Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy

Written by Tom Clare in PS2 Game Reviews, Tuesday 6 May, 2008

Released: 2001
Developer: Naughty Dog
Publisher: Sony
Genre: 3D Platformer
Platform: PS2

Crash Bash-ed?

When developers Naughty Dog decided in the late nineties that they had taken the Crash Bandicoot franchise as far as it would go, they left behind both their iconic marsupial and the PSOne format, going to work on a next-generation successor, which would land on the PS2 in 2001.

With Vivendi taking over the reigns of Crash Bandicoot's first PS2 outing (The Wrath Of Cortex), comparisons with the Jak & Daxter would inevitably draw close scrutiny, especially as Naughty Dog's old franchise had inherited a wave of scorn from the gaming elite seemingly because of its lack of next-gen innovations.

New ideas are important of course, but Jak & Daxter should, like all games, be judged on how successfully those ideas are implemented. The restrictive nature of Crash's '2.5D' worlds have been cast aside in favour of some slightly vacuous though nevertheless extremely pretty islands, which impressively all link together with little or no noticeable loading times. You must tackle a range of classic platform challenges in order to win the power cells required to open up new islands, with the usual goal of saving everyone from evil and (maybe) returning Daxter to his humanoid form after the klutz went and fell in a pool of dark eco and inadvertently turned himself into gamings most popular ottsel (a cross between an otter and a weasel, apparently).

As is par for the course with Naughty Dog, humour is a tool put to excellent use in J&D, adding real warmth to the world in which you involve yourself in. The sidekick Daxter undoubtedly steals the show, not just because of the hilarious barbs he comes out with when you die, but also the frenzied dance routines prompted whenever you claim a power cell (his moonwalk and break-dances are especially funny).

The controls are nippy and responsive, and though sometimes the jumps are rather less than perfect, there are few flaws to speak of, and rotating the camera poses little trouble. Naughty Dog have learnt a few important lessons in the time since Crash Bandicoot 3; namely that Jak & Daxter's difficulty level isn't anywhere near as punishing on the player - some sections require a fair bit of joypad dexterity, but there's little evidence of the old pixel-perfect jump nightmares that threatened to unhinge their platformers of old. The bosses no longer take 100 attempts to beat, although inevitably require some trial and error and deductive reasoning from the player. One annoyance however is the lack of a central hub to return to at any stage, which means if you've waded halfway through a level in an attempt to find that illusive power cell you missed first time around, getting out means you have to wade back through all of the traps again, which can stretch the patience. It's irritating as it would have been so simple to allow you back to the centre point of an island via a feature on the Start menu.

There are several excellent, elaborate structures that are tailor-made to testing your platform skills. The sheer enormity of each area has meant Naughty Dog have managed to hide a lot of items in the scenery and there are several routes you can take through each level, meaning there's plenty of exploration to be done, though it can be a thankless task searching for those last few precursor orbs. Indeed, the size of the game can prove something of a double-edged sword as some of the treks offer little gameplay other than to impress upon the player the size of the environments.

But in fairness, you can hardly blame Naughty Dog for the occasional lapse into self-indulgence, as the game is remarkably pretty. There's a cartoon-like vibrancy to the whole scenario; it's super-colourful without appearing gaudy, and everything is remarkably sharp and smooth. Virtually flawless, in fact, and even more striking when you make use of the first-person camera from high-vantage points, which on occasions allow you to see right to the other side of the level or in some instances, another island.

Standard platform locations are all present and correct; beaches, caves, snow-capped mountains, lava pits and forestry among others. Most actually play quite similarly (lots of running, the occasional sequence of jumps, bashing enemies etc), though the hazards and enemies do change a fair bit. In truth, the enemies are no great shakes and most can be avoided by simply running around them. Most surprising however is the lack of use for some of Jak's abilities; there isn't really enough difference between his charge and spin attacks to warrant both of them, plus the crouch and roll manoeuvres executed with L1 were barely called upon at all as far as I can remember and so didn't serve any practical purpose.

The mixture of mission objectives is fairly good, if a little derivative. Each area has its own specific task but the more conventional ways in which to gain power cells include collecting flies, chasing/catching foes, defeating bosses, beating the odd mini-game and trading precursor orbs found scattered about the levels. One instance blatantly stolen from Spyro The Dragon sees you having to herd cattle for a farmer, whilst the use of a hovercraft shows a decent evolution of Crash Bandicoot's bike levels - sadly this speedy means of transportation is limited to small, specific areas so doesn't play a major part in the proceedings. Whilst the level-design itself remains solid throughout the course of the adventure, ideas on how to challenge the player for those all-important power cells begin to run a little dry - the final island almost entirely relies on the trading of collectable orbs in order to acquire cells, which seems a bit anti-climactic.

As mentioned earlier, the voice-acting is really good and the music is none-too-bad either; the familiar, laid back tunes have more than a hint of a Hawaiian influence (must be all the beaches) and a nice drum accompaniment. None of the tunes are overly memorable but they serve their purpose.

J&D offers a fairly competitive standard of longevity. Experienced gamers should be able to pass the 50% completion point within a few days play, though I would say most players will get at least two or three weeks worth out of it, which puts it slightly above the average for platformers on the PS2.

Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy is ultimately a fine platformer showcasing great technical proficiency and excellent controls. It begins to run a little low on ideas towards the latter part of the adventure and isn't quite the groundbreaking title it was touted as being, but for children and adults alike, it makes for an entertaining evolution of an old formula and shows what the 3D platform genre is still capable of when tackled correctly. Perhaps there's enough of a niche in gaming for both ottsel's and bandicoot's, recommended.

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