Graphics. I kinda feel funny talking about graphics; every time I think I've seen the absolute best that the ole' PS2 can churn out, some prankster out there goes and pulls something like Jak II, and then I have to start retracting all those "the best looking game on the console" statements. Well, forget it, I am not retracting jack anymore (pun intended); from now on I am just going to say "current front-running contender". And so Jak II is now the current front-running contender for the best-looking damn piece of gaming on PS2. There.

   Now all joking aside, prepare yourself for the ultimate game reviewing cliché: Jak II is a beautiful, stunning, fantastic-looking game. I am the first geek on the block to yammer about how the games of old had real gameplay and looks didn't matter; but people, this is just too sweet of eye candy. It's darkish, it's colorful, and it's rich; it is really kind of like multi-colored chocolate - it looks so good you nearly want to lick it off the screen. And, strangely, the gameplay doesn't suck either. Who could have thunk it.

For Haven's Sake

   "Welcome to Haven City, grasshopper."

   "Huh? How did I get here?"

   "You went through some kind of vortex thingy."

   "Good enough... Why am I all weird?".

   "Well, this Baron Praxis dude has been playing with you for a few years now by sticking you full of some radioactive-looking crap. Eco or something."

   "Ehhh... No, I mean this strange green goatee."

   "Oh. Sorry about that."

   "Yeah, yeah. Well, get out of the way, won't ya?! I am gonna go and see if I can find some way to be a major thorn in this Baron dude's side."

   That, in 100 words or less, is the basis of the Jak II story. For those liking a bit more of an expanded narrative, here is another snippet:

   You've gone through, well, some kind of vortex thingy (really, there is no better way to put it), and ended up in a futuristic parallel universe. The bad Baron (kind of like the antithesis of Mayor Giuliani) iron-fist-runs Haven City, which is threatened from the outside by the armies of the mysterious MetalHeads. In an attempt to build some kind of a Universal Soldier to combat the threat, the despotic Baron, not an all-together politically correct individual, has been experimenting on humans by inducing mutation with the help of a material called "eco". His plans haven't been quite working out, though, and even Jak, a promising specimen, does not produce the expected results. In frustration, the Baron orders him disposed of, at which point, of course, Jak escapes, bumps into a weird old man with a kid on the closest street corner and, before he knows it, ends up doing missions for an underground resistance movement, striving to overthrow, well, everybody. From then on, despite the promising beginning, the story largely recedes into the background, serving as a backdrop for a rather straight forward mission-based method of moving through the game. It's by all means not a bad story; it just isn't an absolutely integral component here - missing pieces of it really won't deprive you of the core game experience. Which, of course, is just fine for this kind of game. Consequently - enough story talk - let's get to the good parts!

Pit stop!

I wish I was a little bit taller, I wish I was a baller, I wish I knew some actors who could talk, I would call'em...

    Well, no, of course they can TALK. Once in a while they can even talk pretty convincingly - just not most of the time. Now in all fairness it does take a little more of that "acting" part of voice acting to speak on behalf of Jak's bizzare-looking cast of creatures, but the fact remains - most of the time you are pretty much picturing an old guy in a chair squealing (really rather foolishly) into a microphone as Daxter is kicking it into gear on the screen. Which is too bad - because the cast is otherwise really very likeable. What seems to have happened here is that Jak's script was written to the same high-flying standard that the rest of the game was built to, whereas the voice acting talent gathered was, well, just regular. As a result it is kind of like soap-opera level acting stuck in an Oscar-caliber film. Too bad. Fortunately, this game is not much about talking and vErY MUCHO about

Kicking Ass!

   And that's done right.

   In Jak 2, kicking ass comes in two main varieties. The first is playing "Grand Theft Auto Light: Cars Get An Air Lift" in the city. You typical mission of this type will simply require you to get to some distant point in the city by a specified time (likely jumping off you vehicle mid-flight for a sliding finish), or to incrementally visit (read: blow up) a number of "checkpoints" spread across the streets while, once again, racing against the clock. The mechanics of accomplishing this are simple, yet make for plenty of fun and excitement. First you pick a vehicle you want to commandeer, leap quite a few feet into the air, and throw it's unsuspecting owner to the ground. Making a sharp turn in the middle of the street, you race to the corner at high speed, whereupon you slam hard into a side of the building, cool down a bit amidst the acrid smoke now being dispersed by your vehicle and re-assess your strategy. You learn 3 key things. One is that you can drive (and switch between) two "levels": street level - only a few feet above ground, right amongst the pedestrians, whom you can painlessly (for you) run over amidst muffled screams; or car level, where most of the car traffic moves, where you can also happily bump and grind, but typically with much more devastating effects to your own vehicle; heavy damage, major loss of speed and full-fledged explosion included at no extra cost. You quickly realize that you've always wanted to run over people much more than over cars, and besides, it's very hard to get anywhere if your car keeps blowing up every 30 seconds.

