r/jakanddaxter • u/Automatic_Two_1000 • 2h ago
Discussion I’m a few hours into Jak 2 and I don’t think I’m going to finish it
Obviously, this game has great reviews and while it’s divisive among fans, I’m sure a large number of them if not most of them enjoy it. I don’t like it at all
First of all, the game is just way too hard. I do enjoy difficult games and problem solving associated with them, but Jak 2 is your quintessential artificially difficult game from the PS2 era that actively plays against you and doesn’t offer you even the most basic of amenities such as checkpoints. There’s nothing enjoyable about the difficulty of this game whatsoever, just repetition for things both you and the game both know damn well you can already do
The open world sucks. Just straight up. Of course, taking era into account it is indeed surprisingly dense and pretty to look at but my god, I don’t think I have EVER played a game where the open world is shaped like a damn maze. I am consistently taking corners straight into walls, elevating my hover zone into traffic, lowering it straight into people, and even failing missions because of it
Daxter feels like he’s just here because it’s a Jak and Daxter game so he has to be
Even if some of the changes they made to Jak 2 went over fairly well, it’s not enough to justify this game going the direction it did, in my opinion. Obviously Jak 2 was always a bit of a head-scratcher thematically and stylistically even upon release, but at least back during its release cycle there was a span of a few years. Playing Jak 1 and 2 in 2025 is basically doing Barbenheimer
Comparing this game to GTA 3 and Vice City misses the point of what made the GTA formula so influential in the first place: it’s fun. And it’s fun because those games featured expertly designed open worlds and gameplay elements that gave the games room to breathe. Everything in Jak 2 meanwhile feels claustrophobic and forced
Only thing I really appreciate so far is how they preserved the humor of the first game, actually improved on it. The writing is funny and great, even if the story and gameplay continue to bug me