Jak 3
Tags: good versus evil

Plot synopsis:
=== Setting ===
Like its predecessors, Jak 3 takes place in an unnamed fictional universe created by Naughty Dog specially for the games. The game is set one year after the events of Jak II. Jak 3 largely focuses on the Wasteland, a large desert only briefly referred to in the previous entry in the series as being completely uninhabited and inhospitable.
Spargus City, a large settlement within the Wasteland bordering the ocean, is where the game begins, and serves as a hub for the player, where new weapons and upgrades can be earned, and most missions are given out. Later on, the plot shifts focus to Haven City, a sprawling metropolis which was the central locale in Jak II, though the area is only a fifth the size of the Wasteland. Some levels from the previous game are radically altered (Haven Forest, Metropolitan area) or removed entirely (like the Bazaar in Haven City), while others are added (New Haven City), branching off from Spargus and the Wasteland and Haven.
=== Characters ===
As in the games before it, Jak 3's two main protagonists are Jak and his best friend Daxter the 'ottsel', which is a fictional cross between an otter and a weasel. Jak is revealed to have the birth name of Mar in this game, named after his ancestor and the original founder of Haven City, Mar. Jak's mechanic friend (and potential love interest) Keira returns in this game. There is also Ashelin, the Governor of Haven City, who was previously involved with Torn, the now-commander of the Freedom League. Daxter's love interest Tess returns as a weapons designer; and Jak's mentor, Samos, also makes appearances through the game.
A new character, Damas, is first introduced here. It is revealed that not only did Damas lose his son, but was the leader of Haven City before being betrayed by Baron Praxis and being banished to the desert. More minor but returning characters include Sig, a spy for Damas back in Haven City who later becomes the new king of Spargus after Damas is killed, Jinx, a former member of the Underground, Vin, whose brain now resides inside a computer and Pecker, Onin's translator from Jak 2 becomes an adviser to Damas in the early parts of the game.
Few of the original antagonists from Jak II reappear in this game. A new secondary villain is Count Veger, a self-absorbed Haven City aristocrat who banishes Jak to the wasteland at the beginning of the game. The player later finds that Veger attacked the Palace himself, wishing to journey to the core of the planet and gain the power of the Precursors. Even as he attempts this, a species known as the Dark Makers begin to invade the planet, seeking to destroy it. The Dark Makers are Precursors who have been corrupted by Dark Eco, similar to the antagonists of The Precursor Legacy.
The main antagonist is the former Krimzon Guard commander Erol, first introduced in Jak II, renamed Cyber-Errol. He is a cybernetic version of himself, as he was badly wounded in Jak II when he crashed into a supply of Eco barrels in an attempt to kill Jak. Sometime before the start of this game, he restarts the manufacturing of Krimzon Guard Deathbots, whose original factory was shut down during the events of the previous game. Errol launches a war against Haven City in tandem with the remaining Metal Head monsters, and later forges an alliance with the Dark Makers. He obtains a massive Dark Maker terraforming robot at the end of the game, with which he attempts to destroy the planet. The Terraformer is destroyed by Jak as it advances through the Wasteland towards Spargus City.
=== Story ===
The game begins with Jak and Daxter being banished into the Wasteland by the tyrannical Count Veger for supposed crimes against Haven City. Ashelin, who opposes the banishment, gives Jak a beacon before she leaves and tells him to "stay alive". As they travel through the desert, flashbacks reveal that Haven City is at war between Freedom League and the surviving Metal Heads and new Krizmon Guard Death Bots. The Palace is then destroyed by an unknown force. As Jak, Daxter, and Pecker lose consciousness, they are rescued by a group of desert-dwellers, who take them back to Spargus City.
Jak awakens in the throne room of King Damas, who explains that he has been brought to the city of Spargus. As repayment for saving his life, Damas insists that Jak undergo a series of challenges and tasks to prepare him for Spargan citizenship. Together with Daxter, Jak also meets Seem, a monk who warns him of the "Day Star", a sign that the end of the world is at hand. While exploring Seem's temple, Jak is once again contacted by the Precursors, who reveal that the Day Star heralds the return of the "Dark Ones", their mortal enemies. To fight them, Jak is given the first of several powers based on Light Eco, giving him greater control over his existing Dark Eco powers. Ashelin, Haven City's governor, asks the duo to assist her forces. Jak initially refuses out of spite, but changes his mind when Ashelin returns his amulet. While traveling through an old Eco mine to reach the city, Veger shows up and admits that he faked the charges against Jak to get rid of him. Believing that only the power of the Precursors can save Haven City, the Count reactivates a Precursor mech and leaves them to die. Jak manages to destroy the mech in an explosion and enters the city.
