When you boil it down, Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy is just kind of another run-of-the-mill 3D collectathon platformer. What I think sets it above most for me, though, is the quality of its execution. It's a very well-crafted and gorgeous game that sits next to Spyro the Dragon for me in terms of platformers that I could return to any day and 100% complete over and over again.
Gameplay:
In Jak & Daxter, you run, jump, and sometimes beat up enemies. The game has really good controls. Running feels smooth, the long jump and high jump feel good to pull off, the spin that hurts enemies and gives you extra time in air is chef's kiss, and there's even multiple uses for the punch button. The only thing that kind of feels off is the jump. It's not bad by any means and you may not even realize something is weird, but Jak's jumps do feel a bit heavy and it was something tweaked in future games. Things don't change themselves up much throughout the game, but they are kept fresh with temporary power-ups and vehicle sections. The power-ups come in the form of "eco", a magical force you can collect from various sources that gives Jak a different abilities depending on the color. They're used to perform different tasks like breaking boxes or opening doors. I do wish the concept was pushed a little further in gameplay, as yellow and blue eco are the only useful ones with red feeling like an afterthought. I do think the health pickups, in the form of green eco, are also annoying, since you need to collect 50 small pieces or one very very rare big piece to restore a single portion of health. The small pieces don't magnetize to you so you have to pick them up manually and I usually just don't bother. I guess it does beat the alternative of having health pickups being super prevalent at least. As for the vehicles sections, the controls feel fantastic and they're some of my favorite parts of the game. Racing around is thrilling and there's some interesting mechanics thrown in as well. Overall, a very solid moveset and skillset!
Jak & Daxter is impressive for being one of the first games to feature a world entirely unbroken by loading screens.... okay, maybe "entirely" is an overstatement because in some places they just replaced loading screens with elevators and stuff, but still. The developers took great care to make the world feel seemless. The levels feel vast and connected. One part of the map can be seen from another part of the map and it's just so cool. There's a lot of attention to detail. The individual level design is stellar as well. Natural environments were crafted into excellent platforming playgrounds to explore and find the game's collectibles in, which are called orbs, powercells, and scoutflies by the way. Each area has a variety of challenges tackle and no two powercell objectives feel exactly the same (ignoring the ones where you have to trade orbs for powercells multiples times, I guess). The levels just feel so full and fleshed out with sights to see and people to meet, and it makes progression satisfying. I may have just gushed about them for multiple sentences on end, but I should clarify that not all of the levels (including hub levels) were created equal. Sandover Village? Very cool. Misty Island? Awesome. Boggy Swamp? A little bleak but fun to explore. Spider Cave..? Mixed. Volcanic Crater... Ugh. Luckily, the good levels are so good that the weaker moments barely matter! They still always make me averse to playing the final stretch of the game though...
Story:
Jak & Daxter's story isn't complex or anything (at least not in the first game LOL), but there is an interesting amount going on through the power of worldbuilding... which there still isn't a lot of in the first game. But still, all the eco and Precursor stuff going on fleshes out the world a bit and makes it feel like you're running through a place with a rich history. Most of the NPCs you meet aren't important, but they are each memorable and add a lot to making the world feel lived in. The plot itself is as follows: Jak and Daxter go poking around somewhere they shouldn't and Daxter ends up falling it a pool of dark eco. He is transformed into a creature called an ottsel, so your mentor type dude, Samos the green sage, sends you to meet a guy who lives all the way on the other side of the map to fix Daxter's problem. As you progress, you learn said guy is the villain (even though the game kind of tells you at the start) so your goal shifts from "saving" Daxter to saving the world. So yeah, nothing really interesting, but the lore and characters help fill the gaps. The context from later games picks up the slack even more.
Sound and visuals:
The sound design is pretty solid, though there is of course some audio mixing jankiness that comes with the territory of early 2000's games (It could also just be a problem with the ports I played so take it with a grain of salt). As for the music, it is phenomenal. The title screen theme will probably live with me for the rest of my life. Shoutout to the excellent voice acting as well.
As for the visuals, the game hits two homeruns at once while simultaneously scoring a touchdown. That's a big exaggeration, but it is definitely very good. As stated before, the environments are gorgeous and varied. Some places can look unnecessarily bland in terms of colors, but they're still all filled with interesting design elements. The huge draw distance makes every place breathtaking to look around as well. The character and enemy designs are also fantastic. Though many models haven't exactly aged the best, the designs still have a wonderful level of cohesiveness to them that adds a ton to the worldbuilding. The animation is top notch too, not only in cutscene but also in gameplay. The way Jak's animations flow into each other adds so much to the good game-feel. The art direction as a whole is one of my favorite of all time and has been my biggest inspiration as an artist.
Conclusion:
As stated at the beginning, the first Jak and Daxter game isn't anything that will knock your socks off if you're a seasoned platformer fan, but that doesn't mean you should brush it off. Between its great presentation and good gameplay, The Precursor Legacy remains a must-play for PS2 fans and lovers of the platforming genre. It has aged remarkably well and is pretty easy to pick up on the Playstation store, so it gets a strong recommendation from me.
