PixlBit

That joke has run it's course

Hey there Pixlbit, hope you're doing good. Today I will continue where I left off. This is the final blog in my look and thoughts at Naughty Dog's Jak and Daxter Trilogy. Now in HD.

                       

For those who haven't read them, here is a link to my thoughts on Jak 1 and Jak 2. Now with that out of the way, Jak 3 continues right were Jak II left off in terms of story but like before, I'll try to avoid spoilers as much as possible. It continues right were the previous game left off, this time in a desert, just like some other fairly well known PS3 game. Alot of people consider this game as the best game in the series for a number of good reasons and I will try my best to explain what they are. Like I said, this time it takes place in the desert, but can't explain why or I will give an important plot point away, but just roll with it like we did in Uncharted 3 in the desert.

Like in Jak II, Jak 3 has a hub world too called Spargus, it's not as big as Haven City but it's a good enough size for exploration. Plus at least you're not bumping into other vehicles all the time, so that is a big improvement. You still have your hoverboard which is great, and you still have the morph gun which I'll touch upon later. Anyway, Spargus City is in the Wasteland, a place often mentioned in Jak 2 that many thought that nothing existed. You're only in the city when you need to take on sidequests or when you go through a main story mission. You'll mostly be spending your time in the desert, and it's pretty big. I bet you're wondering how are you going to explore the whole desert right? Well the game brings something new which is probably my favorite addition to the game...

That's right, it brings vehicles to the game. Not just hover vehicles but really awesome looking off-road vehicles. As nice a hoverboard is, it just wont cut it for exploring the Wasteland, especially with the Marauders around. They are enemies you encounter in the desert on vehicles. Each vehicle comes in a variety of flavors and their contents may vary. Jokes aside, the vehicles are really awesome, each of them come in different sizes and they all have their own abilities and useful for any different type of situation. It really makes exploring the desert fun and you'll need them because most of the time you'll be traveling the desert to get to a far off location. One of them might be great at going really fast, one of them has the ability to jump really high, and others are just armed to the teeth. They are also equiped with weapons in order to fend off the raiders. And I do love the designs of them, it reminds me of Hot Wheels cars so much and it blends two of my favorite things, Hot Wheels and car combat. I've been trying to replicate some of them in Nuts and Bolts but that's for another time. You also get access to leaper lizards while you're in Spargus City. They are not technically vehicles but I deciced to add them here since you ride on them.

Not only do you get access to badass vehicles this time, but you also get access to new powers as well. Besides Jak turning to Hulk Jak (Dark Jak), you also have access to light based powers too, or known as Light Jak. Think of this as the Force from Star Wars, as you all know we have the Light Side and the Dark Side, and that's how the powers in Jak 3 work. While Hulk Jak (Dark Jak's) powers are more for combat, Light Jaks powers are mostly used for agumenting your abilities for when you're out and about. Just like the powers of the Force. One of the powers Light Jak gets is the Power of Flight and no they don't work like in Kid Icarus: Uprising but still good enough for what you need it for. It gives you flight to reach areas you couldn't reach normally, and you'll be using it alot. It gives a balance to the Force as they say. Also new to the game is that your Morph Gun now has 2 different modifications to each weapon type. It offers alot of variety and each one has it's use, one of them even has enough power to destroy everything that moves on the screen. As long as it's a bad guy.

             

The levels themselves are really good too. Levels include a temple, a volcano, an Eco mine and more. You even go to space, not in space but in a ship in space which is crazy, but can't explain why unless I wanna give the plot away. You even make a return to Haven City later on in the game too, but again can't say because, spoilers. The platforming is really great and alot of them do take advantage of your new powers, such as the flying ability. Also, I don't think the checkpoint system is unfair this time around, so I say that's an improvement. As with the previous game, Precursor Orb's and Skull Gems make a return and like before, they are used to unlock stuff in the game, from new vehicles to cheats.

As for the story itself, without giving too much away, I can say a few things on it. The story is very good, it takes place shortly after Jak 2. I mean Jak 2 took a 180 with the story, but I appreciate that because not alot of colorful platformers don't have the guts to turn more edgy and darker, but not to the point of being an extreme change like Conker's Bad Fur Day. So props to Jak 2. Jak 3 offers alot of plot twists and turns during the story, especially towards the end and it really wraps up the trilogy well.

As for my final thoughts, it's a very great game. It offers alot of variety to the platforming with new powers and gun modifications, the levels are really nice, and exploring the desert is fun with a variety of vehicles, each with different attributes. The story itself is really good, and wraps up the trilogy quite well. Jak 2 was a good game, it did alot of neat things, but for everything new that Jak 2, did Jak 3 did everything better. Everyone says this is the best game in the series, and I think so too. I like all the 3 games, I think I may like this one slightly more than the first one only because of the vehicle combat. It's a shame Naughty Dog hasn't continued the series, I would love to see another game, and I'm aware there's 3 more games but there's no way I can play them. I do wish they could of added the racing spin-off to this collection. Also, it seems that Naughty Dog makes a racing spin-off of their games when they have 3 main games, Crash got one, Jak got one, but where's my Uncharted kart racer? Here's an idea, UnCarted: Race for the Relics.

              

So that's about all I can say on the game. Sorry it took me so long to put this one out, I've been busy with my 25 Favorite Nintendo games blog thing, but here it is. It's a very good trilogy and I highly recommend it, it's really cheap now too and glad I got to try the games, and they were technically free so that is a nice bonus. So did you ever play Jak 3? What did you think of it? Thanks for reading and later.