Jak II.
I find myself torn. On one hand, the game was awesome. On the other, I really can't recommend it since it has so much illen in it.
Haven city is huge, and running from one end of it to the other doing random missions never really got old. Nor, surprisingly, was there an abundance of repeat missions. I'm certain there was some that were similar to others...but aside from the driving missions, I can't really think of one that was repetitious of another. No complaints on this end.
Nor with the weapons. Though there were only four, they worked. Jak has a weapon like that in Republic Commando; a single blaster with multiple barrel attachment`. A chain gun, a shotty (every game, ever person on earth needs a shotgun), a standard blaster, and a Peace Maker, a plasma rocket that hits single target and sploots to others near it...I want one of these too. There's a certain amount of strategy involved in usage, too. Especially around teh civvies.
The story was predictable, but that never really stops a story from being enjoyable to me. Jak and crew are (mostly...Daxter can get annoying) fun characters, and most of them are likable. Jak especially, though having anger issues, is a pretty cool guy. Surprisingly worthy of the title hero. It's in the little things, you know? Like the green goatee.
The problem is...the game had so much negative moral content. There are three main female protagonists, and all of them wear skin tight clothing, with two of the three being in short shorts and low-cut, midriff baring tank top. Skin tight, by the way, should really be phrased "I painted on my clothing this morning".
The normal female city dwellers share this trait, though tend to be modest otherwise. There were also posters of scantily clad suggestive females plastered about the city like brain jelly. Not. Cool. Funnily enough, the obligatory empty headed blond lady was voiced by a doctor. The humor was not lost on me.
Language too, surprisingly...Well...not really. I knew all of this stuff was there before hand (I read the review, but it wasn't exactly kosher with the game), but the near constant swearing was a bit stinky for a game (even with the slutty outfits) that was rather childlike in animation style. There's also a lourd of lame sex jokes in the game (none of which were particularly funny, but then, I wouldn't find them as such anyway), including a bird-monkey with a rather inappropriate name. A double entendre should, I feel, show
some wit.
That stuff aside, it continually impressed me that the world is entirely open and about as load-time free as could be. It went the way of Metroid, loading only when you opened doors. Even then, the only indication of this was that the door would sometimes take awhile to open. Freaking epic. The longest wait time was perhaps 5-10 seconds, when I went from a flame filled room and through a portal next door.
It also took me just shy of 15 hours to beat. 14:55 was my final time, and I will add that the game is blazingly hard at times and several of those hours were sucked up in a few spots.
And I only found around 60 precourser orbs, and I don't know the final count. I know there is at least 200.
So yeah. I really enjoyed the game, but I would hesitate to recommend it. Uncertain I want to play the sequel. Or rather, I know I want to, just uncertain I will.