Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy is a platform game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment and is the first video game in the Jak and Daxter series. It was released exclusively for the Sony PlayStation 2 on December 3, 2001 for North America, December 7, 2001 for Europe and December 20, 2001 for Japan. To date, the game has sold 4.2 million copies. [1]
The story begins with a narration by Samos the Sage, master of the Green Eco. He speaks cryptically of the Precursors, the masters of the universe and creators of all life on the planet, and the powerful substance known as Eco. Meanwhile, Jak and his mischief-making best friend, Daxter, are making their way to Misty Island, against Samos' warnings. After arriving, they see two people plotting with an army of evil creatures known as Lurkers. The duo, worried by what they are seeing, prepare to leave, but are attacked by a large Lurker. Jak manages to destroy it using a barrel of Eco, but the explosion throws Daxter into a pool of Dark Eco. Daxter flies back out of the pit, transformed into an ottsel (a hybrid of an otter and a weasel), but otherwise unharmed. Returning to their village of Sandover, they seek help from Samos who states that only Gol Acheron, the Sage of Dark Eco, could change Daxter back.
The route North towards Gol is blocked by Fire Canyon, which can only be traversed with Keira's Zoomer (essentially a hoverbike) equipped with a heat shield fueled with enough Power Cells (spheres of energy). After Jak and Daxter collect enough Power Cells they make their way back to the Blue Sage's village. The village at the end of the canyon has been mostly destroyed by a giant cyborg Lurker named Klaww, while the Sage of Blue Eco who watches over the village has mysteriously vanished. Jak and Daxter find themselves in search of more Power Cells to energize an anti-gravity device and unblock the way to Klaww's lair at the peak. After opening a path up the mountain, they defeat Klaww and ride their Zoomer down the mountain to the Volcanic Crater.
Jak makes his way to the Red Sage's laboratory, where he learns that all of the sages except Samos have been kidnapped by the same people who Jak and Daxter saw speaking to Lurkers on Misty Island. The people turn out to be Gol Acheron and Maia Acheron, Gol's sister, who wish to flood the world with dark eco. Jak recovers more power cells so Keira can upgrade the Zoomer heat shield in order to navigate a lava-filled tunnel.
On the other side of the tunnel, in the Yellow Sage's lab, Keira declares that Samos has been captured as well. Journeying through Gol and Maia's citadel, Jak and Daxter first run into Samos (who is the last one they save), and he tells them that Gol and Maia are using all the sage's energies to power their robot, which is powerful enough to break open the Dark Eco silos. Jak and Daxter succeed in freeing the Sages, and then travel to the top of the Dark Eco Silos to confront a reactivated Precursor Robot controlled by Gol and Maia. Jak battles the robot, but only disables it by destroying the robot's weapons. After this, 4 mini-silos, that are attached to the large silo, which each contain a different eco type shoot beams of light towards the middle of the silo in the air above, clashing and forming a pyramid-like shape. This combines all the ecos and forms into light eco.[6] Daxter realizes that the Light Eco would change him back to normal if he were to absorb it, but ultimately allows Jak to use it and disable the robot.[7]
Trapped in the robot, Gol and Maia sink into the Dark Eco silo, which then closes and traps them inside, presumably killing them both; Samos, however, is not certain that this is the case. The group's attention is then directed toward an immense Precursor Door, which can only open with the energy of 100 Power Cells. With the cells, the door opens to reveal an ambiguous large object enveloped in a blinding light; the details are explained in the next game.