The developers got lost trying to find an audience.
So, last year I saw Jak II at a good price and thought I'd snag it. Now, even though this game has very good graphics, cartoon art doesn't make the jump from 2D to 3D very well. Pretty much everything looks horrible.
The voice acting in this game is top notch. The script is not. The characters are, for the most part, beyond annoying. Especially Daxter. He occasionally gets a good line or two in cut scenes, but the things he says in game are grating to start with. If you have to start what you're doing over you'll be hearing them again and again.
Then, you have the fact that the game doesn't know whom it's aimed at. You have cartoony over the top character designs, level art, and animations, and then people in the game start swearing. I'd say the game had the 5-9 year old market in mind, but I don't really think cursing is appropriate for that age group.
This game is also a little on the difficult side. Not because of any inherent difficulty in the level design. Not because the enemies are particularly intelligent. The difficulty comes from shoddy controls and enemies doing overly large amounts of damage. The platforming in this game should be quite easy, but floaty controls make most lumps, grinds, and swings in this game frustrating.
Vehicle control is also abysmal. Piloting the cars in this game it is nearly impossible to not crash into something or run someone over. Luckily there is no reaction from authorities when you run over a civilian. But, there are a large number of guards walking around. With so many running around you can't fly near the ground without having a bunch of them shoot you to death because you accidentally ran one over. Since there are only two planes on which you can fly, you have to fly where other cars travel, which mean hitting them or going slow. Since the cars can only handle a few crashes, you be going through a lot of cars.
Now, the problems with vehicles wouldn't be so infuriating if they weren't the only viable means of travel for a portion of the game. You walk so slowly that it's a pain to not be in a car, but once you get into one that's a pain as well.
This is all alleviated somewhat when you get a hoverboard. But, there are problems with this as well. While it is faster than walking, it's only about as fast as the slow traffic of cars. While it is much more maneuverable than a car for the most part, it's also a lot more swingy. So, what this means is that while using it, you may be able to avoid that guard walking in front of you, you won't be able to correct in time to avoid his buddy next to him. This wouldn't be nearly the nightmare it is if you just had them chase you for running over a guard, but you also take damage when you hit a guard.
Shooting is not problem, enemies are easy enough to hit, ammo isn't too limited. But, if an enemy gets close enough to hit you, as stated before, they do massive damage. Pair over the top damage and loose platforming with out of the way checkpoints, and the frustration builds pretty quickly. And when you consider the difficulty alongside the characters that only a small child couldn't hate, it's quite confusing who this game was meant for.