Jak 3

Written by Chris Reiter  on December 13, 2004

Review: A review with more Jak-ing jokes than you can shake a stick at.

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Some portions of Jak II displayed battles of an epic scale. Jak had to fend off dozens of Metal Heads and Krimzon Guards at a time. That's really where Jak's Dark purpose was served best. Here, it's more platform and puzzle based. Which in itself is interesting, but just not as useful when you have up to 12 different kinds of weaponry tactics to annihilate your enemy with. Back in action is Jak's interchangeable Morph-Gun, which instead of just upgrading to larger ammo slots now entirely transforms with up to two extra incarnations. Press up, down, left, or right on the D-pad once or up to two times in a row and a new weapon type will eventually be revealed throughout the course of the game when received after completing a specific mission. The shotgun-type Scatter Gun now becomes a Wave Concussor (forming a ring of red energy around Jak), and then into a Plasmite RPG that lobs balls of explosives at enemy groups. That laser sight-equipped Blaster from before now enhances into a Beam Reflexor that can fire ricocheting bullets off of enemies, and thirdly into a Gyro Buster that deploys a remote airborne device, spinning and shooting all enemies gathered around it. Jak's Vulcan Fury, the machinegun, first changes into an Arc Wielder (or an energy ray spewing weapon), and then into a heat-seeking Needle Lazer after that. And the mother weapon of them all, the electricity bolt firing Peace Maker now dresses up in one Mass Inverter phase that suspends all enemies into the air momentarily, while in the second Super Nova phase it places a destructive energy blast to eradicate anything and everything in all its white blurring glory. Having a sufficient amount of item boxes with health and weapon refills (and usually enough ammo dropped behind by enemy forces), the challenge of Jak 3 is toned down somewhat when you've got fewer enemies to fight and more options to beat them with.

Playing Jak 3 though isn't just about surpassing the game's action and platforming elements. There is a boatload of reason in the fact that like most any platform game, you're going to commit your time to a collect-a-thon. Previous Jak and Daxter games gave gamers' the chance to rack up to 100 Precursor Orbs (or secret bronze eggs) and 286 in Jak II. Jak 3's overwhelming total is 600. Locating these Easter eggs by cracking open certain vases, searching behind objects, or platforming your way across rooftops (like in a couple of Spargus spots) is one way to suck up these tricky bastards. The other method is by completing as many tasks assigned by the game's stationed kiosks as you can or want to. Defeating Metal Heads relinquishes gold orbs that are placed inside their heads. Each kiosk asks that you pay a certain number of these items in order to process the objective that is given. With enough Metal Head orbs, you'll come across numerous and a lot of times difficult requests such as tracking down an egg in an unspecified (although pictured) location before the clock runs out, to racing through a bunch of checkpoints in time, or a few times killing a certain number of foes like Metal Heads or dune buggy marauders. Though the diversity between the goals isn't that great (there is only about five or so ways to go about getting your orbs), the setting for each objective is different and tough. For those who have the smarts and skill to grab all 600 orbs, will also earn themselves the chance to unlock a large number of secrets -- from weapon and vehicle upgrades, to game concept art, and even cheats (i.e., unlimited ammo, invulnerability, unlimited Dark and Light powers, etc.).

Surprise, surprise...at how little surprise Jak 3 continues the tradition its franchise started in showcasing a most savory aptitude of graphical aspects you can just marvel at forever. Distinctive and detailed coloring has always fleshed out the characters and world of Jak games in a way that gives a bright and yet roughened kind of cartoon tone to its art. Despite being that Jak 3 hasn't noticeably advanced much visually from last year's Jak II offering, there is much new to see (and old) in Jak's oversized and interwoven world. Spargus is a city of those forgotten people, wandering men and women each carrying a weapon on them. Geckos and Chihuahua looking rat things graze the grass rooted streets where steps line up to the porches along the sandy stone paved alleys below. Natural lighting sets into this Spargus, as the bright of day dims into night where flames above home entrances are lit a roar in a dazzling, gaseous spectacle. Step outside Spargus, and you'll enter the garage where all dune buggies are parked and waiting to be driven into a massively perilous desert. Sands howl through the wind and collide against Jak's ride when the storm turns from bad to worse. Mountainous hills, rocks, and river beds reside in this rich and yellowy brown expanse. Caverns littered with tiny Metal Heads can be explored here as well. And when Jak's not sticking his feet in the dust, he's able to hop on the one way ride into Haven. Returning to the source, Haven is of a picture-perfect resemblance to how it was in Jak II -- except for the newfound rubble and armies forcing their way into certain sections of the city. But wherever you are, wherever you go, just know that Jak 3's crisp, clean, and connected (that's right, a gigantically robust environment that looks this good and has no load times whatsoever) world is drenched in an overabundance of mesmerizing goodness right down to the last drop.

