This is HARD

[ipot_04]

Looks like I won't be able to continue this now, my Vita's charging port got broke.

I think this is a good sign telling me to stop playing it at the moment.

Edited June 2, 2015 by ipot_04

[DaivRules]

For those commenting but not paying attention, this is referring to the Vita version of Jak II. Having gotten back into the game after my months-long rage quit, I tracked down a PS2 version and can say with absolute certainty that they play like two totally different games. The PS2 version is child's play after being subjected to the Vita version.

[Jak]

Lol at a couple of the comments here.

 

Everytime I load up the game, I get atleast 1 trophy..... then I rage quit its so hard for me. The checkpoints are just annoying, there's like only 1 per level. Is it just me, or is this game actually hard? Everytime I play, its like my claws are coming-out. How hard do you think this game is? 

 

For you and others, a little tip is that playing the first game helps with the difficulty in the sequel Jak II. I'm saying this because a lot of people have played Jak II first, and I can tell by some (a lot of) exaggerated and blown out of proportion complaints about the game that some people have played this game first.

 

Additionally, the game is mostly only hard because of the spread out checkpoints. That's the only big issue with the game; the checkpoints are too far spread across (but 1 per level is definitely wrong, incredibly wrong).

 

Last piece of advice is that, it's because of the actual flawed-like checkpoint system why trial and error is your greatest friend and tool while playing this game, along with patience. This game is nowhere near.. nowhere near as hard as majority of the players make it out to be. It simply just takes longer than the norm to master this game. This isn't the first game with a learning curve and takes longer to master.

 

 

 

Your right, some of the missions are hard but they are not impossible.  I remember having trouble with the hell cats and those walking bomb robot things.  Practice will get you there and checkout some of the you tube videos on hints on how to beat a level.  They are most certainly doable and control your rage quits :-)

 

This.

 

 

 

 

You're playing it on the worst system anyway, the game is clusterfucked on the Vita. Have fun with that 15-20 fps

 

This is true, but not sure about the "clusterfucked," otherwise the game would have ideally been given at least one patch.

 

 

 

Is Jak 3 a bit more easier than Jak 2?

I've only finished Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy.

 

A bit more easier? No, it's much easier. Jak 3 still has a decent amount of difficultly, but it's nothing compared to Jak II. Jak 3 also has an actual proper and fair designed checkpoint system. Jak II makes Jak 3 look bad, because people assume since Jak II had a unbalanced checkpoint system alongside personal issues with the aspects of Jak II, that Jak 3 would be similar to just like it. Jak 3 fixed and tweaked a lot of the issues Jak II had. Jak 3 is the overall better game as well.

 

 

 

I tried this game out and didn't like it at all....I regret adding the whole series to my trophy collection. It just doesn't click with me.

 

Jak and Daxter doesn't seem like a Naughty Dog series to me.

 

This is honestly pretty sad. Jak and Daxter: TPL and Jak 3 were solid and fairly great developed games for the PS2 in their time. Jak II is always understandable to hate or regret playing or adding to your collection, but the other games should have differing opinions from Jak II and in general.

 

Completely false; you're just biased (because of troubles you had with Jak II, and possibly the other installments). Jak and Daxter: TPL especially seems like a ND game and Jak 3 seems like a ND game. These games have all the qualities of ND's game-making talents: the excellent story telling, the satisfying and good quality graphics, the amount of cut-scenes, the graphics of the cut-scenes, the characters development (a lot is considered with this one), game-play, humor, the character's (smooth) controls, the level designs, music, the character's interaction with the environment, etc. It's harder to see it with Jak II when you exclude the game's amazing storyline, but the first and third Jak games no doubt are ND masterpieces and work.

 

 

---

Don't know where this talk about the final boss being a pain is. It's moderate difficultly at best.

---

Edited July 8, 2015 by inFAMOUS Precursor

[Aela]

This is true, but not sure about the "clusterfucked," otherwise the game would have ideally been given at least one patch.

 

It's mere hyperbole, genius

[Jak]

It's mere hyperbole, genius

 

(You forgot the ".," genius :^).)

