Ratchet & Clank (Playstation 2) 11.27.2002

[Schlep]

Ever thought, “It’d be great to turn all of these bad guys into chickens,”? Well, you’re in luck, because Ratchet & Clank for the PS2 has arrived and lets you do just that. Sporting a slew of unique weapons and gadgets, Ratchet & Clank puts a fresh spin on platformers skillfully avoiding the gimmicky feel of several of the newer entries to the genre, and delivering some of the nicest Playstation 2 graphics to date.

Starting out, you’re briefly introduced to the wrench wielding cabbit Ratchet, and the defective robot Clank. Ratchet is a young, erm…cabbit, who is constantly tinkering with machines and dreams of flying his ship to other planets. Fortunately for him, Clank has made a crash landing on his small planet of Veldin, and has the necessary hardware required to help Ratchet do all the exploring he wants, but nothing in life is free. Through a mutual agreement, the team sets out to take on the Supreme Executive Chairman Drek, the evil leader of the Blarg who’s set out to destroy the universe. The story isn’t really anything new, although it does have a bit of a unique spin to it. The point where the story really shines is through the cut scenes, all in-game, which are usually funny, and are always voice acted very well. Insomniac picked the perfect voices for every character in the game, demonstrating the high production values the game takes at every turn.

This game’s graphics are gorgeous. Stepping out of the spaceship and looking at every new world, Insomniac panned the camera down a bit, aimed at the sky, and carries out exactly what they envisioned. Each new world looks so huge and detailed that it’s hard believing that this is coming from the PS2. Every world has its own unique flair, from the stereotype overworld of grassy hills and blue skies, to inside/outside space stations, to underwater with lasers and electric cutting blades lighting it up. I never once started a new level without just walking around taking in the scenery. On top of this, there’s never any load time while moving through the levels. Even when boarding a pod in the space station or a taxi in one of the worlds, the whole level is already loaded so there’s absolutely no waiting. Insomniac put the Jak & Daxter engine to work and came out with a superb looking game.

While I usually don’t address sound, it deserves mention here. The music is nothing terribly memorable, but it is good and fits the game like a glove. The meat of the sound in this game is in the effects, and they’re absolutely fantastic. Ratchet & Clank is the first PS2 game that I know of to use Dolby Pro-Logic II. Insomniac put each channel to work with extremely good gunfire effects, explosions, enemies, ship noises etc coming from all directions. This is one of the best uses of surround in a game yet, and I hope it lays the groundwork for future games not only from them, but from the industry as a whole.

Now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for, the Suck Cannon. Ratchet & Clank is 100% about the weapons. There might’ve been some platforming in there somewhere, it’s hard to remember, all I keep thinking about is the incredible number of weapons in the game. While I’d like to list them all, I’ll have to settle for my three favorites. The Glove of Doom: you launch a ball, and shortly after, 4 miniature robots pop out and suicide bomb the nearest enemy. The Visi-bomb. Having trouble taking down a foe without getting shot up? The Visi-bomb lets you shoot a missle and immediately take a first person view, allowing you to shove a missle up whatever’s convenient. Lastly, the Morph-O-Ray. Ever wanted to start your own chicken coop? Well, now you can…or you can smack em with your wrench if the constant “B’Gok!” makes you nuts. Thankfully any item collecting in this game is purely optional. The coins or rings of the game are bolts, but they actually serve a purpose in letting you buy more weapons and additional ammo. There are gold bolts to be had, but they aren’t necessary in completing the game, and serve only to unlock secret gold weapons. There is a healthy amount of platforming, but the majority sees you smacking enemies with your wrench and blowing stuff up with your guns. Each level is expansive, however, it never borders on tedious adventuring to get to where you need to go. There are several different extremely linear paths to take in each level, which keeps the action from ever leaving for very long.

The difficulty rarely ever goes above somewhere between easy and average. If you’re looking for a hard game, this isn’t the one for you. There are a few spots, however, that do become tricky and will require a bit more than the mindless wrenching and shooting of the rest of the game. This is what confused me about the end boss in the game. The difficulty is so escalated, that it almost seems like an entirely different game. Until you find the exact combination of weapons to use, and get your timing down, you’re going to be cursing your TV and losing bolts left and right. The game lasts a healthy 15-20 hours for almost any player, as no one should really run into any substantial trouble moving from beginning to end. Add in the gold bolts and skill points, and you may easily double that playing time.

While Ratchet & Clank isn’t the second coming I had hoped it to be, it’s one of the more enjoyable games I’ve played this year and look forward to picking it up again one day to finish acquiring every last gold bolt and skill point. If you were disappointed by that famous Nintendo character’s outing in August, you’d be remiss not to at least give Ratchet & Clank a rent. Steve McQuark would.

Schlep's Rating
Buy

TNL Rating
Graphics: 9
Gameplay: 8
Sound: 9
Replay: 9

Overall: A-

[xS]

Does it play like those Rare Plattformers?

[Schlep]

I'm not sure I can really answer that question. I've had really limited experience with Rare platformers. I saw Banjo Kazooie/Tooie once, and have played Starfox Adventures only a very little bit (is that even really a platformer?). If you're asking whether or not it's item collecting and inane puzzles, no, it's not. It's almost entirely pure action from beginning to end. You're almost always swatting something with your wrench or blowing things up with your weapons. Hope that helps?

[bahn]

Schelp: Nice pics, but they're WAY too big for the board. Screens aren't really necessary and since I don't feel like creating a standard on pics, they'll be null from future reader reviews. (Though you're welcome to posting links for ppl to click on, embedding them is not possible anymore).

[BEBOPlover]

Can't wait to get this game. I was hoping it'd be a bit more in the vain of Jet Force Gemini, but I guess that would be asking too much.

[bahn]

Ratchet is a very good game, one of the better action-type games developed for the PS2 thus far. Sly is also another pick me up.

Hehe @ Schelp's rating: Buy