Strengths:Long story, great variety of missions
Weaknesses:Series getting a little repetetive
Posted Nov 9, 2005 - I just recently got my PS2 and have been catching up on all the classic series on that console. One of the first games I played was Jak & Daxter. I got through that and, though the graphics gave me headaches compared to the Gamecube games I was used to, my son and I had a lot of fun with it. We then started Jak II and got about halfway through before getting bored with the repetitive missions.
Jak III is easily the best of the bunch though. The graphics are much improved (including progressive scan and widescreen), and the missions include all the types from the first games plus a few new ones. We are about halfway through this game and it has seemed to progress much faster than Jak II, which is nice. We got a little bored wondering around the town in Jak II all the time and was a little disappointed to see the town (Haven) return later in Jak III, but so far it has been a fairly small portion of the gameplay.
The big addition to the series is the set of dune buggy-like cars that you drive around the desert in various missions (races, collect-a-thons, hunts, combat with other vehicles). All of those mission types combined with the more standard Jak fare (jetboarding, shooting missions, platforming, etc) makes Jak III a varied game that keeps itself more interesting than Jak II did. The series has also become very polished - the graphics, voice work, menus, etc, are all very well done and have no glitches that we can see.
However, the Jak series has gotten a little tiring, even with the new mission types. It is good that they have gone away from the core game with the latest entry (Jak X Combat Racing). But the core play is good enough that I am still looking forward to the PSP entry (Daxter).
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