Game Details:

Developer: Naughty Dog
ESRB: E
Genre: Platformer
Release Date: December 4, 2001
Price: $5 USD

Quick Overview:
Pros:

  • The game keeps introducing more game play elements with the Eco, so is doesn’t get boring or repetitive.
  • The Vehicles add another fun was to travel around the world.

Cons:

  • The story isn’t the best.
  • The double jump and rolling jump can get annoying if not timed right.

Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy follows two adventures, Jak and Daxter, on their quest to return Daxter to his original form.  You See the explorers sailed to Misty Island, and Daxter fell into a pool of Dark Eco (more on that later).  The result… Daxter turns into an Ottsel.

Game Play:
The Precursor Legacy has many good game play elements and a few not so good.  Lets start with the good.  The main element , besides the platforming, is Eco.  Eco is a magical and powerful substance found throughout the world.  It comes in a variety of colors and will effect Jak or the environment around Jak in special ways.  There are five different types of Eco: Green, Red, Blue, Yellow, and Dark.  Green Eco is essentially health.  When you collect 50 green Eco orbs you regain 1/3 or your health.  Red Eco increases the power or your attacks.  If there’s an enemy that usually takes two hits to kill it will only take one if Jak has red Eco.  Blue Eco is the most common and useful type of Eco.  With blue Eco Jak can run faster, and jump higher.  Blue Eco also activates Precursor artifacts found throughout the world.  The artifacts range from doors to bridges to stores of Precursor orbs (explanation is coming up).  On top of all that Precursor orbs and green Eco orbs are automatically collected, and chests are automatically broken.  Next up is Yellow Eco.  Yellow Eco is quite useful during battle as it allows Jake to shoot the Eco at on-coming enemies.  Last is Dark Eco.  This is the only Eco that doesn’t help Jak, and is in fact the reason for Daxter’s transformation into an Ottsel.  It’s found throughout the world in Dark Eco boxes and in pools, so stay away!
Jak and Daxter have many items to collect during their adventure.  Including 2,000 Precursor orbs, 72 Scout Flies, and 100 Power Cells.   They can find Precursor orbs scattered throughout each area.  They are in great demand by the NPC’s and can be traded for Power Cells.  Power Cells are the main collectible in the Precursor Legacy; they are needed to advance the story.  Scout Flies are an excuse to allow Jak to collect more Power Cells; collect all seven Scout Flies in an area and Jak gets another Power Cell.In the start menu there’s a a guide which shows you how many of each item are collected and the total amount of each item for every area of the game.

Jak and Daxter have access to two vehicles throughout the Precursor Legacy: A Flut Flut and an A-GraV Zoomer.After collecting 20 Power Cells Jak gets to dirve the A-GraV Zoomer.  The Zoomer can only be used in certain areas of the Precursor Legacy, and can be driven over land and sea.  The only thing wrong with the A-GraV Zoomer is that is has very poor handling , but this may have been intentional by Naughty Dog to add a challenge.  Jak and Daxter befriend a young Flut Flut much later in the Precursor Legacy.  When they do they can speed across areas and jumps to out-of-reach plateaus.  The two vehicles offered to Jak and Daxter gives the player a refreshing break from the normal platforming.

Dieing in the Precursor Legacy not as frustrating as in many games.  There is no game over screen.  It doesn’t boot you back to the title screen.  It short and sweet.  Daxter says something comical and five seconds later Jak is back alive and kicking.
You’ve herad all the good game play elements now lets hear about the bad~Here comes that bad stuff I mentioned~Remeber that the “bad” I mentioned, here it is~And now on to the bad}… the double jump.  The double Jump is very annoying .  If the X button isn't pressed at the exact time Jak won't double jump at all, but fall to his death~If you don’t time the press of the X button just right then Jak will not double jumb, but instead either fall to his death… or somewhere}.  The rolling jump can also use some work.  Many times I find myself jeering off in an unintended direction.  Lets hope that Naughty Dog have fixed this in Jak 2.

Story:

As you’ve already read the story is centered around Jak and Daxter’s Quest to turn Daxter back into his original form after he was transformed by dark Eco into an Ottsel.  There are 4 sages, each who have the power of a different Eco.  They are very cleverly name the Green Sage, Red Sage, Yellow Sage, and Blue Sage.  The Green Sage informs Jak and Daxter that in order to transform Daxter back to his original form he must find the sages. That’s really all I can say without spoiling anything.  Although I can tell that Naughty Dog has an overall plan to build into a deeper story with the next two installments into the Jak and Daxter trilogy, the Precursor Legacy is a bit lacking in the story department.  Don’t go into the Precursor Legacy for the story or you may be a little disappointed.

Graphics and Audio:
The graphics of the Precursor Legacy are what you’d expect from an early PS2 game.  They’re not great, but they don’t ruin the game.  I didn’t even notice, but then again I didn’t look very hard.  To be fair I think that back when this game was released the graphics would have been considered good.  The audio is nothing special, it does what it’s supposed to do.  It makes your blood pump when fighting a boss, makes you feel good when you find a collectible, etc.

Final Words:
Jak an Daxter the Precursor Legacy is definitely worth buying.  It will provide about ten hours of quality platforming for only $5 USD.

I give Jak an Daxter: the Precursor Legacy 7 power cells out of 10