With their help, the city's defenders learn that the enemy forces are being led by Errol, a former Krimzon Guard captain presumed dead in a hoverbike accident, and who is now a cyborg. Meanwhile, Jak and Daxter journey to the forest and restore a Precursor telescope, learning that the Day Star is actually the mothership of the Dark Makers, a group of Precursors corrupted by Dark Eco. Realizing that Errol is but a pawn of the Dark Makers, the duo launch an assault on his airborne fortress and defeat him in battle. The base is destroyed but Errol escapes, and the Dark Makers attack both Seem's temple and Spargus, destroying or stealing any artifacts that can be used against them. Seem, however, hides one artifact and gives it to Jak. After a successful attack destroys the Metal Head Tower, Errol's forces are scattered and Jak and Daxter are free to return to the Wasteland.
As a reward for bravery, Jak is made a full citizen of Spargus. Samos contacts him with news that an advanced Precursor defense system has been located within the planet's core, and that only its power can defeat the Dark Makers. With Damas's help, the duo fight their way through a gauntlet of enemy troops. Before they can get to safety, Damas suffers a fatal wound. Revealing himself to be the former ruler of Haven City, he begs Jak to find his son Mar, showing him an exact copy of Jak's amulet saying Mar wore an exact replica as a symbol of their lineage with the house of Mar. This leads Jak to realize that Damas was his father. Veger appears and confirms the realization, revealing that he had kidnapped Jak from Damas during his exile to harness Jak's eco gifts before losing him to the underground. Veger sneers at Jak's anguish that Damas would never know of his son before taking a hovercraft into the catacombs. An enraged Jak, spurred on by Daxter, pursues Veger into the catacombs.
The duo arrive near the planet's core where they find Precursor artifacts and platforms on a planetary defense system created by the Precursors. A Precursor appears and assists Jak in activating the defense system, which begins charging. For his heroics, Jak is offered the chance to evolve into a Precursor, however Veger intervenes and takes the evolution for himself. Following this, it is accidentally revealed that the Precursors were actually mere ottsels that were operating machinery to maintain the facade. While still powerful, the ottsels insisted that they needed to "fluff up the myth" if they wanted Jak's people to look up to them. While Daxter celebrates that his initial transformation in The Precursor Legacy was a blessing rather than a curse, Veger realizes his mistake, and to his horror, is transformed into an ottsel.
The Precursors send Jak and Daxter through a teleporter to the Dark Maker ship to stop Errol from unleashing its power on the planet before the defense system is fully charged. Jak attempts to stop Errol, but fails as Errol pilots a massive terraforming vessel down to the planet. Jak barely manages to escape before the ship is destroyed, but returns to the ground in time to watch Errol and his vessel touch down and then attack the Wasteland. Jak engages the vessel, crippling its legs and demobilizing it before climbing to the top of the vessel to confront Errol in the cockpit. Jak defeats Errol and blows up the terraformer, killing him for good. Ashelin and Sig witness Jak and Daxter walking away victorious and Ashelin kisses Jak.
After a celebration, the Precursors bid farewell, vowing to continue their struggle against the Dark Makers. As a gift they grant Daxter a pair of pants which was a recurring joke throughout the series. Jak is offered a place in their ranks, but decides to stay with Daxter instead.

Review: "Desert hopping racing, bigger guns, bigger world, and a much more forgiving game all around".
Some heroes just can't get a break, huh?
While they may have busted their asses off to save the city a year back, that don't mean the fighting is going to end.
A huge battle breaks out some time after the events of the last game and most of Haven City is destroyed in the process, and guess who gets pinned with the blame?
You guessed it!
Our hero Jak has been cast into the deserted wasteland outside the City's walls and joined by loyal friend Daxter (Pecker the monkey/bird was instructed to go) they manage to stay alive long enough to be picked up by the people who have created refuge in the unforgiving desert land and the leader (INSERT NAME) has given the duo a chance to join their city and try to survive the fighting arena for for the sake of proving their worth.
He has no idea who he's messing with.So after making some new friends, you eventually gain more access to the world around you (mainly the desert wasteland), meaning a lot of vehicle riding and searching for crap.
Over time, you learn the Metal Heads attacking the city are being run by an old pal who's dying to settle a score with Jak. Now, once again, the world is in danger and Haven city needs his help.
