Naughty Dog
has a thing for trilogies. They tied up the last bits of the Crash Bandicoot
series with Crash 3, then passed the torch to Vivendi. Prior to the passing
they made one last game: Crash Team Racing. Mario, Sonic and other mascot
characters had starred in their own racer – why shouldn’t Crash have the same
luxury?
Naughty Dog
released the third Jak game last fall. Rumors quickly spread that it could be
the last one we’d see. I didn’t believe them, and here we are in 2005 with the
fourth game, Jak X: Combat Racing. Its genre, although not typical for the
series, should not have come as a surprise to anyone. Jak X isn’t a part of
the action/adventure universe, but it is an adventure. An adventure down the
road of power-ups and explosions.
Living in a
massive, fictitious world with over a hundred competitions, Jak X follows the
path taken by adventure-oriented racing games. Vehicles are big, tough, and
longer than a kart. They don’t drive like karts either, and they’re weren’t
supposed to. The goal was to be the more grown up game for the kart racing
world, but still be tame enough for little Timmy to play with his brothers.
As cool as
the vehicles are, they weren’t built to last. Armor is perishable and will
fall off or get ripped off if your driving skills aren’t cutting it. It
doesn’t cost anything to repair your abolished vehicle (repairs are
automatic), however, you can spend cash to upgrade the armor’s resistance to
damage. You may also upgrade your overall top speed, strength, acceleration,
and turbo boost capacity. Vehicles are separated into classes, then they’re
further separated by how rugged they are, or by how much of a speed advantage
they have over the competition
Races are
not always about that though. Within each of the four classes are several
different styles of racing and … come to think of it I’m not sure how to
generalize these. Circuit is the typical get-first-or-die (or is that cry?)
challenge. In Artifact Race you must collect the most artifacts (and may shoot
your opponents to slow their progress).
Frozen Rally
sounds like a type of ice world. In actuality it’s a clock stopper where
you’re asked to race the track and beat the time limit. This might’ve been a
time trial at another time and place; here that means finding as many of the
ice pieces as possible. Yes, you have a time limit, but it’s faster than you
could handle without an aid. The ice pieces are that aid, freezing the clock
for intervals of two seconds, five seconds or 10 seconds.
Death Race
is are kill-fests of weak enemies (hundreds of them). The number of points
received per individual kill starts at one but may be multiplied several times
for consecutive kills. The individual kill number is based on the lap number,
so if you make it to lap five before the time runs out you’ll have five points
of killing power. Reach the listed point total to win.
The Twisted
Metal-inspired Deathmatch races occur in the widest and most open spaces
you’ll find in the game. Score the most kills – that’s your only goal. It’s
pretty easy too, at least in the earlier classes. The game gets harder toward
the end, though I doubt it will penetrate the forces of anyone who’s played
through the excruciatingly difficult Twisted Metal: Black.
Sport Hunt
is a variation of the Deathmatch levels where you face off in similar
locations but have a different goal: destroy as many of the over-sized robots
as possible. It might sound like a death race except that in Sport Hunt you’re
not racing and you have to contend with several opponents who will attempt to
destroy the robots first.
Power-ups
are plentiful in every game type, which results in an unfortunate Mario Kart
shell effect. Circuit races almost always come down to who’s in front, who’s
holding a weapon, and who’s not. Lead the pack from the start of the race,
leaving behind a trail of bombs that are impossible for anyone in the vicinity
to dodge. Literally seconds before the finish line an opponent grabs a
missile. That one missile, that one meaningless attack, can throw the game
into chaos and turn a golden race into silver, bronze, or no medal at all.
Scoring is
based on a medal system of gold, silver and bronze. Gold gets you into the
next track, guaranteed; silver and bronze may not. In a traditional adventure
game fashion, Jak X does not force you to beat or even to unlock each and
every race to win. Thus, there’s a greater flexibility in the challenge. It’s
better to play through the game imperfectly – that way when the final class
has been completed you’ll still have something to master.
Jak X:
Combat Racing does what it can to live up to Twisted Metal and other car
combat franchises while staying true to the Jak name. The gameplay variety
wasn’t always necessary but is a welcome change for the genre – a few more
changes with the inevitable Jak X sequel and they could form a new sub-genre.
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Gameplay: 8.5
Racing gone wild.
Tight turns and frequent kills; large worlds and power-ups; good characters
and upgradeable vehicles – it’s what you’d expect from a racing game starring
Jak and Daxter. About a third of the missions involve something other than
racing, like collecting or shooting. Another third puts a spin on racing with
Freeze Rally, where players must collect as many freeze items as possible to
stop the clock from draining. The majority of these are fun, and when you
consider how many of them it’s easy to see why gamers will spending a lot of
time with this one, regardless of their personal skill level.
Graphics: 8.0
Jak X is filled
with eye candy; some good, some great. The overall appearance is closer to a
cartoon than reality. That effect is pulled off nicely with characters like
Daxter who hop around the vehicle while it’s in motion. The backgrounds are
varied and are instantly recognizable as environments that were inspired by
the worlds of first three Jak games. Inner city tracks have sharp turns and
narrow driveways; outdoor tracks have endless space and could go on forever.
Sound: 7.5
Frequent movie
sequences show off the game’s voice talent (mostly the same as the previous
Jak games), while the music and sound effects deliver the trademarks of the
series.
Difficulty: Easy/Medium
More towards the
easy side of the spectrum, Jak X has yet another thing with kart racers in
that it doesn’t take long to overcome its challenges.
Concept: 8.0
While not quite
innovative, Jak X is one of the most varied racing/driving games ever made.
Actual racing only takes up about one third of the action. The rest is
dedicated to exploring new territory as well as to exploring the territory of
other successful games (Twisted Metal: Black, Burnout, etc.).
Multiplayer: 8.0
A good party game
that would’ve been great if the screen could’ve been split four ways (only two
can play simultaneously offline). It’s a good Thanksgiving game since the
whole family can get into it (turkey, stuffing and sweet potatoes are a must,
but Thanksgiving dinner just isn’t complete without a good multiplayer game).
Overall: 8.5
(Cheesy
commercial voice): “Jak moved fast on foot, but no one can touch him
now that he’s driving a 2006 Road Blade. This impressive vehicle has the
finest quality material. An armor-coated body comes standard, but you may
upgrade its strength and its turbo capacity with superior results than our
competitors.
“The 2006
Road Blade. Pick one up in Jak X: Combat Racing.”
