Jak II broadens the scope with more varied gameplay, but not all parts work out equally.
Cons: Driving controls are iffy; Lack of checkpoints constantly frustrates; City isn't particularly interesting to explore; Most side missions are uninspired
I highly doubt anybody saw Naughty Dog taking Jak in this direction. Here was your typical cutesy platforming mascot in your typical cutesy platforming game, and almost out of nowhere they decide to make him angry and infuse GTA-inspired elements into his game. Regardless of what you may think of Jak's new personality, there's no denying that the gameplay gets a boost thanks to these new, more varied mechanics.
The game quickly picks up with Jak, Daxter, and their friends Keira and Samos messing with ancient Precursor technology. As anyone who's ever pressed all the wrong buttons before will tell you, that's a bad idea. Sure enough, soon they are sent flying through a portal to this weird city where the Baron has a tough leash on the law and rebellion is afoot. Jak gets captured and pumped with dark eco, and soon he escapes (with the help of Daxter), now completely pissed, and joins with the rebels to try and take back the city.
What follows is a surprisingly engaging story with a few genuinely surprising twists and turns not to be spoiled here. The part where Jak II succeeds most perhaps is actually the method in which it tells the story. These are well choreographed cutscenes complete with smart camera placement and direction. They are further aided by some smart and funny dialogue that's always brimming with character (even if Daxter annoys you at first, give him time, and you may find yourself chuckling at more than a few of his lines). Graphics and sound in these cutscenes are similarly well done, with great animations and voice acting. Elsewhere in the game, these are still above average, but don't hold up as well as they do in the cinematics.
Anyway, with a darker turn in the story, Jak is capable of doing more harm in the world and can now "jak" (so to speak) vehicles and will often be tasked with racing, driving people from one location to the other, and various other tasks from them. The hover vehicles are cool and the missions are well-designed, but unfortunately there was something just irritating about the controls for the vehicles and how they quickly swung from unresponsive to going overboard. It's not enough to take away from the overall fun, but it certainly makes the frequent vehicle missions less fun.
The other major portion of the gameplay is the same basic platforming seen in the first Jak and Daxter. This still works extremely well, and is perhaps aided by the frequent distractions to other genres as well as the lack of repetition in mission objectives. Adding a bit more depth are the four guns you can collect throughout the campaign. These give a new range to combat and lend themselves to some cool combos with melee attacks, and their addition is much appreciated.
These two types of mission form most of the various objectives throughout the game, but occasionally robot and turret missions are thrown in for variety. As with the other two components, there is a bit of a disconnect between the quality of the turret missions (fine), and the robot missions (irritating). However, the biggest reason for this disconnect is the difficulty of the latter.
You see, Jak II is a surprisingly hard game. It's not that the missions are ever particularly trying; you'll typically die a few times in each mission, but quickly learn the way through. No, it's the lack of checkpoints that harms the game the most. In many cases there aren't even checkpoints at all. Frustration is thus amplified by frequent deaths near the end of long missions.
The campaign of Jak II alone will last you anywhere from 13 to 16 hours depending on your skill level, but there are plenty of replay incentives, which are unfortunately not truly endearing. For one, there are plenty of side missions, but most of these are simple driving tasks which will only appeal to you if you enjoyed vehicle controls anyway. Furthermore (and actually partially as a reward to those side missions), there are orbs for you to collect, which allow you to unlock cheats that range from things such as toggling Jak's goatee to unlocking a second mode that gives you all four guns from the beginning of the game. If you are a collect-a-holic, this might be engaging, but most people probably won't have the patience to collect every single orb hidden throughout the world.
Jak II was one of the premier Playstation 2 titles of its time, and it still holds up pretty well to this day. However, some portions of it (such as its brutal checkpoint system and its iffy driving controls) haven't aged as well as others. It's a bit of a hard sell at this point, but for those who always wondered what the fuss was about, or who want a cheap platforming game with high production values, Jak II is definitely worth a play through.