I really enjoyed the first Jak and Daxter. It was a superb little adventure with just the right amount of challenge for its genre and target audience. I really have no idea what their intention was with the sequel. Jak II is much darker in tone, far more difficult, and there's even some adult humour thrown in for good measure. Not that I mind that, but did the developers really think the fans of the first game had changed that much to warrant such an extreme shift? Jak II has its moments. Some of the retrieval missions can be fun, if not repetitive. And the boss battles are unique, inventive, and ultimately quite enjoyable.
The big blemish (or pus-infested welt) on this game is the open world driving portion. The handling can only be described as trying to navigate by running on a rolling boulder, in the mud, while you're surrounded by huge rocks and having mid-sized rocks constantly being thrown at you. And if you so much as breathe on said boulder, you'll explode. I have no idea how this can be considered anyone's idea of fun. It's some of the most unfriendly, frustrating gameplay I've ever experienced. And the lack of control feels down-right ludicrous when you're in a hurry to accomplish a mission. Who in their right-mind thought this was an ok thing to add to this game?
You'll find other reviews stating the same thing about the gameplay of the open-world portion. They are spot-on. My guess the only reason Jak II is rated so highly is somehow the younger players taking this in just somehow glossed over this major faux-pas in game design. Or they got their parents to clear these areas for them. SERIOUSLY, THIS IS NOT JUST A MATTER OF OPIONION. THE DRIVING SEQUENCES ARE LEGITIMATELY AWFUL. It takes a lot for a seasoned gamer, such as myself, to give up on a game half-way through, but the frustration just got to be too much.
There was a lot of potential here. Unfortunately Naughty Dog thought it would be fun to allow a team with no concept of comfort or physics to design a large portion of the game. (What on earth were you thinking with this?) The developers should be truly ashamed of this title. Do yourself a favour and skip this one, it's a pleasant gift nestled among streaming dog-crap.