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The Greatest Video Game Ever Made.....

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: June 23, 2005
Author: Amazon User

In 2001, Naughty Dog Inc., the creators of the first four Crash games, created Jak And Daxter. While it was an excellent game, it lacked many things, such as weapons, racing, etc. and all in all wasn't long or challenging at all. Games like Sly Cooper and Ratchet And Clank blew this game away, untill the series took a MAJOR plot twist two years later. In 2003, they brought us the game known as Jak II. It had a much darker tone to the game series, such as adding swearing, more adult themes, much harder gameplay, guns, and most importantly, Jak now speaks - with an attitude. This brought mixed feelings. Most enjoyed the new style, while fans of the the original was disliked it. I for one think it's awesome! The story starts off not long after the events of Jak And Daxter. Keira hs fixed the time machine and they are about to test it when a dark creature appears, pulling our heroes into the vortex. The spiral sends Jak And Daxter into the future, where they land into the dark and gloomy Haven City. Jak is captured and for the next two years is spent being tortured with Dark Eco, all to create a dark warrior for the ruler of the city, Baron Praxis, to fight off the invading enemies, the Metalheads. Daxter luckily finally arrives to find Jak now has deadly new dark powers that turn him into a monster of destruction. They escape and begin working for the Underground, a resistance network trying to stop and overthrow the Baron himself. However, many plot twists happen along the way. The story becomes more than just Jak getting revenge, but from saving the city from the evil Metalheads, and destroying their dark leader, who may be closer than he appears. One of the main reasons Jak II excels as being the greatest video game of all time is the fact that it has every type of game in it. GTA, platforming, Ratchet and Clank style guns, squad based missions, racing, you name it! Some how, a little bit of everything is in there. For those who played the first game ( I myself hated the game and only finished 70% of it before deciding I disliked the whole thing ), please DO NOT expect similar gameplay. Jak's original moves are the same, the old character's are mostly the same, but that's it! It's a whole new experience that should take the average gamer a while to finish. It's about twice as long as Jak And Daxter. Just at least rent the game and you will see, despite the difficulty, it is the greatest video game ever made...

An exercise in frustration

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: November 04, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The difficulty robs this game of much of its enjoyment. Where as Jak and Daxter had a few difficult levels (Spider Cave for example) the story still progressed nicely with a minimum desire to rip the console from the wall and smash it to small bits. Yet Jak II has a few dozen levels that, on average, took me 10 to 15 attempts to master. Start, skip cut scenes, fail, repeat as necessary.

It's one of those extremely addicting games. You want to put the controller down, but you've gotten just enough further on the same repetitive course to make you believe you've got it. And there in lies the problem.

I can't lie. I have put dozen of hours into the games since I bought it a week ago. It is fun, but it's the type of fun associated with cocaine. The payoff for solving a difficult level is yet another difficult level.

I read somewhere that Ratchet and Clank and Jak and Daxter share the same graphic engine. Both are relatively fun eye-candy rich games with zero load time. And Jak II shares this graphic engine is as well I think. But somewhere in the transition, Jak II lost all the fun traits. It's a dark sequel. It's missing the terrific diverse landscapes: the volcano, beach, snowcapped mountain, spooky island, and caves have been replaced by an ultra boring gray bleak cityscape.

The entertaining rated G dialog has been replaced by potty humor. It's mostly recycled cliches that get boring quick.

By the way, Dark Jak is a new feature that is nearly useless. When it's invoked, Jak becomes a Wolverine-like dark eco monster with powered attacks. About a third of the missions even afford the opportunity to use it. But by the time it would be handy, weapons like a automatic vulcan gun are introduced.

Overall, it's a decent game. But it's half of what the previous game was.

Mean Spirited

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: November 14, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The game starts off with an intersting opending and quickly goes down hill from there. As soon as Jak opens his mouth to speak, I began to have my doubts. Everything he says he is nasty and his vocal tones are those of the nastiest villians. Granted he is supposed to be under the influence of dark forces and he is grumpy from two years of torture, but still he sounds more like a stock villian then a hero whose fate you are supposed to care about it.

The level designs are also unrelentedly difficult. From the very beginning you are faced with challenging moving platforms and with a couple of levels you will be chased by a relentless cannon while jumping blind repeatedly. Poor camera angles, lack of camera control in crucial areas, make already difficult jumps nearly impossible as judging depth is often not possible and more often then not you are forced to jump blind because you can not see where you need to go next.Rarely is there is no time to pause to study your move and try to rotate the camera (which at some crucial spots simply refuses to budge) because crumbling ledges, firing cannons and their ilk force you to keep hopping from one awkward ledge to the next. You will be forced to endless repeat difficult segements, memorizing the exact route as you will often need to jump blind in order to complete levels. Finely you make it through a difficult segement only to fall off a tiny ledge that lures you off the side by tempting goodies, or shot by an unseen gun, only to be sent bake to the beginning, forced to repeat what you thought mastered until you eyes blur over and you forget why it is you are playing the game. Only sheer stuborness will force you to continue.