Well, looks like it's back to the saving the world crap.Don't expect a huge leap in game play changes.
While new areas, vehicles and some new upgrades are presented, those who played Jak II will feel right at home here.
Though, there is one major change to the game itself that most players will be thankful for.
The people behind the series got word that the last one was too tough (they even congratulate those who got by in one of the hidden features) and decided to give mercy upon us by knocking down the difficulty a little.
Check points throughout missions are more common, no more army's of enemy's ganging up on you (much), and even if things still seem tough you got some beautiful new moves that not only are vital to continue the game, but are great little things to help you out when you need help most.
First the gun upgrades.
Remember the Scatter Gun, the Blaster Weapon, the Vulcan Fury, and the Peace Maker?
Though they are still your best friends throughout, never have they been more helpful.
Now each one can be upgraded a number of times and depending on which you use you can send out a more powerful blast, beams that bounce all over the place, or, my favorite, a little flying disk that goes ballistic and shoots up anything in its path.
Without these upgrades, the game could have been as tough as the last.The second little upgrade is the ability to summon Light Jak. While Dark Jak is still here, ready to kick butt when ready, Light Jak is here to even out the darkness in Jak making him a being of both yin and yang.
While Dark Jak is a killing machine, Light Jak creates shields, flies, slows down time, and, the most helpful of all, heals himself.
Other helpful changes include much easier areas to navigate.
While the new city you live in may not be as large as Haven City, it makes up for it with its large open desert.
Hell, even Haven City, while different due to the effects on the war, is far more easier to fly through without bumping into every little thing.
Even the guards don't suck as much as the ones in the last one.Now so far this seems like a great follow up to the prequels.
More action, bigger world, easier then the last without losing the toughness, more powers, and more of the story telling that made the series a hit in the first place.
But, of course when the creators went about fixing whatever problems the last two had, a few more were thrown into the mix.
For starters, the game is more about the shooting and riding aspects of the series, and the moments where you get to run around and jump and hit like old times are still there, but not nearly as often.
Another is the bosses.
While whatever ones there were throughout may have been pretty creative, there where just far to few, and whatever ones there were, mostly involved you fighting from long distance rather than fighting head to head.
Hell, some of them you don't even get to hit yourself.
Then lastly we have the main bad guy Errol, while this is more an artistic criticize rather than a real complaint, the artistic department really went all out with him and his new design, after what Jak did to him in the last game, but you never see him that much throughout the game and whenever you do his character seems...
basic.
But hey, thats just me.
Not a single reason you should avoid the game, just wanted to give my opinion on what I thought of it.So, all around this is a pretty good "final" chapter to the series.
Whatever problems that appeared in the the previous stories have been worked out without taking away from the overall challenge.
A fun play, and even after you beat the game you can unlock the extra material it has to offer, which include fun game options like big head mode or unlimited ammo, hidden shooting galleries, and even commentaries on the cut-scenes, artwork, character sheets and more.
Highly recommended.9/10 A great step forward, should have been longer though..
The best game in the Jak series..
Jak II, while CRAZY difficult at times, was a solid "Action game, platformer" hybrid, but suffered from a couple flaws.
Jak 3 fixed some of them.
My biggest problem with Jak II was that some of the missions you do (Mainly Krews) seem to have little significance to the plot.
With these missions, the plot begins to drag by the end.
The game would have been a little bit better without them.
Still they don't ruin the game.
I love the dessert part of the Jak 3 with the huge vehicles and the mountain temple.
Awesome!
Haven city has been reduced in size and replaced with the dessert.
But the game is is still bigger than Jak II The game is not as long as Jak II but still long enough.
I think the story is the best and doesn't drag with excessive missions.
The ending is really funny.
The difficulty is toned down (THANK GOD) which makes it more enjoyable.Bottom Line Jak II-goodJak 3- even better (but not miles ahead of Jak II).
I find this one the weakest of the series...just feels incomplete to me..
This one just feels rushed to me, or it feels like it should have been the second disk to part two and that they should have been one game.
The world is bigger than ever, there is more to do, you now have light eco powers to go along with your dark ones, still this game just does not feel complete.
The story starts out good as Jak has been banished to the desert and soon becomes in contact with a strange village of people that feels kind of like it is a Mad Max movie.
Jak must do a variety of things pretty much like part two and then the story of Jak gets rapped up quite nicely with a rather cute ending.
The platforming is still rather good as is other parts you are used to.
