LogFAQs > #949973967

#48 Jak II (Playstation 2, 2003)

Despite its ambitions, Jak II is kind of a silly game, and it really surprised me how different it was from The Precursor Legacy. It's not clear to me how Naughty Dog thought that they could suddenly make the character Jak "adult" and "serious" after what he was before. I guess the designers saw how games were trending at the time (the immense popularity of games like Halo and Grand Theft Auto 3 which both featured violent/mature content), and wanted to tap into that market a little. But not completely; Jak II might feature some gun violence and mild profanity and suggestive content, but nothing approaching a lot of the stuff you would see in GTA.



I think that stuff is fine, like I don't mind it. The game stands out with its sprawling world and satisfying gameplay that features a mix of new gun combat and the melee attacks from the previous game. It's a really fun game to play and rates so highly for me on that fact alone. Like The Precursor Legacy, the lack of loading screens in the world made everything feel incredibly connected together. A lot of cues were taken from GTA in the open-world design of the city, but the areas outside the city still felt a lot like a Jak game.

I don't know if the story still holds up though. The time travel nonsense is probably old by now, but I don't think anyone really plays these games for the story. It was serviceable and probably still is OK. Daxter is good.

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At least your mother tipped well