Jak II sees Jak & Daxter back, Jak having been captured by the evil Baron Praxis and experimented on with dark eco. These experiments have left Jak unsurprisingly po'ed, and also endowed him with the ability to transform to "Dark Jak" (a sort of Mr Hyde or Incredible Hulk transformation jobbie). Jak escapes and is reunited with Daxter, and off they set to wreak revenge on the Baron. They soon find that the Baron has opposition in the City of Haven in the form of a guy called Torn and his resistance group, and so they set about earning acceptance into this band of renegades and sabotaging the Baron's cosy dictatorship.

   

Jak II developers Naughty Dog obviously liked GTA III because the game leaves the confines of your average platformer well behind and gives you a massive, complex and well populated city to drive/fly, run and battle in. The game also borrows from stable mate Ratchet & Clank with its heavy use of weapons - Jak II is a much darker, more violent game than the sunny island-based J&D.

The city of Haven is amazing to look at - hundreds of inhabitants go about their business on foot or by hover car or bike in a cartoony metropolis. The Baron's "Hellcat" army polices Haven - and they're tougher than any law enforcement found in Liberty or Vice. And just like GTA Vice City you can steal any poor sap's bike or car and take it for a spin - they all handle differently and the slow ones can take more damage before exploding. Pleasingly you can shoot whilst driving, or just simply run down those pesky Hellcats. And in the same way as J&D you'll sometimes reach a high overlook where you can see huge panoramic areas of the game map - there's also no loading whatsoever no matter where you go. As the action changes, the music reacts, adding to the dramatic effect. It's impressive stuff.

Apart from the typical platform game fare (many sections of which become devilishly hard with all kinds of sneaky pitfalls and traps, and many have "boss" creatures at the end), you'll come across armies of "Metalhead" mechanical monsters, and get sent on lots of side missions, races and given sub-games to play. The races are as good as many of the Wipeout/XG style racers out there and the mini games and target ranges are simple but clever. You even get a Back to the Future-style hoverboard to play with, and Jak can do many tricks that Tony Hawk would be jealous of.

   

Sadly the structure of Jak II is the start of its downfall as a gaming experience. The city acts as a 'hub' - many missions are annoyingly (and deliberately in a mean-spirited way) placed as far away as possible, and the city soon becomes tiresome to navigate due to the floaty handling of the vehicles, the many twisty streets and the heavy, dithering traffic. Huge areas seem to have no purpose other than to link one location to another - there are even herds of cattle as in J&D, but they're purely animated scenery. The difficulty level ranges from simple to virtually impossible - and whilst the overall quality and appeal of the game kept drawing me back. I can see less committed players packing it in long before they see the best bits. It has a number of silly irritations, one of the daftest of which is that Torn's resistance force has a hideout, but there's nowhere specific to get ammoed and healthed-up, which is just plain silly. Jak II clearly isn't aimed at kids but even so, why make it so tough and frustrating to play? - It's plenty big enough a game by today's standards without falsely prolonging its lifespan with endless replays that will end up in a quick trade-in for something else by a lot of less patient and forgiving gamers. Jak II is massively tougher than Jak & Daxter was, and we found this game considerably harder than anything found in Super Mario Sunshine, Wipeout, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater or the GTAs. I predict that even if you love every minute of Jak II, approximately 60-70% of the way through the game (if you get that far) you'll do one of three things:

1/ Look for the receipt and hope that your game retailer is in a good mood.
2/ Look for invulnerability and infinite ammo cheats (crazily you can unlock both, but not until you've virtually finished the game).
3/ Junk it and play something more friendly.

It's disappointing because Naughty Dog have coded a bit of a cracker here - it's just a shame that they don't seem to want you to see all of it. Our score reflects the high irritation factor, which knocks the score for this genuinely varied game down by a couple of points.