The late 90s and early 2000s were a big transition period for the gaming industry. Platformers were at an all-time high, but the emergence of more open-world, shooter games slowly edged them out. Hindsight is 20/20, of course, and platformers went nowhere. In fact, It Takes Two is an action-adventure platformer that won Game of the Year 2021 at The Game Awards. But, at the time, this transition led to a lot of innovation and changes to the platformer genre, perhaps no more so recognizable than in the Jak and Daxter series.
Jak and Daxter was a huge IP for Naughty Dog, eventually spanning a total of six games—Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, Jak 2, Jak 3, Daxter, Jak X: Combat Racing, and Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier (which began development under Naughty Dog before being passed onto High Impact Games). Fans always knew there was a dynamic shift from the happy-go-lucky platforming of the original Jak and Daxter to the more open, gritty, and darker storyline found in Jak 2, and there’s one culprit that was largely responsible for that: Grand Theft Auto 3.
Grand Theft Auto 3’s Impact on Jak 2
Grand Theft Auto 3 was released just a few months before Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (October and December respectively), and it was immediately clear that GTA 3 was a defining moment for the industry, launching to critical acclaim. Rockstar would go on to raise the bar with future Grand Theft Auto games, but as part of the industry is seeing where something would land a few years out (as development takes a while, more so now), GTA 3 sent a clear message: this is what gamers wanted. Now, again, time has proven the staying power of platformers, but this impacted Jak 2’s direction.
In Jak 2, Jak has been exposed to Dark Eco and is, without beating around the bush, an escaped convict if for no real reason outside the Baron’s twisted mentality. Haven City is a mostly open sandbox with a strong police presence in the form of the Krimzon Guard, who were Jak’s enemies more so than they were his allies. Jak could steal and hijack Zoomers, run over innocent civilians, and far more that would probably elicit a response…but to no effect. No, the Krimzon Guard of Haven City only pursued Jak when he either bumped their zoomers, bumped them, or somehow directly antagonized them.
This leads to an alarm, to turrets, to Krimzon Guard Zoomers and Hellcats in pursuit, and a huge wave of Guards after Jak. Escaping this is practically impossible, outside of going to a mission area or somehow getting lucky. Jak was a powerful warrior, with weapons now, and he was public enemy #1 when and only if players somehow antagonized them in this beloved PS2 game.
Essentially, at any time in Jak 2’s sandbox, there could be a police chase. For a recent point of comparison, Cyberpunk 2077 doesn’t have police chases, explained in context to other games that wouldn’t have them either like Elden Ring or Sonic Frontiers and in comparison to the general lack of games with a police presence, but Jak 2 does. Cyberpunk 2077 devs eventually said they didn’t have time, and that’s understandable. But this feature specifically is something that has to be a core design, and in Jak 2, the Krimzon Guard was absolutely that, a core design of the game.
Jak 2 is a Definitive Platforming Grand Theft Auto Game
At the end of the day, Jak 2 was a platformer defined by Grand Theft Auto 3. Jak 2 was able to internalize everything important about GTA 3 into its design and made for a game that has stood the test of time. The Jak and Daxter PS4 bundle gives fans all four games, and each game like Jak 2 is worth playing to this very day—much like the original Grand Theft Auto 3 too. Indeed, just about every Grand Theft Auto game does this, whether it’s San Andreas, GTA 4, or the still-successful Grand Theft Auto 5.
In its soul, Jak 2 is still very much about Jak and Daxter—it has all the worldbuilding, the platforming, and the love Naughty Dog put into it. But its design is Grand Theft Auto, and that is clear every time the game is booted up.
The Jak and Daxter Bundle is available on PS Storefronts.
