Jak and Daxter Collection Review

As much as I love the game, I have to admit it has some issues that opened old wounds from my PS2 days. Checkpoints can often be infuriatingly sparse and a few collision detection issues see Jak sliding off the edge of platforms that you know to be a platform. The handling for the hoverbike is terrible, but at least it’s only used for small sections of the game. Imagine if they built most of the game around it...

Oh Jak II: Renegade, this is where it all started to go wrong. Ripping you from the colourful island of the first game, you’re dumped into the grey urban hell-hole of Haven City where the main vehicle of choice is the hoverbike, or a fatter even poorer-handling hovercar.

This was a time in gaming where everybody was blown away Grand Theft Auto III and foolishly tried to copy it. Hence open world cities in everything, with ahem, somewhat mixed results. So, using boat-like vehicles to avoid the perma-pissed Crimson Guard soldiers through narrow streets and slums is a frustrating bore from start to finish. Almost every mission forces you to drive from one side of the city to another with a harsh time limit, with every failure leaving your sanity begging for it to end. Some missions allow you to leave the city for sewers and caves, nothing resembling the lush locales of the first game.

Not content with aping GTA, the series also jumped all over the success of Ratchet & Clank by introducing guns. Horrible aiming and a serious lack of punch and variety made them a chore to wield and shooting sections seem like punishment for a crime you haven’t yet committed.

As PS2 gamers may recall, there was a sudden trend of leading characters becoming utter dicks (hello, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within). Jak was mute throughout the first game and perhaps he should have stayed that way instead or growing a goatee and being such an emo cranky-pants. At least there’s a semi decent story buried in this dull game, with a much darker tone than the original. It’s linked closely to the third game too, whereas the first one stands alone.

Jak 3 thankfully turfs you out of the city, into the vast desert wastelands. Buggies replace the hovering vehicles and there are thankfully many variations available. The handling is far from perfect and they seem obsessed with spinning out from the slightest knock but the attached weapons or leaping abilities some of them have will force a smile from you. A lot of back-and forth between the same locations really tested my patience though.

The story pacing is much better than Jak II and even the checkpoints feel less like they want to trap you in the game forever. Amy Hennig, the respected writer/director of the last two Uncharted games, joined Naughty Dog for this game and you can feel that it’s a much tighter and balanced experience than the miss-step of Jak II. There’s no getting away from the fact that the first game towers over the sequels though, who can’t even rouse an interest in the once delightful collectables.