Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy
Score: 91% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment America Developer: Naughty Dog Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 Genre: Action/ Adventure/ Platformer
Graphics & Sound: Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy uses an impressive graphics engine that will surprise you more and more as you play the game. At first, the whole setting looks straight out of the original Crash Bandicoot, islander theme and all. But then you notice an island over the ocean. And then you notice something spinning in mid-air a good mile or so away. And then, later on, you actually get there in the game, and you look back and see the hut that you started in. There's something truly majestic about a seamless world, and Jak and Daxter pulls it off gracefully. The engine displays sharp, detailed graphics, with textures that simply blow away the competition. The character animation is fluid and superbly rendered, with a graphical flair that really appeals to the kid in you and the adult alike. The environments are similarly detailed; although they can sometimes feel a wee bit sparse, they're just so huge that you don't have time to contemplate that. Yes, the framerate does dip and drag occasionally, but it's a minor issue, and one that never got in the way of playing the game. The game's sound is excellent as well. I have a suspicion that many of the sound effects were recycled from the Crash Bandicoot series, but they were crisp there and they sound crisp here too. There are plenty of new ones as well, and the others may just be close enough that they're throwing me off. Eh, no matter--the game sounds nice. The voice acting is solid, if not to the level of Soul Reaver or Metal Gear Solid; this is more a consequence of the rather juvenile lines that many of the characters have to use, rather than the voice talent. It's still miles better than it could have been, and for that we are thankful.
Gameplay: And if the excellent graphics and sound aren't enough, Jak and Daxter offers a whole lot of excellent gameplay as well. It's not as revolutionary as we had hoped, but it certainly is evolutionary, and every fan of the genre would be a fool not to pick this title up immediately. Well-tuned and just plain fun, Jak and Daxter delivers. The storyline is fairly straightforward, as these sort of games go. You're Jak, and in the opening cinematic you're treated to watching your friend Daxter turn into a smart-aleck ottsel--a cross between an otter and a weasel--thanks to a big pool of dark Eco. Soon enough, you set off on a quest to cure him, which of course turns into the obligatory quest to Save The World, Young Man. There's nothing particularly surprising about the storyline, but it delivers when it needs to, and has a number of amusing characters to keep you company. Of course, any platforming freak will immediately ask, 'What is it that we have to collect?' In Jak and Daxter's case, there are three things that you have to find. The first, and most important, are the power cells. They drive all of the technology that you have to use throughout the game, and getting them generally requires some sort of task, from doing work for someone to simply finding an out-of-the-way corner of a stage. Second up are the obligatory 'coin' equivalents, in this case egg-shaped Orbs. Collecting enough of them lets you trade them to various folk in the game to get more cells. Lastly, there are little robot probe thingies hidden in boxes in each stage, and collecting all of them nets you another cell. So off you go, looking for adventure and lots of things to collect. Like any good platformer, the completist gamer will spend considerably more time finding the hard-to-reach stuff while the casual gamer will simply get enough items to move on, and then do so. It works out well.. You control Jak throughout the game, and his controls are quite simple. Indeed, anyone familiar with the Crash Bandicoot series of games (which were also made by Naughty Dog) will be right at home with the controls here. There are a number of added moves and the like, but it's still no Banjo-Kazooie in terms of move complexity, and a few minutes of practice will have you doing just about everything with ease. To be honest, therein lies the heart of the game. There are some simple puzzles to figure out, and there's always a few Orbs in evil spots that throw off your totals, but if you've played any recent platformer you have a general idea of what to expect. The difference here is the way that it's put together. Instead of being disparate zones that you warp back and forth to from a hub zone, which is how most games of this type work nowadays, Jak and Daxter presents a single contiguous world that you don't even have to watch loading screens to experience. It doesn't really add much of anything new for the genre, but it does everything so well that it's hard not to be entranced.
Difficulty: Non-veteran platform folks may find themselves frustrated at a few segments of the game, where precise control is needed and the camera is misbehaving a little. There are also a few obligatory boss battles, which can throw you for a bit until you figure out what it is you have to do. For the most part, though, the challenge of Jak and Daxter comes from challenging yourself. You can skip many of the difficult Power Cells and just collect the easier ones, but what fun is that? If you're going for all of them, however, there are some definite challenges ahead of you, which is a Good Thing.
Game Mechanics: Jak and Daxter makes use of just about every button on the controller, and the important buttons are where they need to be, easy to use and control. The camera is one stick and movement is another, and you can use the buttons to jump, spin, punch and the like. There's even a first-person view which comes in handy to just scope out the surroundings, not to mention for a particular type of Eco. For the most part, the control is spot on. I felt that the game made entirely too much use of 'unwalkable walls', though, where you would jump on a surface and instead of standing on it Jak would just slide off. It's understandable to a point, but it's also frustrating, because it takes you out of the immersiveness of the game when your character is incapable of standing on something they're obviously capable of standing on. The swim mechanics are also a little weak, but that's really nitpicking. Jak and Daxter's lack of loadtimes is one of those things you don't really appreciate until you go and play some other game; the smooth continuous nature of the world is appreciable instantly, though. Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy does a great many things right. It's an excellent action/platformer, and while the moves may be simplistic and the storyline basic, the game's immersive enough to keep you interested in playing till the end. It doesn't offer as much replay value as the Crash series--there just isn't nearly as much hidden stuff--but Jak and Daxter is more satisfying on the first play-through, thanks to its continuous nature and immersive, free-form environments. The go-anywhere, do-anything attitude that the game takes is a pleasant change from Naughty Dog's previous offerings, and it should please anyone who was a fan of their other platformers and fans of 3D platformers in general. After this excellent first outing on the PS2, I can only be excited about what more Naughty Dog has to offer us in the Jak and Daxter legacy. If they can sharpen the formula that makes Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy good even more, they'll have even more of a surefire blockbuster on their hands.
-Sunfall to-Ennien, GameVortex Communications AKA Phil Bordelon
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