 

My concern was actually not about your term and its literal meaning, it was what you meant behind the word "clusterfucked." You were claiming how bad it was via an exaggeration, but it couldn't have been even 75% as bad as as that, because it would have been given a patch. (But I am aware that it is at least bad on the Vita, luckily not unplayable or broken though.)

[Aela]

(You forgot the ".," genius :^).)

 

My concern was actually not about your term and its literal meaning, it was what you meant behind the word "clusterfucked." You were claiming how bad it was via an exaggeration, but it couldn't have been even 75% as bad as as that, because it would have been given a patch. (But I am aware that it is at least bad on the Vita, luckily not unplayable or broken though.)

 

I stopped adding periods to the end of my posts a few months back

 

And okay, well I'm not caring either way. Don't bother quoting this

Edited July 8, 2015 by Aela

[ZeroXOF]

What is this! Why are people bumping up old threads for no reason? 

[DaivRules]

What is this! Why are people bumping up old threads for no reason? 

 

Probably because they played Jak II for the first time on Vita, checked their trophies on the site and saw the "Recent Forum Posts" to the right of their trophies. They clicked, not caring about when it was started because this is a fairly open, subjective topic that will not have a definitive end. The thread is merely 6 weeks old, and the posters didn't feel it was for no reason, or they wouldn't have posted.

 

I'm sorry this is so upsetting to you. Enough to use an exclamation point!

[ZeroXOF]

Probably because they played Jak II for the first time on Vita, checked their trophies on the site and saw the "Recent Forum Posts" to the right of their trophies. They clicked, not caring about when it was started because this is a fairly open, subjective topic that will not have a definitive end. The thread is merely 6 weeks old, and the posters didn't feel it was for no reason, or they wouldn't have posted.

 

I'm sorry this is so upsetting to you. Enough to use an exclamation point!

 

......................................... K

[jka121]

On 5/28/2015 at 2:56 AM, KillLaGil said:

and FYI , you can use "Inviciblity" and "Infinity dark jak" from secrets menu

just press X in last 2 "????????" in secrets menu in start screen , you don't even need single orbs or complete game

 

"infinity ammo" not works btw, even tough its toggleable

Im gonna try that

On 7/9/2015 at 3:17 PM, DaivRules said:

Probably because they played Jak II for the first time on Vita, checked their trophies on the site and saw the "Recent Forum Posts" to the right of their trophies. They clicked, not caring about when it was started because this is a fairly open, subjective topic that will not have a definitive end. The thread is merely 6 weeks old, and the posters didn't feel it was for no reason, or they wouldn't have posted.

 

I'm sorry this is so upsetting to you. Enough to use an exclamation point!

This is my first time, I got the Jak collection for the vita and not ps3 because I gat Jak and daxter TPL seporate. I never had a ps2

 

Edited January 17, 2018 by jka121

[firepork08]

Everytime I load up the game, I get atleast 1 trophy..... then I rage quit its so hard for me. The checkpoints are just annoying, there's like only 1 per level. Is it just me, or is this game actually hard? Everytime I play, its like my claws are coming-out. How hard do you think this game is? 

This game is pretty much known for being quite hard lol I cant get past the 3rd mission although I haven't tried much it is hard

[PSNP is crap i left]

Jak 2 has always been infamous for being the hardest in the series and i absolutely agree. It's not really "hard" per se, more like annoying. Its lack of checkpoints and horrible level design is the main problem here, and don't forget the enemies deadshot accuracy. Really, all you have to do in this game is not give up and you'll "eventually" complete it. 1 & 3 are absolute jokes compared to 2 and i've played the trilogy multiple times, not so much Jak 2 because of the above stated reasons.

 

EDIT: @3DS Master Race Even if this is a kind of old thread, i'm allowed to share my opinion about the game. 

Edited July 10, 2015 by Oblivion

[Super-Fly Spider-Guy]

What is this! Why are people bumping up old threads for no reason? 

I don't wanna be that dick because I've seen you around here a bit and actually quite like you, but would you prefer he made yet another topic for something that already existed? At least the repeats are contained in one thread.

