Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty

Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction came out last Fall, becoming one of the best PS3 titles thus far. Instead of having to wait a whole year for another release, Insomniac has decided to put out their first episodic release in hopes to keep interest high. Quest For Booty serves as a side adventure to bridge the first Ratchet & Clank Future and the next installment, due out for Fall 2009. A somewhat brief run through the Ratchet universe (with around 3-4 hours of gameplay), everything still looks and feels like Tools Of Destruction. Visually, the game has an even cleaner look than ever before, and gameplay elements have been added, as well as new puzzles. Even so, at the seemingly high price of $14.99 for such a seemingly short title, is it worth picking this one up?

Quest For Booty picks up directly where the last game left off, with Ratchet trying to find his friend Clank, who was taken away by the mysterious Zoni race. The story is presented via short animated features that are accompanied by voiceovers. While the player controls Ratchet alone, you are aided by the AI-controlled partner, Talwyn. While searching for Clank, the two go looking for Captain Darkwater, a pirate that supposedly knows about the Zoni and their whereabouts. However, after confronting Rusty Pete and the remaining pirates of Captain Slag, it’s discovered that Darkwater is dead. Rusty Pete uses Captain Slag’s head to trick the pirates into sending Ratchet and Talwyn to Hoolefar Island, where they discover more about the mysterious pirate, and where his remains are.

With Tools Of Destruction, it’s safe to say that Insomniac got the perfect balance of platforming and gunplay. In Quest For Booty, however, there is most certainly more platforming, especially with puzzle-solving. The first portion of the game, once you make it to Hoolefar Island, is literally a bunch of bland puzzles that you have to do in order get really get the game going. After completing these, you then go on to more exciting environments, and it seems like the game really doesn’t spread its wings until the last quarter or so. The new light and dark puzzles are somewhat fun, though these aren’t nearly as used as they should have been. Using the Omniwrench, players can now manipulate certain platforms and devices in the game, which was done really well. There are still a few problems with it, like the fact that they sometimes won’t activate right, but overall it’s an enjoyable new addition to the series.

There isn’t too much to explore, and one of the main problems with Quest For Booty is the way it uses the same environments over and over, which gets old within the first hour or so. While you do visit a few different places, each area starts you out by doing platform puzzles, and as you escape, you fight your way out. The combat itself is fairly fun, if not a bit tedious considering you fight the same group of enemies. Ratchet loses all of his weapons at Hoolefar Island, so you start out with nothing, though you obtain most of them by just going through each zone. The weapons are capped at lvl 5, and are easily upgraded by plowing through a few enemies. It would have been nice to see an entirely new set of weapons, but there’s always the next title for that.

The camera in Ratchet & Clank is still wonky at times, and it affects you the most when you’re going through those jumping puzzles. It’s generally not too bad, but it can be problematic at times so much so that you’re guaranteed a few deaths because of it. The controls are great too, but there are a lot of problems for moving Ratchet around tight areas. I had so many cheap deaths just because of something like not grabbing a ledge, or somehow missing a jump that looks like I should have cleared it. Getting pushed off the side of a platform is also something that can happen often if one doesn’t pay attention to where the enemies are, and it reminds me of playing the original Mega Man, where you would fall and hit the spikes with no invulnerability or much of a chance to escape death. Ultimately, I would like to see more checkpoints, which could solve a great deal of the aggravation and pure annoyance that the game can bring about.

Outside of the main single-player, there is nothing else included with Quest For Booty. It’s hard to judge a game like this due to the fact that it really is just a smaller version of its predecessor, albeit with a few touchups and gameplay differences. The balance has been somewhat switched for platforming’s favor, but it’s generally the same old Ratchet & Clank, no more and no less. There don’t seem to be as many glitches or bugs as the first Future title, but there are enough annoyances to notice that there could be more done with the final product. This is most definitely a game for fans of the series, though it may draw in some new players as well. Everything is very straightforward, and there’s even a nice little hint system in case you forgot, or have never played before. The game deserves a recommendation if you’re itching for something new from the genre, but it would have faired better if it were cheaper. The thing holding it back isn’t the length, but rather it’s the lack of anything different that sets it apart. Quest For Booty is an overall decent entry for the series, and other episodic adventures for Clank or Qwark would be interesting to see.