The fourth Jak title is known as Jak X: Combat Racing, and PALGN recently had an opportunity to go "hands on" with a few levels, and we cannot help but feel the game isn't what we were expecting.
The storyline is fairly basic, and provides a formidable excuse for the racing. Combat racing has filled the void left in Kras City after Jak defeated the Dark Maker in his last adventure. The game takes place through an adventure mode, and after being summoned to Kras City, it is revealed that everyone present has been poisoned, and unless an antidote is administered everyone will die. Jak and Daxter must race through the Kras City Grand Championship to save the live of everyone around them; and their own.
That's a huge vehicle!
The full game promises to include twenty tracks, and eight open terrain areas to navigate to the tracks. All the tracks are fully destructible and all up there are going to be 120 tasks to complete, which should see the adventure last awhile.
There are over a dozen vehicles, with more unlockable towards the end of the adventure. All the vehicles are completely customisable and feature their own individual handling. There are also 17 powerups scattered throughout the tracks to slow down your opponants, and they include projectile weapons, ranged weapons, smart bombs, mines, catastrophic attacks, turbos and shields.
For the first time in the series the game will feature full net play. Up to six players are able to play online, and the online system has been fully fleshed out to include a ranking system, buddy list and team play option.
We had the option to go hands on with four race types over two tracks. The two tracks we could go hands on with were 'Forbidden Jungle' and 'Clifftop Battlefield'. The four race types we could play were death match, artefact, death race and circuit.
The action quickly began and we were surprised how large the vehicles were, we weren't expecting such large vehicles, although the view can be changed. The action is very fast, and difficult to initially pick up. Shooting the powerups is easy and there is a speed boost option; which is becoming the norm in every racing game.
The environments are fairly diverse and there were no draw distance problems, there are five new characters introduced, which keeps things refreshing. Even with so much happening at once, we never encountered any slowdown at all, which shows just how much the Playstation 2 can still handle.
Fear me
The game had some noticeable rubberband AI, which left us a little disappointed. It seemed that no matter how far behind or far in front we were the game gave us (or our opponants) some grace, and we were matched again. Rubberband AI is generally not as noticeable as in this game.
Overall we were a little disappointed by Jak X, the previous three titles have been of the highest quality, so seeing Jak in a vehicle is a little surprising. There is still a few weeks until the game is out, so we're hoping Sony polish the gameplay a little before this game is out.
Jak X: Combat Racing is set for release on the 9th of November, 2005 exclusively for the PS2. We'll have a review shortly thereafter, so stay tuned.
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