Jak X: Combat Racing
The combat's there, but not so much the racing.
Published: October 24, 2005
I'm going to start this review the same way plenty of others probably will: I loved Crash Team Racing to this day it stands as the best kart racing game I've ever played. Let the fools have their one-dimensional Mario Kart, I'll take mine that rewards me for jumps and power slides with turbo, a mechanic that to this day seems to make all other kart racers seem horribly tame by comparison.
I mention this because Jak X follows the exact same pattern Naughty Dog threw down with the Crash Bandicoot franchise they helped create; three amazing platformers followed by a racing game. The difference here is that CTR is still brilliant to this day and Jak X can't even get the racing parts right.
Fortunately, the game usually gets the additional modes beyond circuit races right, but the whole game is built around two very poor dynamics that cause the whole experience to implode about halfway through the game: detailed physics and wimpy ass vehicles that react to every little bump in the road far too well.
By the time you've spent enough money to make out the later cars, a couple of the courses become the playground of the demented, with difficulty and impossible turns designed by sadists for masochists, and the rest of us be damned. It destroys an experience that up until then is populated by more grins and "close-call" victories than I've had in a racer in quite a while.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Ahem.
Dying sucks. But, if you're a smart little blob of fat zipping around on a hoverchair, you learn to anticipate it - especially if you're one of the biggest crime bosses around. Crew, the wheezing, whizzing airbag from Jak II, was no idiot, and thus left rather clear instructions in the event of his demise. It took a while, but the gang was rounded up, and the will read as a special toast was served.
As it turns out, Crew bequeathed but one thing; a win-or-die challenge for something called the Kras City Tournament, the die part coming in because of the poisoned wine they all toasted with. Surprise! Now, Jak and friends must win the tournament or the slow-acting poison will kill them are. Fantastic motivator, that death.
These races are split into four cups, each becoming successively faster and with more pressure from other drivers as "mystery" contestants slowly enter the picture. The storyline isn't exactly deep, but it does help serve as a bridge between races to keep the motivation up. Sadly, the cutscenes lack most of the panache that Naughty Dog is known for, but at least it helps break up the pacing every five or so races.
Aside from the standard circuit race, there are a handful of genuinely nifty race types, and not all of them are bound to a track.
Turbo Dash uses constant turbo boosts to charge a power cell, then shoots the cell out as a weapon and gives you a mine you can drop to fend off any cells screaming for your tailpipe. It's also useful if you just want to ruin someone's day, since getting hit by anything means you lose your power cell and have to race to pick up the next one - all while the competition is happily firing off their own and racking up points. Extra laps act as multipliers.
Freeze Rallies are built for pure speed. Scattered throughout the track are Time Freezers that pause the clock for 2-, 5-, or 10-second bits at a time. The goal is to pick up as many as possible while maintaining speed, but ensure that enough are left around for the second lap to keep the clock in check.
Death Races are more or less what the name implies. You race around and cause as much death as possible to drones repeatedly generated in front of you. Just touching them will cause them to explode, and successive kills add to a combo multiplier. You're given a light machine gun with unlimited ammo, but balancing out pickups for turbo and missles or grenades gives deals far more damage far faster.
Rush Hour events send endless drones at you, and you simply have to hit them. Five or so green drones worth a single point will appear, then two blue ones worth two points, another couple green ones, then a pink one that gets you no points and causes damage if you hit it. The challenge comes from maintaining a tight racing line with slight swerves to hit the oncoming traffic and racking up consecutive hits to build a combo bonus, all while keeping up enough speed to keep the drones coming without blowing up. Like Turbo Dashes, laps mean multipliers.
There are also a handful of arena-style events, including deathmatch and capture the flag (or, uh, power cell) variants, as well as artifact races that have you trying to pick up randomly generated artifacts, and something called Sport Hunt, which has you tracking down enemies to kill them before everyone else. The latter is actually quite fun, but really only appears two or three times in the game, which is a shame.
