So, a friend of mine give me a PS plus code, and I downloaded Jak and Dexter games.
I completed the first one: boring and too easy. There's not a story, only "defeat the evil guys" but it's okay, it's only a platformer and this is no an issue. But the game is still boring and too easy, you collect power cells...again and again. Only three bosses, easy as hell.

Then, I tried Jak 2, and now I appreciate Jak 1. Oh, this game is a mess!
First, the overworld is the wost thing I ever seen in a platformer game: it's useless and boring.
When you steal a vehicle, driving it is crazy, because you CAN'T do it without killing people, no matter if you stay on the ground or in the air, you will ALWAYS hit something. And if you stay on the ground level, you will hit several wall...again and again. Plus, the camera doesn't follow your character, so you must manually adjust it while driving.
Driving also is pretty sluggish.
The, there are main missions...and they are hard.
They are not that hard, of course, but the game lack of checkpoints is frustrating me. Every time I die, I mut restart the whole mission from the beginning.
The "dark" Jak is pretty useless until now.
And then, again, when you take a mission, you must come back to the character that gave it to you...overworld again.

I loved the first three Crash Bandicoot games, I love Uncharted saga and Last of Us too, but I simply hate Jak & Dexter.

I actually liked the first game. It does nothing new and special but I thought it was pretty solid and entertaining in what it does. I didn't mind the comparatively low difficulty and absence of frequent boss battles, it made playing the game relaxing and enjoyable for me and motivated me to complete it. I didn't find it boring because I thought there was quite a few variety in settings and gameplay, more than I expected, with several mini-games and lots of free exploring, collecting and quests to do.

But I'm with you on the second game. I couldn't be bothered to play through it, because everything I liked about the first game was removed in the second. The first was all about exploration and collectables, with just a light and unimportant story wrapped around it, the second game, from what I've seen, is very linear, puts the story in the foreground and takes it too serious. The first was colorful and cheery, the second is bleak and boring. I liked how in the first game the hero did not say a single word, in the second, as soon as he opened his mouth, I started to dislike him. I thought he was a cool and relaxed guy but he too takes himself too serious. My experience with cruising the streets of the city were similar to yours; and I thought it was quite ironic that the second game superficially introduced some kind of big GTA city where you can roam the streets at will but actually there's nothing to do in it except go from point A to B like you're told in order to complete your linear missions.

I read the first two games are the best in the series, so I gave up on it. I didn't regret playing the first Jak & Daxter though. And I don't know about overestimated. Personally I hadn't heard anything about these games before trying them, which might not say much, but I doubt they are overly popular compared to other series.

I discovered Naughty Dog thanks to Uncharted. I have enjoyed all three episodes a lot. The Last of Us is among my favorite games. After hearing so many recommendation to play Jak and Dexter, I tried the first game. Maybe it's just my cold attitude towards a majority of platformers but it had so different vibe and wasn't fun at all. The only motivation seemed to be hoarding of these eggs and other things sweetened by mild interaction with characters. I can imagine playing it on my way to work to kill time at most.

I never played Jak and Daxter, but I did enjoy the Crash games on the PS1 and the Uncharted ones on PS3, maybe I should give that one a try since I've liked the rest of Naughty Dog's output.

Now one game that I played the demo of and just thought "really? this is what people say are so great?" was Ratchet and Clank, don't ask me which one, I know they have a gazillion games and I don't remember which one it was.

I wouldn't say it's overstimated. Out of all Naughty Dog games Jak and Daxter is probably the most unknown and the one that receives the least praise. I did enjoy the first one a lot, and it's pretty easy to see that it was heavily inspired by Rare's "collect-a-ton" platformers for the N64. It does a very good job for what it tries to achieve, the levels are very varied, the characters are great (especially Daxter) and exploring is really fun. It's not as good as Rare's games, but Jak and Daxter does get everything right.

Now, i haven't played the other games in the series, but from what i know they changed the game completely on Jak 2. The issue about the game being too difficult and unfair is actually a common complaint mentioned even by the reviewers at that time.

I am the opposite I liked Jak II and cannot get into 1. But I will not deny that Jak II is one of the hardest games I ever played, there is this race mission that you have to go through every checkpoint and if you miss one its game over, and not only that the checkpoints also makes your vehicle go faster so you have to drive as perfect as you can.

But in the end though I mostly prefer the Rachet and Clank series, heck I even liked Rachet Deadlocked (in Europe its called Rachet Gladiator)

I remember having fun playing J&D back then but never touched J2. But it seems like everyone just slam on it over and over again. What a shame really.

Btw if you love good game with actual deep story slipped in go and play the Sly Cooper trilogy and also the new fourth games.

Say no to kiddy games.

^ Obvious troll is obvious. 2/10. Try harder.

I love how people are judging 2003 games with the expectations of decade-later quality.

I think the main concern about Jak 2 is more about the awful gameplay. I like the first Jak and Daxter though.

Ratchet and Clank series on the other hand got more love.

I'm serous, I hate kiddy games xD Jak Ratchet Rayman Psychonauts Mario Pokemon. Adults should be ashamed of playing them - that is an order.

Whatever you say racer hitler.

My complain isn't related to "actual" game, because I don't judge a game ten years old comparing it to current games. Simply, Jak 2 for me is horrible (now and even if I've played it on D1), so I uninstalled it (and I completed Omikron instead of that).

I played Sly Cooper games and they are simple but funny as hell, I liked those.
And for Ratchet and Clack...for me is boring. I fully played one game (the one where you can play with other three human players, can't remember the game, but was free on Ps Plus for EU user) and tried demo of other titles, but it is nothing special at all, for me. Too simple (smash crates, kill enemies, defeat easy bosses and so on). I like platformer like Rayman Origins or Giana Sisters, Sonic games too, but those adction adventure platformer are not for me :P

I've played the Jak and Daxter games for the first time this year on the PS3 HD collection

The first one was...ok, nothing special and pretty bland but playable
The second one was just boring, stretched out and had far too much padding and worthless things that you didnt care about
The third one was actually pretty good, I played it from start to end and I liked it

The best game in the series by far though is Daxter on PSP, that game was absolutely Amazing, I loved every second of it