A demo of Jak II: Renegade was recently thrown into my lap and in no time it went to the disc-reader of my borrowed PS2. Unfortunately I have never had the honor to try out the first part of Jak & Daxter so this preview will be completely based on a completely new game experience.

Jak II is under development at Naughty Dog, the people responsible for masterpieces like ‘Jak and Daxter’ and ‘Crash Bandicoot’, so definitely not an unknown developer for PS2 owners.

The demo didn’t give me access to any options to configure the game to my preferences, only 2 missions that you can play. After doing some research – mostly by reading reviews of the original game – it became clear that the presence of real missions in Jak 2 is a significant difference towards part 1 where you more or less had objectives per level.

The game gives the future Jak-gamer control over Jak who as usual is sided by his loyal friend Daxter, an animal which I can’t instantly place but who gives the whole a funny and trusting appearance with his crazy faces, funny speeches and little acting… Admit it: alone is just alone and having a nice friend by your side is always better J

So, Jak is the hero of the game and thus he can do whatever heroes do in a game; run, jump, swim, shoot, fight, … the second mission in the demo even gives Jak the ability to fly in some sort of hoverboard which most people will now as the skateboard without wheels from the movie Backto the Future (part 2)

Both missions are preceded by a rather long ingame acting part with several characters, including Jak & Daxter of course. These intro’s are used to make it clear to the player why he needs to kick some major ass amongst enemies and are in my humble opinion pretty nice, especially when your games room is equipped with a surround sound system.

In the first mission you need to support an extra character – which is fully AI-driven – in his mission by exterminating enemies who attack him and try to prohibit him from shooting his mega-weapon at strategic targets. With every big action, there’s a switch to ingame movies to show what the bad boy has just blown up which certainly adds to the coolness factor of the game.
The second mission you can play completely on your own, of course in the presence of the obligatory dozens of enemies who mostly dig themselves out of the earth as you progress in the level.

The graphics are really top-notch and get the best out of your PS2… certainly when comparing it with other games I’ve seen on this platform. The controls are well-balanced, the sounds are cool, the gameplay is magnificent… in short : this is going to be one hell of a game !