SCREENSHOTS (54) Slideshow | All Shots By Gary Steinman





Newsflash: I'm not perfect. Far from it. I know this stunning revelation might be a shocker to readers who have long luxuriated in my sparkling sentences and rapier wit. But, alas, a fact's a fact--I'm a deeply flawed individual. ADVERTISEMENT Which can be a nasty problem when I'm struggling through a game that demands absolute perfection from the player. Jak II is cruel. It's petulant. It's mean-spirited and unforgiving. But most of all, Jak II requires the average gamer to perform extraordinary feats ov virtual derring-do. An example: Later in the game, you have to rescue six Lurkers by ferrying them through a city teeming with pedestrians, awash in traffic, jam-packed with obstacles, and swarming with heavily armed enemy soldiers, both on foot and in the air. Sounds straightforward enough--but wait! See, you not only have to liberate each Lurker by blasting a prison ship from the sky--thus rousing the wrath of soldiers everywhere, who then chase you down like the dog you are--you also have to scoot that Lurker onto the back of the vehicle you've just jacked and bolt through the streets to the designated drop spot. En route, soldiers pelt you with potshots, random traffic thwarts you, floaty vehicle controls can throw you, and the occasional kamikaze pilot will ram right into you, destroying his ride and your own in the process (arghh! So CHEAP!!!). Keep in mind that you can only sustain about four hits worth of damage, with no health-ups available, so you'll have to steer like a pro, constantly swap vehicles (they take damage), sometimes engage in defensive gunplay, and, most of all, make virtually no mistakes in order to complete this six-part mission. And that's just one example. Early on, you have to prove your mettle by racing from one end of Jak II's enormous city to the other--in three measly minutes. Thing is, the only way to do this is to plot out and memorize a perfect route, step by painful step. Which means you'll likely spend over an hour trying to complete a mission that technically can't take longer than three minutes. (I'm bettering this is the exact spot where a lot of you will toss aside the controller and stop playing Jak II for good.) It's such a shame, because Jak II represents what could have been a defining moment for 3D platformers. Yes, it blatantly borrows from every other game out there, but never before has a platformer offered such an array of gameplay devices, from standard (but sublime) run-n-jump bits to intense gunplay to Grand Theft Auto-inspired metropolitan mayhem. And that's not all: you can even indulge some Tony Hawk-style skating, or try to top your time in some well-designed kart-racing tracks. There's so much to do, and such a vitality to the urban setting, that Jak II feels more real than most platformers, despite its decidedly cartoony look and feel. To be fair, there are moments when everything comes together--sequences that hint at the game Jak II should have been. Some of the straightforward hop-n-bop misions are exquisite in their design and balance. Blasting away at waves of baddies also provides a nice rush, although being overwhelmed by too many foes is never much fun. I also have to admit a surge of undeniable satisfaction upon completing many of the too-tough missions. But Jak II hints at something else: You can't be all things to everyone. Or, at the very least, if you're trying to offer a little bit of everything, you'd better get things right, because it isn't proper to expect us to be perfect in order to make up for your game's many imbalances. Life's not fair, but I certainly expect my games to be.