An add-on that is short and surprisingly boring
I absolutely loved Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, but I skipped Quest for Booty when I read everywhere how short it was. When I got a copy with Ratchet and Clank: Into the Nexus, I was pleasantly surprised to find my free copy of this game. After years of contemplating playing this game, I jumped right into it. It is short, and I am perfectly fine with that, but the biggest problem with this add-on is that it is surprisingly boring. For a four hour game, it has way too much exposition and down time, and it takes way too much out of the series formula for its own good. If you somehow get this game for free, you might want to check it out. Otherwise, you should skip it, even if you are the most passionate of Ratchet and Clank fans.
The game begins right after Tools of Destruction, with your weapon wheel mostly full. After a short, combat-filled level on a pirate ship, the game takes away all of your weapons and goes into exploration and puzzle solving mode for a little over an hour. This is the kind of thing that I might expect for a 12 hour campaign, but for a short experience like this one, the early parts of this game take up way too much time. There is some good puzzle solving on the first map, but it is still sort of dry. The second map is a short, linear affair that ends with some combat and finally sees you getting your weapons back. It isn’t until you are well over 90 minutes into the game that you get to experience the exploration/combat combination that this series is so known for. Even then, the game never hits a groove. It plays its pirate theme perfectly and there are some good laughs, but the gameplay is ultimately lacking. Clank is missing for this entire game, and his absence is painful. Without the typical Clank puzzle solving sections, the game lacks the changes of pace that have punctuated the other entries in the series. Not to mention, jumping as Ratchet without Clank’s rotor blades isn’t as much fun.
One of the elements that has been stripped out of this game is buying your weapons. You gradually get your weapons back when characters simply give them to you. Money is pretty much worthless, since there are no merchants. The only use for money is to buy quest items from the smuggler, who shows up in a few spots. The weapons start at level three and they all gain levels at a ridiculous pace. By the time the first big battle was over, I had already leveled up three of my weapons to level five.
This game was supposed to be a bridge between Tools of Destruction and A Crack in Time, but it doesn’t do a whole lot in that regard either. Since the story in the game revolves around finding your buddy Clank and you never actually do that, it ends up being kind of a waste of time. There is little that happens in this game that couldn’t have been part of a prologue in A Crack in Time.
In between its filler story and its neutering of the Ratchet and Clank formula, there isn’t much of a compelling reason for you to play this game unless you are the most hardcore of Ratchet and Clank fans. Even if you one of those, you will probably find Ratchet and Clank Future: Quest of Booty to be the most underwhelming experience of the series. Unless you get it as part of a free promotional offer, you should skip it.
