Jak X: Combat Racing Preview

The opponent clings to your trail, weapons firing. Dodging left and right, you have avoided some of his intended damage, but you are running out of space in the open valley floor. Up and over a hill, and as he loses sight of you, you hit a burst of speed. You will need it to make the jump.

Your vehicle soars out over the sheer drop, agonizingly reaching for the ledge seemingly too far away and down on the face on the rock wall. If you miss, it is a long drop to a reset back in the zone, if you make it – salvation, perhaps. The speed burst did the trick and you smash into the ledge, which in turn leads to a track through the mountain. Brake, spin and watch. If your tailing enemy makes it, he will land to your guns and you may be able to register the kill. If not … well, at least you won’t have to worry about him chasing you for the moment.

He didn’t see the speed burst, and didn’t have enough to carry the chasm. It is a long drop to the reset that waits. Meantime, you now get the chance to be the hunter, rather than the hunted. 

In Fall of 2005, Naughty Dog and SCEA will release Jak X: Combat Racing for the PlayStation 2, a game that is not so much a continuation of the Jak and Daxter story, but rather a side trip that takes one aspect featured in most Jak games and expands upon it with terrific results. The game is about racing and arena combat, and it does include a robust online multiplayer mode that is a great deal of fun.

Naughty Dog showed off the title at a recent Sony event in Santa Monica.  

Of course, while the game is essentially a vehicle combat-racing title, there is a storyline to hold it all together. After Jak defeated the Dark Maker, the cities were all rebuilt and combat racing became a huge crowd favorite. Jak and Daxter received an invitation to the reading of Krew’s Last Will and Testament, but even from beyond the grave, Krew is conniving and menacing. He reveals in his video recording that everyone has been poisoned, even his own daughter – Rayn, and in order to get the antidote, all those assembled (which includes Ashelin, Keira, Samos and Torn) must race in the next Kras City Grand Championship. If they do not, they will die.

Game features will include:

• Jak X: Combat Racing introduces both multiplayer and online modes to the Jak and Daxter franchise.

• Players will be tasked with a large variety of missions with multiple play modes and non-linear progression. Play modes include Racing, Time Trial, Time Box, Death Match and Team Death Match. In addition, special events, bonus tasks on tracks, arenas and large open terrains will be available.

• In the multiplayer (single console) mode, two players can race in high-speed head-to-head action, featuring various character drivers to choose from.

• The online mode allows up to six players to compete, with a full set of online features including Ranking System, Buddy List, Clans, Team Play and more. 

• More than 10 racing tracks with 20 configurations – plus reverse and mirror design – for greater diversity.

• Destructible elements within each track provides players additional challenge and fun.

• Vehicles are fully customizable and feature unique and lively handling characteristics through the utilization of Advanced Rigid Body Physics technology.

• Vehicles will feature progressive damage including parts breaking loose and falling off as they are destroyed in exciting and dynamic crashes.

• Each vehicle has multiple segment “snap-ons” including body parts, accoutrements, decals, paint patterns and colors, along with other special mods. Players can have fun by adding accessories such as fluffy dice, bobble heads, antennae flags and more!

• As an added bonus, gamers who play the PSP version of the pending Jak title will have the ability to unlock Jak X elements such as secret decals, mods, vehicles and a character from Daxter PSP.

“We wanted to expand what we have done,” the folks from Naughty Dog stated. “Jak and Daxter was supposed to be a trilogy – that is done,” so now they are taking and evolving the Jak in a new direction. The goal was to create an “emotional adventure edge” to the racing genre, and if the emotion was joy, then they succeeded. The online mode was available for hands-on and it was wonderfully fun. Online does allow for chatting with other racers with up to six players competing.

Players will have to watch how they configure the weapons on their racing machines, simply because certain weapons will have higher damage impact on certain types of cars. Overall, the game is a combination of arcade racing with console racing upgrades. 

The vehicles were not only responsive, but the control scheme was intuitive. It took little effort to jump behind the wheel and compete. The graphical quality of the game was wonderful, with lush and colorful environments and terrifically challenging tracks. Jak X’s vehicle designs came straight from a developer whom Naughty Dog diverted from heading to work in the Detroit automotive industry, and his imagination has produced some excellent designs. 

This game infuses so much entertainment into the genre of combat racing that it is impossible not to smile when thinking of the limited time on a controller. Keep an eye out for this one; it is going to be a wonderful ride.