This is a fairly in-depth review of the recently released video game, Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier. As such, it contains a plethora of spoilers. If you have yet to play the game and don't want to know anything before you play it, now would be the time to hit that happy little back button.
As this is actually the portion of the game that means the least to me, I'm addressing it first. I have to agree that the controls are pretty terrible in comparison to the other games: Has anyone here ever played The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time? Yeah? Well, remember how terrible the camerawork was in that?
It's...better than that. There is camera control along both axes in the PS2 version, although there's no way to zoom in, and no first-person view capability. Also, that control can be wrested from you at any time, as the computer seems to think that it knows where the camera should go better than the player. This is frustrating, and usually causes more trouble than it could possibly fix, what with the other shortcomings in control.
Jak's jumping capabilities are severely limited in this game, to the point that you can't jump up onto a platform more than about ten inches above the poor boy's head, or onto one more than two feet out over open air. Why is this, you ask? Well, because the double-jump barely works, and the roll- and crouch-jump abilities have been completely stripped.
The auto-targeting on the gunstaff is limited to when Jak is standing about three feet away, facing his target head-on. Yes, this means it's not much of an auto-target feature at all, but as I've seen bullets fly out of the gun diagonally to hit a target on a platform ahead and below the one I had Jak standing on, I know it exists in some degree.
It should be noted that if an enemy targets you, they are going to hit you. Period. On the ground or in the air, the targeting system works for them and against you. This is particularly frustrating during the aerial battles, wherein more than once I took evasive maneuvers to break a missile lock, got the little alert stating I was in the clear, and then got hit by the missiles anyway.
Aside from bugs like that, though, I don't have any complaints about the aerial combat portions of this game. They get a little bit long sometimes, but the constant auto-saving feature makes it pretty much certain you won't throw your controller across the room in frustration at having to start over at the beginning again--so long as you don't run into a glitch or two that literally render the mission impossible. (I had one of these, but saving, turning the machine off and back on cleared it up.)
This game is full of quicktime events, so if you don't like those I don't recommend it at all. The best way to upgrade your plane is to have Daxter go raid other ships you're in battle with for parts and scrap, which is all played out through a series of quicktime events. While these aren't quite as bad as "PUSH X TO NOT DIE," they can get a little frustrating if you really want that mod and just can't seem to get Dax to stay on the plane long enough.
Speaking of Daxter, the Dark Daxter levels are horrible in every possible way. Someone thought it would be a good idea to change the purpose of every single button during the Dark Daxter sequences, removing the capability to jump in its entirety and replacing the ability to punch or kick things with picking them up and throwing them. Which does little to nothing against enemies other than spiders, which explode for some reason.
The majority of the standard gameplay is good, though, and the added eco powers make it pretty fun. When was the last time you saw Jak shooting Yellow Eco from his hands, or using Blue to knock enemies away? Basically it could use a lot of tweaking, but it isn't entirely unplayable by any means--I enjoyed it. The developers did a decent job spacing out the standard missions with aerial battles and Dark Daxter sequences, so it would be a rare thing to get too bored with it.
I have to say that the screenshots didn't have me interested. The graphic glitches left me more than a little dubious of various reviewers' claims that the animation in this game was very good.
Then I actually played the game, and had to admit that they were right. Jak's animation is fairly stiff for the first few cutscenes, and things lag a little sometimes--but for the most part this is a beautiful game. The cutscenes are stunning, the landscapes are lovely, and the character design is...well, not as good as it's been in the past, but fairly good overall. Phoenix's design is obviously ripped from a rejected Razer design, and the Aeropans seem to all have raided Count Veger's closet, but they still look good enough that I'm not complaining much. Anymore.
Like many things, the color palette in this game is extremely reminiscent of Precursor Legacy. It's bright, in most places, but easily shifted into neutrals and blues to change the air of the area. Because of the use of the other eco colors after so long, it's clear that a lot of thought had to go into the color choices for certain areas: The task of setting things up to make sure that vents and crystals stood out was handled extremely well, and the choices of attire for the characters was very well-handled. Everyone can guess why the leaders of Aeropa wear violet, right? And why Phoenix doesn't wear a single color that could be affiliated with any type of eco? How about why the Aeropan crest--a phoenix, dear Mar that gets the fanon in me going--is being covered in dark purple in the newer places, but is pure gold in the abandoned areas, the places used long before Phoenix and his team started the ADWP?
The graphics during actual gameplay are stiffer than I'm used to in the Jak series, but the programmers did a great deal of cleaning up before the game was released, so several of the flaws so many of us complained about in the teasers and such were addressed prior to release.
