A darker departure from the first game, but also probably better.
The gameplay takes a significant departure from the first game. Rather than focusing on a Super Mario 64 style of gameplay with eco powers, the game is now mission based and includes weapons. But unlike Shadow the Hedgehog, this approach actually works. The game is set up in a sort of Grand Theft Auto fashion where you travel form one mission to the next throughout Haven City. The city is populated with plenty of citizens as well as the Baron's many guards. The slightest tap on the shoulder is enough to send an entire army after you. Sometimes this will happen automatically during some missions since you will be doing wrong doing on purpose. Don't bother trying to fight them all off as they will never stop coming after you and you'll most likely die before you can spend more than a few minutes. Just run away and get to a safe spot until they stop looking.
To help you get around this huge city are various vehicles you can hijack. This is the biggest issue that I have in terms of the controls for this game. While the controls work well most of the time, the vehicles are either stiff, slippery, or both and it can be hard to make turns without bumping and crashing. This can be a problem in the missions that require you to use these vehicles.
As mentioned earlier the gameplay style is more mission based. You'll be going to one person after another each with a specific job that is candid to the story. Each mission has you doing a variety of tasks like any other platformer, like collecting items, taking out targets, classic platforming, racing, etc, so at least there's plenty of variety. This game is also much harder than its predecessor. Chances are you are going to die or retry missions a number of times because of how much more difficult the enemies are and how much health you lose. But ultimately you'll lose out of challenge most of the time, though some moments feel cheap.
There are also plenty of items like dark eco orbs that fill up a meter for your new powers, ammo clips for your weapons, and the return of precursor orbs, which don't play as much of a prominent role here unlike the first game and there are less of them around. The newest additions to the series include weapons like a shot gun and machine gun, which make taking out hordes of enemies much easier. Another new addition is Jak's dark powers caused by the experimentation. When you collect enough dark eco orbs you'll be able to transform into a darker version of yourself in which you have stronger, much faster attacks. The precursor orbs can be used to obtain new powers.
Just like with the first game, this is also a very pleasing game to look at. While the environments themselves look quite nice, the character models are a big stand out. They have the same unique look from the first game and have fantastic facial expressions and animations to them. The environments are of course much darker and grittier to suit the new tone of the game. However, despite the darker approach the game manages to keep a quirky sense of humor. The voice acting and dialog of course bring that humor together. This is also the first time Jak actually gets to speak and his voice actor manages to do a good job. The music is rather forgettable however. The music is fine, but none of the tracks really seem to stand out.
To sum things up:
PROS:
-Great graphics and art style
-Excellent character models
-Excellent characters period
-Fantastic voice acting
-Good story
-Quirky humor
-A good change of pace that actually seems better than the first game
-Good controls for the most part
-A good amount of variety of gameplay
CONS:
-Vehicle controls
-Some cheap moments
-Music is forgettable
If you enjoyed the first game and don't mind the darker direction, chances are you'll enjoy this game. This game is much longer than the first game also. Your first time through should take you around 15 to 20 hours to complete. However I really don't see too much replay value in this. But while it lasts, Jak 2 is a great departure from the original core gameplay while still keeping some of the same great elements like the graphical style and humor. If you're up to the game's challenge, then by all means play it because it's worth it.