I’m happy I gave this series another chance after thinking the 1st game was incredibly mediocre. This one has strafing unlocked immediately, more responsive controls, more interesting guns, much better writing that is actually funny, more interesting environments, fun little shooting arenas, enjoyable hub ship to explore, fun minigames, etc. It’s better in every single way.

There’s a constant sense of progression with your guns, so you feel that you are getting more powerful even if you die. You don’t feel like you wasted time by having to backtrack through the level. The gunplay and movement feel so seamless, doing airborne somersaults while simultaneously shooting at baddies. It really feels great to pull off!

I like how this time around the enemies don’t pull any punches at the beginning. It’s actually challenging if you aren’t paying attention, unlike the 1st game where I played the first two levels only taking a couple hits.

I did abandon this game because I was started to get tired of the constant shooting even though it works well. Maybe a little too one note for me, even though the game tries to keep things interesting with different vehicles, minigames, and boss fights. I’m more of a fan of the open feeling level design of Jak and Daxter over this, where I feel like I’m being led down corridors and its obvious how to move forward. It’s still a great game though, just a personal preference.