Oh Gosh, Didn't Recognize You in Hi-Def
The latest Ratchet and Clank game is a great game that any PS3 owner will enjoy.
Being a newcomer to the Ratchet and Clank series, I didn't know exactly what to expect from the games, but after sorting out the installation glitch, I jumped right into the game and had a blast.
Ratchet and Clank opens with, well, Ratchet and Clank working on a vehicle when they're interrupted by who I can only describe as Mr. Incredible and rush off to go save him from the "robot army" gathered outside of his base. The game opens with a sixaxis scene, and after realizing that the game always uses "flat" as the neutral point for your controller, I managed to get through the scene without getting banged up that badly. Once I was on the ground though, picking up the controls was almost instantaneous. By the time I was done with the first level, I had felt like I had been playing the game for ages as far as controls go. By the time you reach Mr. Incre-er, Captain Qwark, you inadvertantly meet up with the main antagonist, Emperor Percival Tachyon and after a quick escape, wind up stranded on a new planet, looking for the nearest ride off and the game takes it and runs from there. The cast in this game is great- every character and enemy seems to have a little bit of personality, and the whole presentation kind of feels like they were channelling Pixar, which is never a bad thing.
Gameplay is smooth. The controls are intuitive and you'll be smashing up baddies and collecting bolts almost immediately. The big draw of the Ratchet and Clank game has always been the over the top weapons, and they're in no short supply here- and with ten levels for each weapon in all (after beating the game once and unlocking the "Omega" level weapons that is), you'll have plenty to do with each and every weapon for completionists out there. Everything that you do buttonwise to control Ratchet (and Clank) is tight and responsive, but the same doesn't always hold true for the sixaxis segments. Whenever you go into a flying segment (with Clank's robotic glider wings), the Sixaxis takes over and it can get a little hairy sometimes- between glitches and general control disagreements between player and console. The hacking segments can produce similar nightmares, and I had a personal frustration with the game when it came up with a message that I could use the left analoge stick rather than the sixaxis for hacking, but when I tried to accept that change, it wouldn't let me- the only option it let me choose was "No, I'd rather use the sixaxis control." The geolaser isn't troublesome, given that you can't ever "fail" the segment, but I did have times where it would just randomly stop. All in all, sixaxis control will take some adjusting, but by the end of the game you should be good.
There are also three space battle levels which play out quite a lot like Starfox 64, which is better than how many games manage the on-a-rail-esque space shooting nowadays. They're all pretty simple and easy- shoot stuff, don't get hit by bullets and blow up the big boss at the end, so I had no gripes with those to speak of.
Visually, the game looks nice at its highest resolution; characters all look and fit within the art style and each character looks and sounds unique and has their own flair and personality. The music within each stage is solid, not distracting and not lacking and every weapon sounds different, powerful and over the top, so no complaints there. If you like a good Pixar movie, you'll be able to enjoy that aspect of Ratchet and Clank.
But let's talk bugs. This is a good game, don't get me wrong, but there were quite a few annoying bugs to put up with. First off there is the installation bug that you may encounter (as I did) where the game won't actually let you install it, rendering it unplayable...until you delete something on your hard drive bigger than what it needs to install. Now, this isn't that big a deal unless you don't have something to delete, at which point I hear you have to download something or install something. And then delete it. Have fun. Now second are the other quirks and inconveniences I encountered throughout the game. The flight stages are notoriously picky at times, my most memorable one where I landed an almost unnoticable amount short of the final target hoop (I mean you would literally be unable to tell I didn't pass through it) but the game failed me, so I had to do the entire segment again. At other times, the flight mechanism just cuts out for no particular reason either A) failing your attempt or B) killing you (not that death is a problem in this game, it may set you back a tiny bit, but you retain all experience you had gain prior to your death). At one point towards the end of the game, I was dispatching a foe when I suddenly dropped through the level (inadvertantly showing me what at the time I didn't realize was the map for the final boss fight) and died immediately. And this was an area without any pits to fall into. Perhaps the most irritating glitch I encountered was actually in one part of the game where a trigger failed to happen completely. The third stage opens with a sixaxis free-fall onto the first platform of the area, only on my second playthrough upon reaching that point, the sixaxis event didn't trigger- I was dropping like a rock from the spawn point and all the missile that "home" you but invariably miss during the sixaxis mode still all triggered. Only now they didn't miss.
I hit the ground and at first everything was hunky-dorey but then the missiles came. The first one hit, I was knocked to the ground and shrugged it off as a freak occurance with the overall bugged segment.. but then the rest came and when they hit you and knock you to the ground, you aren't given the moment's breath of invincibility, so each subsequent missile kept me on the ground and dealt even more damage. To cut to the point, I died right next to a weapon vendor that could've fully healed me. But given that I couldn't trigger any of these bugs at will, I can't say the game is flawed to the point to be broken, so these are gripes more than anything else.
Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction is a solid package that you won't soon regret purchasing. With the upcoming follow up release The Quest for Booty being released on the Playstation Network, now's a great time to get introduced to the series as I did. There are a few flaws in this package, but overall you'll have a blast, and heck, there are tons of weapons to upgrade and achievements to unlock, so completionists will have lots to do.
