Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack In Time

I think I've more than satisfied my Ratchet & Clank fix, what with me playing the entire Future arc to 100% completion in under a month. A Crack in Time is easily the best of the PS3 entries, and probably my favorite game in the series after Up Your Arsenal. The PS3 games didn't do much to reinvent the series. Really, they just upped the graphics and decided to tell a more engaging storyline, but the core gameplay that's been more or less the same since the second game "Going Commando" is still enjoyable. I know I've said this before but the Ratchet games, like the Mario games, are games that can released every couple of years and I'll be happily obliged to play them. At this point the Ratchet gameplay isn't as engrossing as it used to be but A Crack in Time came pretty close to wowing me like the older games did.

A Crack in Time, for the most part concludes the story that began in Tools of Destruction and was pretty much glazed over in Quest for Booty, about the origins of both the titular heroes. The majority of the game splits off between taking control of Ratchet and playing as Clank by his lonesome. Clank gets about four levels to himself throughout the duration of the game, and for the better half of the game, the two stay separated. Clank gains the power to control time as he can toss time bombs that slow down fast-moving platforms and he also uses a temporal staff that will allow him to reflect enemy attacks back at baddies as well as fix broken down machines. But, the meat and potatoes of Clank's stages are the special time puzzles. These are rather clever as they have Clank recording copies of himself to perform actions such as stepping on a button to open a door or lower platforms. It's very ingenious how the puzzles work and they increase in difficultly very smoothly and the tougher ones succeed in making you feel smart without being too frustrating. Its a shame then, that the main puzzles stopped right when they were really getting good. Overall though Clank's solo portions of the game are much stronger than the controlling robots/zoni gameplay they normal stick him with.

Meanwhile, Ratchet does the usual thing of going to various planets, gaining various weapons and blowing everything up. His gameplay is just as solid as its always been, though I wish there was bit more enemy variety. The space exploration from select previous entries has returned in a big way. Instead of directly traveling to each planet they're grouped into small sectors that can be flown through. Apart from a few space battles, this portion of the game mostly exists to explore the tiny spherical planets that house the game's many, many bonus items and they're a joy to search for. The Ratchet and Clank games have always been good at motivating me in searching every nook and cranny for every tiny little bonus.

The story is intriguing and though a few things are left unresolved by the game conclusion, I felt that it was fairly epic close to this chapter of the franchise. There were plenty of surprises in the plot to keep me interested and entertained and there is some legitimately strong subject matter this time around and it handled surprisingly well. While I've never found the Ratchet and Clank games to be that hilarious, there were parts that made me laugh. The return of Dr Nefarious, one of my favorite characters in the series, was a treat even if his ultimate scheme wasn't that impressive and Captain Quark is always good for a cheap laugh or two. I'm not sure what's next for Ratchet and Clank, what with there being talks that this is either the final game in the Future arc or the final game overall. While I hope to see more from the series, I'll be somewhat satisfied if this is the last they ever do.

Ratchet and Clank Future: Quest For Booty (Review)

I really don't know how to feel about this one. Quest For Booty is a downloadable installment to the Ratchet & Clank Future saga, meant to bridge the gap between Tools of Destruction and A Crack in Time. Upon it's original release it was also suppose to tide people over for a whole year until ACIT was released and I think I would've have enjoyed it a lot more if I had been able to play back then instead of having to play it solely to gain full comprehension of the Future saga's narrative. I understand that Quest for Booty wasn't made to be the next big installment in the series, but even though it was a quick and enjoyable few hours of standard Ratchet fun, I still couldn't help but feel...underwhelmed.

As a roughly two hour outing, the experience is a bit more narrow and guided. You start the game with a select few weapons (none new, all of them are from Tools of Destruction), and after the first stage, they're all taking away and you slowly earn them back as the story progresses. You don't have to buy any of them (except for a bonus weapon for the last level) and they start off partially upgraded so not much effort going to weapon experience department. The game's actually pretty disappointing in this area as well as not being able to fully explore any of the levels, but the game design is still strong enough to overlook the limitations they placed on the gameplay for this outing.

The gameplay is actually a little more focused on platforming and puzzles than the usual, but with few exceptions, this shift in focus works mostly in the game's favor. In addition, the game is a bit more focused on the cut scenes and progressing what little story there is here forward. Usual you're allowed to goof off for a bit after completing an mission, but here you're thrown around from one interesting event to another, with some expeditionary cut scenes and some entertaining hand-drawn map screen images and somewhat amusing narrations thrown in for measure. Oddly enough, not much actually happens in terms of the story apart form a cliffhanger ending that reintroduces one my favorite characters in the franchise and sets things up for the saga's big finish. The game is not as good as proper Ratchet release, but I guess it does what it sets out do well and its a decent little time waster.

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.