Replaying Jak 2

I've always wondered: how in the world did people think this game was better than the first one? Don't get me wrong, I think it's a good game either way, but there are soooooooooooooo many things wrong with it.

- Haven City is a NIGHTMARE to travel through. The place feels disjointed and twisted, resulting in too many times of getting turned around just because there are no landmarks to speak of. I'm relying more on the map than my memory of the place.

- The vehicles in this game control horribly. I can normally deal with wonky vehicle controls, but this is just bad. None of the hover cars and bikes have good turning or handling, and they always feel heavier than they need to be. I've crashed into more things than I care to even think about doing something as simple as delivering a package.

- The guns aren't as impressive as the ones in Ratchet & Clank. They don't have quite the same impact or necessity, apart from more escalated scenarios. Otherwise, I'll just stick with my usual melee moves instead.

Does anyone else feel this way about Jak 2? Because I feel I'm the only one, since everyone praises the game for being "better" than Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, which, in my opinion, is the superior game in the trilogy.

@mastermetal777: Everyone's view of the Jak & Daxter series is always different from other. You like The Precursor Legacy while some don't due to some would say it's too easy, way to similar to Crash Bandicoot series (button setup, sound, environment, etc.).

People enjoy Jak 2 because of the changes it went through, Tweak the gameplay, adds more of a challenge (though some would say that Jak 2 was rather difficult that the difficulty was slightly toned down in Jak 3) and the departure from being called a Crash Bandicoot clone. But that's what I think of the Jak & Daxter series after The Precursor Legacy.

I didn't play the games back during the PS2 days despite always wanting to, but I did finally purchase the HD collection last year and played through Jak & Daxter and Jak 2. J&D was a great game that had aged but was still very much worth playing through. It was a fun adventure that made me sad we don't see the focus on pure platformers like that anymore (in terms of high-budget releases aside from Nintendo.)

I was extremely excited to play Jak 2 then, as I had only heard great things about the game. It provided a different setting to Jak & Daxter which I could appreciate, but I have to say that game is probably one of the biggest disappointments in terms of games for me. Controls were sloppy, checkpoints were utter garbage, driving was terrible and coupling that with a bad city to navigate through just made matters worse. I forced myself to beat the game, wanted to stick with it because Jak 3 looked like it may have been better. I finally finished Jak 2 and thought to myself what a terrible game, waited a week and booted up Jak 3 then realized I just couldn't do it. I just didn't care after Jak 2.

So I agree with you, TC. It just wasn't a good game.

I agree that Haven City is kind of a clusterfuck to travel through; however, I never minded the vehicle controls. Jak 2 was my favorite of the series.