Jak 3 (PS4) Review

 Jak 3 (PS4) 7.5/10

[THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!]

Hello everyone. Today, I’ll be going over the third installment of the Jak and Daxter series. Jak 3 was originally released on November 9, 2004 for the PS2, then got a PS3 remaster, then got an HD port for the PS4. Jak 3 was developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Entertainment. Just like with the previous two games, I’ll be judging the game from the PS4 version. Jak 3 is an improvement from the previous game. The game is much more fair and I didn’t experience as many issues, but this game came with its own set of issues. I know this game is old, but I want to discuss this game in full, which includes spoiler territory. With that said, let’s begin.

Our story takes place after the events of the second game. Due to Jak’s connections to Krew and the criminal underworld, Jak has been sentenced to exile in the desert wasteland. Accompanied by Daxter and Pecker, the trio wander the desert aimlessly. With a beacon given by Ashelin, they are eventually picked up by wastelanders. When they wake up, they find themselves in the city of Spargus, with its leader being Damas. Now in a new city, Jak has to prove himself while also uncovering a new threat to the world. While doing this, Haven City is at war between the Krimson Guard under Count Veger, Torn’s men, and the Metal Heads. Jak will now have to help with the war effort, fight off a mysterious new force, and keep Spargus safe while uncovering the hidden secrets of the Precursors.

I love parts of this story. Because of this game, Jak is one of my favorite main characters now. I love how he now has both Dark and Light Eco coursing through his veins. I also love how he’s mellowed out a bit from the previous game (I’m assuming because of the Light Eco). I really like the new threat, the Dark Makers. Corrupted Precursors that go around conquering/destroying planets. I love how their mystery unfolded and how the game develops them. I found this the most interesting part of the story. The whole war for Haven City was cool, but honestly it could’ve been better. By the end of the game, you still have Metal Heads and KG robots roaming around, so it feels like you didn’t really do anything. Also, I was expecting Jak to take up the mantle of Leader of Haven City by the end of the game. The whole thing with Spargus’ side of the story was just there to fill out the game. The only interesting parts of these missions are the Precursor Temple and at the end of the game where the Dark Makers attack. Btw, the thing with Jak being part of the House of Mar is cool, but it feels like the game was trying to have Jak be Mar himself, which makes no fucking sense unless he travels back in time again and that just ruins a lot of the mystery. Because of how unclear this is, I’m just going with Mar as being a separate character. I like the plot twist that the Precursors are actually ottsels. It makes sense considering how Eco is made. I do hate how the game just drops Count Veger. I was expecting another boss fight with him. Errol, the main antagonist, was a disappointment too. I like that the game brought him back and he had a reason to want to destroy the world. The dude has two boss fights, but I was expecting him to do one last final stand against Jak. Although that it’s cool that Errol came back, I wish he did a bit more to fuck with Jak. 

Graphically, the game looks the same as Jak II. I do like the design and look for a lot of the new set pieces. I love the way Spargus looks and feels. I love the war-torn rubble of Haven City. I love the ancient tombs and temples of the Precursor ruins. I also love Jak’s new design, although I do miss his long hair from the previous game. One thing I love about all of the games are the designs for everything. The art style helps carry this series.

The sound design for the game is amazing. I love all of the sound effects and explosions. The music is probably peak Jak and Daxter. I just love this soundtrack. It’s so mysterious and eerie, but when shit hits the fan, it’ll get you excited for the moment. 

The voice work is as good as ever. Gotta say tho, I’m not a huge fan of Damas’ voice. I think giving him a deeper voice would’ve worked for his character better. Everyone else sounds great.

Thankfully, I didn’t experience too many technical issues. A couple of times the game wouldn’t read my jumps and whatnot, but nothing I couldn’t handle. Some framerate issues here and there if there are too many explosions, but I’m not surprised at that.

