Jak II
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Publisher: Sony
Developer: Naughty Dog
Rated:
"Too hard for its own good"
[submitted by dancingmind ] Here's what i think happened. The boys at Naughty Dog were quite happy with the success of the brilliant Jak and Daxter and wanted to know how they could make it better. So they searched around message boards, read customer e mails and found out three things:
1)The first game was too easy
Thus comes Jak II, a very good game that suffers a few major problems that halts it from the same greatness as Jak the 1st. The game is transported from the calm tropical paradise into a bleak Blade Runner inspired city. With the city comes lots and lots of traffic. An almost overwhelpming complex city that is bursting with a different kind of life than part 1.
Next, Jak II is vastly superior in graphics than its predessor. Plus, it features the same graet programming (zero loading time), beautiful cut scenes, and excellent responsive controls.
Now here comes the twist! Nearly every moment I was playing Jak II, I kept thinking about how much I loved the first one... almost to the point that I wished I was playing it instead. See, of the three additions to the game I only really appreciated one of them. While I liked the darker and more involved story in Jak II, I disagree with the boosting of the difficulty. What happened to the fun factor of the first? This game becomes simply frustrating. So frustrating that I award it the 1st broken-controller award. Games are supposed to be fun, not make you want to smash things.
Secondly, what is with the hints of every popular game in here? While I like the idea of variety, I can't help but feel that these elements weren't added for fun but more for popular sales figures. The car-jaking from Grand Theft Auto, the radar from Metal Gear Solid, the guns from Ratchet and Clank, races from Mario kart, and even skateboarding a-la-Tony Hawk. I liked Jak and Daxter!!!! Why can't I just have more of that and less of the others?
Still, Jak II is one of the best platformers on the market. It's only second to the amazing Jak and Daxter (why was Daxter's name removed anyway? He's even a playable character in this game). Oh well, at least it's not Ratchet and Clank.
A Second Opinion:
2)The first game needed more story
3)Grand Theft Auto is making lots of money....so is Tony Hawk....and Metal Gear..... and those kart racing games!