Online and in multiplayer, you'll get the addition of Time Trial and tag-like Assassin modes. Assassin is more or less a game of tag with the "it" player lit up like the Fourth of July on everyone's HUD.
I mention this because Jak X follows the exact same pattern Naughty Dog threw down with the Crash Bandicoot franchise they helped create; three amazing platformers followed by a racing game. The difference here is that CTR is still brilliant to this day and Jak X can't even get the racing parts right.
Fortunately, the game usually gets the additional modes beyond circuit races right, but the whole game is built around two very poor dynamics that cause the whole experience to implode about halfway through the game: detailed physics and wimpy ass vehicles that react to every little bump in the road far too well.
By the time you've spent enough money to make out the later cars, a couple of the courses become the playground of the demented, with difficulty and impossible turns designed by sadists for masochists, and the rest of us be damned. It destroys an experience that up until then is populated by more grins and "close-call" victories than I've had in a racer in quite a while.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Ahem.
Dying sucks. But, if you're a smart little blob of fat zipping around on a hoverchair, you learn to anticipate it - especially if you're one of the biggest crime bosses around. Crew, the wheezing, whizzing airbag from Jak II, was no idiot, and thus left rather clear instructions in the event of his demise. It took a while, but the gang was rounded up, and the will read as a special toast was served.
As it turns out, Crew bequeathed but one thing; a win-or-die challenge for something called the Kras City Tournament, the die part coming in because of the poisoned wine they all toasted with. Surprise! Now, Jak and friends must win the tournament or the slow-acting poison will kill them are. Fantastic motivator, that death.
These races are split into four cups, each becoming successively faster and with more pressure from other drivers as "mystery" contestants slowly enter the picture. The storyline isn't exactly deep, but it does help serve as a bridge between races to keep the motivation up. Sadly, the cutscenes lack most of the panache that Naughty Dog is known for, but at least it helps break up the pacing every five or so races.
Aside from the standard circuit race, there are a handful of genuinely nifty race types, and not all of them are bound to a track.
Turbo Dash uses constant turbo boosts to charge a power cell, then shoots the cell out as a weapon and gives you a mine you can drop to fend off any cells screaming for your tailpipe. It's also useful if you just want to ruin someone's day, since getting hit by anything means you lose your power cell and have to race to pick up the next one - all while the competition is happily firing off their own and racking up points. Extra laps act as multipliers.
Freeze Rallies are built for pure speed. Scattered throughout the track are Time Freezers that pause the clock for 2-, 5-, or 10-second bits at a time. The goal is to pick up as many as possible while maintaining speed, but ensure that enough are left around for the second lap to keep the clock in check.
Death Races are more or less what the name implies. You race around and cause as much death as possible to drones repeatedly generated in front of you. Just touching them will cause them to explode, and successive kills add to a combo multiplier. You're given a light machine gun with unlimited ammo, but balancing out pickups for turbo and missles or grenades gives deals far more damage far faster.
Rush Hour events send endless drones at you, and you simply have to hit them. Five or so green drones worth a single point will appear, then two blue ones worth two points, another couple green ones, then a pink one that gets you no points and causes damage if you hit it. The challenge comes from maintaining a tight racing line with slight swerves to hit the oncoming traffic and racking up consecutive hits to build a combo bonus, all while keeping up enough speed to keep the drones coming without blowing up. Like Turbo Dashes, laps mean multipliers.
There are also a handful of arena-style events, including deathmatch and capture the flag (or, uh, power cell) variants, as well as artifact races that have you trying to pick up randomly generated artifacts, and something called Sport Hunt, which has you tracking down enemies to kill them before everyone else. The latter is actually quite fun, but really only appears two or three times in the game, which is a shame.
Online and in multiplayer, you'll get the addition of Time Trial and tag-like Assassin modes. Assassin is more or less a game of tag with the "it" player lit up like the Fourth of July on everyone's HUD.
