The Gorby Congressmanz
Banned
Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy was a big title, great sales, and reviewed highly. Everyone either liked it or didn't care for the collectathon platforming game design (although one could argue it's the best implementation of it without the slow movement and empty levels) or platformers in general. But even people who weren't fans of its style still figured it to be a good game.
Jak II completely changed the formula into a dark, weapon-based action title. it still had platforming but now the game was much more open with all kind of things going on. It introduced a GTA style city and traversal system but within a sci-fi framing, and for some people it was incredibly challenging. It still sold well, but not as well as Jak 1, and while many have said it's the best in the series and one of the best games of all time, many have also said it was a mistake to change the first games formula and it created a game that was a trainwreck. The most polarizing game in the series.
Jak 3 shared a lot of criticisms that Jak 2 had, but did change things up a bit. It added a bit of Mad Max and Twisted Metal to the gameplay with weaponized vehicle traversal across the dangerous desert plus a battle arena for a large portion of the game, with a smaller city and platforming segments taking up the last 3rd of the games playstyles. It was the worst selling of the 3 but not as polarizing as the 2nd game. However, it was still polarizing overall especially with it's clashing genres, seen as too unfocused.
But what about now? How do you view Jak II and Jak 3 today? Where they great games? Does the platforming or gunplay hold up? Has the sci-fi setting and GTA style open world immersed you into Haven city? Or are they mistakes that should have never deviated from the first games formula, and are not too good?
Jak II completely changed the formula into a dark, weapon-based action title. it still had platforming but now the game was much more open with all kind of things going on. It introduced a GTA style city and traversal system but within a sci-fi framing, and for some people it was incredibly challenging. It still sold well, but not as well as Jak 1, and while many have said it's the best in the series and one of the best games of all time, many have also said it was a mistake to change the first games formula and it created a game that was a trainwreck. The most polarizing game in the series.
Jak 3 shared a lot of criticisms that Jak 2 had, but did change things up a bit. It added a bit of Mad Max and Twisted Metal to the gameplay with weaponized vehicle traversal across the dangerous desert plus a battle arena for a large portion of the game, with a smaller city and platforming segments taking up the last 3rd of the games playstyles. It was the worst selling of the 3 but not as polarizing as the 2nd game. However, it was still polarizing overall especially with it's clashing genres, seen as too unfocused.
But what about now? How do you view Jak II and Jak 3 today? Where they great games? Does the platforming or gunplay hold up? Has the sci-fi setting and GTA style open world immersed you into Haven city? Or are they mistakes that should have never deviated from the first games formula, and are not too good?