A totally fun and addictive game, but little short and easy.
The story begins when Daxter and Jak, the first a problematic, curious and ugly elf-like creature, and then Jak, he's also an elf-like guy but he's better looking, not that curious but a determinated warrior (and that's all what we need) they both start on a boat and Daxter has the baddest idea on his life: he wanted to go to a forbidden island just to take a look, but when they reach there they see lots of monsters gathered there and the evil plains of a villain... At that place Daxter accidentally stumbled and felt into a pool containing an obscure substance called dark echo, that's when the ugliest of the two become the funny Daxter we all know, trying to find a cure for his best friend Jak aids Daxter and that's when the journey begins...
Technically J&D looks pretty nice, i was kinda surprised by the great voice work and pretty nice graphics for a game that old, definately better than Crash on both, by far really. Mention apart for the animations, absolutely gorgeous, everything moves so smoothly and Daxter's movements are full of grace and are completely fun to watch. There's a great world to travel across, with your typical places: jungles, mountains, volcanos, and so on... though they are very interesting and variated, there you'll have to wonder for the precursor's artifacts if you wanna complete at 100% the game (and you'll have an indicator of the % you made, which it's a nice feature).
The game sounds a little better than it looks, with appropiated music on each different area you visit and filled with crazy funny sounds. As for the voice acting, since Jak doesn't talk you'll be hearing Daxter doing all the talk with the rest of the characters (which it's not much however) the good is that Daxter's voice it's very funny and makes for the atmosphere of the whole title, there are a couple of nice actings out there too, and others that may annoy you, but the general work it's excellent, and they sound better than they look, there's not a huge cast of characters, mainly the group who wants to help Daxter while they try to save their homeland and the rest that are local residents who seek for your help in exchange of batteries which are needed for the end.
There ins't much story through here, only the beggining, after that there are a few story driven scenes but are too few and too separated from each other, they are too short and doesn't tell many interesting things, as usual i won't spoil anything regarded to this but don't expect that much, though it's a good improvement on Crash's storylines and at the end it's just an adventure game and the most important here it's the gameplay.
Gameplay which is great and pretty addictive from start to the end, it never gets old and while you don't have any weapons to use Jak can obtain for short periods of time different kind of echoes, each one with a different ability and colour, you'll have speed up echoes, attack echoes and so on. Most of the areas bring something new and you have to prove being good enough to get the perfect game, sometimes riding a kind of flying cycle (that it's no other than pure fun, and sometimes becomes frustrating) but most of times on your own foots, well on Jak's foots in fact but that doesn't mean you'll be boring, there are a few issues with the camera on some particular situations but those are totally forgivable.
The worst thing of J&D is that it eventually ends, and too soon, when i finished it i wanted to keep at it for many more hours, but there's no motivation at all to replay it unless you want to revive the same good moments, or if you didn't on the first playthrough go for the 100%. My clock stoped at around 10 hours getting everything but i would loved to play it for at least 10 more hours.
In the end, Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy it's a great title, the first to start one of the best adventure franchises of the latest time and a very enjoyable game, though it felt short, and a little easy, the story it's not that bad but it could have been more and you can't control Daxter neither. However it's a fine platformer game on 3D with a nice world to cover and a totally fun experience.
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The Good:
- Looks and sounds nice
- Daxter's appearances
- Great control adds to the fun gameplay.
- There's actually 3 games after this one.
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The Bad:
- A little short
- Lacks a deeper and longer story
- Mute main character
- Easy bosses
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Graphics: 8.5
Sound: 9
Story: 6.5
Characters: 8.5
Gameplay: 9
Duration: 7
Charm: 9
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Overall: 8.2 > 8.0
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