A bit better than Agent 9: The Game, although not too much better.
PS2 exclusive.
Ratchet & Clank is a platformer published by Sony and developed by Insomniac Games for the Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Vita and "reimagined" for Playstation 4.
GAMEPLAY
You can't shoot and move around in 1st person, a lot like everyone's favourite Spyro character Agent 9. I must say that Insomniac deserve some credit for starting a series similar to the most unpopular part of their former series.
I have never ever seen a game with worse checkpoints. Sometimes you'll have to redo a whole level just because you slipped off a platform at the final part. This just leads to huge frustration and me scratching my head at such a bizarre idea. I really can't reiterate this point enough. Some of the checkpoints are simply shocking and you'll have to replay so many segments over and over again because of how terrible they are.
Switching to other weapons through the quick menu simply doesn't work very well, as you have to use the analog stick to select a new weapon, meaning Ratchet will just stand still while you do it, as you're having to do it so quickly you'll often get the wrong weapon too. Why not just slow down the game while the player selects, or even just freeze the game, something, almost anything would be better than what's in the game.
Sometimes the hook won't attach to things and you'll fall off despite doing what the game wants you to do. Sometimes you can even land on moving platforms and fall off.
To get all of the weapons you'll have to grind to be able to afford them all. I find that hugely disappointing as I hate things like that, why should I even have to grind for things like that? Why not just give out more money for me to spend and keep a nice flow to the game, rather than running off and hitting the same old tired enemies again and again.
The auto-aim on guns is awful at times, meaning you have to awkwardly hop around and waste ammo hoping that that'll finally allow you to hit some enemies.
Turret sections. Why did these have to be in the game? Insomniac showed with the Spyro series how to perfectly implement things like this, where they were minor and just served as means to get to the next part, or even hidden parts of levels, here they're just shoved in your face with the usual thousands of enemies crowding around with you having to shoot them, they're missiles and the big target you'd got in to destroy.
While we're on the topic of Spyro, all the levels in that felt inspired, the way they were designed and put together, along with so much more made the game so much fun to play. Here in this game I rarely got that feeling, most levels felt pretty boring or similar to others and quite frankly I just didn't find it very fun playing through some.
There is some good in this game though, loads of new ideas and plenty of different weapons for different scenarios, such as the Visibomb gun where you can guide the rockets yourself. Some of the Clank puzzles were interesting and there were some cool moments, such as escaping the rising waters in the sewers on Blackwater.
STORY
I didn't really like Ratchet, I know he's supposed to develop into a more likeable character but that story arc failed to win me over really, and I know the story shouldn't be taken to seriously but Insomniac have done well with this stuff before, look at the Sorceress from Year of the Dragon. Even in spite of the development I just didn't really like Ratchet, as well as his Crash Bandicoot reject appearance.
GRAPHICS
SOUND
The soundtrack kind of reminded me of The Matrix, although not as good. The music was just there really, I didn't feel it enhanced anything too much, nor did it really ruin anything.
VALUE FOR MONEY
OVERALL
Quite frankly, I haven't played many more frustrating games than this one. It's a real shame because one of the reasons it's so annoying is that you can see some really good ideas in it, but they're crushed by some of the flaws that the game has. I just really didn't enjoy may segments of this game at all, but after seeing how great this franchise managed to become in later instalments, it at least supplied the ground work for those to come.
Of course this game isn't a complete mess, and you can see the huge potential it has, even if it fails to reach it in many aspects, and the game was clearly enough for most people to check out a sequel. Personally though, I'd recommend Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus over this any day if you're looking for a great platformer that fulfils its potential (Franchise wise however, they ended up going opposite ways).
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