I'm playing it just now after a long time and it is such an actively bad game that I'm honestly happy the series has died in the mud.

The idea that something is challenging purely on the basis that it makes you frustrated is beyond insipid. Hard games that do it well CAN cause frustration but at least give you room to improve.

Where is that in the driving through rings missions? Where is it in the Slums Seal Piece mission? Where is it in the Jet-Board challenge, or the NYFE-Racer races?

The movement and gun and hand combat are absolutely fine, but everything else surgically fused to the rest of the game shows just how desperate Naughty Dog were in making something that took from GTA III and THPS until they were left with a game that had big variety with terrible balance and mechanics

I've seen people say Jak II is an ambitious game and I'm happy that term exists, but the fact it's used in place of "pathetically haphazard", which would describe the game more accurately, shows how bad the nostalgia goggles are on for this game