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Without seeming too much of an elitist, I can tell you that the game that I'm about to review must've sat on the desk for at least a week. I didn't touch it, didn't even open it. I merely stared at it with a sneer to my lip and would occasionally move it to dust off the desktop. Seems strange, right? To completely disregard a game you're supposed to review until you can't ignore it any longer? I know, I know. I see where my faults lie and when I had done every review that was left behind and when there was nothing else I could do, I finally took a chance.
Starting up, the game kind of goes somewhere cheesy. Explaining a few things that happened in the previous title, which is fine - but what about those few people who didn't play the previous ones? My questions were soon answered as you're placed immediately into the action. Ratchet and his group were taken to a place called the Dreadzone, where a reality show is taped that puts Exterminators into an arena to defeat each other.
Ratchet is caught up in all of this and has to take on every arena to rise to the top, but can he do it? Along the way, you're given two robots that will fight beside you and even unlatch certain areas, hack into computers and unscrew bolts. Revamping your arsenal inbetween levels is awesome, giving you guns that can mutate an enemy into a farm animal and even trick them into fighting on your side.
Looking at the visuals, it's gorgeous. Not an ugly pixel to be seen and the colors are rich and vibrant, which stunned me completely. I've never seen a platform game look so brilliant to the naked eye. The models are smooth and rendered perfectly with no hint of glitched faces or jagged edges. While I sat there, giggling to myself at how pretty everything was... it came to my attention that I was actually enjoying myself. When you've got an all-around beauty of a game to play and there's no complaints almost seventy percent into the game, it's a winner. A real winner.
What with the formula of gameplay being so unbelievably easy to grasp, I was quickly catapulted into the world of Ratchet with little to no fight. Using the shoulder buttons to fire and learning how to grind on rails, swing from pendulums and otherwise kick a little tail; getting into the game was more fun than I've ever had. While sometimes the cumbersome task of jumping from platform to platform can get in the way, the one true fault is no mid-level checkpoints. You either get it from start to end on the first try or you continue to restart everytime you die. I could've done without restarting just because I accidentally dropped into a pit of lava.
Scriptwise, the humor in the game is witty and on-point with society's fascination for reality television shows. Mocking the popular Fox network, Ratchet: Deadlocked takes the seriousness out of ratings and injects a bit of comedy where it should be. I absolutely loved every cut-scene where the broadcasters for Dreadzone would make a villian out of the up-and-coming Ratchet. With little fake moustaches and devil horns, it's almost too easy to find yourself watching the game instead of playing it.
Clutching every single aspect together, there wasn't a second that I wasn't yearning for the next level. Not having played the previous games in the series, I can ultimately say that they should get a chance. For all you non-believers, try out Ratchet: Deadlocked, it will break boundaries - I promise.
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