Sticking out and looking awesome like they always do, Jak and Daxter ace their graphical exam once again. Jak appearing buff and fit like a hero should be with his striking blue shirt strapped with leather buckles, red scarf, and an orange Daxter clinging to his shoulder hasn't failed to impress yet, and doesn't fail now. Down the road, Jak will attach to his clothing brown armor plating that not only looks perfect on him, but enhances his ring of life to boot. And when the time does draw through the middle of enemy territory, it rolls speedily as a fast track highlight as in any of the Jak games. Seeing the Metal Heads pounce and slither through their black and gray covered bodies, whilst Jak can react with a whirlwind twist (and Daxter going flying with him) always looks neat. The new edition of enemy robots is even cooler though, particularly one type of armored foot soldier robot that wears a red casing. Fire enough bullets at it, and the wrapping will fall off to leave the opponent open for more target practice. With the guns intact, the battle ready situations are particularly what drive them that way. Whip out the Beam Reflexor, and you'll soon have dozens of yellow bullets beaming back and forth off walls and enemies alike. Bust out the Arc Wielder instead, and a large swaying electrical beam will light up the party as it slices through any foe who gets caught by its deadly blue charge.

Guns aren't the only thing to see here. Dark Jak is back, and he's got a friend with him this time...himself. Illuminating the darkness within Jak like before spouts out a white skinned Jak with a purple electrifying hue to go with it. Turn on Jak's Light lamp instead, and a blueish-whiteish fluorescent tint appears where Jak himself looks like he came from the Blue Man Group. Especially during Jak's winged stage, his flowing moth-like wings dragging behind him turn Jak into a pretty little bug able to traverse large openings in heavenly essence. Flying also has an amazing turn through the limited bursts of flaps you get with soaring over people and object hurdles in Spargus, and outside in the desert outskirts with the dune buggies in tow. Physics play a large and important role in Jak 3, which effectively shows best when you're spinning and turning over in the sand when you've got an endless supply of marauder buggies hunting you in packs of up to about four or five at a time. When you're speeding up a hill top and flying head over the heels of laser-blasting buggies below you to make an imperfect landing, where you're bouncing all over the place, you know that the physics in this game work right to make Jak 3 a well-rounded graphical achievement all over the place.

Both a story of comical hilarity and deep inflections, those same highly adaptable voice actors who brought charm to the characters of the last couple of Jak games are back with a few new faces thrown into the mix: namely Count Veger, a strongly voiced villainous chief character with a secret and Damas, the raspy accented leader of Spargus. Daxter's wily and smart ass crackups return for a third time, delivering humorous genius mostly for the story segments, and at different points as tips during the missions. Jak's stern although appropriate pipes kick in during the tale also to add balance to Daxter's usual sly-witted self. The only thing missing from this third and final Jak and Daxter edition it seems is more Kiera. That green-haired elfin chick who was made into Jak's personal heartthrob the last game has but a few measly minutes in which to add her vocals to the storyline, or more importantly her body. That sexy, sexy bod. Hoo boy!

Well, naturally there are plenty of excellent things to listen to other than Kiera...like Jak 3's well pitched synthesized songs. Treading along through non-enemy parts of the cities, there's a real nice adventuresome rhythm happening. When it comes to a brawl, just Jak, Daxter, and the scum of their world, the music fastens up to a quicker beat. Otherwise, you've got a lot of noise in your head. Good...no great noise. Jumping, running, spinning, and blasting kinds of sounds. These are the kinds of audible tracks you absorb and accept as truth when the explosion from Jak's Plasmite RPG launches a tiny round grenade that you can hear click against the ground and burst upon impact, or when his Vulcan Fury's machinegun burst actually speeds up slow and then steadily the more your finger triggers the rate of fire. Even dune buggies roar and rampage with repeated machinegun and laser fire, Leapers leap and squawk as they soar and run along in their raptor-like ways, and hoverbikes and the hoverboard give their best realism effects with speed and soaring sounds in which all make for a believable platform environment in the multi-pathed, multipart universe of Jak 3.

Done. Finished. Over. No more. The end of the line. Not going to happen. The sequel to end all sequels. Jak 3 is the finale of Jak and Daxter's epic platform series. Its chapter book has been shut, and its characters will have to live on in our memories and in our hearts. But that doesn't mean it's through if you haven't yet tried Jak 3 for yourself. You know who you are. You're that guy or girl still playing some other non-Jak 3 game. Yeah, you! Put down your controller, drive over to the game store now, and get Jak 3 as hurriedly as you can. And if you can't do it that fast, then you're a slow poke. In all seriousness however, Jak 3 really is this year's platform title to get.