Takes a lot of missteps to get to its destination - including but not limited to the fact that it's drab in the same way an early PS3 game would be drab, lots of murky greys and colorless environments. The difficulty also feels a little overblown at times and the controls rather imprecise, but some jankiness is just expected with such an early PS2 game. And in that regard, it's easy to see why this was - and is still - so revolutionary, the massive technical leap from the OG batch of games to this is undeniably massive. That being said, I actually prefer its energy and lore to its gameplay (which I'll confess, I don't find to be all too exciting here on its own). So many horrific characters and shocking cutscenes that sincerely feel like they'd be pushing the envelope for today's standards, let alone those of 2001. I'll never forget Sweet Tooth's "She didn't die easy..." line to Axel, and how much it unnerved me - the way it goes so hardcore on the edgy tone without ever once feeling forced (unlike, say Jak II or Jak III) is masterful. It not only keeps me eager in anticipation to see where each story would go next, but also really connected me to each character I'd play as (even if the special character cutscenes feel noticeably cheap) - succeeding where I think the environmental design fell short. Black indeed, for better and for worse.