I recently completed the last of the series of my beloved games Jak. Starting off, Jak 3 is an action/adventure/platformer with tidbits of racing, hoverboarding, shooting, hide and seek and magic. With a healthy dose of all of these categories, it makes for an interesting and exciting playthrough, there is always something different to do.
(Only recounting a vague plot line and the opening video, so no spoilers)
There isn't much to the story, but what story is present keeps you fairly enthralled. You have been banished to a harsh desert presumably to die, by a powerhungry polotician. So now, you have been taken in by a tribe of nomadish people, and it's time to get your life back on track. Somewhere in there, saving the world has to happen as well. The game as a whole was roughly 11 hours for me, but the game itself only takes place over a few days, so it helps add to the atmosphere of intensity and urgency.
Now, the gameplay. What isn't there to say. Stripped down, the game is literally: Travel from point A) to point B), and complete the task that will be assigned to you there. That is the entire game. What makes this game fun, however, is the missions take moments to reach, and it's almost always a new endeavor. At one time you could be platforming around inside an ancient temple, and when you complete the objective, you need to drive your dunebuggy back to HQ and start playing a rail style shooter from the back of a hovertank. In addition, they make the platforming more interesting by commonly adding combat, which you can fight using melee, one of 12 guns, and two different forms which open up magical abilities. What's more, there are missions BETWEEN objectives. Don't feel like heading back to base? No problem. On your way back why not bring your dunebuggy to the track for a little friendly desert racing with pirates? After that, head on over to the firing range for some target practice. That's not to say that this game is easy in the slightest. I died, often. Jak 3 is really quite difficult, but it has the ability to remain fun, even when you are failing constantly.
That being said, there are a few downsides. The desert racing is fun, but when you are not driving on flat ground, all the vehicles handle like rollerblades on ice. Another bad part with the vehicles was on one boss you are forced to shoot at a moving target that is a decent distance off the ground from a dunebuggy with low-mounted static machine guns. You tell me how well that worked? Those are really my major gripes, almost everything in the game is made in such a way that the player's skill actually dictates the outcome.
The graphics are fantastic, and the characters look great. The voice animation and body language are near perfectly presented. It is genuinely funny and charming, with your furry sidekick being mostly for comic releif and squeezing through places you cannot fit. It's surreal how realistic the characters act, talk, and move, yet they are designed as a cartoon. The framrate did slow, but only once when there was a massive horde of enemies in a small area and I had fired about a million reflecting laser pulses.
In summary, not only do I feel like this is the strongest of the series, I also think if you like videogames, you will like this game. It is a shining gem in my eyes, a tribute to video games as a whole. If you buy one new game for your playstation 2 after new gen, make it this one.
(Only recounting a vague plot line and the opening video, so no spoilers)
There isn't much to the story, but what story is present keeps you fairly enthralled. You have been banished to a harsh desert presumably to die, by a powerhungry polotician. So now, you have been taken in by a tribe of nomadish people, and it's time to get your life back on track. Somewhere in there, saving the world has to happen as well. The game as a whole was roughly 11 hours for me, but the game itself only takes place over a few days, so it helps add to the atmosphere of intensity and urgency.
Now, the gameplay. What isn't there to say. Stripped down, the game is literally: Travel from point A) to point B), and complete the task that will be assigned to you there. That is the entire game. What makes this game fun, however, is the missions take moments to reach, and it's almost always a new endeavor. At one time you could be platforming around inside an ancient temple, and when you complete the objective, you need to drive your dunebuggy back to HQ and start playing a rail style shooter from the back of a hovertank. In addition, they make the platforming more interesting by commonly adding combat, which you can fight using melee, one of 12 guns, and two different forms which open up magical abilities. What's more, there are missions BETWEEN objectives. Don't feel like heading back to base? No problem. On your way back why not bring your dunebuggy to the track for a little friendly desert racing with pirates? After that, head on over to the firing range for some target practice. That's not to say that this game is easy in the slightest. I died, often. Jak 3 is really quite difficult, but it has the ability to remain fun, even when you are failing constantly.
That being said, there are a few downsides. The desert racing is fun, but when you are not driving on flat ground, all the vehicles handle like rollerblades on ice. Another bad part with the vehicles was on one boss you are forced to shoot at a moving target that is a decent distance off the ground from a dunebuggy with low-mounted static machine guns. You tell me how well that worked? Those are really my major gripes, almost everything in the game is made in such a way that the player's skill actually dictates the outcome.
The graphics are fantastic, and the characters look great. The voice animation and body language are near perfectly presented. It is genuinely funny and charming, with your furry sidekick being mostly for comic releif and squeezing through places you cannot fit. It's surreal how realistic the characters act, talk, and move, yet they are designed as a cartoon. The framrate did slow, but only once when there was a massive horde of enemies in a small area and I had fired about a million reflecting laser pulses.
In summary, not only do I feel like this is the strongest of the series, I also think if you like videogames, you will like this game. It is a shining gem in my eyes, a tribute to video games as a whole. If you buy one new game for your playstation 2 after new gen, make it this one.
