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Jak II is an action-adventure video game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2 in 2003. It is the second game of the Jak and Daxter series and a sequel to . It was followed by Jak 3, released the next year.
The game features a darker tone and puts higher emphasis on combat than its predecessor; new weapons, devices and playable areas are available. The player takes on the dual role of protagonists Jak and Daxter.
Jak II received critical acclaim upon release. Critics applauded the game for being very polished in nearly every department, with many agreeing it was one of the best PlayStation 2 games released at the time. Some criticism, however, was directed at the checkpoint systems, darker tone, and high difficulty.
Haven City functions as the game hub world, with various other environments accessible from it. Here, Jak can access new missions by visiting various allied characters. These missions serve as a replacement for the previous game's progression focused on the collection of Power Cells. Throughout the game, the player can collect Precursor Orbs which are sparsely dispersed throughout the various locations. The Orbs are non-essential to completion of the game, but allow the player to unlock cheats and other "secret" content. Jak can traverse Haven City using hover vehicles and a jet-board which allows him to hover across water and grind on rails.
Due to experiments conducted on him for two years, Jak has also gained the ability to transform into Dark Jak, a more powerful version of himself. The form is only accessible after Jak has absorbed enough Dark Eco to charge this ability. Dark Eco drops from slain enemies and can occasionally be found in red crates scattered throughout the world. In his Dark form, Jak becomes much more agile and his melee attacks become more powerful but he loses the ability to use the Morph Gun. Jak 2 also introduces a "currency" known as skull gems. By collecting these skull gems, dropped by most Metal Head creatures when defeated, Jak can gain additional abilities for his dark form and play minigames at kiosks throughout Haven City. These new abilities for Dark Jak can be used to unleash devastating attacks that kill all enemies within the vicinity at the cost of ending his Dark form immediately after the attack.
Precursor Orbs return and are now usually hidden throughout the world or earned by playing certain minigames and challenges. Collecting orbs will unlock hidden content, including cheats and cutscene viewers.
Other important characters include Torn (voiced by Cutter Garcia), the second-in-command of the resistance movement known as the Underground; Sig (voiced by Phil LaMarr), a Metal Head hunter/Wastelander who gathers artifacts from outside the city; Krew (voiced by Bill Minkin), a vastly overweight gang lord; Tess (voiced by Britton A. Hill), a barmaid; Errol (voiced by David Herman), the Baron's right-hand man and commander of the Krimzon Guard; and Ashelin (voiced by Susan Eisenberg), the daughter of Baron Praxis who helps the Underground behind her father's back. Baron Praxis and the Metal Heads' leader Kor are the story's antagonists.
During a prison break-in, Daxter finds Jak and breaks him out of the facility, though the pair discover that Praxis' experiments have left Jak with the ability to transform into a Dark Eco version of himself with increased strength, reflexes, stamina and aggression. In escaping the prison and accessing the city, the pair encounter an elderly man named Kor, protecting a young boy known only as The Kid. Kor sends them to make contact with the Underground, a resistance movement led by the mysterious figure known as the Shadow, seeking to bring down Praxis and replace him with the city's rightful heir, The Kid. Meeting with the Shadow's lieutenant, Torn, the pair learn that Praxis is seeking to protect the city and its eco reserves from creatures known as Metal Heads, an evil biomechanical race dating back from Precursor times. Working for the Underground, the pair eventually discover that they have been flung nearly 300 years into the future, after finding the remains of Samos' hut in the city's borders. To further complicate the matter, the pair also learn that the Shadow is none other than Samos—albeit, a younger version, unaware of the ruins significance.
