quick and nimble; in any situation you are well equipped to handle it.
The light powers you receive allow you new ways to defeat enemies such as slowing down time and even getting wings that allow you to glide around. You’ll have to earn these new powers through Precursor trials and then they are yours to use as you wish thereafter. If you’re a diehard platform gamer like I am then you won’t get enough opportunities to use them, but what is there is absolutely excellent.
The guns and controls serve Jak quite well, but what you will find at times is that the camera is not positioned well enough to see enemies coming at you from all directions and you’ll find yourself missing what look like simple jumps. The enemies do attack in numbers and from all fronts, and since you can’t see them you’ll find yourself spray shooting quite often. It can feel a little tedious at times to simply clear a room full of enemies by doing the same motion of jump and shoot several times, but fortunately this is a rare occurrence.
If you played Jak II then you’re probably wondering about the difficulty level. If you were like me then you found some of the missions in Jak II frustrating and unforgivable making it very hard to contain your rage and keep from breaking your PS2 controller. I’m glad to report that the difficulty has been toned down with only a handful of missions that may test your patience. Also welcome are the addition of checkpoints placed throughout a mission so you don’t have to entirely start over if you happen to make a mistake.
The only thing that disappointed me is the great sense of déjà vu when going back to Haven City. The city is slightly different than before, war-torn and reduced to rubble in some places, but you’ll definitely get the feeling that you’ve done this all before. You’ll visit a few of the same places you did in Jak II and do missions in all too familiar territory. Let’s just say I was never excited to go back to Haven City whenever the game called for it.
There is a variety of gameplay ranging from racing and stunt challenges, metal head raids, seek and destroy missions, timed trials, manning a turret, and several mini-games that are a joy to play. Jak 3 is not without its flaws, but they are small and mostly forgivable.
Presentation: 10
I’m not going to talk too much about this. If you’ve played the previous Jak & Daxter games then you know that Naughty Dog has a knack for creating story driven gameplay made up of amazing animation, clever humor, and great voice acting. It’s superb.
Graphics: 10
This game is beautiful. It’s locked at 60 frames per second which makes for silky smooth animation even when the screen is full of enemies and eye-bleeding effects.
Lastability: 9
There are 600 artifacts to find throughout the game, and the game only requires you to find around 200. It will challenge your racing skills with the buggies and leaper lizards and also test your ability to scavenge every last inch of the game for the hidden artifacts.
What may or may not disappoint you is the length of the game. If you simply run through the necessary missions of the game and ignore the bevy of extra challenges and hidden artifacts then you could finish in about 10 hours. If you want to get the most out of your purchase then there is at least an extra five hours or more of content to complete. I suppose this depends on what you expect out of your games today; myself, a ten hour game takes me weeks to complete because I simply don’t have a lot of time for video games. It was satisfying for me.
Conclusion
Save for the minor camera problems and recycled use of Haven City, Jak 3 is one of the best examples of what this generation of gaming has to offer. It looks outstanding and plays just as well. I sincerely hope that there is more in store for the duo as far as adventure and action games go.
Final Score: 9
Jak 3 - EdenMaster - 20th November 2005
Good review, Paco!
Keep 'em coming!
