Jak 3

"Great story, unbelievable pacing, never a dull moment!"

Introduction

Let me get straight to the point : I loved every minute of this game. I loved the new wasteland environment with its host of new characters and dune buggy driving missions. I loved the cutscenes featuring humor, drama, amazing voice work and even more amazing animation that brings the characters to life. I loved the pacing, bouncing from mission to mission with such speed I could barely keep up. I loved the plot twists, which bring a satisfying end to not only this game but the entire series. Jak 3 is just an incredible achievement, focusing so many separate gaming and storytelling elements into one hell of an adventure.

Story/Concept

Jak 3 picks up moments after Jak 2 left off, with our heroes (as well as Pecker - the manic-hispanic half-parrot half monkey) being banished to the wasteland. It isn't long before they are picked up by a crew of wastelanders and the new adventures begin.

Throughout the game, Jak will also encounter various characters and locations from Jak 2. These scenes/levels do not feel as fresh as those in the brand new wasteland, but they all service the overall story well enough to forgive this minor complaint.

Jak 3 has a few big twists. All I will say about them is that I think Naughty Dog made them a little too predictable by foreshadowing them a couple times during the game. Those paying attention won't be overly surprised by the ending, but it's highly rewarding (and quite funny) nonetheless.

Gameplay

I was thrilled with the variety of gameplay that Jak 3 offered. Considering Jak is a "platformer", many of the missions are vehicular, such as mad races through the desert to pick up artifacts before rival tribes can scoop them up. There are quite a few other races (whether in vehicles or riding strange beasts), run n' gun missions, on-rails shooting, even a wakka-wakka PacMan level. Hell, if I remember right I think there may have been some actual "platforming" in there somewhere.

In the desert wasteland, Jak will often have several different dune buggies to choose from. They all control fairly smooth, but there was one in particular that I had a blast driving. The Dune Hopper (as you might guess from the name), features a superior jumping ability that you charge by holding L1, then release to fly hundred feet through the air. To reach a few distant spots in the wasteland, you must use this ability to jump between several different islands. In the hands of a lesser developer, this could have been a frustrating disaster (as landing in the water = instant death.) But here it is pure joy, as you confidently put your foot on the gas, charge your jump, and soar to each island, landing perfectly every time. It must have taken a lot of testing/tweaking to make this feel so natural. Or maybe, just maybe, I'm just THAT DAMN GOOD. Ahem. No, it was probably the testing.

To spice up the run n' gun missions, Jak's arsenal has ballooned up to 12 total weapons. Surprisingly, they are all pretty useful, but my favorite was the Beam Reflector. This is a projectile shot, which will ricochet around a room quite a few times before dying out. It has an uncanny knack for zeroing in on unfortunate enemies, hitting them (or their cohorts) multiple times. This weapon ended up being so much fun to use I pretty much stuck with it for the whole game.

Yes, Jak is still a "platformer." There are still enjoyable segments where he has to "jump" on moving "platforms" and "jump off" before they "crumble." Those who were expecting an emphasis on this type of gameplay might be a little disappointed. But Jak encompasses so many other styles of play, and does them so well, that to call it "just a platformer" seems inaccurate and unfair.

Graphics

As to be expected, Jak looks fantastic. The art direction is incredible, and it runs at a smooth framerate throughout. While I thought much of this adventure would take place in the desert, there is actually quite a bit of variety. A few of the bigger city environments are recycled from Jak 2, but in a way this is effective because they have been ravaged by war, providing a stark contrast to their appearance from the previous game.

I especially liked the Terraformer (a.k.a. huge walking spider) near the end of the game. Striding through the desert taking football-field sized steps, it's all you can do to keep up with it, much less kill it. One of many jaw-dropping moments in the game for me.

The animation in the game is incredible. All of the creatures and robots walk, run, jump and fly with a feature-quality nuance. The cutscenes take this to another level. Compare this to a game like Grand Theft Auto. In GTA, yes, the voice acting is great. Yes, there are a lot of cutscenes. But the lip synching is of the "ventriloquist dummy open or closed mouth" variety, and the most you will get out of the body language is some awkward arm movements.

In Jak 3, the time has been spent to choreograph the mouth, the eyes, the eyebrows, the body language (right down to the fingers) to match the voice performance. If the villain wasn't wearing boots, I'll bet you could even see his toes curl at the appropriate moments. I suspected that this would take an enormous amount of time and effort, which was confirmed by a neat feature in the game where you can listen to the animator's commentary for many of the cutscenes. It's amazing how so many little things go into each scene to make it work.

Sound and Music

As mentioned a couple hundred times already, I loved the voice acting. Particularly Daxter, who continues to be really funny, and always get the last word in, but somehow doesn't cross into "annoying." His scream when a statue made in his likeness is beheaded via missile is absolutely priceless. The sound effects seem to have been jazzed up a bit for Jak 3, in particular with the weapons and dune buggies in the wasteland. However, the music continues to be a little lacking.

Overall/Score

Jak 3 was a blast to play from start to finish. It's a little shorter than Jak 2, but I think has just as much or more to see and do. Jak 2 boasted a few more hours on the game clock, but I think a lot of this was spent travelling between missions. Jak 3's breakneck pacing doesn't have time for such nonsense, propelling you to the next mission in a "play for 10 hours straight to see what's next" kind of way.

Score : 9.5/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/15/04