If you think reading is for chumps check out the video review http://youtu.be/QBDBF5YduzQ
Jak II: Renegade is the sequel to Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy from naughty dog, and historians might recall that I didn’t bow to its predecessor so will this game change my mind on the jak series?
Jak and Daxter the Precursor Legacy had a sudo open world theme but now jak ii has gone the whole way and become a PS2 GTA sci fi game. The game also introduces ‘Dark Jak’, which turns jak into electric wolverine for 30 seconds. These elements are good and add a lot to the game. Speaking of adding stuff to the game Naughty Dog must’ve played Ratchet & Clank when they were making this game and crowbarred in some gunplay. But the Jak engine doesn’t really work with shooty controls because in most of the action set pieces where you need to shoot people the camera is fixed and without strafing all you can to is vaguely fire in their direction or just run up and punch them. The platforming is decent although it does feel kind of loose and first but once you get into it, it should feel ok by then. A problem I am finding constantly in these kinds of platformers is they crowbar in a turret shooting sequence for no bloody reason that uses the left stick to aim because the developer’s brains were made on opposite day. To rub salt onto the wound the controls on the left stick are inverted when you do these tedious extremely hard sequences. Also this game is incredibly hard making me stop playing the game.
The game looked great on the ps2 and looks even better on the ps3 and as grand tradition of naughty dog the traversal animations are great especially the pole swing one.
The game is long and hard so you know it’ll take you forever to beat but if you’re some hypothetical superman and don’t think that’s enough there are also loads of side quests to keep you busy.
The game has great voice acting especially compared to the first one where everyone seemed to be stock characters except the amazing daxter which odd that they took his name out of the title because he was the best part of that game. It was probably to try and shake off the confusion between Insomniac and Naughty Dog.
The story is also quite interesting now with betrayals and time travel stuff. But I do feel that the story writer can’t do a reveal. Not to spoil anything but there is a character who is literally behind a curtain and sounds exactly like a character that has gone missing.
The weapon system is quite good and works efficiently.
It seems to me that this game wanted to be a better version of Ratchet & Clank while still working with the same engine of the previous game. But then 6 months before the game came out they had to change as much as possible to avoid the comparison. But judging the game by its own merits it gets 2 and a half stars out of five.