Being a newcomer to the Ratchet and Clank series, I didn't know exactly what to expect from the games, but after sorting out the installation glitch, I jumped right into the game and had a blast.
Ratchet and Clank opens with, well, Ratchet and Clank working on a vehicle when they're interrupted by who I can only describe as Mr. Incredible and rush off to go save him from the "robot army" gathered outside of his base. The game opens with a sixaxis scene, and after realizing that the game always uses "flat" as the neutral point for your controller, I managed to get through the scene without getting banged up that badly. Once I was on the ground though, picking up the controls was almost instantaneous. By the time I was done with the first level, I had felt like I had been playing the game for ages as far as controls go. By the time you reach Mr. Incre-er, Captain Qwark, you inadvertantly meet up with the main antagonist, Emperor Percival Tachyon and after a quick escape, wind up stranded on a new planet, looking for the nearest ride off and the game takes it and runs from there. The cast in this game is great- every character and enemy seems to have a little bit of personality, and the whole presentation kind of feels like they were channelling Pixar, which is never a bad thing.
Gameplay is smooth. The controls are intuitive and you'll be smashing up baddies and collecting bolts almost immediately. The big draw of the Ratchet and Clank game has always been the over the top weapons, and they're in no short supply here- and with ten levels for each weapon in all (after beating the game once and unlocking the "Omega" level weapons that is), you'll have plenty to do with each and every weapon for completionists out there. Everything that you do buttonwise to control Ratchet (and Clank) is tight and responsive, but the same doesn't always hold true for the sixaxis segments. Whenever you go into a flying segment (with Clank's robotic glider wings), the Sixaxis takes over and it can get a little hairy sometimes- between glitches and general control disagreements between player and console. The hacking segments can produce similar nightmares, and I had a personal frustration with the game when it came up with a message that I could use the left analoge stick rather than the sixaxis for hacking, but when I tried to accept that change, it wouldn't let me- the only option it let me choose was "No, I'd rather use the sixaxis control." The geolaser isn't troublesome, given that you can't ever "fail" the segment, but I did have times where it would just randomly stop. All in all, sixaxis control will take some adjusting, but by the end of the game you should be good.
There are also three space battle levels which play out quite a lot like Starfox 64, which is better than how many games manage the on-a-rail-esque space shooting nowadays. They're all pretty simple and easy- shoot stuff, don't get hit by bullets and blow up the big boss at the end, so I had no gripes with those to speak of.
Visually, the game looks nice at its highest resolution; characters all look and fit within the art style and each character looks and sounds unique and has their own flair and personality. The music within each stage is solid, not distracting and not lacking and every weapon sounds different, powerful and over the top, so no complaints there. If you like a good Pixar movie, you'll be able to enjoy that aspect of Ratchet and Clank.
But let's talk bugs. This is a good game, don't get me wrong, but there were quite a few annoying bugs to put up with. First off there is the installation bug that you may encounter (as I did) where the game won't actually let you install it, rendering it unplayable...until you delete something on your hard drive bigger than what it needs to install. Now, this isn't that big a deal unless you don't have something to delete, at which point I hear you have to download something or install something. And then delete it. Have fun. Now second are the other quirks and inconveniences I encountered throughout the game. The flight stages are notoriously picky at times, my most memorable one where I landed an almost unnoticable amount short of the final target hoop (I mean you would literally be unable to tell I didn't pass through it) but the game failed me, so I had to do the entire segment again. At other times, the flight mechanism just cuts out for no particular reason either A) failing your attempt or B) killing you (not that death is a problem in this game, it may set you back a tiny bit, but you retain all experience you had gain prior to your death). At one point towards the end of the game, I was dispatching a foe when I suddenly dropped through the level (inadvertantly showing me what at the time I didn't realize was the map for the final boss fight) and died immediately. And this was an area without any pits to fall into. Perhaps the most irritating glitch I encountered was actually in one part of the game where a trigger failed to happen completely. The third stage opens with a sixaxis free-fall onto the first platform of the area, only on my second playthrough upon reaching that point, the sixaxis event didn't trigger- I was dropping like a rock from the spawn point and all the missile that "home" you but invariably miss during the sixaxis mode still all triggered. Only now they didn't miss.
I hit the ground and at first everything was hunky-dorey but then the missiles came. The first one hit, I was knocked to the ground and shrugged it off as a freak occurance with the overall bugged segment.. but then the rest came and when they hit you and knock you to the ground, you aren't given the moment's breath of invincibility, so each subsequent missile kept me on the ground and dealt even more damage. To cut to the point, I died right next to a weapon vendor that could've fully healed me. But given that I couldn't trigger any of these bugs at will, I can't say the game is flawed to the point to be broken, so these are gripes more than anything else.
Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction is a solid package that you won't soon regret purchasing. With the upcoming follow up release The Quest for Booty being released on the Playstation Network, now's a great time to get introduced to the series as I did. There are a few flaws in this package, but overall you'll have a blast, and heck, there are tons of weapons to upgrade and achievements to unlock, so completionists will have lots to do.
