kaching said:
I'm not sure how it would make for better storytelling to present a love triangle by-the-numbers like you want - that's not "better" its just standard. Jak had bigger issues to attend to and the story weighted them accordingly in relation to a love triangle that was just blossoming.
I know that protecting Haven City's a pretty big deal, but you get absolutely nothing out of those two subplots except just the beginnings- and they happen around the beginning parts of the game (IIRC).
Time has passed. Jak has been tortured. His body has been experimented on. He now transforms into something else he barely controls. He's hundreds of years in the future with only one familiar face to initially rely on. He must free himself from imprisonment. Not to mention that he's a teenage male who we all know have natural desire to be badasses (just look at all the badass wannabes stomping around GAF). There isn't anything "all of sudden" about it - storytelling is as much about the implicit cues as it the explicit ones. The strong, silent hero type established in Jak1 is no less archetypal than the vengeful opportunist has been in videogames. In fact, the former is probably a much more generic staple.
It is "all of a sudden" to the player. I was shocked to see the commercials about Jak being tortured, and thought in the game it would be handled just a tad better. We go from an E rated game to a T rated game, and there's no middle ground. It's not my job to handle writing in video games, but I believe this could have been handled better.
Many older cities in the world (in existence for hundreds of years, like Haven City in Jak2) bear similar levels of chaotic design.
Yes, but it's a frickin' video game. The main character gets dark eco and turns into a Mos Eisley resident. I don't understand the selective realism.
And Haven certainly offered multiple routes. Just watch what happens on the mini-map if you pass the street its indicating you need to go down next to get to a destination...
That usually happened after you had unlocked certain parts of the city due to the colored keys you received in the game. Then the problem didn't become multiple/shorter routes, but just the lack of a warp function. I don't play platformers to play Grand Theft Auto Lite. I play platformers for jumping around (I might add, whenever there WAS platforming in Jak II, some of it was really fun) and sometimes blowing shit up.
ND did not come up with the R&C engine - they lent out key J&D engine technologies to Insomniac, who then took things in their own very distinct direction.
Oh. Thanks for clarification.
Subjective taste presented as objective criticism.
I just don't like Grand Theft Auto Lite in my platformer.
As far as character development goes... I would have loved to see something in the game to show how Jak has actually changed as a person. He's been tortured. Now he's out for revenge. That makes sense, but it didn't really affect the rest of his character. Same thing for the rest of the characters from Jak and Daxter. They're in the future in this horrible city. Nobody really seems to care, and all we see are the same qualities of them from the first game.
If you were thrust into the future into this horrible city and the only person you relied on was has turned into this half-monster, would you be just confused and slightly interested about what happened to them? Or would you show other emotions? That is what I felt was lacking in the game.
