Jax X: Combat Racing

The plot develops throughout the game's sizeable four-cup singleplayer adventure (with cups that include dozens of challenges of varying difficulty). Between many races players will be treated to wonderfully animated, expressive cutscenes that further advance the story. These are all superb, as has been the case from Jak's early days, and they do a great job of providing incentive. The storyline's slickly presented segments act as rewards for completing missions -- rewards that are better than the usual assortment of perfunctory unlockable content most games offer. But even that Jak has in spades.
In keeping with the series, Jak X features an uncanny amount of bonus content to unlock, as well as new cars, upgradeable components and performance modifications. Many of the extras add to the game, though some only aesthetically. But the addition of so much stuff to find and do and see builds off the already impressive storyline to at least establish Jak as a product worth playing through. Of course, there are still a great deal of modes to enjoy, so getting to the goods is never a chore. Circuit Race, Turbo Dash, Death Race, Time Trial, Deathmatch, Sport Hunt, Capture, Artifact Race, Assassin, Freeze Rally and Rush Hour are all here.
You'll play them all in the singleplayer game. And often the modes will highlight courses you've already enjoyed. Each track is impressive, visually, but a few suffer from being too plainly decorated, which creates an overwhelming sense of obstruction free tunnel racing. The later courses are far more challenging, but a greater amount of interactivity and life could have really benefited Jak's many swooping banks and wide straight-aways. Then again, the tracks are at least designed in such a way to play well across all applicable modes.
Each mode offers a distinct sort of gameplay, and most can be played in a multiplayer environment. Some of the modes are pretty self descriptive, but the vaguer ones might include Sport Hunt, which requires a player collect the most points by destroying targets (as other cars attempt to do the same). Then there's the Artifact Race, which drops a few randomly generated objects racers need to get to first. Freeze Rally requires gamers to hit time stopping power-ups and survive for as long as possible. Rush Hour is like Burnout's Traffic Attack. Death Race fills circuit tracks with hundreds of drones to shoot. And finally there's the Turbo Dash...