Ratchet & Clank is a third-person shooter/platformer made by Insomniac and published in North America by Sony Computer Entertainment in November of 2002 for the PlayStation 2. The protagonist stars Ratchet, a cat-like humanoid creature (Called a Lombax) who is stranded on his home planet, Veldin. He tries building his own ship (Using his trusty OmniWrench 8000) so he can escape Veldin and explore the galaxy. All of a sudden, a few ships piloted by robots crash land near Ratchet’s home. Ratchet, having nothing better to do, runs out to the crash site and meets a tiny robot, originally called XJ0461, but nicknamed “Clank” by Ratchet.
Clank is trying to find a superhero named Captain Qwark, who is presumably the greatest superhero in the universe. The reason for this is because of a man named Chairman Drek, whom is trying to construct the perfect planet by means of extracting portions of other planets and placing them on the new one. This is all fine, except that the extracted planet will be destroyed in the process. Clank suspects finding Captain Qwark will stop Drek, and with the help of Ratchet and his ship, there may be hope for the galaxy. Ratchet agrees to help Clank, and the duo of Ratchet & Clank is born.
You start the game with only two weapons, the OmniWrench 8000 for melee purposes, and the Bomb Glove for situations that need a slightly longer range. Along the way though, you'll collect bolts (the currency for this game) and be able to buy even more weapons, such as the Pyrocitor, the Blaster, the Glove of Doom, and more.
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The Bomb Glove, Pyrocitor, and Glove of Doom, respectively.
This game is unique in that every gun has a distinct, creative, and funny way of killing foes. The Pyrocitor is a big flamethrower that burns up foes and such. The Glove of Doom is a glove weapon that creates little balls that contain small but powerful robots called Agents of Doom. After you throw a ball, the Agents will attempt to destroy any enemy that gets in their sights. There's even a weapon called the Morph-o-Ray, which turns your foes into chickens.
The control is smooth, but it has slight problems. The button jumps, and tapping it again in middair allows you to double jump. Except, the double jump barely gets you any higher at all in this game. The button brings out/shoots your weapon or gadget, which is kind of odd because usually you would press to shoot, right? The button brings out your "Quick Select", which is basically a small menu that allows you to select weapons a bit faster than pausing the game and then selecting your weapon.
This is the Quick Select. It's a bit hard to explain, but those icons are your weapons that you have put in Quick Select. Naturally, those are gonna be the weapons that you use the most. Quick Select makes it so you can select weapons in midgame rather than having to pause the game and going to the weapons menu. Unforunately, the number of weapon slots is limited.
The button swings your wrench. Pressing it three times will allow you to do a triple-swing combo, and jumping and then pressing will do a Hyper Strike, which is basically a powerful downward aerial swing to the ground. The button crouches. While crouched, you can actually throw your wrench like a boomerang. Just crouch and then swing your wrench. This is called the Comet Strike. Also, while crouched, you can do a sideflip and backflip by tilting the left analog stick downwards or sideways, and then jumping. This is could for dodging fast bullets. The button is First-Person Mode. It's basically for percision aiming; you can't actually walk around. Everything else is pretty self explanatory.
This game's "levels" are planets. Each planet has a set of missions, and you can only proceed to the next planet if you have found an Infobot on each planet. Infobots give you the coordinates to other planets. Sometimes you will have to chase them around, other times you must buy them from other people. Each and every planet is distinct in atmosphere and appearance. From the bustling city of Metropolis on Planet Kerwan, to the morbid toxic wasteland Planet Orxon, you will always see something different.
The graphics in this game are pretty much all anyone could possibly want. It's not the best, but that's what makes them that much better. Every planet looks very well done, there is much detail put into it. If you notice that if you use the Visibomb Gun, which is a remote controlled missile that goes into first person when you spot it, and fly around the areas where you can't even walk in, there is a lot of stuff that is there.
The voice acting is excellent, Mikey Kelly does a wonderful job voicing Ratchet. He does come off as a bit rude though, especially when Ratchet gets into a fight with Clank and acts rude towards him for about half the game. That part got a little annoying and made Ratchet seem like an arrogant character, which he isn't. The music in this game is out of this world, literally. It has to be my favorite video game soundtrack of all time. Just listen to these:
Ratchet & Clank Music:
And, the gameplay. Playing Ratchet & Clank is as fun as hell. It's always fun blowing people up with the Devastator, or punching their body apart with the Walloper. Collecting bolts never gets dull, as shooting enemies never gets old. Unless you are saving up for the R.Y.N.O. Then it might get a little stale. You don't just walk around and platform, though... The Trespasser and the Hydrodisplacer gadgets add a puzzle factor to the game, and there is also hoverboard racing, which is a pretty solid mini-game.
And the story... This game's story is pretty interesting. I can't seem to find another game like it. The humor aspect in this game is relatively high, some of the jokes this game uses are pretty funny. Such as the R.Y.N.O. joke... The R.Y.N.O. is the most powerful weapon in the game; it's a gigantic rocket launcher that shoots lots of heat seeking missiles at your enemies. And the part that makes it funny is what R.Y.N.O. stands for: "Rip Ya a New One". You gotta admit, that's pretty funny.
So, overall... This game is amazing. I recommend it to anybody, absolutely anybody who enjoys third person and cartoony violence. In my opinion, this is one of the greatest games of all time. If only some things were tuned up a bit.
My score: 9.9
Jefferlope
Posts : 2631 Join date : 2010-07-29 Age : 30 Location : On your computer screen.