A huge leap from the original Jak and Daxter,and a great move from Naughty Dog.
Jak 2 gives the series a whole new theme/tone.The story is a great example of the tone,which has become way darker from the first's happier tone.The plot picks up right where the first left off,Jak and the rest of his fellow friends are messing around with some precursor technology they found,when out of no where,they're sucked into a precursor type worm hole,and sent into a futuristic world.Jak is immediately taken by the city guard,and thrown into prison,where they experimented on him for a period of two years,until Daxter rescued him.Jak,filled with hatred for the the city baron,Praxis,wishes to kill him.So the duo take off,eventually unveiling a grander scheme,with twists I didn't even see coming.The story is great,and very lengthy if you take on all the side missions,and collect every item.
The graphics,oh boy are they better than ever!Every model is smooth,textures really never look stretched,and all the levels look great.The frame rate is very solid,and keeps up with so many different models on screen,all performing different animations.It really is quite spectacular.Everything else looks really good.This truly is one of the best looking PS2 games.
The soundtrack still has that "Go Lucky" tone to it,but at times,it does get pretty serious.Though,the music always fits the scene or level.The voice acting is great as well.
The game play,feels just like the original,but with one huge difference,the appearance of guns,Dark Jak,and the open world sand box style.Yes,Jak with guns.Sounds crazy does it not?But in practice,the guns help the combat factor a ton.You're given hand to hand combat as well,still ripped from the crash games.You can also mix the hand to hand combat with the guns,which allows you to perform combo like moves.The platforming still feels smooth,and the level design helps the platforming still too.Now Dark Jak,is really something else.It's basically a Dark eco version of Jak.Where Jak can perform deadly hand to hand combat moves.The open world sand box part of the game feels like GTA toned down a bit,with out the blood,and other violet aspects of that game.You can jack cars,kill citizens,they just go "poof" when shot,and run from the city guard.The whole game is so much fun for fans of this genre,and series.
What sucks?The game is pretty hard for games of last gen.The game is also very time consuming.That is what sucks about this game.
Final Verdict:Jak 2 is an excellent platformer,with some real neat combat.The whole game is a huge leap for the franchise,and all in all,a game all owners of a PS2 should own.