[ZeroXOF]

I don't wanna be that dick because I've seen you around here a bit and actually quite like you, but would you prefer he made yet another topic for something that already existed? At least the repeats are contained in one thread.

 

EDIT: @3DS Master Race Even if this is a kind of old thread, i'm allowed to share my opinion about the game. 

 

Guys, I'm cool with your reasons. I have no beef with it, I saw a bit of arguing and thought the bumping wasn't needed. Super-Fly Spider-Guy, you weren't being a dick and there's nothing wrong with that. 

[LunchCannon54]

I tried this game out and didn't like it at all....I regret adding the whole series to my trophy collection. It just doesn't click with me.

 

Jak and Daxter doesn't seem like a Naughty Dog series to me.

 

What, so you mean it's actually good and isn't a generic shooter? Like they used to be before Uncharted?

 

See, this is the ND fanbase now. They've been brought up on complete and utter tripe and when something doesn't fit that they're surprised. 

 

Naughty Dog are dead to me, now. They are too far gone down the generic shitheap of Triple A gaming. 

 

 

That being said, though the Vita versions are fucking atrocious and that's what OP was referring to. I only played the first one and platted it on Vita and even that ran like shit. Apparently 2 and 3 run like fucking slideshows at times. Whatever you do, only play the PS3 versions as they are great HD ports and are incredibly smooth; the Vita versions are pretty much an affront to gaming. There is no excuse for such a sloppy port. At least it's free with Cross-Buy. 

Edited September 28, 2015 by LunchCannon54

[Mayadome]

Jak 2 is only hard because it's a terribly designed game. The platforming is bad, the hoverboard is janky, the environments are designed to screw you over as much as possible and the "open world" areas are filled Krimzon Guard and serve only to annoy and obstruct your movement around the city. The entire game is just so bad that I really don't get why people like it. The open world is lifeless and has no point other than getting from point A to B. To compare it to GTA is absolutely laughable. It's such a huge disappointment after the great Jak and Daxter. The third game is much better at least.

As for the Vita version... I can't believe they actually released it. It's the worst port of a game I've ever seen. The only saving grace is that it doesn't seem to freeze. The frame rate is below 20 most of the time and considering how strict the mission structure in Jak 2 coupled with the entire lack of a proper checkpoint system, it's a recipe for frustration. Jak 2 is a bad game made even worse by a sloppy port.

Edited October 3, 2015 by Mayadome

[SRS_77_Awesum]

Jak 2 reminded me of why flying cars should NOT be a thing in the future. God damn! I crashed into randoms and the stupid music that keeps coming when the guards are after you. It was A CHORE to get to mission starts. Plus for the ammo I'd kill myself over and over and collect ammo. The part by the water where millions of guards spawn and you have to escape and the tank part just had me like FUCK THIS GAME. Platted it in a week with college in between.

[Varazdinbmx]

Ratchet and Clank is much better than this

[Hogie838]

This game has me RAGING like I have never RAGED before! The camera angles are awful. I have to use inverted camera because when I switch it to flipped then jak is inverted when I try to move. The pad underneath the vita for L2 and R2 is ridiculous, I was stuck on the palace section for 3 hours (one little section that should be easy enough) because when I tried to press R2 to stop the hover board I wasn't pressing in the right place and kept gliding off the ledge. And the checkpoints! I'M SORRY - BUT ARE THERE ANY???? Possibly it's a lot easier on the PS3 but I'll never know because I never want to find out. I HATE THIS GAME....

[aniamalina]

I play through Vita version and it is sometimes frustrating and difficult, mainly due to poor controls / camera / framerate, not actual game difficulty. PS3 remake was fine and I don't remember such difficulties on PS2 either. R2 / L2 / R3 / L3 on the touch screen are killer. I found out it works much better sweeping fingers on the screen rather than just pressing. Helped with going ON/OFF hover board big time. I'm into Weapons Lab level towards the end so hopefully will be able to finish it, again. The game itself is great, bar the broken Vita port

[Elliot]

This game is ridiculously, unreasonably hard in places. I nearly popped an artery playing Get Seal Piece at Water Slums, because it's unbelievably unfair. It's absolutely terrible because you have so little control over your win state.

