Jak 3

"One word describes this game: frustration"

In Jak and Daxter, our heroes had begun thier trilogy with a plot twist no one would see coming.
In Jak 2, we saw guns, violence, and free roaming added to the gameplay, this was not the same Jak.
In Jak 3, the conclusion to the precursor trilogy, what could be added to make the gameplay better? Well, lots actually. Was anything added, no.

The game starts out with a good looking movie involving jak being driven out to the middle of nowhere and banished from Haven City forever. Metal heads, Crimson guard, and the underground are fighting for control of the city, the citizens blame Jak and have him banished along with Peckers and Daxter. Passed out from the sun and dehydration, Jak collapses. He is saved however by a King, the king to a city in the middle of the desert that no ones knows exists. He offers jak two options, ether become useful to the city, or leave and die. Jak, being the cold blooded person he has become, decides to stay and prove to them he is worthy. The story is quite good, at the beginning its really all about missions. Towards the 40% mark of the game the story starts to kick in, it can get somewhat interesting. It's by no means a great story, its good or average.

The graphics are a mixed bag. They look great, easily the best of the playstation 2. The character models during cutscenes look fantastic and show emotion, something that is welcomed dearly. While playing though, it seems though because of the good graphics, the framerate suffers a bit. It never gets to the point where it becomes to noticeable. Just when walking thru the city i found that the game never hit a stable framerate. I usually tell when a game has good framerate as one that a bad framerate makes me woozy. Spectacular explosions and particle effects too, they look great. All in all, it's a pretty good looking package all together.

The sound is easy to judge, because they are the definition of "mediocrity". The music fits the game, but it seems like it gets covered up by explosions and shots far to often. Plus it's not that good to begin with, completely average. The sound effects are nothing to write home about ether. Although every bullit has a different sound, they seem the same from jak II and are (again) pretty average. The voice acting is spectaculor likes the first two entrys in the series, easily some of the best in gaming. All the voices fit and show great emotion, some of the best of the year in fact.

Where the loses its grip is gameplay, it really hasn't evolved to much since Jak II. During one particular fight, i was surrounded and trying to protect someone. The camera kept looking at my front side (the camera is not fixed and will not move unless you use your right analong stick), so i was having to take my right thumb off the jump button, which happened to be keeping me alive. What really shouldve been implanted is a "juke" button, if you've played Star Ocean: till the end of time you'll know what im talking about. All Jak has in the form of getting out of the way of bullets is a VERY skimpy roll. Since the camera kept looking at my front side, I was getting shot from behind and quickly losing life. Repeat this 5 more times and you'll start to understand the title of my review. In one particular boss, the camera was fixed and I was jumping from rock to rock to destroy him. Since a rock was at a somewhat odd position with the fixed camera, i couldn't tell how far left or right to jump so i missed the rock a good twenty times. Repeat ten times and you'll want to throw your controller thru your T.V. There's something that hard and kept me coming back for more (metal arms: glitch in the system comes to mind), but this game did not have me coming back after my tenth time. If you played jak II you may remember the free roaming thru Haven City with hover cars and such. It's back, sort of. You are now in a desert city that is much smaller and easier to navigate, you can jump on little animals and ride them to wherever in the city. They're quite fast and better controlling then the hover cars. I liked the switch as a whole, good job Naughty Dog.

In the beginning of the game, the missions are quite fun as the usually involve you taking a buggy out into the desert and destroying something. Also, gameplay is really 60% driving, 35% jak, and 5% daxter. I like this combination because the driving levels are fantastic while the platforming levels were.....frustrating.

Buy or rent?
If you liked the first two entrys, buy it. I liked the first two games and this is was a good purchase for me. Despite the complaints i thought it was great game, its a lot of minor flaws that kills the experience .

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/22/04