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Jak 3 Review
It’s kind of hard to look at the original Jak and Daxter, and then look at Jak III. How did a light hearted cliff hopping platformer turn into such an edgy action romp? Well maybe that’s because it’s exactly what the series needed. Don’t get me wrong, Jak and Daxter was an excellent game, but it was basically like all of the other platformers scattered across the consoles, just with a shiny coat of graphics. Jak II and now Jak III aimed to change the genre and bring it more towards an action style and they succeeded at that. While Jak II was sometimes mind numbingly difficult, it was a memorable adventure that changed the way we think of platform characters and games. Jak III is a progression of that and while its nothing terribly new (especially after seeing Jak II), it tops off the series as a worthy ending and a great time (if this is truly the “end”).
Those who have played both games before know exactly what to expect from Jak III You play Jak, a guy who is having a really bad time in his life at the time you begin playing Jak III. In Jak II, he gets tortured, becomes a badass, and saves the world. In Jak III, everyone now blames him for the chaos that now ensues in Haven City. So like every stingy government, they throw you and your little fuzzy friend Daxter in the middle of nowhere, more specifically, a desert.
The story starts to thicken when Jak and Daxter are picked up in the middle of the desert and brought to a city of ruffled natives. You aren’t immediately welcomed, as you are put through several trials that most people would fall through in an instant, but eventually you gain the trust of the city’s people.
Spargus City is setup as a much more open version of Jak II’s Haven City (which you might just see again). It’s basically a desert landscape that looks like something out of Aladdin and while the people there aren’t always happy to see Jak, they should settle in quite nicely as time goes by.
There were two things that many people used to connect Jak II to Grand Theft Auto and those were the ability to ride vehicles around a giant hub, and the mission based structure the game took on where you would go to various people to pick up missions and not always in a set order. It was an unfair stamp to be placed on Jak II and now with the third entry, its not as big of a deal. Jak III is a bit linear at first, but quickly drops back into giving you some choices of what you want to do first. Some missions have you collecting desert hopping mini-lizards while others have you riding around the desert with buggies such as the Dune Hopper and Tough Puppy, getting chased by giant monsters. Hey, that’s not such a bad thing, its all part of a days work for Jak and Daxter. Speaking of Daxter, you may actually play him a couple times throughout the game, something people have been crying for ever since the original. Overall the mission variety in the game is often mind boggling because in one mission you could be doing something quite simple like collecting orbs, where in the next you will be faced with having to perform full on assaults against a barrage of enemies. Doing the same thing over and over wasn’t something that popped into my head when playing this.
The characters you meet are quite compelling, not so much as in Jak II, but you do see the connection Jak makes with some of these “Forgotten Ones” as he is an outcast himself, as are these people. Those looking for the continuation of Daxter’s plotline (regarding him trying to find a way to revert back to his original form) will be happy to know that the game does eventually bring attention to this.
For all its worth, you rarely talk about the weapons a platform game includes, usually because the genre’s ideas of weapons are something along the lines of a metal glove or magical bat. Well, weapons do matter in Jak III, sometimes more so than even in Ratchet and Clank because Jak is essentially using one all purpose weapon that receives mods throughout the game. You will be mastering ways to use each weapon the whole time you play and some combinations you will like and others, not. The weapon is called the Morph-Gun and it has four main modes including the Scatter Gun, Blaster, Vulcan Fury and the Peace Maker. Each of these modes has a couple upgraded modes that add more variety to the weapon over time.
 
The bosses in Jak III are of course some of the most challenging parts of the game. Often times there will be a trick to finding a weakness for an enemy, but other times it will be quite obvious. The final “boss” especially is quite entertaining. The overall enemy AI of the basic baddies is quite good. For these types of games it’s often times necessary to have enemies that simply run at you waiting to die, but in Jak III, some enemies do react to the situations around them and put up a decent fight.
Overall the main game will take anywhere from 20-25 hours for fans and newcomers alike to complete and there will still be things to go back for after the main story is over. As for playing it all over again, I probably would, but as with most games that’s a call only you can make based on your initial experience.
Visually Jak III manages to pop even more out of the aging Playstation 2 technology. Aside from some minimal bouts of slowdown, the game world is fast, beautiful and often times it feels alive. The character animations and expressions are top notch and the voice acting perfectly fits each character. The soundtrack is once again imaginative and is complemented by sound effects that don’t often take themselves too seriously.
If this ends up being the final Jak game, then it went out on top, not losing much of its appeal after Jak II. While not a giant step of revolutionary proportions, let’s be honest, no one was expecting that. Jak III almost seems like a thank you to the fans, and what a thank you it has been.  
Written by Joseph Bennett. Posted year 2004.
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Released on
November 9, 2004
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