Australian Gamer Feature :: Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction

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Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction

Ahhh, the next/current-generation is all so new-fangled to an old duck like me. I remember back in the old days when these "polygon" things were a fad. Who needs three dimensions on a two dimensional screen? Use your noggin, people!

But I've joined the latest and greatest, and gotten myself a shiny new Playstation 3. The bundle with which included a game, chosen from four, with the two hardest options being Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and Ratchet And Clank. I decided that Ratchet and Clank would be a popular title, given the girlosity of my flatmates and the fact that my son was coming over. Was it the right decision?

You know what? I think it was.

The Ratchet and Clank series has been a staple of every platform that includes the word "playstation" somewhere in its name. Err... except the Playstation.

Ratchet and Clank has therefore been one series I've really kind of skipped. I have no Ratchet and Clank issues. I just didn't have a PS2 until recently when I bought one for Guitar Hero, and while Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters for the PSP was highly regarded I kind of never got around to it.

So I've entered the universe of Ratchet and Clank at a pretty late stage. The question is how does that affect the experience? Will you get as much out of it if you haven't played previous Ratchet games as you would if you have played through? The answer, of course, is... how the hell would I know?

Number 5 ... is aliiiiiive!

Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction is a pretty big title for the PS3. It's an exclusive in a world where exclusives count for a lot and the console has been losing exclusive titles left, right and centre. R&C:ToC (catchy) is a big enough title for Sony that bus stops around have been plastered completely in Lomaxy goodness.

So what's the big deal? The eponymous Ratchet is a Lombax, the last of a race famous for their engineering and gadgetry, and Ratchet is no exception to this heritage. The eponymous Clank is a robot who runs into Ratchet in their first adventure (I looked it up) and they've stuck together since. The eponymous Tools of Destruction are the excessive weaponry that you pick up to pretty much melt anyone who isn't eponymous.

You pick up weapons very quickly, and some of them are devastatingly powerful. Like... two shot kills on bosses type powerful. Well, maybe not quite, but close. From a "blast everything in a line in front of me" weapon to a whip that smashes everything within melee range, multiple homing rockets to actual nuclear missiles, Tools of Destruction emphasises the smashing process. Not all the weapons are that useful. Some appear to pretty much do nothing, like the one that makes a wasp nest near people. Great. Nuclear rocket? Particle cannon? Or wasp nest? Tough choice.

Aside from the destruction of the weapons there are also "items". Items don't tend to really do much damage. They are a lot of fun, though. The most visible and well known is the one that turns the area you're in into a disco, forcing all the enemies to dance. It's really quite funny, though the novelty wears off pretty quickly.

Other items do similarly strange things, such as turning an enemy into a penguin. Which is as awesome as it sounds. One of the few that's actually helpful is the Leech Bomb. Leech Bomb kills the enemies around it, and turns them into health for you. Mucho goodness in the rare moments when you're actually hurt and still being attacked by hordes of baddies.

The problem with Ratchet and Clank is that the game is PG rated. While that isn't a bad thing in itself a game made for such a low rating will tend towards the younger end in terms of difficulty. That's not really a problem, but it can mean that older and more experienced gamers (like me, and probably you) are left with little to challenge them. If you only have the dexterity and problem solving skills of a 12 year old you have bigger problems than whether you'll like Ratchet and Clank.

Despite its ease, R&C has a lot to offer even the seasonedest of players. After completing its single player mode the game unlocks a much needed higher difficulty. Playing this requires you to not only kill more and tougher baddies (you start with all your weapons) but do so without being hurt to keep a multiplier on bolts ticking up. Get hurt and it resets.

This adds a level of challenge and skill that is kind of missing from the game mechanics of the normal �kill everything� first run-through.

Arrr, it be talk like a pirrrrate day EVERY day herrre

Aside from its difficulty being a tad low, Ratchet and Clank has two main flaws. First of all, the camera. Platformers specifically have never really done very well at camera angles. They�re just trying to show too much information to really be sure what exactly they�re trying to show, and it�s hard to keep the camera where it needs to be for the player. I think I�ve died far more from shoddy camera angles than enemies or lack of skill in 3d platformers as a genre, and Ratchet and Clank is no exception. There�s something enormously frustrating about simply running off a ledge because you didn�t realise that there was a fall-to-your-death there and it just looked like more floor.

The other problem is� it�s kind of slow. There are certain areas, and they show up right from the beginning, where you lose partial control of your character. The main examples would be the jump pads and grind rails that feature in the first level. I can�t help thinking they feel bizarrely slow. The jump pads especially, which I would think should launch you hurtling into the next area instead kind of lazily drift you over there. I can�t help thinking that they struggled with the technicalities of that level of speed and simply made it slower, but I don�t really like being confronted with the technical failures of a game. I want it fast, dammit!

The grind rails have the same problem. You really feel like they were going for some sort of mad-cap hurtling and in the end what you got was a slow and laboured slide. It really takes both the fun and the challenge out of these sections, which could have been a great addition.

As a final flaw, Ratchet and Clank is oddly buggy. It�s not really a big issue as such, but quite regularly dead enemies are left floating in strange places, rather than popping into bolts like they should. I�m not sure why, but it was quite startling.

So those are the negatives. What are the positives? Well, they�re many and varied. Frankly the game rocks. It�s extremely impressive, graphically, showing what can be done by a team that know the console, and Insomniac�s experience with Resistance: Barely Adequate Shooter really shows. I�ve always said that the PS3 had a lot of potential that would need to be unlocked, and now that we�re starting to see companies building their second game on the platform things from here will improve in leaps and bounds. Aside from (and including) graphics, Ratchet and Clank has a level of polish and detail that one expects from a company at Insomniac�s level, and everything from menus to sound effects, character animation to video cutscenes is spit-polished till it glows.

The result is one of the few games that really shows what the PS3 is capable of, not only as a graphics powerhouse, but as a games platform. It was something I�d forgotten, really, just how much actual fun you can have playing games. Running a website like this one is mostly about administration, content management and ongoing development. When you play sometimes it�s easy to let that be a chore too. Not to mention that when I play lately it�s been mostly World of Warcraft, which is pretty much a part time job rather than actually being� enjoyable.

When dinosaurs ruled the earth

Ratchet and Clank reminded me of older times, of simpler games. It reminded me of the older 3D platformers, like the original Spyro the Dragon, and with good reason. The charm, fun, and intelligence Insomniac are able to bring to games is a welcome change in an industry that sometimes seems dominated by juvenile thuggery and hyper-real brutality.

At its current $100-ish price, Ratchet and Clank is a purchase you should consider carefully in terms of replay value, etc. But if Sony start a budget range and it ends up closer to the $50 or $60 mark the decision is made for you. Whoever you are R&C: Tools of Destruction will be an entertaining and enjoyable romp.

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