When you are not being frustrated by the pooly paced and un-balanced levels, you will be bored by the endless travel by foot or awkward vehicals that you can steal, needed to get between levels, which the game refers to as missions. This aspect of the game might have been amusing as a single section but is otherwise pointless. The vehicals can only be flown at two heights and there is little room to manuver. Everyone just bangs into everyone else. It is like an endless game of bumper cars to get from one place to the other.

Eventually, if you persist, you will realize that both the level difficulty and endless crisscrossings of the hub city to get to each level are only there to pad out what otherwise be a very brief game. It's a shame really, because the story is interesting, the levels bright and intriguing and with just a bit of tuning could have been really fun rather then really frustrating. If ND really wanted to be innovative, there would have a variable level of difficulity and maturity settings. As it is this game will only appeal to the teenager or adult who finds most platforms a piece of cake and longs for a real challenge.

No Jax & Daxter

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: December 20, 2004
Author: Amazon User

No Jax & Daxter

Review for adult gamers with only a few precious game hours per week.

I loved the original Jax & Daxter, so I snatched up Jax II as soon as it hit the shelf. What a mistake!

In terms of gameplay, Jax II really doesn't have much in common with its predecessor. As it has been stated in most ever other review, Jax II use the GTA style of mission based game play which I find quite annoying.

In Jax & Daxter, the game as divided up into three different worlds. You could solve the quest in just about any order you desired until you gather about 75% of the all the orbs in the current world to open up the next world. If you weren't particularly good at a specific quest, no problem, you could move on to something else. Not so in Jax II, the quest are pretty much linear. Rarely to you ever have more than two missions you can ever choose from. It's typical to get stuck on both and spend hours trying to move on.

Another reason I thought Jax & Daxter was clever was there were no guns. It was cute without being kiddish. J&D had attitude without being in your face, and Jax didn't talk. All that cleverness is completely gone in Jax II. Most of the mission require blasting things with big guns, that are annoying to use. Jax talks. The gothic thing just doesn't work.

As it has also been said, moving about the city and using hover cars is down right tiresome. There's too much traffic and the cars don't control very well to have any real racing fun. Some missions are simple and others are next to impossible and not all that much fun.

For adult gamers with few gaming hours per week, don't bother. You won't get very far in this one. Leave this for the hard core kids and single adult males with no kids.

Grand Theft Auto With Fur

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: October 17, 2003
Author: Amazon User

If I wanted to play Grand Theft Auto III I would. I was looking forward to a fun platformer like Jack and Daxter. This is a good game, but not really a platformer. I hope the developers of Ratchet and Clank Comando stay true to what made the original so great and do not try to do another GTA.

All the young kids miss out, not appropriate for under 13

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: October 25, 2003
Author: Amazon User

My family (all 4 of us) enjoyed Jak and Daxter. We looked forward to Jak II for quite some time and then bought it even though it was rated T. I am disappointed that Naughty Dog has taken a great kids game and decided to make it darker for the Teen crowd. I sure don't want my 9 year old using the words that seem to be commonplace in this game. Also, aren't there enough games out there that use guns and the object is to shoot people. There are too few games like Jak and Daxter and Spyro. It's too bad this sequel is not appropriate for the younger gamers who don't have a lot of good adventure type games to choose from.

Boring & Over-hyped

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 8
Date: February 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Many reviews hype up how this game evolved from the original Jak and Daxter. I really, really loved J&D. However, I was very much let down by this sequel.

Cons:
Way too many races and challenges,
Very few puzzles and exploration,
Endless and boring main city with everything on opposite ends of the world,

Pros:
Good graphics,
Some fun aspects

It seems they tried to take parts of other games (Grand Theft Auto and Ratchet and Clank) and fuse it with the fantasy-inspired original. The result is a clunky, boring game that seriously disappoints. Get Ratchet and Clank 2: Going Commando instead (or Sly Cooper, if you don't have that already.)

A overall fun game, but....

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 08, 2003
Author: Amazon User

That's what I found myself thinking about Jak 2. My first concern came when it first started the intro sequence.. the framerate seemed a bit choppy, just on the edge of being distracting. I thought nothing of it until it kept showing up throughout the entire game. At times, the game seems to be chugging as hard as possible as if the system was overly taxed. (I don't think that's the case, since (I believe that) Ratchet & Clank 2 uses the same engine and it runs smooth as silk.)
It's just the first of many things that just seem to distract from the fun of the game. Loose control on the zoomers, crowded steets that at times seem to be impossible to navigate, round-about access to game functions (the overview map should have been accessible with one button, not start, scroll over to map, select and then 2 button pushes to get back out of the menu) and cutscenes that you can't skip over no matter how many times you've seen it. But that's not the worst offense.
The game seem horribly balanced at times. On some missions, I've have a blast working throught the level... you had just enough ammo and enemies and events were spaced out enough to be challenging. On other missions, it just seemed to be a exercise in frustration and futility. One mission had me picking up and delivering 4 members of the rebellion to safe houses. If you can't flawlessly manuever your zoomer through congested streets of traffic that move and stop randomly (for no rhyme or reason) and avoid the inhumanly aim of guards that swarm over after you once you pick up your first rebel, you're dead. I tried getting through this mission over a space of several days. DAYS. I like a challenge, but this is ridiculous! And it's only one of many insane challenges.
Now, not all is bad. Jak 2 is a challenging game with a complex story set in a unique world that's a treat to explore. And I hope there will be a 3rd installment to this series. I just hope that Naughty Dog will avoid doing what they did with Jak 2... for the many steps they took forward, they took quite a few back, too.

