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Daxter (PSP) Status: Finished playing I started playing this game on Friday 6 June, 2008 // I stopped playing this game on: Thursday 17 July, 2008
Current opinion of this game
Very by the numbers platforming with a somewhat annoying camera.
July 17, 2008 11:32:36 AM
The end was nearer than I thought! (thankfully...I was starting to get a bit bored by now). 85%, I found 2 secrets, I think...quite a few other things, unlocked all the mini-game extras... I think that of the entire game, what I enjoyed the most were the mini-game extras. (playable movie-spoofs that improve your powers/skills) Curiously, the first one (The Matrix) was the one that I found the hardest, while I enjoyed the last one (the Fellowship of the Ring) the most, and didn't sweat much to clear it. It's a neat idea...and makes this game one of the few examples of playing a dream! (Daxter's power dreams, no less)
July 15, 2008 11:23:52 PM
Not much to say, because not much has happened. I've been making progress and there isn't really anything all that special about Daxter. That said, there is something kind of strange in this game which has to do with how certain "events" are marked as "cleared" or not. As far as I can tell, this is how it works: (1) Precursor orbs: If you collect an orb, it's added to your total for that level and you never, ever have to get it again. If you die, it doesn't matter. (I'm not sure what happens if you quit, or what happens if you simply shut down) (2) Secret items: Same as precursor orbs (3) Enemies Ah! This is where it gets interesting. Each level is segmented into sections that are essentially unmarked. You can't really be sure if you've transitioned from one section to the next until you've died and see where you restart. Basically, if you die, you restart at the beginning of the section you've reached that is closest to the end. (not necesarilly the beginning of the section you were actually in, so if you backtrack, you can die and "warp" ahead as it where). Now, the enemies in the section closest to the end are "reset". If you killed them once, you'll have to take them out again. They don't reset (ie, they stay dead) if you reach the next checkpoint. Where it gets pretty weird is if you miss an enemy in a section, reach the next section, backtrack to the previous section, kill the enemy, move on to the next section, die. You might think that the enemy you just killed would stay dead, but no! It won't stay dead until you reach the following checkpoint! This can get pretty annoying if you're going for that 100% completion because an enemy might come back which you've assumed is gone, and you're enemy tally will be short a few bugs. I've been burned by this a few times....and it's pretty unintuitive in my opinion.
June 19, 2008 07:02:18 PM
Compared to Sly Cooper, Daxter seems amazingly bland and uninspired. In fact, it even feels "clunky" to play. I've had to re-play certain sections because I didn't notice that there was a hole in the platform I was on, or I was unable to move the camera around to an angle that helped me see where I wanted to go. Or, I was able to kill and enemy that had clipped through the geometry and wasn't visible anymore (and, to make matters worse, I wasn't able to recover the "gem" it provides upon death, thus limiting my sucess on that particular mission). I guess the mistake is mine, by playing two games that are similar in gameplay so close to each other (temporally speaking). On the other hand, it has been an interesting exercise in noting those differences. I'm sure that I would be much more pleased with Daxter had I not played Sly so recently. On a more positive note, I really got a kick out of Daxter's dream. Not so much the gameplay as the spoof on the Matrix. Very entertaining and unexpected as well. I only recently realized that there are more (activated by jumping on a bed, the first one triggered automatically)! I also just noticed that in order to "unlock" more dreams I have to collect the precursor orbs that litter most areas. I'm glad I got that one worked out because I was starting to wonder as to the purpose of all these orbs since I hadn't been able to find a shop or something to spend them, and there were no other options in the main menu (or any of the in-game menus either) that referred to these orbs. It is only by chance that I realized that you can jump on the bed to play dream sequences and that "new" ones are opened upon amassing the requisite amount of orbs. So far I've played the Matrix, Braveheart, and Lord of the Rings ones. Fun, but a bit repetitive...

Daxter (PSP)