Onto gameplay. The game plays exactly like Jak II. The game is mission focused as you’ll be needing to finish missions to complete the game. Thankfully, the game has a lot more variety in this compared to the previous game. You’ll be able to control rockets, blast bots, carriers, and your own set of cars for the wasteland. I really do appreciate the mission variety here. I have great news too. They fixed the checkpoint problem. This game is MUCH more forgiving than Jak II. Instead of going long stretches with no extra health, now if you die, the game will bring you closer to where you died. You still have to make progress in the mission, but again, it’s much more forgiving.

You have weapon upgrades too. Bringing back the original 4 weapon mods (blaster, scatter, vulcan fury, and peacemaker), the game will add on 2 extras for each mod, giving you a total 12 different weapons for you to use. A lot of these upgrades are a bit broken and makes the game a whole lot easier. X, O+R1 with the blaster is still ol’ reliable but it was nice to use everything else. Jak will also get a bunch of new powers from the Precursor Temple. Jak will still have access to Dark Jak, but he’ll be getting some upgrades as well as a bunch of new Light Eco Powers. Sadly, a lot of these new powers are only necessary for completing Temple trials and you’ll never use them outside of these missions. The only powers I found myself using were Light Jak’s health regeneration and Dark Jak’s Dark Bomb, which kills everything in your area.

Sadly, there seems to be a lack of enemy types here. Sure you have Metal Heads, KG robots, and Dark Makers, but there’s not much variety within these factions. You have like three different types of each enemy and that’s about it. 

Okay there’s a couple of missions I need to go over. The first mission is where you have to attack the marauder base with your car. Let me just say, the driving in this game is THE WORST DRIVING I HAVE EVER SEEN IN A VIDEO GAME! Holy fucking shit is the driving complete ass! I get it. You are in a desert. You will be sliding around a bit, but holy fucking is this the most annoying and tedious driving ever. If you make the SLIGHTEST turn, you’ll drift. It’s the most atrocious thing ever. Add the horrible driving alongside enemies constantly spawning and harassing and this mission will make you want to kill someone. After you attack the base and you are inside, the remaining marauders will escape and you gotta catch up to them and destroy them. You are on a time limit with horrible driving and a bunch of enemies harassing you. This mission takes the cake as the worst mission in the game and one of the worst missions in the whole series.

Next mission is where you have to escort Torn through the city so that he can blow open the Metal Head nest. This mission is an on-rails shooter and it sucks. You're suppose to be protecting him right? SO WHY IS JAK BEHIND TORN? Shouldn’t Jak be leading the way, killing anything that’s shooting you and soaking up all of the damage? Why is Torn in front? It makes no fucking sense. Oh. And another thing. So once you get to the port, Torn can make a right turn and head straight into the Metal Head area. Instead, he’s flying all over the place so that I can shoot enemies. Why are you flying around with explosives when you should be heading straight for the fucking nest? This is the most retarded mission I have ever seen and Torn needs to be slapped for this shit. And one final thing: they inverted the reticule movement. Normally I’m fine with this as I play with an inverted camera, but for something like on-rails, this is dumb as hell.

Alongside missions are more collectables. You guessed it. More fucking Precursor orbs. This time around I didn't even bother going for these. If I found one along the way, I grabbed it. I didn't bother going for all the side challenges because they are ridiculously difficult. There's also Metal Head gems for you to collect. These are needed to pay those statues for you to start the challenges for those orbs. Unless you want to unlock silly things for the game (like big head mode), these are only here to pan out the game.

There are a few bosses here. My favorite probably being the first fight with Errol in the War Factory. The fight with Veger’s Precursor Robot and the final fight with Errol were cool, but a bit disappointing, especially Errol’s. I was expecting an actual one-on-one fight with Errol instead of indirect fights. The dude got major cybernetics done, so I don’t see why not.

I love this game. I really do. Despite the game’s issues, this is probably my favorite game of the series. As an overall story, I like Jak II’s story more. It’s more cohesive and linear, but I like the whole Dark Maker and Precursor origins more. Had the game focused more on this and the war for Haven City, I feel like the game would’ve been a whole lot better. Anyway, I’ll leave it here.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time.

This is  Zorgak, signing off.