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Reader review by ratking
January 03, 2005 Jak II was one of those experience that every gamer either absolutely loved or completely loathed. The game strayed from everything the first Jak game stood for, in that it took a much serious outlook, and it based itself more on the GTA series, that it's own original concept. Jak III does not change any of that, as it truly is a sequel to Jak II, keeping the same basic idea of mission based gameplay, complicated story, and a fairly serious demeanor. Despite that, there is more humor thrown along, the scenery at times is fairly bright, there are alot more mini-games, and Jak seems to be getting along much better after his torture in the second game.Jak III starts off with our protagonist Jak and his annoying little sidekick Daxter being thrown into the wasteland. The city they once saved has now abandoned them, and it will be awhile before Jak will even reach Haven City again. The wasteland is where you first experiences of Jak III will occur. You will immediately thrown into an arena battle, where you will learn the classic Jak fighting tactics that have been along through the entire series, and likely by this point you have mastered them all. However, Jak III is not alot about fighting, but more so mastering of various skills and minigames. You will be forced to control and use one of the dune-buggies to either defeat massive opponents, or race against time. Controlling the dune-buggy is very realistic, as the bumps in the sand will throw you around alot, and while the controls are smooth and extrememly responsive, the dune buggy is anything but balanced as you race around.
Another area where Jak III really shines are the various mini-games. There are definitely a few throughout the game, including things like shooting skills with a turret gun, and a game that is very similiar to Pac-Man. When you finally reach a mini-game, it is definitely a treat cause each is different and brings a whole new skill to the table. Usually you won't get hung up on one, and after a few tries you'll get the hang of it, and fairly easily conquer them. You have to beat most of the mini games once to move along through the regular portion of the game, as they are scattered around through the mission interface.
The difficulty of Jak III is drastically lower than Jak II, something that most gamers will appreciate. Now, I am not saying that Jak III is a walk in the park, because it will still take alot of trial and error, and there will still be those moments where your control seems to just vanish from your hands, and there is some dent in the wall, but they are definitely not as frequent as Jak II. Also when you die in Jak III (which will happen quite frequently) you do not always have to go through the whole mission again, but rather start at some point in the stage that you previously passed. Now, these points are not as frequent as most games, but it is a nice add-in after the horrors of the late death in Jak II, when you would have to go through the whole mission again.
Jak III has been heralded as the finale in the Precursor trilogy, and this game solve many of the mystery's of the Jak world, including who the precursors are and where there powers come from. Jak III tells this story excellently throughout the cutscenes, and each mission makes sense. Characters from Jak II frequently make appearances in the the third game, and are critical in the conclussion of this trilogy. It is crucial that you play Jak II at least, if you want to understand what is going on through the story, cause in many cases Jak III is just an add on to the Jak II game. The platformer is still long, nearly 18 hours, but there have not been too many changes from what made Jak II so much fun. However, Jak II was an excellent game, so more of the same is something most gamers truly will enjoy, as the Jak trilogy has always brought alot of fun with it, and this game is truly one you will not want to miss.
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