 

You have to fight your way past a lot (probably over 100) guards, which fall from dropships. Dropships cannot be destroyed, and will infinitely bring more guards. You can't run and gun through because dropships shoot you if you get too close, but you can't wait to clear them because they'll come back with more guys. There are multiple dropships that spawn at once from opposite sides, except even with the spin-shoot move, you can only shoot the guards that are on-screen, but guards that are behind you are off-screen, and even if you could use the spin-shoot move, you'd run out of ammo before half-way because it uses up ammo about four times faster than shooting normally. The guards behind you are still extremely aggressive and shoot at you constantly, with a pretty high percentage to hit. You can get hit four times before you die, and there are no health pickups along the way.

 

So, you can't fight your way through, but you only have to get to a point in the distance, right? So just zoom through on the hoverboard, right? Oh, boy. This is some of the worst designed terrain for hoverboarding in the entire game, there are hundreds of objects to collide with on your way, and if you hit anything, because of the knockback, it's off the narrow platform and into the drink, which means you get insta-killed by a drone in the water. You have to ride perfectly without hitting anything and getting knocked off, but if you're too slow, you'll be knocked off your board by guards. You can also be randomly shot by dropships who like to shoot you about 25% of the time but otherwise leave you alone for no reason. You can collide with turrets on the dropships that are way above your head. You can collide with pedestrians that spawn randomly and about 25% of the time have a hitbox and will send you to your instant death, but other times will let you pass just fine. You have to do all of this in the unsteady 15FPS offered by the Vita version with the lack of precision from the tiny analogue nub as the game can't be played on PSTV. It took me about 2.5 hours of real time to get through using this, though the finished run was about 40 seconds long, having never even got half-way through after an hour of trying the combat method.

 

This is legitimately the worst game design I've seen in well over a year, the only things that have even come close to making me as angry as this was a game with even worse lag issues called Cosmophony (which demanded 3+ minutes of millisecond-precision perfection). Ultimately it comes down to the fact that the difficulty doesn't come from any well-designed challenge, which can be rewarding and engaging. The difficulty came from the fact that it's so poorly designed and has so many random factors so as to make whether you win or lose almost totally down to luck than to any discernible skill. It's absolute trash.

 

Sod this game. Worst thing Naughty Dog's ever made by a country mile.

[MMDE]

13 minutes ago, Elliot - Pie said:

This game is ridiculously, unreasonably hard in places. I nearly popped an artery playing Get Seal Piece at Water Slums, because it's unbelievably unfair. It's absolutely terrible because you have so little control over your win state.

 

You have to fight your way past a lot (probably over 100) guards, which fall from dropships. Dropships cannot be destroyed, and will infinitely bring more guards. You can't run and gun through because dropships shoot you if you get too close, but you can't wait to clear them because they'll come back with more guys. There are multiple dropships that spawn at once from opposite sides, except even with the spin-shoot move, you can only shoot the guards that are on-screen, but guards that are behind you are off-screen, and even if you could use the spin-shoot move, you'd run out of ammo before half-way because it uses up ammo about four times faster than shooting normally. The guards behind you are still extremely aggressive and shoot at you constantly, with a pretty high percentage to hit. You can get hit four times before you die, and there are no health pickups along the way.

 

So, you can't fight your way through, but you only have to get to a point in the distance, right? So just zoom through on the hoverboard, right? Oh, boy. This is some of the worst designed terrain for hoverboarding in the entire game, there are hundreds of objects to collide with on your way, and if you hit anything, because of the knockback, it's off the narrow platform and into the drink, which means you get insta-killed by a drone in the water. You have to ride perfectly without hitting anything and getting knocked off, but if you're too slow, you'll be knocked off your board by guards. You can also be randomly shot by dropships who like to shoot you about 25% of the time but otherwise leave you alone for no reason. You can collide with turrets on the dropships that are way above your head. You can collide with pedestrians that spawn randomly and about 25% of the time have a hitbox and will send you to your instant death, but other times will let you pass just fine. You have to do all of this in the unsteady 15FPS offered by the Vita version with the lack of precision from the tiny analogue nub as the game can't be played on PSTV. It took me about 2.5 hours of real time to get through using this, though the finished run was about 40 seconds long, having never even got half-way through after an hour of trying the combat method.

