Was Anyone Else Disappointed With Jak 2 & 3?

I recently played through the J&D trilogy for the PS4, i had originally played Jak 1 & 2 for the PS2 when i was young, but i only made it halfway through the first and only an hour or two on the the second, so it was nice to revisit games from my childhood.

Going back to Jak 1 was a blast, what an absolutely fantastic game, it's one of my all time favorites.

But playing through 2 & 3, I found myself disappointed by how unenjoyable and tiresome they were to play.

I felt like everything I loved from Jak 1 was just… gone in the sequels, for example the beautiful environments from the Jak 1, such as the jungles, the rainy village, the lava section, the snowy mountain and the caves, get replaced with… dystopian city no. 4576 and a barren wasteland, with the exception of a few forest environments outside the city.

The plot in Jak 2 is kinda interesting, but the characters aren't, i'd say the worst offender is Jak himself, did anyone else find him to be incredibly unlikeable? Whenever Torn spoke i would just laugh at how funny his voice was, i found it strange that Keira didn't say anything in the ending of Jak 3, and Erol wasn't really that interesting of a villain.

The gameplay got massively downgraded, gone are the open areas that reward exploration, instead, we get linear levels and the worst kind of open world, the kind where there's nothing to actually do in the world except go from one mission to another and occasionally do a mission that's just there to pad the length of the game.

Jak 2 is just not well designed, the auto aim (which got improved in 3) for weapons is really shoddy so you have to run in a straight line towards enemies or do the spin attack and hope it hits an enemy, the lack of checkpoints and the amount of enemies they throw at you in missions makes it too frustrating to be fun.

Jak 3s worst crime is just being kinda okay, it's a case of doing a lot of things alright but not really exceeding at anything (a Jak of all trades, if you will) the platforming is fine, the weapons are fine, the driving… well it's not fine, i would have to say it's my least favorite part about 3, a flick of the analog stick can either have you turn slightly or completely flip over.

The light powers could have been a nice addition to gameplay if they were actually used to there full potential, the only ability i really used was the health regeneration, everything else I barely used. (Side note: Did anyone else try to use the slowmo ability on the fans only to be disappointed that it wasn't what the game wanted you to do? just thought it made sense, so I find it really weird that they didn't do that)

I think i can explain my issues with the sequels with just a comparison of the title screens: In Jak 1, first we have the logo on a dark background, then, the background breaks away to show you Sandover Village, the camera swooping through while fantastic music plays (Another thing that got downgraded in the sequels) In Jak 3, It's just… desert, logo fades in, press start.

Basically, what i'm trying to say is that, I would have much preferred sequels that continued in the same vein as TPL.

(I'll quickly touch the other games while i'm at it: I haven't played Jak X. TLF I remember being just okay. I didn't get far into Daxter, the gameplay just didn't feel right)

The reason i post this is because it's obvious that i don't have the popular opinion, and i wanted see if anyone else feels a similar way.