Digitaldude's Profile

Naughty Dog's hit series finally makes a comeback to PS2 and PSP and delivers a fun and satisfying platforming experience. Developer High Impact games, also developer of Ratchet and Clank Size Matters and Secret Agent clank have now developed both sides of this Jak vs Ratchet war and proves they are capable of continuing the series. Overall the game was fun, has a decent story and has plenty of unlockables to find.

To begin with, the presentation with Jak and Daxter is nothing too special, I played the PSP version and the game did not stand out in a good or bad way, environments are a bit plain but character models are quite detailed for a handheld. The cutscenes are nicely crafted along with some good voice acting, this makes the story that much easier to follow. From not playing the previous Jak games, I could still understand whats going on which makes newcomers welcome to the series.

The gameplay consists of three different parts, the Jak and Daxter sequences, the Dark Daxter sequences and the dogfight sequences, each aspect has a fair amount amount of time allocated, however I think there was a too great focus on dogfights rather than platforming, some dogfights lasted too long and occurred too often. These different parts keeps the gameplay fresh for the first playthrough, dark Daxter is a strong beast with some easy puzzles and Jak uses melee and gun mods and planes have customizable weapons. Also when playing as Jak, you get Eco powers which can be used in combat or to progress through the game, the good thing is you can use them however you wish. Overall the gameplay in The Lost Frontier is a solid experience, it does not bring anything new but it does it quite nicely, one large problem I did have was aiming the guns, since there is no strafe option, aiming weapons can prove difficult. It didn't help with the PSP having only one analogue stick.

The game has a nice length and finishes when it should, the game is rather easy though, especially when playing as Jak so don't expect a large challenge. There also is no multiplayer so the only reason to carry on playing is to try to collect all weapons and secrets, however the game becomes even easier the second time. There are a vast amount of extras to do, there are arena challenges for Jak, plane challenges and hunting for precursor orbs which can be traded in for secrets like "Big headed Jak". The games humor is slightly immature but it balances out the seriousness of Jak.

Overall I recommend the game to platforming fans and fans of the franchise, even though Naughty Dog is not behind the game, High Impact games steps in well, the game does not look fantastic nor feature new platforming aspects but is a fun and satisfying game to play.