Jak 3 Review

With Halo 2 out of the way it's back to Jak (heh), specifically Jak 3. With the tone for the entire franchise shifted in Jak II, how does Jak 3 continue from there? Now, I like Jak II, thought it a big step up from Jak and Daxter. But I also felt Jak II had an obnoxious difficulty spike that almost made me quit entirely. Can Jak 3 fix the problem that Jak II had? Well it better have otherwise I don't know why we're here.

Jak 3 is set not long after II and sees Jak, Daxter, and Onin's traslator Pecker being tossed out of Haven City by new villain Count Veger thanks to being framed for unleashing Metal Heads in Jak II. Stranded in the desert, Jak, Daxter, and Pecker find themselves in the Wasteland town of Spargus, ruled by Damas, the King. Now Jak and Daxter must work to survive the wastes, get themselves back in Haven City, and stop the Metal Heads while dealing with a new faction of Deathbots commanded by returning villain Errol (who I didn't mention in Jak II) and a mysterious threat from the stars.

So yeah, Jak 3 has a lot on it's plate in terms of plot juggling the story of Damas and Spargus, Jak's feelings of rejection, the apocalypse bearing down on everyone, and saving Haven City. It's a lot to deal with and the game gets a bit scatterbrained with it's focus at times. Hell some characters are just forgotten, like Keira, who I thought they were setting up as a love interest with Jak in the first two games but she just gets sorta forgotten in 3. The newer character okay, specifically Damas, but they don't add much like in Jak II. Also, the villains are just sorta random, Veger shows up at the start to set him up as a prick, then at the middle he sics a robot on you, and then he sorta vanishes till the end. But then Errol pops out of nowhere after he died as a cyborg and he's the villain now. It's all confused, scattered, and without focus. But it is very epic to be fair and does try to wrap up a lot of looses ends in the story, it is most definitely a finale to the trilogy.

However the stakes don't stop 3's story from being a tad more lighthearted than II. Sure we're trying to save the world from the apocalypse, but the game has a lot more fun with it's ideas while keeping the same general tone of II. It's like Halo, sure the stakes are serious but the characters are making the best and having fun with a dark situation. Jak 3 is a lot funnier too, with the highlight being right before the final boss when it's revealed who the precursors are, it's fucking hilarious and ranks on my greatest twists of all time. Jak's personality and relationship with Daxter hit's their stride too with the two bouncing well of each other.

Speaking of Daxter, the game focuses a lot more on him with some gameplay sequences featuring Daxter. Sure there were some in II but it only happened around twice at the end and it was either very basic in gameplay or just the racing level again. But now you play a lot more with Daxter in 3 and it helps him feel a lot more like a member of the team, sneaking though pipes to reach places Jak can't and maneuvering beasts while Jak drives their car. Daxter also mostly plays like Jak but without the Eco powers or guns, amazing as that would be.

Jak meanwhile is mostly the same, he gets 8 new weapons as variations of the guns in Jak II, but nothing else is changed. Dark Jak also returns and is mostly the same as in II but he can now shoot balls of Dark Energy and burst though certain walls, which is very situational. But we now get Light Jak as well who can enable multi jump, stop time, create a shield, and fucking heal your ass. So yeah, Light Jak blows Dark Jak out of the water, namely with that awesome healing ability. Though Light Jak also gives more ideas for plat forming with the time stop and multi jump so it's just that much better.

I'm happy to say that my big problem with Jak II,
the difficulty spike, has been fixed as well. Checkpoints are more plentiful, healing is easier with Light Jak, you get actual health upgrades, and all around I just had more fun with Jak 3 as a result of these fixes. The game is shorter as a result, but given that Jak II only felt long because of the horrendous checkpoint system, I feel the trade was worth it. There's also nothing like that terrible sewer escort level in Jak II, which was my boiling point where I almost quit. Gameplay variety is much better, whether it's trying to out run missiles or doing an arcade like shooter, there's a lot more set pieces than Jak and Daxter or Jak II.

Now I have gone all this time without mentioning the biggest innovation to Jak 3, sand! Yes, there is quite literally a new sandbox and it's less baby's first GTA and more Mad Max as Jak can drive sand buggy's with machine guns strapped to them. The new car gameplay is better than the vehicles in Jak II with it feeling like I'm in a lot more control here than in the hovercraft. Also if you take the super jump car, hold the jump button and hit the thrusters you can soar and lemme tell you that is fun as shit.  Though my only problem is that the marauders are super aggro, dogpiling you on missions a lot of the time. Also you fight the final boss in a car and it's rough as a result because you can only shoot in front of you.

The real downside however to all this is that Haven City also returns as a hub world, clearly recycled from Jak II, cut in half, and given debris everywhere. It's a bit lazy, especially because you only get one area spun off from it this time, the forest, which is great to see return just for the variety. But there is a fair amount of swapping between the two hub worlds and it is nice to see the variety with the wasteland, so it works out in the end. Also the level getting back to Haven City is pretty dope as well, nice and huge and the fixed checkpoints don't make it drag on forever.

Jak 3 is in my opinion the best game in the Jak and Daxter trilogy. Jak 3 is the Jak game with the least problems, it isn't as repetitive and forgettable as Jak and Daxter, nor as stupidly brutal as Jak II, even if it does recycle some of Jak II. The story is that great blend of serious stakes but fun characters, even if I feel like some characters got tossed to the side. Also that twist towards the end is funny enough to elevate 3's story above 1 and II.  Now I could wait to talk about the PSP games before making that judgement but given no one wants to mention them, not even Sony, I think we're better off not doing that. There is also Jak X: Combat Racing which does have a PS4 release but with Team Sonic Racing and CTR Nitro Fueled on the docket, I think we're better off waiting for that. Either way, for a franchise that sought identity and balance, Jak 3 is the perfect close to the trilogy and a true classic.