Unfortunately, that won't bring back Jak's goatee during cutscenes, or make his ear-nubs grow back. Sigh.
This is where I get serious, because this is why I play video games. If it doesn't have a good plot, I don't want to play it. Period.
Thankfully, and I know I'm going to get a lock of flak from the rest of the fandom for this, I think that TLF had a wonderful plot. There were holes, of course--what Jak game would be complete without plot holes?--but overall it was engaging, interesting, and even being as spoiled for the major events as I was, I didn't see everything coming.
The storyline progresses in a manner much more similar to Precursor Legacy than the later games; it starts with a rescue mission, and things go from there, moving from location to location and doubling back again. The people you start off trying to help turn out to be enemies, and your enemies turn out to be trying to save the world. In...a manner of speaking. All right, so they're really just trying to make up for something pretty horrible they were involved in earlier, but it amounts to the same thing.
The reveal of the Aeropan Dark Warrior Program was expertly handled, and the hints throughout the game of just how far it went with its chief subject--Duke Skyheed himself, ruler of Aeropa--finally leading up to the point where he goes Dark on Jak were wonderful. The reveal of Ruskin's betrayal fell fairly flat, but not as horribly as Klout's. Ruskin deserved more screentime, as from what little we saw I think he was a fantastic character, and did very well in his limited role. Phoenix's accusations of what Skyheed had done to his own people were heartbreaking, and Jak's reaction to finding out someone else had twisted other people the same way as Praxis had twisted him kept me happy. Was it perfect? Hell no. But having Jak walk toward a 6'4" man with a gun, hissing out "You son of a--" on the way is definitely up there on one of my favorite sequences ever, and the progression of the storyline, bits and pieces revealed here and there, kept me looking forward to what was going to happen next.
The pacing of the storyline is pretty ridiculous up until 50% through, with the Epic Plot Twist explaining who Phoenix was, who Tym is and what they did under Skyheed's command. Things happen at random that don't see to make much sense, but they do mostly come together after the Epic Plot Twist to work out. There's still no explanation of how Jak knew Phoenix's name within minutes of Keira being kidnapped, or why Keira trusted Phoenix so readily, but the first is minor enough it just makes me laugh and the second can be explained by Keira's habit of trusting dangerous military men who want Jak dead. (IE: Erol.)
Overall, the plot is interesting, fairly clever, and manages to be very Jak-series even if it is handled in a completely different way.
Jak's characterization is...confusing. He's a jerk, basically, but a fairly happy one. I think that this characterization is more or less how Jak would act if he'd never been through the DWP, and while it's mostly forgivable with his Dark Eco under lockdown, it's still off and the scripting is bad enough to make me unhappy. His relationship with Daxter is also seriously off, although the cutscenes didn't induce as much rage in me as they seem to have done for everyone else. I thought Jak being a dork with Dax was kind of adorable, honestly, although I do wish it had been handled better. Also, Dax's attempt (and failure) to say something reassuring to Jak when they found The Chair in the old base tugged at my heartstrings just enough to be awesome. His reaction to Dark Dax is horrible, but Dax's isn't much better.
Dax is...okay, at best. His best lines are during the fight with Dark Skyheed, which you have to hear to enjoy because they were simply amazing. Overall, he's lacking a great deal of his dorktastic charisma, and needs to talk more. And remember that he has a girlfriend back home, what the heck. He's still about as bad as Jak, but all it ever made me do was facepalm. Everyone else can have the rage.
Keira is awful. The end. Thankfully, she screams when you hit her so you can beat her up for her fail as much as you want.
The new characters, like in Combat Racing, are amazing. Duke Skyheed is a fantastic villain, sort of an amalgam of Count Veger and Gol Acheron. I enjoyed his role immensely, and honestly sort of hope he survived the big explosion at the end.
But it's Captain Phoenix that really wins such a high rating in this section, because he is one of the most amazing characters I've ever seen. It's like someone took all the best qualities of Jak, Torn, Erol and Razer, and blended them together into a pirate who proves that ninjas will always be second-best. Giving him a fairly solid backstory helped with this, of course, and as NDI was pretty shoddy with that I was ecstatic to see this particular difference between development teams. His characterization is flawless; he's never a bad guy. He's never been a bad guy. He's dangerous, and he obviously enjoys causing trouble, but he's never been a bad guy. He has issues, and he deals with them to the best of his ability. He adores Keira. He honestly likes Jak, but can't forgive him for being a constant reminder of how much he screwed up in his life.
Captain Phoenix is the reason to play this game.
Busy, Jak: Mermaids and Happy 2010! 
Approval
Tired
Neutral
Bemused
Lonely
