Jak and Daxter Collection Review

This generation of consoles has been starved of the once-loved platforming genre. The PS2 birthed a few series that have just about survived on PS3. Ratchet & Clank, until their recent effort – which all but abandoned platforming – enjoyed a few hits on PS3 and Sly Cooper is about to finally make his PS3 debut. But Jak & Daxter never made the jump. This could be attributed to waning interest in the series or developers Naughty Dog being keener push their Uncharted titles (no complaints from us there) .

So it’s down to this HD collection to test the waters to see if gamers are still willing to lay down the cash for the PS2’s original platforming pair. With lush HD visuals, trophies and widescreen support, it’s an admittedly enticing prospect. Let’s dive in.

The first game of the trilogy, Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, was always my favourite of the three, but I was worried that perhaps the old rose-tinted glasses may once again fall from my face as has happened with a few other PS2 games I dusted off recently. I needn’t have worried. This is still an excellent game.

Way ahead of its time in 2001, the game holds up exceptionally well today. The complete lack of load times is still technically impressive. The whole game world is linked together in one gigantic hub. Once you’ve unlocked all areas, it’s possible to travel from one end to the other, without even a dropped frame to be seen.

There’s a heavy focus on platforming skills in the first game and Jak’s skills are peerless. In addition to the now-standard double jump, he has a rolling jump to reach distant platforms and by performing a spin attack in mid-air, he can even hover ever so briefly, to adjust his landing.

The variety available in the missions is pleasing throughout, enemy clearouts, fishing, fetch quests, jungle explorations, climbing mountains, raiding temples, defending villages, herding cattle, catching voles, riding hoverbikes and more. It’s never dull and there are usually multiple objectives to tackle at a time, so you don’t feel tied-down.

The collectables become an obsession. Power cells are needed to progress in missions and there are plenty of extra ones around too. The more numerous Precursor Orbs are scattered around every stage and the pause menu tells you how many collectables remain in each area, making it irresistibly tempting to find them all.

So enjoyable was the first game, I Platinumed it in a single eight-hour day. The story helps things along at an enjoyable pace. It sees our mute hero trying to find a cure for his friend who was turned into a meerkat-like creature who sits on his shoulder dishing out advice and humorous quips.

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.