Joystiq review: Jak X Combat Racing

Jak X: Combat Racing is not an innovative game; chances are you have played a game like this before, be it Mario Kart, Twisted Metal, or Rock n' Roll Racing. However, despite its flaws, Jak X is a fun racer that tries (somewhat successfully) to appeal to both the casual and hardcore audience alike.

Story

The story goes as follows: old, gelatinous jerk Krew has died, and while sipping some vintage wine all those present at the reading of the will discover that Krew as poisoned said wine and that the only way to get the antidote is to win the Kras City Grand Championship in combat racing. Fans of previous Jak games will enjoy the interjected storyline, but ultimately it feels a bit tacked on just to give the game more credibility.

Technical Mumbo-Jumbo
Jak X is a pretty game; the character models are fluid and the cars are detailed. The explosions look very good. A nice little trick Naughty Dog added was the loss of car parts when your buggy's health goes down – the tailpiece, for example, is always the first to go. The physics of the game are somewhat exaggerated, but fits perfectly for a cartoon game of this sort – rolling over like a dune buggy is very amusing. The scenery of the courses, while repetitive, is very rich. This is a nice showcase for the PlayStation 2's graphics, and as with most games this late in the console's cycle, the loading screen is few and far between.

A note on the menu system; Naughty Dog did a great job of making the interface seamless. Navigating through screens is easy and effortless, and they should be applauded for such a well-designed menu.

Jak X also sports some great voice work; like previous iterations of Jak & Daxter, the characters are all very lively in their inflections. Their cartoonish inflections really make the cut scenes enjoyable.
The background music is the generic rock heard in other racers such as F-Zero, which is very effective (and,
thankfully, not a smorgasbord of licensed top 40 tracks). All the audio is compatible with THX surround, which is a nice if unnecessary feature (the game sounds great in basic surround sound or even stereo).

So...how does it play?

The controls for the game are fairly simple, and if you are having problems the over-simplified tutorial will be more than willing to teach you how to accelerate, brake, and turn. The boost button is the most essential; throughout the game you will likely want to hold down the turbo button (R2) as often as you would acceleration. Turning is not as responsive as most unrealistic games, but it makes sense for the size of your vehicle.

You can hold one weapon (acquired via yellow Eco), one rear weapon (red Eco) used for defense. The basic weapons lack variety, falling generally into the category of machine gun or some kind of projectile missile. With games like Twisted Metal or even Wipeout preceding Jak, there is no excuse for some more creativity. The rear weapons, on the other hand,
have a little more flair to them. There are shields, land mines, and even a floating turret that fires at opponents behind you. Defense weapons are a necessity at all times, as homing missiles will be coming at you quite frequently and you will need to be able to deflect them.

Over the course of your game, you will encounter about 10 different modes of play – which is refreshing though some of the modes could use some more work. The standard Circuit Race is there, as is arena-style Deathmatch, but you also have modes like Death Race, where you see how many dummy cars you can destroy, and Freeze Race, a time trial-esque mode where you need to pick up items that "freeze" your time so that you can finish two laps of a course with as little time passed as possible.

Circuit Race and Deathmatch show the game's greatest faults. The courses are too big; one lap around the track will take 2-3 minutes, which can tedious since the scenery is somewhat repetitive. Deathmatch games last about 5 minutes,
but often we felt bored about halfway through. Shorter, more interactive courses might have been a better route to take.

In terms of the game's (cheap) AI and difficulty, the game is both too forgiving to last place and too cruel to first place. No matter how far in last place you are, you can almost always catch up, but if you are in first place, your opponents will be right behind you at all times. You will find many times involved in a heated race, only to be blown up at the last second and drop to 6th place. It is frustrating, especially after having endured a 5-minute race.

Another frustrating feature is the crash highlight camera; very similar to Burnout, every time you crash (or sometimes when you completely destroy an opponent), the camera moves to a dramatic angle to watch the vehicle blow up, and then the screen goes black for a second before you regain control of your car. The effect is very disorienting; we recommend turning these off from the game options as soon as possible.

As a reward for your amazing racing skills, you will receive cash, points to unlock new courses, and new cars and car parts. The cash is nice, as it allows you to upgrade your cars, but the extra car parts feel frivolous – are we supposed to get excited about winning a new side panel? Still, the extras are plentiful, and the amount of customizability for your vehicles is incredible. If you stick with this game, you will want to fully upgrade and accessorize your cars, if only to completely dominate death matches.

If you have any Jak save files on your PS2 memory card, or a save file from the new Ratchet: Deadlocked, you will receive a couple of bonus skins. You also receive a bonus for having a copy of Daxter for your Sony PSP, but unfortunately we did not have a copy of the game to try it out.

Multiplayer

Unfortunately, the online multiplayer was not working when we tried. There were only four games available and they were all too laggy to join. The split screen multiplayer, on the other hand, is more or less a recreation of the single player game, with all the races and race types available. The game runs smoothly in split screen, and although it would have been nice to allow a 4-player mode, having computer opponents fill in the remaining 4 spots was a nice feature.

Conclusion
Jak X: Combat Racing feels at times like a spiritual successor to Blizzard's Rock n' Roll Racing.
Unfortunately; the game feels too generic. If you stick with this game, you will be rewarded with tons of bonus content and a pretty enjoyable racer that can appeal to casual and hardcore fans alike. However, for full retail price, you might be better off picking up Twisted Metal or Burnout.

Score: 7.5