Jak II Classic Review

Jak II (PS2)

Classic Review

     I remember the first time I saw an ad for Jak 2. I was in Blockbuster looking at the games and on the end display was a gaming magazine. On the front cover, in giant orange letters, it said,   “A New, Darker Jak!” Below the heading was this white-skinned, horned monster that was apparently Jak. Behind him stood Daxter looking just as pissed off and holding a gun. I was floored by this picture. I had trouble processing the concept of a more adult Jak and Daxter. I couldn’t believe they were going to make my favorite game into an adult game. My gaming career, it seemed, was coming to an abrupt halt. My mom would never even let me look at a game that was rated M, let alone play one.

     Turns out, however, the “New, Darker Jak” was just a jump to the teen audience instead of adults. I was still young when Jak 2 came out, but I was still allowed to play it upon release after I told my parents it's "the sequel to that weasel game." Upon booting it up, I was thrown off by the drastic shift in tone. Jak can talk, Daxter cusses, and the villains are darker than ever with plans of Nazi-like genocide. While the cussing is limited to “damn”,“pissed”, and “ass”, I was still on edge whenever one of these curses sounded,  afraid my parents would take the game from me. However, in retrospect, the language and themes are pretty tame. Tame, apart from a part where Daxter literally pulls a Bee Movie and seduces a human character, leading to really awkward conversations between me and my adolescent friends. I think we mostly got over it, though. Maybe. Anyway, this tone shift still marked a turning point for me as a young gamer, and it was the first time I noticed that games were changing just as I was.
      Jak 2 was once again created by Naughty Dog, a company that has been great at growing up with their fan base. As a young child, Crash Bandicoot had a strong presence in my house. Fast forward a few years later and we have Jak and Daxter for the kids just under 10. By the time those same kids are 12 or 13, Jak 2 and the equally teen-centered Jak 3 hit the scene in quick succession. From there, Naughty Dog created Uncharted since these same kids are now entering high school and need something a bit more defined. Finally, these kids are going to college and The Last of Us comes out, completely changing the tone of their games forever with blood, depression, and adult themes. Naughty Dog is one of the only companies to truly nail the concept of adapting to your fan base.  Obviously, this is how most game companies have survived the ever-evolving gaming landscape. Naughty Dog, however, stands out as being the one who truly looked at where their fans were in their lives and catered to them directly.

       Despite this praise, Jak 2 wasn’t necessarily the greatest game ever made. While containing a few fun moments it is easily the game that shows its age the most among the entries. The game starts a few months after the ending of Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. Jak and the gang have discovered a mysterious Precursor machine that promptly shoots them into the future. Jak is separated from everyone and imprisoned for two years inside Haven City. Upon rescue by Daxter, Jak has ceased being a mute and has gained the ability to transform into a dark version of himself and adopts a God Of War-style lust for revenge. From there, he must find his friends and liberate Haven City from Baron Praxis.
       This game controls exactly like the first game did. You control Jak who can roll, punch, and kick in the same way he did before. The player must take Jak from mission to mission, highlighted on the minimap by symbols telling you which character will be giving you the mission. The collect-athon mechanic of the previous entry is gone, making the currency of the last game, “Precursor Orbs,” a hidden collectible.  In order to navigate the world of Haven City, there are different types of “Zoomers” available for Jak to steal a la Grand Theft Auto. If Jak kills a civilian or causes too much mayhem, the Krimzon Guard will descend upon him causing him to either fight to the death or flee.
       There is some very bare bones style gunplay via the Morph-Gun. While there are definitely worse gun mechanics in other games, Jak 2 doesn’t really excel at it either. The Morph-Gun gun can turn into four different types of gun, all good for a different type of situation. There’s a shotgun, rifle, machine gun, and insta-kill gun. These are fun to use in the right situations, but it always seems like you never have enough ammo, and the lack of a traditional aiming reticle makes it hard to control. Also, the insta-kill gun, The Peace Maker, is given to you in almost the last mission, keeping the fun it can give down to the almost non-existent post-game.

        On the other end of the spectrum, the best inclusion in this entry is Dark Jak. When Jak collects enough “Dark Eco”, he can transform into a horned monster and rip through everything in his path. There are different moves that you can unlock for Dark Jak. All of these moves lead to satisfying, slow-mo moments when used at the right time. The cryptic messages spouted by the Oracle when he upgrades Jak also hint at events of Jak 3, which as an adult makes the lore established around these transformations all the more intriguing.
       The graphics are much improved this time around, The locations Jak is taken to on his journey look better than Precursor Legacy, even if they seem more devoid of life. Haven City is a very imposing place to explore. There are people walking the streets, and vehicles flying overhead, but it loses its luster after a few hours after you realize these pieces are life are just robots on a set course. The only side missions to speak of involve going to obscure points on the map to find Orbs that unlock weird extras like “Big Head Mode.” To this day I still lose interest in taking scenic routes to missions after being reminded that everything is kind of the same. Where the game’s graphics and design shine best are missions that take place outside of the City. Going to a mountain temple or a dig site overrun with monsters is a nice break to zooming around on fetch missions inside the City.

        Speaking of missions, most of them are not all that fun. Some require you to drive to different points and pick something up multiple times. Others put you through platforming puzzles that are terrible in comparison to the first game, while a few others have you hunting a set number of monsters. Missions fall into one of those three categories usually and they become stale after a while. Not to mention as the game progresses the difficulty ramps up the Dark Souls level of hard. And to complete the cocktail of crap, a terrible checkpoint system made me rage many times even as an adult. Even after years of practice, I found myself still needing to step away for a few hours after almost completing a mission only to die and have to start from the literal start.
         I shouldn’t be too hard on this game. The story it tells is fun, and the twist at the end is a favorite of mine I still hold dear. Despite its faults, I still enjoy Jak 2. It isn’t the entry I would play to relax and forget about the world, but its a fun inclusion to the story. I may point out a lot that’s wrong with the game, but most of the issues are fixed in Jak 3. Looking at it now, Jak 2’s attempts at updated combat, updated graphics, and updated tone are frustratingly endearing. I’m always happy to dive back in, knowing that I will be just as mad as if I was playing Dark Souls. Its a start of a love letter from Naughty Dog to its fan’s as we grew up, and I think everyone should at least try to trudge through it at least once.