 

This is legitimately the worst game design I've seen in well over a year, the only things that have even come close to making me as angry as this was a game with even worse lag issues called Cosmophony (which demanded 3+ minutes of millisecond-precision perfection). Ultimately it comes down to the fact that the difficulty doesn't come from any well-designed challenge, which can be rewarding and engaging. The difficulty came from the fact that it's so poorly designed and has so many random factors so as to make whether you win or lose almost totally down to luck than to any discernible skill. It's absolute trash.

 

Sod this game. Worst thing Naughty Dog's ever made by a country mile.

 

Jak 2 is honestly a pretty easy game with the exception of the gun range stuff. It does however have a lot of flaws and does rely on luck.

 

The fighting your way through guards part is pretty easy IMO, but it might be relying on luck. Can't remember how I do it, but it's one of the 3 places or something in the game where I usually die some few times. 1. The sewer, which with some trial and error you will do just fine. 2. The portion you fight your way through a lot of guards, just try various stuff and you'll make it. No need to use the hoverboard or anything like that. Usually takes me like 5 maybe 10 minutes max. 3. The last boss, which has an exploit.

 

I don't think the VITA made it any easier for you, with the low frame rate.

 

The bad game design of Jak 2 is:

 

1. Well hidden missable collectibles.
2. Removed any kind of counter of where the collectibles are, something they had done well in the first game.
3. The city is just a mess. It's boring, just a chore to run through, the guards are annoying. There's very little to do and the side missions often rely on luck with things like other vehicles spawning inside checkpoints etc. It's all an attempt to copy GTA3, but just doing the boring part, worse. Definitely the worst part of the game.
4. The gun play sucks, things like how poorly it controls.
5. The life system sucks, can't remember details, just remember I always think it sucks when I play the game.
6. Went away from a lot of the good stuff about the adventure genre.
7. Any vehicle controls suck.

 

Have you heard about the debug menu?  

 

https://jadtech.miraheze.org/wiki/Debug_Mode

 

Means you can just fly over the enemies if you wanna to, or just skip the game entirely.

Edited July 7, 2018 by MMDE

[Elliot]

5 minutes ago, MMDE said:

 

Jak 2 is honestly a pretty easy game with the exception of the gun range stuff. It does however have a lot of flaws and does rely on luck.

 

The fighting your way through guards part is pretty easy IMO, but it might be relying on luck. Can't remember how I do it, but it's one of the 3 places or something in the game where I usually die some few times. 1. The sewer, which with some trial and error you will do just fine. 2. The portion you fight your way through a lot of guards, just try various stuff and you'll make it. No need to use the hoverboard or anything like that. Usually takes me like 5 maybe 10 minutes max. 3. The last boss, which has an exploit.

 

I don't think the VITA made it any easier for you, with the low frame rate.

 

The bad game design of Jak 2 is:

 

1. Well hidden missable collectibles.
2. Removed any kind of counter of where the collectibles are, something they had done well in the first game.
3. The city is just a mess. It's boring, just a chore to run through, the guards are annoying. There's very little to do and the side missions often rely on luck with things like other vehicles spawning inside checkpoints etc. It's all an attempt to copy GTA3, but just doing the boring part, worse. Definitely the worst part of the game.
4. The gun play sucks, things like how poorly it controls.
5. The life system sucks, can't remember details, just remember I always think it sucks when I play the game.
6. Went away from a lot of the good stuff about the adventure genre.
7. Any vehicle controls suck.

 

Have you heard about the debug menu?  

 

https://jadtech.miraheze.org/wiki/Debug_Mode

 

Means you can just fly over the enemies if you wanna to, or just skip the game entirely.

