People that know me for at least a year would know I didn't like Jak 1 as a kid. In fact one of my first reviews on this site is just me saying it's boring and that I'd stop to play either a Sly game I had or Ratchet & Clank 2 since that was the only game from it I had.

Well after a random bout of setting up the PC port... I got caught in its grasp and finished it for the first time ever. It would've been two days if I didn't have work on Thursday, even. So... yea, consider me a fan of the game after all these years.

Compared to the aforementioned PS2 platformer series, this one definitely focuses more on a very simplistic story where things just kinda happen and it's all connected to a narrative. Now I am NOT saying this as criticism, just that in contrast to Sly and R&C, which were story-driven platformers in different ways, Jak 1 is focused purely on platforming and collecting the power cells in a sandbox environment I'd say is comparable to the Ape Escape and Spyro series. Outside the double jump feeling pretty bad, every aspect of the controls are fluid and responsive, making it so that a majority of my falls were on me and not the game. The Zoomer (poor unfortunate ageing due to modern lingo) and Flut Flut, surprisingly enough, also feel really good, or at least more than I expected since this was during the time where vehicle gimmicks in games were becoming more commonplace. It's also nice that, while mainly using the same structure, there's a bit of variety in terms of objectives and what to do, coupled with each area feeling as long as they should at that.

Really, a lot of the core gameplay is simple yet very well executed, the only bad thing I have to say about it is that bosses are way too simple to be anything memorable. So what makes this go from a "good" to a "great" experience for me? The atmosphere and worldbuilding. Even after 21 years this game holds up so well in terms of art direction, like each area having its own sense of weather and art direction, as well as graphical looks like character models and texture works, bearing in mind some of the little details and lighting touches aren't fully available in the PC decomp (though do not worry, it's 100% playable from start to finish and I faced little to no major issues, otherwise I wouldn't be logging this now would I?). As contentious as Naughty Dog is nowadays, you can't knock their technical capabilities, such as there being a seamless world where you don't really "see" a loading screen, all tied together with a VERY good OST. I wouldn't say it's been a while since I played a game for the first time and got such an awe as to what I was doing, but it's still something that continuously impressed me as I went along.

So... yea. I can finally understand how and why this game has held itself to so many people's hearts and memories. I'm always gonna be a Sly Cooper fan, but I'm definitely raring to see what 2 and 3 are like, and maybe the games after if I'm up for it.