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Ratchet & Clank

You read my other reviews of this franchise yet?
To date I have reviewed the middle two games of this series.
Ratchet & Clank : Going Commando entranced me, and got me hopped up on the franchise like nobody’s business! A real good game that is twice as long as the game I am about to review.
Ratchet & Clank : Up Your Arsenal is hot, and brings in new button flipping platforming action that’ll keep you going and going and going. I missed a few of the quirks from Going Commando, like the mini planetoid giant city smashing battles and the voiceover of the commentator from Going Commando (for starters) but the game is still hot.
So then, now that I have to look towards the next game Ratchet : Deadlocked (Clank-less) let’s take a look at the game that started it all, and how the dynamic duo of Ratchet & Clank became a pair.

It all started with an evil planet of polluting resource wasting aliens who managed to use up all their own resources on their homeworld. Left with a ruined world they decided to launch a campaign to create a whole new world… by stripping prime sections of other worlds and building it over an artificial planetary heat core, then dropping it into another planet’s orbit (after destroying said planet) to create an ideal new homeworld. And how did they go about accomplishing that? Well by invasion and ruthless planetary conquest of course… combined with upbeat positive empowereing public relations campaigning through the media as seen through a series of infobots which, by they way, always clue you in as to where the bad guys are headed (or have headed) next! Gotta love it when the bad guys of every Ratchet & Clank series turns out to be so damn media saavy! Darn!

Anyway since you can’t destroy a galaxy by multimedia alone (no matter how many American Idol reality TV shows you create to bombard the people with) you need an army, and it’s in one of these robotic factories of death creating that Clank is… well… born. Since the factory was turning out gigantic mega robots it’s clear that the robot that will later be named Clank (by Ratchet no less) is going to be marked for the discount bin… if the robots chasing him weren’t so bent on destroying him that is.
One thing leads to another and Clank steals a ship only to crash on the same planet as Ratchet, who ends up collecting him as “Salvage” from his ship only to find out he’s still “alive”. One thing leads to another and Clank manages to recruit Ratchet in the task of alerting people to the threat of Supreme Chairman Drek and his people’s plans to build a new homeworld (by tearing apart other people’s worlds).

To do this they first seek out Captain Qwark who, if you remember subsequent Ratchet & Clank games, turns out to be evil in this game (selling out for an endorsement deal with Drek).
So you have your work basically cut out for you.
1-Save the galaxy from Drek’s Extreme Makeover plans
2-Stop the traitorous Captain Qwark who… well… actually he’s not that much of a threat, but you do get to fight him once in a sub boss battle
3-Collect a ton of weapons… and that’s it. You don’t get to upgrade them here BUT collect them you should because there’s another reason to do so, which I’ll remind you of shortly.
4-Play mini games like hoverboarding (which is harder than it looks and sounds) and a few shooter rounds (like you controlling gun platforms or the occasional ship battle though it’s not as good as the ship battles in Going Commando).
5-Oh, and you get to watch Ratchet & Clank bicker like an old married couple in this game at times. Weird. You think the State of Massachusetts will ever legalize marriage between a Lomax and a robot? Yeah, right.

If you remember later Ratchet & Clank games then you’ll have no problems making this game go.
It’s basically the same control scheme and the same techniques as later Ratchet & Clank games, only without the spiffiness of upgradable weapons or upgradable self (though you can at one point in the game save up bolts to buy cans of nano (sold in a vending machine) to slightly upgrade your health meter abit (but that’s the only upgrading you can do).

There are some original gear in this game not seen in later games though, which is a plus.
Metal Detector - Helps you find loose bolts lying around, sort of like the douser you pick up in Psychonauts for finding those arrowheads you use as currency in that game (only easier to use than the douser).
The Intruder - Another device to help you play a hacking game. This time out you line up three rings of lasers with connectors on the outermost ring so that all the connectors are lit green. Nice mini game.
Hydro weapon - Instead of turning water to ice and vice versa this super soaker type device drains and fills water into sections (through a port which is down when you fill and raised when you drain). Nice since several levels require you to solve a simple set of drain and fill puzzles.

The gameplay is classic Ratchet & Clank, which is abit much since it seems that Insomniac makes great games, but hasn’t strayed far from the same formula of gameplay from game to game, which is now a bit of a disappointment since Ratchet : Deadlocked seems to be the same experience as past Ratchet & Clank games, which is abit much since we’re now up to the fourth game and haven’t seen any big innovations in the franchise yet. I know the games are solid and fun, but some innovation would still be a welcome sight.

Oh, and this is the shortest of Ratchet & Clank games. Half as long as Going Commando, you will not need long to play and finish this… but then again this game has far more uses than simply being a trip down nostalgia road and a chance to see how it all began. Don’t forget the game flagging!
Data from this game can be used in the other games, giving you the ability to buy previously owned weapons bought from Gadgetron at either a discount or for free (there’s a shop in Going Commando that reunites you with some of your old weapons for free if you have data from this game).
That more than makes up for the price of admission (which was darn cheap since I bought this used from Blockbuster) since you can use the data (once you finish the game) in future Ratchet & Clank games… though I am not certain if this also works for gameplay in Ratchet : Deadlocked since I have not had a chance to play that game yet… note to self : buy Ratchet : Deadlocked soon.

Ok. Think we can move to the breakdown now. Let’s see…

Ratchet & Clank Breakdown the 1st
What’s Hot?
The Ratchet & Clank series is one of the most solid platforming experiences I’ve played this past few years. Along with Psychonauts, the Sly Cooper franchise, and a few more? I think it’s safe to say that Ratchet & Clank is one of my favorite PS2 platformers out there right now.

What’s Not?
I wish the gameplay would have innovated abit more when we got to Ratchet : Deadlocked though. There are a few innovations, but it didn’t seem enough for me. I still want to review the game because it looks damn good and all, but still… oh, otherwise I have no complaints about the original Ratchet & Clank.

Moments to Remember?
Hmm… the platforming action, which is solid and right on.

What to Ignore?
Ratchet & Clank bickering occasionally like they were married… though, thankfully, Ratchet never ever wished he knew how to quit Clank… sorry, Brokeback Mountain reference.

Overall?
Probably best said that this game is for the Ratchet & Clank fans, or for those who are going to get into the franchise and buy the games. The only real use for this game will be the ability to use it’s save data to unlock major discounts on weapons in future versions of the game (Going Commando & Up Your Arsenal). Otherwise the game is short, probably doesn’t have a replay value, and (again) is only good in the way you can apply this gameplay to other games (or just admire how fun the original was, even if it was a tad bit on the short side of things).

Anyway you should be able to pick this game up at a nice tidy little discount so I don’t see why you wouldn’t want to give this game a chance… though again you should only do it if you seriously have plans to get the whole franchise since there are better platformers out there if you are just dabbling in a new game. This can only be fully enjoyed if you play the franchise as a whole, which is recommended.

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