   Whereupon comes in your second realization: it's all about blistering speed. Sure, you could pick a slower, but sturdier vehicle, or simply ease off the gas (inconcEIvable!!!), or (god forbid!) try to intelligently navigate the traffic, but then you'd never get anywhere, it's wouldn't be as fun, and you'd just miss the whole point. After some observation you learn which vehicles are the fastest and never commandeer anything else again, unless you just want to get from point A to point B in some "faster-than-walking" manner, which does happen sometimes.

   Finally, you realize that knocking down Baron's guards on the way is simply a necessary evil. While the full-scale raid that they will immediately launch after you presents some annoyances, maneuvering around these bastards, who are just bloody everywhere (is there a sale on crimson shirts somewhere?), is in direct violation of point number 2 above: always try to maintain top speed. You grit your teeth (mainly for show), pull out your gun (yes, you can shoot while driving, though it's largely useless) and accept your mission.

   At this point, you simply start raking up experience in learning to hug the street corners at maximum speed and avoiding things to painfully crash into. For the most part this involves learning your projected course (conveniently plotted for you by the means of a moving graphical target) until you know every corner like the back of your hand. Despite the fact that this takes quite a few tries, it is still immense fun, as the combination of high-speed racing, mauling people over and gorgeous and varied city visuals more than makes up for the forced repetition. As with the rest of the game, retrying is handled absolutely painlessly (no need to re-load) and in the end, Grand Theft Auto Light comes out a Grand Success.

Kicking Ass 2: The Return of Kicking Ass

   The second variety of ass-kicking offered by Jak 2 comes in the form of missions that take place outside the city limits (mostly outdoors, but there are some inside locations as well). This is the standard action platforming fanfare - but it's done very, very well. The environments, besides, once again, being absolutely gorgeous to look at, are also exceptionally well-designed as game levels. The terrain ranges from city ruins to industrial wasteland to lush foresty environments, to mountainous passes and much more. It will usually take several missions to fully explore a single environment and then you will move on to the next one, equally interesting, distinctive and beautiful. The mechanics of each location are just as distinctive as the environment itself; while it could all be in the end reduced to standard platforming elements, there is really a lot of imagination that has gone into presentation here: there is a great variety of gadgets, plain and convertible platforms, lifts, traps, boosters, special devices and so on. One example of such originality is a an area where you have to ascend a mountain amidst an avalanche of huge boulders screaming down the path; another is a location where you have to "unfold" a bunch metal cubes in order make a 2-dimensional path across a fiery lake. Enemies and bosses also vary, often forcing you to be smarter than the plain "shoot everything approach". Some hide behind shields and others are simply huge, charging, rhino-like creatures that need some finessing to take down. The overall balance is well-met, and there is just the right level of new vs. comfortable, challenging vs. tedious, fun vs. trivial. There is not an overwhelming reliance on pure platforming techniques, so new entrants to the genre will find themselves pretty comfortable, while seasoned veterans will still have fun with it. Weapons are definitely cool, but not overpowered, and ammo availability dictates a careful, but not overstifled policy of weapon use. Mission objectives, in a nice blend with the RPG side of the game, are story and event based, rather than concentrating on simply clearing a physical area or collecting items. There are also quite a few optional side quests for your additional ass-kicking pleasure. Despite all of this well-concocted goodness, in the end, a few missions will invariably cause you some form of grave frustration; however in most cases you will have several missions available to you at the same time, which does a neat job of letting you cool off with an easier task when you need it most.

Haven on Earth

   I guess sometimes the developers really can think of everything. In all honesty, there is very little wrong with Jak II, and the few things that are really don't matter all that much, especially when weighed against all the things that are right. Sound effects and music rock. Haven City is a wonder to behold - it's huge and sprawling, and incredibly multifaceted - docks, gardens, factories, highways, stadiums, slums, you name it. Levels are engaging. Character design is inspired. Puzzles are interesting. Weapons are loud. Dexter is goofy. Fun is everywhere.

   Now go pick it up, stick it in, and pet that pretty "x" button.

       ... Vaga