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Jak X: Combat Racing Review
Crash Team Racing was the handiwork of Naughty Dog, a developer who having moved on from a wacky bandicoot, decided to take a slightly different route on the Playstation 2. Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy was the result of their insanely imaginative minds and as one might expect, two successful sequels followed. Since the end of the Playstation 2 generation is nearing, its only fitting that the Jak series takes a similar route to that of Crash Bandicoot. Instead of putting together a new action title, Naughty Dog has returned to the tracks with Jak X: Combat Racing. Considering that Crash Team Racing is one of the best (if not the best) kart racing games ever released (uninspired sequels notwithstanding), one could only imagine how this latest Jak game would fare. Stop imagining and start your engines. While its not as fresh as Crash Team Racing was before it, Jak X has more than enough entertainment stuffed in its disc to keep arcade racing fanatics pleased for months to come.
In typical Naughty Dog style, the story is cartoonish, comical, but also smart and entertaining. Picking up some time after the events of Jak 3, Jak X places our characters in yet another difficult situation. Portly schemer Krew from Jak 2 has died and Jax, Daxter and all of the principal characters from the previous games were invited by Krew's daughter to view a video message from her recently deceased father. In a blatantly obvious ploy, Krew has had his daughter's guests poisoned so that they be could forced them into competing and winning the Kras City racing hampionships. If they fail, the poison will lead to death. This places all of the characters in a dilemma that has the ability to tear apart friendships as the races focus on savage independence over teamwork. So, what else is there to do but participate in a seemingly endless schedule of deadly races? Well, it wouldn't be a Jak and Daxter game if everyone got off so easy now would it?
For all of the options it presents, it must be said that I'm not really a fan of how the racing format has been set up. Instead of taking a more immersive route and allowing you to explore a hub world to new reach racing events, Naughty Dog has simply provided a set of menus that lead you to race after race. The whole system makes the story and gameplay feel disconnected at times. The cycle seems pretty linear. You select an event, a cut-scene plays and then you race. There is very little variety in how the races and events are presented to you. This isn't an issue that significantly detracts from the game, but considering how enchanting the Jak universe usually is, it would have been nice to feel that you were a bigger part of it.
The game's Adventure mode is split up into four cups that are each comprised of a healthy dose of events. The game's modes include Freeze Rally, which has you racing against the clock using boosts and frozen canisters that stop the timer so that you can reach the finish line under a set time. Death races are quite fun as they have you shooting down as many enemy drone vehicles as possible within an allocated time. One of the strangest modes is Rush Hour, which has you ramming "through" traffic (yes, through) to gain points. The other half of the game is comprised of arena type maps that put you through modes like Deathmatch, Artifact Races and Assassin. In Assassin, you must race to destroy the randomly selected target before your opponents do and in Artifact Race, you are battling to collect as many artifacts as possible. Every mode in the game can be appreciated for one reason or another and its nice to see so many options that players can tinker with.
If the game has one significant problem, it would be in its balancing. In regular races you have the ability to block oncoming missiles by dropping items behind you, but since racers often have more than one shot with their rockets, the trick only works once and you end up being shot down anyway. The Super Nova weapon proves to be the most frustrating as whenever you are in first place, if someone picks it up, you're as good as dead. Its practically impossible to defend from and all your hard work getting to the top is crushed within seconds. It wouldn't be much of a bother if the CPU racers didn't happen to collect it every single time you make first place. Secondly, the game can be pretty tough, sometimes unfairly. Most of the time it seems that there isn't much difference in the performance of vehicles, because you could be in first place for over a minute and cars will always be directly behind you. If you slip up once a couple feet from the finish line, its over. Considering that a lot of these races can be pretty lengthy, its more annoying than challenging. As you race more and more, these problems will seem to become less apparent and Jak X can be a really fun game if you begin to master all of its little racing techniques and secrets. The last small problem which has more to do with comfort, is that the boost and brake slide buttons are positioned in a way that you constantly have to change the way you're holding the controller. 
Putting the game's issues to the backburner, the arsenal of weapons available is impressive. You have your typical rockets, homing rockets and machine guns, but aside from the front shooting weapons, you also have the ability to leave some gadgets and gizmos behind you. Oil slicks that set on fire, sentry turrets and the good old fashioned land mines make staying ahead of the pack enjoyable and suspenseful. While the weapons are infinitely useful in the races, in the arena matches, they need to be handled with a little more strategy. Considering the computer AI is less restricted than in races, predicting their movement patterns is far more difficult. This means that the usefulness of the backside weapons are called into question. In these matches, the rockets and machine guns become priority3.
Once you have put the healthy sized Adventure mode behind you, Jak X features a full fledged online component. The difference in the outcome of races online in comparison to when playing offline is immediately noticeable. When playing with humans, races become far more brutal and skill is a significant factor. Its by far the most entertaining part of the game and after you have unlocked everything in the Adventure mode, this (and the traditional split screen mode) is where players will find themselves spending time.
Knowing Naughty Dog, its only right to expect excellence when it comes to the visuals of their games. Jak X proves once again that they know how to tackle the Playstation 2 hardware. While maybe not as polished as their previous effort, Jak 3, this new game features perfectly detailed tracks and amazingly animated cut scenes. Honestly, if they weren't making video games, they might as well be developing animated movies. The cut scenes that they put together are always of exceptional quality and make the story come alive. The framerate can take dips here and there when there's a lot of gunfire and explosions going off, but the sense of speed is rarely compromised. The models used in the cut scenes are fantastic and while their in-game counterparts aren't nearly as detailed, they serve their purpose.
The game's soundtrack has ditched the majestic adventure soaked tunes of previous games and has adopted a selection of rock tracks that will make the ear ring. It doesn't exactly scream Jak and Daxter but in the context of the game, the music fits the on screen action quite nicely. As always, the voice actors do an excellent job of portraying their characters and this remains one of the best acted game franchises out today. Daxter's antics never tire and its a testament to the sharp dialogue put together for the game.
To sum it all up, Jak X is a fun, action packed racing title that proves Naughty Dog still has the knack for making their fans happy. It doesn't present anything particularly groundbreaking here, so if you have been bombarded with several racing titles lately, this won't do much to sway your waning interest. Having said that, Jak X is a neatly presented package that will please fans of the genre and the Jak and Daxter series.. If this ends up being the final Jak adventure on the Playstation 2, then let it be known that it went out with one loud ear shattering explosion of completely random rock music.
Written by Joseph Bennett. Posted year 2005.
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Released on
October 18, 2005
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