Small Steps

I finally did it. I completed Daxter, and once again I have caught up on all titles in that series. Next I want to struggle to finish Sly 3 and eventually pick up Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters.

Daxter was a fun title. Ready at Dawn did a great job that remained faithful to Jak's universe of Haven City. It was obvious it was a smaller scale city, only a small sectioned cordoned off for you to travel in and the cutscenes were sparse, but the real meat was in the levels. Using an electric swatter and an adaptable bug spray gun, you went through levels collecting metal head skulls (The bugs) and precursor artifacts. Every 100 collected artifacts would unlock a new dream sequence that is a parody of a movie (Like the Matrix or Lord of the Rings) played using a simple interface not too removed from DDR. Earning a bronze trophy nets you a new move or a health upgrade. Further sequences can be unlocked pairing the game with Jak-X on the PS2.
The load times are masked quite well and are very infrequent. The game is very true to the platforming roots, with rare occurrences of driving missions. There's no GTA-style missions or races to worry about. It's Jak 1 style in a Jak 2 world.
Sadly there's a lot of wasted potential in the game. It's quite obvious the game was rushed. The story seems to barely touch on the actual matter at hand. (Daxter needs to rescue Jak from prison/torture/death/etc.) Aside from 2 cutscenes in the 15-20 hours of gameplay, there's little to remind you of what your main goal is outside of killing bugs.
I enjoyed the game, it was a nice reminder of the Jak series, but at the same time, the ending was disappointing and just made me hungrier for a real Jak title. I have reserved Ready at Dawn's next title, God of War: Chains of Olympus and have equal expectations for that title.

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