Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (Review)

So, I finally got a Playstation 3 and now I'm having to backtrack and play all the exclusive games I wanted to play for the system. Ratchet & Clank is right up there with Mario as one of my favorite series and its the series I've been dying to sink my teeth back into as these PS3 entries have been released. 2005's Deadlocked was last new Ratchet game I played, but since that game acts mostly as spin-off, then 2004's Up Your Arsenal was the last proper Ratchet game I got my hands on so I've been in desperate need of a Ratchet fix. Tools of Destruction, as the first entry for the PS3, is really nothing more than a graphical upgrade and a very good one at that. The folks at Insomniac are very good at making the most out of a system's hardware and the PS3 more than excels at highlighting the Ratchet universe's distinctive visual style. However, the trade-off for the shiny new graphics seems to be that there are a few more glitches than we're used to seeing in the series though. Some enemies won't disappear form the terrain or get stuck in it when they're defeated and occasionally the controls lock up for a few seconds which result in a few cheap shots and deaths here and there.

Other than that though, the game plays just like it predecessor. The gameplay isn't as awe-inspiring as it has been before, but its still an incredibly satisfying outing. The one thing I kept hearing about this game was that the difficulty was too easy, although I did see that from time to time, there were definitely some rough patches noticeably near the end of the game and trying to upgrade all the weapons wasn't a walk in the park. Anyway, running around, blowing up everything and collecting experience is just as fun as it has been in the past, but it's hard to not admit that we've all done this before. Tools of Destruction has a few problems that harm the overall experience, but it's easily one of the more enjoyable games I've played in a while.