Learning that Praxis is seeking an item within a tomb of the city's founder, Jak and Daxter continue working for the Underground, along the way taking work for the crime lord Krew, and reuniting with Kiera, who works as a mechanic in the city's arena. In the process, the pair discover Praxis, unable to outright defeat the Metal Heads, is bribing them with eco. The agreement entails the Metal Heads attacking the city just enough to warrant Praxis' rule, but not enough to actually topple the army. Working with Young Samos, the pair eventually help the Underground find and access the tomb, but become separated when it closes shut on them. With no choice, the pair search the tomb and discover an ancient artifact within called the Precursor Stone, which Praxis steals in hopes of cracking it open and use its destruction that can destroy the Metal Heads, despite it having the potential to wipe out Haven City.
Seeking to rescue the Underground, after its chief members were kidnapped in their absence, Jak and Daxter reunite with the older version of Samos, who warns the group that The Kid must be found urgently, despite Young Samos contradicting his instructions. However, Jak and Daxter soon find they must, after preventing Praxis from completing his bomb with the assistance of Krew, whom the pair kill. Shortly after Krew's death, Metal Heads swarm into the city, forcing the Underground and Krimzon Guard to join forces to resist the invasion. At the same time, Jak and Daxter track down Praxis and find him meeting with Kor, who transpires to be the Metal Heads' leader in disguise and had been seeking to use The Kid in order to bring the world into ruin. Departing to complete a ritual he had been working, Kor kills Praxis, who entrusts the Precursor Stone to Jak and Daxter. The pair swiftly pursue after Kor, killing him and finding the very Rift Gate they used to travel through time, and ending the Metal Heads threat.
The Kid, whom Jak had discovered was his younger self, touches the Stone, reawakening the Precursor entity within, which flies through the gate. As Kiera arrives with a new Rift Rider she had created, Samos reveals that they cannot return to the past—instead, Jak's younger self and Young Samos must go, in order to ensure Jak will fulfill the destiny he completed with Kor's defeat. In the aftermath of the conflict, Daxter takes over Krew's bar, as he, Jak, Samos and Kiera prepare to enjoy their new lives in Haven City.
Noting the success of mature titles such as Grand Theft Auto III and the lower sales of The Precursor Legacy compared to Naughty Dog's Crash Bandicoot games, Rubin decided that the sequel should react to the market, as their demographic grew older and younger players preferred adult games. Thus, Naughty Dog gave the game a darker tone and a plot about Jak seeking vengeance, and increased the difficulty in response to complaints of the first game being too easy. The addition of the hoverboard was inspired by Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. Naughty Dog wanted to emphasize storytelling even more than the first game while still integrating it into the gameplay, so they made much of the collecting optional and eschewed full-motion videos in favor of in-engine cutscenes. Unlike its predecessor, which uses the same character models for gameplay and cutscenes, Jak II uses unique high-resolution models for its cutscenes, done in response to early screenshots of Kingdom Hearts.
The voice-acting was jointly recorded in the Los Angeles-based Pop Sound and the New York City-based Howard Schwartz Recording.
Steven Petite and Jon Bitner of Digital Trends consider Jak II to be the best in the series and one of the PlayStation 2's best platformers. Kotaku Luke Plunkett called Jak II one of the best PlayStation 2 games, highlighting the game's scale and characters.
Criticisms were given to Jak II shortage of mission checkpoints and overall difficulty. As Naughty Dog developer Josh Scherr once admitted: "One thing that everybody can agree on though, is that the game is just way too fucking hard." IGN named Jak II the #8 hardest PlayStation 2 game, citing its combat, platforming, city navigation, and instant death scenarios. Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine remarked: "It isn't proper to expect us to be perfect in order to make up for your game's many imbalances… Life might not be fair, but I certainly expect my games to be." However, some saw the challenge as a positive, such as , who said: "I appreciate a good challenge in today's games, and JAK II offers it."
Jak II was added to Sony's Greatest Hits lineup on September 8, 2004, signifying at least 400,000 copies sold in its first 11 months. Jak II received a "Platinum Prize" in Japan for sales of over one million units. Worldwide, the game sold more than 1.6 million units by April 2004.
Like its predecessor, the game was unofficially ported to PC by fans in 2023 as part of the OpenGOAL project.
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