Between your points of what's bad, you listed about 95% of the game. The only part that's not listed there are the scarce few actual platforming sections. I agree with a large part about what you said is bad, it's just that I think what's bad is extremely bad and there's so little good that's left.

 

I'd agree with you that a lot of the game isn't that hard - the checkpointing is really bad, the controls are bad but you can at least work around it. I do think that the section I talked about is legitimately ridiculous though, I can only imagine how insanely lucky you'd have to be to not be shot in the back repeatedly by the infinitely respawning guards or the dropships. I definitely don't think I'm alone here given this topic's existence!

 

Yeah, I'm aware of the debug menu, I could have used it here to fly over the guards, you're right, but as I can't debug the collectables I'm trying to do a legit playthrough (except for the orb glitch, because the shooting galleries can burn in hellfire), and after the first hour of bullshit I wanted to see how bad it actually got. The answer is really bad. Once I've beaten the game, I can at least talk authoritatively about it, which is something I like to be able to do and something I can't since I last played the game when it came out and I was 10.

 

 

[NetEntity]

Got the plat today, and, uh, it was easier than back on PS2? I was surprised, even.

There were three main points I was afraid of:

Destroy Ship on Drill Platform mission: back in the day I got through it only by turning off the sound so that the droning music and Daxter's hollering wouldn't distract me, and using the red arrow by the aim reticle as an indicator where to shoot, with Fade to Black blaring in headphones as background noise. This time I still turned off the music, turned on some loud electronic music and stared at the arrow, but it took only three tries to drag myself to the next turret, and from there, it was smooth sailing. As for actual tips on this part, it's pretty much down to focus (follow that arrow) and not letting your gun overheat, so that you'll be able to do as much damage as possible and increase your chances of outlasting the enemy.

Retrieving the Precursor Seal: another "get through by the skin of your teeth" mission, which was defeated... by punching repeatedly. I wish I was kidding, but spamming the punch actually worked really, really well. I wish I knew this before, because on PS2, it was a hellhole. I ended up doing rolls across the wooden scaffolds, then it basically amounted to "get guardpiled, scream in fear at a thought of doing it all again, turn into Dark Jak and book it to the exit". It was one hell of an epic moment, but I'd rather not go through that experience again.

Completing races and gun courses: was solved by watching the videos on Youtube, then slamming my head into skill walls for four-five days or so. And of course, things I were afraid of more turned out to be easier than things I was afraid of less. Go figure.

Edited July 7, 2018 by NetEntity

[Elliot]

7 minutes ago, NetEntity said:

Got the plat today, and, uh, it was easier than back on PS2? I was surprised, even.

There were three main points I was afraid of:

Destroy Ship on Drill Platform mission: back in the day I got through it only by turning off the sound so that the droning music and Daxter's hollering wouldn't distract me, and using the red arrow by the aim reticle as an indicator where to shoot, with Fade to Black blaring in headphones as background noise. This time I still turned off the music, turned on some loud electronic music and stared at the arrow, but it took only three tries to drag myself to the next turret, and from there, it was smooth sailing. As for actual tips on this part, it's pretty much down to focus (follow that arrow) and not letting your gun overheat, so that you'll be able to do as much damage as possible and increase your chances of outlasting the enemy.

Retrieving the Precursor Seal: another "get through by the skin of your teeth" mission, which was defeated... by punching repeatedly. I wish I was kidding, but spamming the punch actually worked really, really well. I wish I knew this before, because on PS2, it was a hellhole. I ended up doing rolls across the wooden scaffolds, then it basically amounted to "get guardpiled, scream in fear at a thought of doing it all again, turn into Dark Jak and book it to the exit". It was one hell of an epic moment, but I'd rather not go through that experience again.

Completing races and gun courses: was solved by watching the videos on Youtube, then slamming my head into skill walls for four-five days or so. And of course, things I were afraid of more turned out to be easier than things I was afraid of less. Go figure.

Ha, your first two difficult moments are definitely my two so far!

 

You didn't use the gem exploit, you did the gun courses properly? Kudos to you, that's some real skill there!