Hapimeses

User Score
8.9

Presentation - 9.0
Gameplay - 9.0
Value - 8.5

Crash Bandicoot, the PS1 Mario 64 killer of its time, wasn’t. Whilst fun, and certainly a looker with its own charm and personality, its tubes of walled-in gameplay ultimately frustrated those looking for 3D-freedom. However, the game’s Developers, Naughty Dog, weren’t to be beaten. After passing the Crash licence to Universal Interactive, they grabbed the bag of tricks they learned and ran with it to the PS2. And boy did they run.

Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy follows the eponymous characters through a fully three-dimensional world brimful of colour, humour, and vaguely Disney-esque styling. In the introduction, the two troublemaking boys have ignored the warnings of Samos the Sage as they creep around the mysterious Misty Island, home of the evil Lurkers. Unfortunately, an ancient device they uncover explodes in Jak’s face and he nudges Daxter into a vat of black, gooey stuff called Dark Eco.   Upon surfacing, Daxter is changed: he’s been transformed into a small, creature with traits of an Otter and Weasel -- an Ottsel -- and the quest to return him to his original form, to understand why Dark Eco is returning, and to end the schemes of a power-hungry madman (voiced by the lead singer of Twisted Sister, believe it or not), begins.

You control Dragonball-haired Jak, who has a collection of attacks, including a spin-kick reminiscent of Crash Bandicoot’s spin-attack, an uppercut, a dash-punch, and a dive attack, and the normal running, jumping, and ducking, as well as a roll and jump for longer leaps, all presented with character animations that are never less than superb. Similarly well-animated Daxter, the wise-cracking sidekick, bobs about on Jak’s shoulder for most of the game, and isn’t playable; instead, he provides advice, guidance, and taunts, all supplied with a genuine wit and humour that brings many laugh-out-loud moments. Jak has further powers granted to him by collecting one of four different types of Eco found in the game world: Green Eco heals him; Blue Eco brings speed, activates ancient Precursor sites, and attracts distant collectables; Red Eco makes his attacks more powerful; and Yellow Eco allows him to fire fireballs. Rounding-off the core, platforming gameplay, there are also occasional, but enjoyable, vehicle sections aboard a hoverbike called the A-Grav Zoomer, or mounted on the Yoshi-reminiscent, ostrich-like Flut Flut.

The game leads the two characters through several large, lush environments, most of which can be seen right from any high point in the game due to the astonishing draw-distances, even if they cannot yet be visited. The attention to detail never slackens, and quality texturing, lighting, and modelling stretches into the distance with surprising clarity for a PS2 title, especially as there is no fogging or load-times, and it’s often all running at a blistering speed without slow-down or noticeable screen-tearing. Indeed, seeing everything as far as the eye can see, the lack of interruptions for level gates, loading, or similar, and the tremendous day-night cycles, lend the game a truly immersive quality, which is only strengthened by the non-linear approach to the game design.

Further strengthening the immersive nature of the game, the soundtrack, sound effects, and voice acting are all spot-on for the genre. The background music sets the tone for each of the game’s areas well, and whilst evocative, it is never intrusive. Similarly, the sound effects are consistently well deployed, and are not in short supply. Every area is steeped with different, appropriate noises — waves lapping at shores, crickets chirruping, footsteps changing according to the surfaces traversed, seagulls chuckling, electrified plates crackling, and much more. However, topping all of this, the voice acting is superb. Not only are the words delivered flawlessly, but the script is tight and often humorous, and the voices perfectly match the on-screen characters, a subtle detail, but an important one.

Beyond the quality of the sound and graphics, and all the jumping around and Lurker-bashing, Jak and Daxter, like many platformers, also has a host of collectables. The most important collectable is the Power Cell, which is basically a Precursor battery used for powering various machines in the game. There are a total of 101, and they are found scattered throughout the environments or awarded for completing various tasks and mini-games set by NPCs. These can be collected in any order you wish, strengthening the freedom the game offers, allowing you to explore the game world at your own pace, and open new areas as you discover more Power cells. Other collectables include Precursor Orbs – used as currency to buy more Power Cells from NPCs; there are 2000 of them – and Scout Flies – of which there are seven in each area; collecting them all grants a new Power Cell. At any time pressing Select brings up your current collection progress, making it very easy to keep track of the game’s goals beyond the core storyline.

However, whilst the game is certainly bright, colourful, and a joy to play, it isn’t very long. From beginning to end, the game can be easily completed in 5 hours if you know where to look, but will probably take in excess of 10 hours, or many more, on the first playthrough. Further, the game isn’t very hard, meaning that a 100% completion is not impossible on a first attempt, and quite easy on a second; certainly, it will not tax a hard-core gamer.

But, it doesn’t really matter, because Jak and Daxter: The Precurser Legend is a triumph in all other ways. Rarely do games come along that are just so much fun, that are so easy to play and lose yourself in, that just make you smile and laugh-out-load, but this is one of them. The colourful characters; the sprawling, intricate levels; the tight controls; the humour; the whole experience: it all adds up to a perfect piece of PS2 gaming that deserves its place beside the platforming greats. And, while it may not last for long, what time you do have with Jak and Daxter will be spent with a happy smile, and will be long remembered.