Jak X - PS2 review - Pocket-lint

18 November 2005 11:05 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Not wanting to miss a Christmas holiday season, Jax and Daxter are back. But rather than the typical action adventure we are used to, the two are racing for their lives in a series of mad dash races a la Crash Bandicoot style.

The storyline is formulaic, but not really the focus here. Combat racing has filled the void left in Kras City after Jak defeated the Dark Maker in his last adventure. Now, after being mysteriously summoned to Kras City to hear the reading of Krew's will, Jak, and Daxter are plunged headfirst into a dark and deadly plot. The will reveals that everyone present has been poisoned and will die unless the antidote is administered and everyone's life hangs in the balance as the heroic duo race against time in the Kras City Grand Championship.

In reality this means racing a series of race formats and winning them to slowly climb up the ladder and be crowned Grand Champion. To make it slightly more appealing not all the races are just a case of getting around the track the quickest.

Races range from killing a certain amount of bad guys on the way around to collecting a certain amount of artefacts before anyone else and the introduction of different tasks breaks up the monotony of simple racing track after track.

The game features 20 tracks and eight vast open terrain arenas and along the way you can upgrade your car or buy new ones to have a chance in competing.

In race and you aren't just left with your racing skill, but similar to Sony's Wipeout, can have forward and backward weapons including projectile weapons, ranged weapons, smart bombs, mines, catastrophic attacks, turbos and shields from icons you pick up along the way.

In addition to weapons you can also pick-up speed boosts and these will after some time make the screen go incredibly blurry with the speed.

Gameplay is the usual racing stuff and in reality there is nothing new here to shout about that we haven't seen before, however the game will hold you attention due to the change of race formulas and break-neck speed of which you can race.

Verdict

Overall this is great fun, especially when you add the multiplayer element to it.

For hardcore Jak and Daxter fans expecting the same old shenanigans however the lack of third person action is going to be somewhat disappointing as this game focuses on and develops the vehicle action found in previous titles rather than any reliance on fighting off hordes of bad guys on foot.

Not everyone's cup of tea, but a nice distraction.

Score

Review Recap

Made by: Sony
Price as reviewed: £35
Latest price: Compare prices
The good: Fast races, different missions to complete, good graphics
The bad: Nothing new from your average racing game, Jak fans will be dissapointed if they are expecting more of Jak 3
Quick verdict: Not everyone’s cup of tea, but a nice distraction
Score