Jak 3

"Somehow the magic has faded"

Jak has never exactly been the most original series on the block. The first game was pretty much cut-and-paste from games like Mario 64, Banjo Kazooie or Crash Bandicoot. Take Mario 64, swap “Stars” for “Precursor Artefacts” and “Coins” for “Precursor Orbs” and you've basically got Jak and Daxter. Jak II decided its precursor was too much of a platformer rip-off, so it amended the problem by instead ripping of the Grand Theft Auto series, just with more cartooney graphics. This put a bit of a hiccup in the series, since the two games felt almost nothing alike either in story or in gameplay, but the developers managed to pull the change off as well as they could and Jak II was still a very entertaining game, after you get past the dumb premise of the whole thing. This, however, kind of left all the Jak players wondering what new game Jak III would rip off.

The answer, surprisingly, is none. The game is mostly faithful to Jak II, still having the GTA-style mission-based gameplay rather than Jak and Daxter's Banjo-Kazooie-style collection-based gameplay. The game has tried to hide its “inspirational source” a little better this time around, and for the most part you don't have to carjack passing speeders to take part in the gameplay. Jak II's gunplay makes a triumphant return, this time with an arsenal triple the size of last game's. It may be just my imagination, but the guns seem a little less unwieldy this game, and the auto-aim system appears to have been slightly improved.

Story: 6/10

The story is where things fall apart. The Jak series has never been about Pulitzer-worthy stories, but even so Jak III feels like a let down. Jak II had a surprisingly in-depth story with good character development that provided an interesting background to the story. Jak III takes that background story and basically throws it in a bonfire and tries to start over as much as it can.

At the beginning of the game, Haven City is beset by a renewed Metalhead assault and the people are discontent. For some reason, they decide to blame their saviour, Jak, for their troubles, in spite of the fact that he was the one who saved them in the first place. Bet you're regretting stealing all those hovercars and running people down with them in Jak II now, huh? At any rate, after Jak's connections with Krew and dark eco come to the front, the city decides to exile him into the desert, screwing themselves over even further. Jak is picked up by a group of other exiles and taken to the desert haven, Spargus City. There he is inducted into their culture and expected to help them survive life in the desert. Thus begins Jak III.

Throughout the game you're struck with an odd sense of confusion, as if you're playing a game with only half the story there. Characters that were central to the previous two games (namely Samos and Kiera) are almost non-existent in this game. Kiera, whom Jak has nearly shared a smooch with twice to date, has all of three lines in this game.

And some of the characters seem to be thrown in “just because.” One mission sees you visiting a fairly major character from a previous game for some information. After completing the mission he gives you, he is never even mentioned again for the duration of the game. Jak III really feels like the developers spent a lot of time polishing up the gameplay, but forgot about the story until a few days before the game was to go to production. Finishing the game will leave you with the distinct sense of “...what? That's it?”

Sound: 6/10

Much like its predecessors, Jak III has a very nondescript soundtrack. The sounds are so monotone and quiet, they may as well not even be there. Hell, for segments of the game, it ISN'T there. The voice-work is the usual fare for the Jak series. It's got good quality and there are no real awkward hiccups. The only thing that really bugs me about the way that Jak's voices work is that the developers designed so many characters to have dark, grizzly voices that they all sort of blend into one another and make any voice that ISN'T dark and grizzly stand out like a sore thumb.

Gameplay: 9/10

As I already mentioned, Jak II's GTA-style gunplay has returned and brought some very powerful new toys to the table. Impressively, these guns don't throw off the balance that Jak II's original guns had, although a few of them make the other guns obsolete. One big change to Jak III is the feature of a large desert where Jak can grab various types of sand buggies and set out exploring. While riding in the desert, you will constantly be attacked by enemies, forcing you to use your buggy's guns to fend them off. It's a neat feature and, though it feels somewhat empty at times, the missions make good use of it.

The Dark Jak feature of Jak II also returns, only this time with a corresponding Light Jak feature to boot. The problem still remains, particularly with Dark Jak, that neither of Jak's transformations are really all that useful, aside from solving puzzles specifically designed for them. I was actually hoping they would either make more of this feature in this game or do away with it altogether. Regrettably, the game developers did neither and it remains a rather extraneous feature that serves little purpose in the overall game. The one improvement the developers did make is that it is now possible to toggle Dark/Light Jak mode on and off without using up all of your dark/light eco supply.

As with Jak II, there are dozens of little mini-games you will encounter over the course of the game, most of which are lots of fun to play. They range from a Pac-man clone to button matching game reminiscent of a controller version of Dance Dance Revolution on easy mode.

One more feature retained from Jak II is the presence of precursor orbs used to unlock various cheats and extra features. This time around they are considerably easier to get a hold of, which is a definite plus. The easiest way to obtain said orbs is by performing quick mini-missions found at various terminals or statues around the game world. These mini-missions take the form of time trials, where you must quickly run through a series of rings before time runs out, or hide-and-seek missions where you are shown a quick screenshot of an area you must reach in a short time.

Overall: 8/10

Jak III is a thoroughly enjoyable game, despite its flaws. Gameplay-wise, it is a joy to play and controls beautifully. I think that's a staple of the Jak series: each game does things almost perfectly, but has a few glaring flaws keeping it from being truly great. And each subsequent game in the series fixes its predecessors flaws, but adds in a few new ones just to keep things fresh.

It's definitely worth a purchase, particularly if you were a fan of Jak II's gameplay (or GTA-mission-style gameplay if you've never played Jak II). It doesn't quite match up to Jak II in terms of quality, but it's still a good way to kill a good 12 hours.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/22/08

Game Release: Jak 3 (US, 11/09/04)