Jak and Daxter's fan-ported PC release from OpenGOAL is now fully playable in both couch co-op and online multiplayer mode.
Starting development back in 2020, the OpenGOAL team first released its impressive PC port of Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy two years later in 2022. The fan developer has since launched a port of Jak 2 and is currently working on Jak 3 - with its progress "skyrocketing" towards completion. Even more excitingly though, you can now actually play the original action-adventure gem's port entirely in local or online multiplayer mode and it's all thanks to yet another fan creation.
Teamruns is a mod made specifically for OpenGOAL's Jak and Daxter port, boasting couch co-op capability, an integrated leaderboard system for speedrunners, and most impressively of all - fully functional online multiplayer support. Its mastermind modder says Teamruns "allows you to play through the game with others in a shared game world with interactable players." To ensure a seamless multiplayer experience, "All in-game cutscenes that normally interrupt the game flow have also been modified to run in real-time to work better with multiplayer."
While the creator explains that the mod is "mostly catered towards speedrunning" due to its inclusion of leaderboard submissions and timers, it also contains "other game modes" geared specifically towards casual play. Teamruns harbors its own recording tool for creating custom demo files, too - but that's not all. There are more features yet to come to the mod, including "projectile pathing logic and navigation for normal enemies that are still individual to each player." We may see the mod come to the Jak 2 and 3 ports as well, but for now, Teamruns' developer is "not sure."
Long gone are the days of passing your console's controller to your brother or dad, it seems, and good riddance. Getting to play the OG Jack and Daxter alongside family and friends on modern systems a whopping 23 years after Naughty Dog first launched its beloved platformer series almost sounds too good to be true. But, with the power of creative fans, anything is possible in 2024 - maybe we'll even see the Jak and Daxter movie come to fruition one day.
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