Jak II. What's going on?

[sininc]

I`ve played it a little, it`s not really my kind of game, if anyone does want the full game (promo version) then they can have mine for the price I paid (?15) and the cost of postage (?1) PM ME.

I may get into it, in the future, but at the moment i have more games I want to play before it, plus THUG, True Crime and Simpsons Hit and Run are out arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh lol

[Max M]

Gamespy.com only gave it 2/5

The overall effect is akin to Big Bird spouting four-letter words and selling crack out of his nest: Adding false "edginess" to a formerly kid-friendly world just doesn't work

[kaisu]

Did anyone else buy this today?
I've been playing it for about 2hrs and while it's not perfect i quite like it.I've just got my first gun and have played about 8 missions, Most of which were the usual GTA style mission, Go here pick up this, I'm sure you know what i mean.The graphics are lovely the voices are good but i really don't think the swearing goes well with the game, Hearing Daxter shout piss off didn't make me all that happy.

The city itself is huge, I can't even access all of it yet, But i'm a little concerned over how interactive it's gonna be.So far i haven't seen anything of interest in it, They're is lots of hover cars and bikes all over the place but the actual city isn't to exciting...yet, Although i haven't really spent time exploring it.I'm sure that lots of things will open up eventually but at the minute the city has disappointed me.

The missions are pretty fun even if they are just driving or shooting.THe best one i've played so far was when i had to break into a fortress and destroy an amunitions dump.I don't want to spoil anything for anyone who's playing through the game as the way this mission played out was a bit of a surprise to me.

[Bleeders]

I was really looking forward to this, but I've found it quite uninspiring thus far.

I'm hoping my attitude will change as I progress further through the game.

[PeteJ]

The first 5 or so hours are meant to be quite poor, the difficulty and quality rises after an average introduction.

I came close to buying this today, but the demo put me off quite a bit, it felt so indifferent. Another wannabe classic, if that makes sense...

[therealjohnpeat]

Rented this earlier so I'll offer my first 2 hours of 10p's

Should say that whilst I thought the original did nothing new - it managed to be a Jak-of-all-trades <sic> and it was, for the most part, very enjoyable.

I say that because the sequel isn't enjoyable in any way (so far) - any aspect of 'fun' seems to have been leeched out of it and replaced with 'Darkness' including some totally out-of-place swearing which simply doesn't work.

I think the GTA-style of mission assignment stinks to be honest - leave it to GTA to do the 'go there do that' mission approach please. It just builds up anticipation of a non-linear format which the game doesn't even being to offer in the first hours of play at least.

The difficulty level leaps around at the start too - the missions go from simple to frustratingly hard in no time - and there are a few 'get somewhere fast' missions which are mostly a matter of blind-luck avoiding traffic and gun emplacements etc. etc. - be prepared to replay some of those dozens and dozens of times...

The 'Destroy the Ammo Dump' mission mentioned above is an outstanding example of stupid IMHO It manages - well within the first hours of play - to demonstrate every camera problem, repetitivity problem and frustration factor in the game in the space of 200m of corridors!!

OK - it's early days for me (played just over 2 hours) but I'm really put-off - I was looking forward to a platform-game with an edge but so far I seem to have a frustrating and 'unsure of it's target market' mishmash.

Even if you ignore the difficulty issues and decide you like the GTA-mission-stylee, you can't ignore the sheer lack of FUN in there. The game it reminds me of most is Mario Sunshine - a game I stopped playing because it was more 'chore' then entertainment.

Methinks it will go back to Blockbuster unmissed - but I'll post an update later anyway

JP

[therealjohnpeat]

Update:

I've progressed a little further so a status report is called for methinks

One thing I (and others) have noticed are some nasty graphical glitches - esp. if you choose 4:3 and/or 50hz - tho they're still there in 16:9/60hz (can't speak for Prog. Scan mode). Turning around (you do this a lot when flying esp.) results in the entire screen 'tearing' and it's very distracting.

Other than that it's graphically lovely - the city gets VERY busy and there's no real slowdown.

The gameplay tho - I have to be honest, I cannot think of a game I've played which wanted me to enjoy it less than this. The plot/scenario has a gritty/nasty tone which extends into the gameplay really - lots of 'pot luck' events, lots of mission repetitivity etc. etc. - the first few hours are a hard-slog which I don't think suits this type of game.

The sheer amount of 'GTA' in it is also worrying - you could have called this "Grand Theft Daxter - The Cartoon" and not been far wrong - and whilst I love GTA, no-one can really deny that it could be a slog in places, an effect copied to Jak II perfectly...

Getting my first gun was a highpoint - relatively speaking - it makes a nice noise and has a nice graphical effect - but it's slow and you're better off smacking people really, so I'm not sure why I've got it (yet, anyway).

This is definately a 'try before you buy' game - it's not actually bad, it's just not at all what I expect from a game like this - lots of good and bad, weird difficulty curve etc. etc.

JP

[hoathenfold]

DISAPPOINTED!!!

I was sooo looking forward to this!!!

J&D was one of the 1st games I purchased for my PS2 earlier this year - it was great fun and I completed with 100% on everything.

From all the negativity coming out about JakII I dont think I'll bother (give me a chance to play one of the other 100's of games Ive bought that 'one day' I'll get round to playing!!)

[therealjohnpeat]

You can't be disappointed unless you try it for yourself really.

As people have said - it does improve as you get into it - but the first 1-2 hours were pretty grim in places.

I've now opened up a lot more stuff and it's getting better - but it's still not really what you'd call fun - or at least it's not what I'd call fun.

Still - IIRC I wasn't too keen on the first one until I reached the 'zoomer' bits in the PreCursor Bowl - and I loved that to death

End of the day I think the message is

"TRY BEFORE YOU BUY"

?3.75 for 2 nights at Blockies

JP

[Che Musashi]

Or you could save your bones for Ratchet and Clank II, I'm sure insomniac won't dissapoint, the demo I played was pretty tight.