Gameplay:
In Jak & Daxter, you run, jump, and sometimes beat up enemies. The game has really good controls. Running feels smooth, the long jump and high jump feel good to pull off, the spin that hurts enemies and gives you extra time in air is chef's kiss, and there's even multiple uses for the punch button. The only thing that kind of feels off is the jump. It's not bad by any means and you may not even realize something is weird, but Jak's jumps do feel a bit heavy and it was something tweaked in future games. Things don't change themselves up much throughout the game, but they are kept fresh with temporary power-ups and vehicle sections. The power-ups come in the form of "eco", a magical force you can collect from various sources that gives Jak a different abilities depending on the color. They're used to perform different tasks like breaking boxes or opening doors. I do wish the concept was pushed a little further in gameplay, as yellow and blue eco are the only useful ones with red feeling like an afterthought. I do think the health pickups, in the form of green eco, are also annoying, since you need to collect 50 small pieces or one very very rare big piece to restore a single portion of health. The small pieces don't magnetize to you so you have to pick them up manually and I usually just don't bother. I guess it does beat the alternative of having health pickups being super prevalent at least. As for the vehicles sections, the controls feel fantastic and they're some of my favorite parts of the game. Racing around is thrilling and there's some interesting mechanics thrown in as well. Overall, a very solid moveset and skillset!
Jak & Daxter is impressive for being one of the first games to feature a world entirely unbroken by loading screens.... okay, maybe "entirely" is an overstatement because in some places they just replaced loading screens with elevators and stuff, but still. The developers took great care to make the world feel seemless. The levels feel vast and connected. One part of the map can be seen from another part of the map and it's just so cool. There's a lot of attention to detail. The individual level design is stellar as well. Natural environments were crafted into excellent platforming playgrounds to explore and find the game's collectibles in, which are called orbs, powercells, and scoutflies by the way. Each area has a variety of challenges tackle and no two powercell objectives feel exactly the same (ignoring the ones where you have to trade orbs for powercells multiples times, I guess). The levels just feel so full and fleshed out with sights to see and people to meet, and it makes progression satisfying. I may have just gushed about them for multiple sentences on end, but I should clarify that not all of the levels (including hub levels) were created equal. Sandover Village? Very cool. Misty Island? Awesome. Boggy Swamp? A little bleak but fun to explore. Spider Cave..? Mixed. Volcanic Crater... Ugh. Luckily, the good levels are so good that the weaker moments barely matter! They still always make me averse to playing the final stretch of the game though...
Story:
Jak & Daxter's story isn't complex or anything (at least not in the first game LOL), but there is an interesting amount going on through the power of worldbuilding... which there still isn't a lot of in the first game. But still, all the eco and Precursor stuff going on fleshes out the world a bit and makes it feel like you're running through a place with a rich history. Most of the NPCs you meet aren't important, but they are each memorable and add a lot to making the world feel lived in. The plot itself is as follows: Jak and Daxter go poking around somewhere they shouldn't and Daxter ends up falling it a pool of dark eco. He is transformed into a creature called an ottsel, so your mentor type dude, Samos the green sage, sends you to meet a guy who lives all the way on the other side of the map to fix Daxter's problem. As you progress, you learn said guy is the villain (even though the game kind of tells you at the start) so your goal shifts from "saving" Daxter to saving the world. So yeah, nothing really interesting, but the lore and characters help fill the gaps. The context from later games picks up the slack even more.
Sound and visuals:
The sound design is pretty solid, though there is of course some audio mixing jankiness that comes with the territory of early 2000's games (It could also just be a problem with the ports I played so take it with a grain of salt). As for the music, it is phenomenal. The title screen theme will probably live with me for the rest of my life. Shoutout to the excellent voice acting as well.
As for the visuals, the game hits two homeruns at once while simultaneously scoring a touchdown. That's a big exaggeration, but it is definitely very good. As stated before, the environments are gorgeous and varied. Some places can look unnecessarily bland in terms of colors, but they're still all filled with interesting design elements. The huge draw distance makes every place breathtaking to look around as well. The character and enemy designs are also fantastic. Though many models haven't exactly aged the best, the designs still have a wonderful level of cohesiveness to them that adds a ton to the worldbuilding. The animation is top notch too, not only in cutscene but also in gameplay. The way Jak's animations flow into each other adds so much to the good game-feel. The art direction as a whole is one of my favorite of all time and has been my biggest inspiration as an artist.
Conclusion:
As stated at the beginning, the first Jak and Daxter game isn't anything that will knock your socks off if you're a seasoned platformer fan, but that doesn't mean you should brush it off. Between its great presentation and good gameplay, The Precursor Legacy remains a must-play for PS2 fans and lovers of the platforming genre. It has aged remarkably well and is pretty easy to pick up on the Playstation store, so it gets a strong recommendation from me.