huge change from the first, but still outstanding!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: June 22, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The original Jak and Daxter was pretty tame, and was probably intended mostly for the younger ages of gaming. The first featured silly characters, a shallow, easy to understand storyline, and no real weaponry beyond Jak's fist, and daxter.

The second, and newly named "Jak 2" has a much more dark and adult oriented premise. The game starts in the cheer village fo the first Jak and Daxter, then you find yourself hurdled into a time portal, where Jak is captured and tortured mercilessly by the "Crimson guards," which are the law enforcment of the town, that is really just out to kill everyone.

once you have broken out from the prison, you discover that dark eco has been pumped directly into your system, and you now have a sort of alter ego. Once you fill up your eco gage, you can go crazy and take out multiple foes, and look really cool too!

Another addition to the sequel is vechiles. Everything hovers and flys from bikes to sedans. While travelling through the vast world, it gives a very dark dreary sense, and makes you feel out of place, thus the dark atmosphere.

The most obvious addition to this game is the weaponry. You can obtain a plethora of destructive goodys throughout the game, and use them whenever you please, yes even to shoot civilians if your sick mind is so inclined!

in conclusion, this game takes awhile to go from good to a master piece. It took me about two hours to get to the second weapon upgrade, and then i was hooked. If your expecting another cheery fun for all ages jak, look elsewhere, because this is definately not it, i mean even jak looks older and meaner! This game now leans more toward a GTA game in that you can free roam the city at anytime and pick up missions all over town, and a ratchet and clank game in the fringer smashing, mind numbing, gigantic gun battles. If you love this game, check out ratchet & clank, i personally like the second better, though i hav beaten both, they are pretty much the same with a MUCH different story line.

Great game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: October 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

What was once a colorful, happy platformer is now a dark, depressing cartoon variant of Blade Runner in an animated Star Wars world. What appears at first glance to be a random mish-mosh of a million different games is actually one of the most cohesive, creative game worlds ever constructed. Do not dare underestimate Jak II-first impressions can be most deceiving.
Name a successful game, you can spot it living inside Jak II: Ratchet and Clank, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Mario, Rainbow Six, Panzer Dragoon, Banjo-Kazooie, Final Fantasy VII, The Legend of Zelda...they're all there, somewhere, tied together in the underground sewer network of Jak's dirty City. But this is hardly a criticism-it's actually Jak II's biggest strength. It uses "3D platformer" as a loose foundation for a towering monument to a million great gameplay ideas. Naughty Dog, it would seem, has been paying attention the last couple of years.
Strangely enough, the game Naughty Dog seems to have been paying most attention to is Grand Theft Auto III, as evidenced by Jak II's enormous living City, a vast hub world connecting the more traditional "platformer" missions, filled with different vehicles to steal, police alerts to trigger, bonus missions to find, and innocents to run over-and, yes, kill (Jak II is a surprisingly dark ride-the opening sequence finds our cute hero fresh from two years of life in a pain-and-torture device). While there's still plenty of trick jumping to be done, the game takes a key step away from its roots by offering a huge variety of missions-squad jobs, gun-intensive hunts, hover-contraption races, and intense chases through crowded city streets. A visit to a sewer to retrieve a missing artifact for one fellow's shady operation, a trip to a pumping station to sabotage another's. The game is unreally gorgeous-no one should have ever realistically expected to see these kinds of graphics pumped from the PS2. The City itself is detailed to a level of sheer absurdity such that random fruit carts realistically spill their wares when you crash into them with a hoverbike. Opening a door to the world outside the walled-in city inspires awe every time. The voice acting is wonderful; the sound effects are tuned like a feature film, and the music is a cinematic symphony to perfectly complement the fully-realized narrative-these are characters to love, villains to hate, and motivations to question. Now and then, Jak II suffers somewhat from Wind Waker syndrome (a.k.a. lots of backtracking through the ocean...er, City). Some may be put off by just how often ol' platformin' Jak has to race and drive. Others still may hurl their controllers in frustration at a couple particularly evil missions. But this is the kind of game that you'll easily forgive for its sins. You curse and you swear and say "this game sucks!"...but then you triumph, smile, and eagerly check your mission list to see what task is gonna make you lose your next night's sleep. Now that's a game.

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