I think the problems come in the form of dune buggy racing in the desert.
Just seems the makers of this game fell in love with this a bit to much as it is focused on way to much even to the point of being in the final battle as well.
I thought it was okay, but I am not into racing games all that much and this is what this game turns into a bit to often.
Then there is the fact it seems shorter than part two.
Considering how expansive the world is you would think there would be more missions than in part two, but it just does not feel like the case.
It takes awhile to get back to Haven City and I was amazed that it was virtually the same size and I figured the game was just taking off, but this is nearly the end.
However, all complaining aside this is still a good game that is fun and funny.
Just seems it needed another year of development..
Great game, yet somewhat predictable.
Jak 3 is the sequel to Jak II and Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, and it is supposed to answer all the questions the players had while experiencing the first two games.
This is, of course, true.
Jak 3 takes place about a year after Jak II where Jak gets banished to the deserted Wasteland and is joined by Daxter and Pecker on their own free will.
Out on the wasteland they are rescued by these barbarian guys and taken to a city where the only rule is survival of the fittest.
There are many events that happens to Jak and Daxter while in this city, the wasteland, and Haven city which is about halfway into the game.This game was probably the coolest game I have ever played because the game play is so fun that one could play for hours, mission after mission, and not notice the time pass by.
There are more weapons in this games (including all the weapon upgrades per weapon there are about twelve different weapons in the entire game).
There are also these really cool cars you can control.
The best part of the game, though, is definitely the plot line.
There is a great plot in this game with a lot of character development so you get to know the characters very well.The things this game promises are all there, it does conclude what the trilogy was about, it does tell about who Mar really was, and it does explain who the Precursors are (which ends up being very unexpected).
The thing about Mar, however, was a little bit too predictable.
I knew before even playing Jak 3 who Mar was going to become, and if one who reads this thinks he or she knows who it is without playing it, chances are he or she is correct.
Aside from that this is an awesome game and I recommend it to anyone, thirteen or older, who wants to play a great adventure game with plenty of action.
I give this game ten out of ten stars!.
An epic finale..
And so the remarkable Jak and Daxter trilogy (pretty much the only video games I actually like) concludes with an epic final act.Jak has been banished by the very people he once saved, and the power-hungry Count Veger (I must suck your blood!
Mwahahahaha!).
He is rescued by Damas, the mysterious King of Spargus, and within it's walls meets the vile Kleiver and the mystical Seem.He finds that the "Day Star", a spaceship, is approaching, and it's residents plan on turning his planet's population (which consists of two cities) into scorch marks.
We are now faced with some good ol' "I Don't Wanna be a Hero!" angst after he is confronted (for lack of a better word) by (the incredibly irritating) former-Krimson Guard Ashelin.There are several plot holes- why doesn't anyone care that Jak has just strolled into Haven City when he was banished (including Count Dr- Veger)?
Why does nobody seem to be surprised that AN ORANGE RAT IS TALKING TO THEM?!
There are also a superb amount of clichés, and the dialog can often be painful (anything said by Damas makes you want to burn a dictionary).
But this is still an entertaining game, even if video games ARE inferior entertainment to books, music and movies..
Amazing.
Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy was fairly good and easy to get into, while Jak II was well designed but extremely difficult, this is the finale to the series, and it is amazing.With an all new story several all new open ended locations, there is a lot to do in beating this game.
What makes it better than the second one is that it's less harder.
The music score is okay, it doesn't seem to catch my ears that much.
Haven City isn't so big and hard to get around, and the missions and mini games are a lot easier than the second one.Jak 3 is the excellent climatic ending to the series and has a very great plot indeed, the characters are very interesting, and old characters are brought back.Overall, a 9.8 out of 10.
Great game indeed!.
Great Last episode, except for one problem..
I don't know weather if it was a case of the developers had lost all sense of creativity or if they thought they were being funny and cute, either way they have managed to turn a potential epic trilogy in the Jak universe, into a pile of cute rubbish.
I am of course referring to final revealing of the precursors, yes those great beings that we keep hearing of and seeing gigantic constructions of.
yes I nearly cried my eyes out when they revealed the true being of a precursor, was expecting a fantastic and cool looking character to emerge what I got was a huge disappointment.
on the other hand though the rest of the game is genies, slightly better than the second and a much epic feel was given to the story plot, and of course it all ties in well with the rest of the story and it makes no mistake ending the great series.
expect everything in the second game then double it and add some cool new cheats and characters and thats Jak 3 in a nut shell.