Brilliant Visuals; Derivative Gameplay
posted by conman (SOUTH BEND, IN) May 9, 2007
Member since Aug 2006
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I thoroughly enjoyed this game. However, I didn't feel pulled in by it. The environments and characters look fantastic, but there was some level of immersion missing.
It has all of the visual elements of a much better game, but I feel like the game looks backward instead of forward in terms of gameplay. The game strongly reminded me of Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie for N64. Even at the time that Jak and Daxter was published (2001) this is too derivative. Other great platformers were adding totally different approaches to gameplay that were "current" gen rather than "prior" gen. Ico is a great example of a forward-looking platformer from about that time (published in '01 or '02).
Jak and Daxter looks beautiful and it's little wonder that another SCEA team (Insomniac) would borrow Naughty Dog's technologies. But where a game like Ratchet and Clank feels new, exciting, and compelling, Jak and Daxter feels all too familiar and trite. Don't misunderstand me; I think Jak and Daxter is a really good game, but it doesn't offer anything new other than new graphics and voice acting.
The story is also off-kilter. It's rarely made very clear what's happening and why you should care. Mostly, the plot comes down to "collect x number of doo-hickies to move on." Either tell a story or don't, but don't do it halfway. Mario 64 didn't need a story to be fun. Sometimes story can just get in the way of your gaming experience. Just tell me to collect stuff and let me go about my business.
I have yet to play the follow up games in the Jak series, but I can only hope that they found new approaches to these old gameplay formulas. Worth a rental if you are a platformer fan.
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