RATCHET & CLANK (REIMAGINED, 2016) REVIEW

Best game based on a movie ever.

PS4 exclusive.

Ratchet & Clank is a platformer published by Sony and developed by Insomniac Games for the Playstation 4.

This review has spoilers!

DIFFERENCES FROM ORIGINAL
Whilst I am counting this as a remaster it has some new stuff, removes some of the old stuff and is so different from the original that I'm going to use the normal review format instead, although still won't give a rating at the end.

GAMEPLAY
Takes plenty of the good bits from the whole series and integrates those ideas into the first one's setting. You've got the levels from the original, certain story threads from the original trilogy coming in earlier, weapons from Tools of Destruction and A Crack in Time, the jetpack from Into the Nexus, and more from other parts of the series. Basically most of the good stuff from the PS3/PS4 eras.

I know that there wasn't any arena in the original game, but it would have been nice if there was one here, as even with Into the Nexus it added a nice little side thing to do. Perhaps it made more sense for this game, but I think it'd be nice for the series to return to that open world style that A Crack in Time was at some point. And what about the hover boots too? Insomniac sure have plenty of stuff to still add back in, regardless of how they continue the series.

Weapons are very satisfying, as per usual, and the new pixelator is awesome.

Clank sections take a lot from Going Commando which I think was one of the better games for Clank, however they still aren't as good as the sections in A Crack in Time.

The ship sections were fine too, and the hover boarding was massively improved from the original, I'm still not quite sure how they messed it up back then, but it's much more fun now. It kind of sets the tone for the whole game really, 14 years hindsight and Insomniac managed to fix almost every problem from the original.

Sometimes the game would think you're trying to grapple, when in fact you're trying to fight some enemies, so you end up flying up and down and having to move to a different place to stop it from happening so you can finish the fight.

STORY
A redone version of the original story, perhaps I preferred the original version of Qwark's story, attempting to recapture former glory as a washed up hero was pretty good, rather than simply being jealous of Ratchet and Clank like in this one. Regardless, the game has some funny moments and manages to recapture the magic of the best games in the series.

GRAPHICS

Looks fantastic. If it makes sense, the characters look like themselves again too, as I thought many of them looked a little off in Q-Force and Into the Nexus.

SOUND
Great soundtrack

I'm glad they got all the same voice actors back again, and to hear Ratchet's main voice actor being able to lend his voice to the game, rather than the one they had for the original. Chairman Drek didn't have the same voice actor as the original though, and I personally preferred his old one.

VALUE FOR MONEY

Insomniac made sure to price this game a bit cheaper than standard retail price due to the length of a single straight forward playthrough being around ten hours, you could double that with collectables and challenge mode too, so fair play to them. I think it's certainly worth the price.

OVERALL
If you've read my review for the original 2002 game, you'd know that I wasn't a huge fan of it, although I did go on to enjoy the games after it. There's little point to the original now other than that it makes the 2nd and 3rd more cohesive. What this 2016 title has done is show that both this franchise and its genre have plenty of life in them and still have much to offer.

I'm really interested to see where this platform goes, whether it continues where Into the Nexus left off, if Insomniac continue re-imagining their old games, or if they even ever make another Ratchet & Clank game (Please do!).

RATCHET & CLANK: THE MOVIE REVIEW
I thought the Ratchet and Clank movie was at best mediocre. When you think of the franchise you think of crazy guns, gadgets and levels right? No one thinks of the series and thinks "wow that story sure was incredible. I wish they'd make a movie about that". Sure, A Crack in Time has a fairly nice story but even that one isn't worth making a movie over, let alone the first game. I know they re-imagined it a bit, but there was nothing radically different that made the story stand out more.

Something I found odd about the movie was how Ratchet never really used any guns, outside of the training montage where he's shown to be inadequate with them. It'd be like making a Sonic the Hedgehog movie and not letting him run fast. In essence the movie seems to miss the point of what made some of the characters great from the original games.

Quark is actually competent and actually grows jealous of Ratchet, who is instead incompetent and keeps getting the credit for what Clank achieves. Having Quark as some washed up has been was much more fun than him, quite frankly, rightfully getting angry when someone flukes their way through everything. As a fan of the franchise it hurt to hear Ratchet literally say "He's too good" when fighting Quark near the climax.

Dr. Nefarious was not necessary in the movie and having him destroy Drek robbed Ratchet and Clank of the important moment in the original where they cemented their friendship at the ending. Not that it mattered much in the end as they both get on straight away in the movie and don't really have the same conflict and development. Judging by the after credits scene the only reason for Dr. Nefarious being in the movie was so they could set up future ones too.

The animation was quite nice and actually looked pretty good considering the budget but the bland characters and weak story weren't strong enough to stand up on their own or against the original story from the games, even ignoring the gameplay that really made them. It's a real detriment to the movie when the game it was based on from 2002 seems to be able to tell a better story.

I will give them a little bit of credit for getting some of the humour right, the movie did make me smile a couple of times, but it's never as good as in the actual games. They also put quite a few Easter eggs about the games in too, so at least for fans of the franchise some may at least find it worth sitting through to find them.

The soundtrack and voice acting was fine, probably because the games had already sorted out any problems there, having James Arnold Taylor as Ratchet now for the original story is great, since Ratchet's voice actor in the 2002 game felt out of place. I do wish they hadn't have replaced Kevin Michael Richardson as Drek though.

I've heard people say don't bother with the movie and just play the game instead, and while the movie does point out a few things that the game misses, such as Dr. Nefarious motives, these missing things probably would have been explained if they weren't trying to get you to watch the movie too. Doesn't the fact that people think the movie isn't worth watching, despite telling the same story as the game, show you the key problem with video game movies though? If given the choice between more games in a franchise or more movies, people will tell you games, I know I would with any series I enjoy.

This just exemplified the main problems I have with video game movies, and that's that if you want to make a good one then you need to set in within the established universe of the game, then make your own story within it. So you can use the characters and different settings, but where the real meat of a movie should comes from, the story, will be able to stand out more - rather than being a poor retelling or just reusing names for something totally different.

The terrible box office performance of this movie probably means there won't be a sequel, and that Sly Cooper won't be getting the same treatment after all. I'm happy that this movie brought us another Ratchet & Clank game though, and I hope they keep the franchise going, especially since the game has seemingly sold well. I wouldn't rush out to see this movie at the first chance you can possibly get, but it's probably worth a watch if you've got nothing better to do, if you're a fan - even if it messes up the source material. If you're not a fan, I wouldn't bother. It doesn't bring much new to the table and you'll forget about it soon afterwards.