[OLD] Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time

And now it has come to this: the ending of the Future Trilogy in the Ratchet & Clank series, A Crack in Time, released in 2009 following Quest for Booty. Unlike the last game though, this is a full game you can get at retail and not as a download, and it should be noted that this is the first Ratchet & Clank game to have PS3 Trophy support. While it isn't the last of Ratchet & Clank, this game is definitely one of the best I've seen from the series, especially in regards to the story, and I enjoyed every moment of it.

Starting off immediately after the end of Quest for Booty, there is another scene that elaborates on the origins of Clank, calling all the way back to the the very first game in the series. At that moment, the one who had abducted Clank at the end of Tools of Destruction is revealed to be none other than Dr. Nefarious, Ratchet's enemy from Up Your Arsenal, along with his butler Lawrence. After Nefarious fails an attempt to hack into Clank's brain, and losing his trust with the Zoni, Clank escapes, but is caught by Nefarious again, where he learns about the structure they are in called the Great Clock, built in the exact center of the universe (give or take fifty feet). Later, Clank meets another robot named Sigmund, Junior Caretaker to the Clock, and learns of his destiny to manage time. Meanwhile in space, Ratchet and Qwark are busy looking for Clank, when the Lombax learns of an "exile" that may help him in his quest. When he meets the exile, it turns out to be a Lombax like him, named General Alister Azimuth, who seeks to use the Great Clock to undo the fate of the Lombax race. With Ratchet's help, Azimuth not only promises the return of Clank, but also the chance for Ratchet to see his family.

The story is overall very suspenseful and awe-inspiring, having a bit of a cinematic quality to it that helps carry the events forward. There are still quite a few laughs thrown in to prevent it from becoming too serious, but in any case there are some memorable moments from the cutscenes, including bits where the characters make a small jab at story conventions, including highly ironic revenge schemes and wavy flashback effects. There are also plenty of references made to previous games in the franchise, so they might be confusing to anyone who hasn't been keeping up with the franchise from the first installment onward. Regardless, it all felt very much like a movie. A really, really good movie at that.

Familiar control schemes and gunplay elements return in this game from later installments, making it easier to pick up and play, especially for those already initiated. Among these returning elements is the new wrench mechanic introduced in the last game, and it was still interesting in the way it was integrated. However, there are a couple of new upgrade systems; there is one for special "Constructo" weapons where you can pick up mods throughout the game to customize them to your purposes; there is also a new system for your ship, in which you can collect Zoni to give it new upgrades and abilities. There is also a new gameplay element for Clank, where in during his levels you can reverse time when you hit an object, thereby repairing it, slow down time by throwing a special grenade, or recording multiple versions of yourself in order to solve puzzles. I found some of these puzzles to be quite a challenge, and at least once I started one over again once I found a much simpler solution. However, this is the good kind of challenge where you can learn from your mistakes as opposed to the soul-crushing variety.

The music of this game is simply spectacular, with each cutscene having a film-like score that helps the cinematic feel mentioned earlier. The music of the levels is also very good to listen to, and as usual is not annoying in any way while helping build up the tone of the game. The voice acting is also just as good as ever, including the voices provided to the robot characters, and like the background music is not annoying. The acting present on the central characters is deep and can be rather emotional at times, allowing you to feel whatever they are feeling as well. On that note, the performance of Dr. Nefarious in this game served to remind me exactly why he is by far my favorite Ratchet & Clank villain to date. The graphics of this game are some of the best I've have ever seen, in fact the best so far in this series alone, with special praise going to the cutscenes that help display the characters expressions during the story (again, even the robot characters are included).

I didn't actually notice any major problems with this title, aside from there being a couple times when Ratchet would inexplicably fall off of something for no apparent reason. Besides that, I can't really say anything too negative about this game. On a side note, the difficulty setting returns here from Quest for Booty, so depending on your situation you can switch it up or down at any time.

Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time is one of the best this franchise has to offer, and the cinematic qualities it brings are stunning for a game in the modern age. While this is a game I would highly recommend, it's more enjoyable once you are more familiar with the characters presented by playing all the older (console) games. Overall the Future Trilogy is a very enjoyable aspect of the Ratchet & Clank series and is not to be passed up, most especially if you are already a fan. When I return to this series, things go two-dimensional.

[OLD] Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty

As time goes forward with Ratchet & Clank, so does the Future Trilogy. Following Tools of Destruction is the middle portion, Quest for Booty, released in 2008. Interestingly, this part of the trilogy is a download through PlayStation Network, at a price point of $15. This raises the question, is it worth it?

The story of the game is very simple here, taking place shortly after its predecessor. After Clank was taken away by the Zoni, Ratchet tries to find a way to track him down so he can get him back. The Lombax eventually does, through a machine created by a known pirate named Captain Darkwater. However in order to gather the parts to activate it, he must deal with a particularly persistent pirate named Rusty Pete, who's captain he defeated last time, Captain Slag. When Rusty Pete finds a way to bring his old captain back, Ratchet is forced to stop him so he can rescue Clank.

The game overall is very short, lasting only a few hours, and as a result some things are more condensed. For instance, there is a much smaller arsenal than in previous games, and since you can get ammo regularly in crates there is an absence of any sort of vendors. There are also only a few locales this time around, consisting of a couple of islands and an armada of space pirate ships. Also, the only time you actually get to use Bolts here is when you are negotiating with a smuggler that you meet in Tools of Destruction. These are actually not negatives, but rather positives since they aid the game in working with its short length.

The level design is pretty good for a game like this, though one section got particularly annoying due to it consisting of plank walking and one pirate taking what seems like a cheap shot from afar. Regardless, it was interesting to see how it allowed you to go the whole time without Clank and still be challenging. In this case the shortness of the game is probably a good thing since in a much larger game you likely wouldn't be able to do much without your robot buddy. To compensate for this, a new game mechanic is introduced where you can crouch with your wrench as if about to throw it, then extend it to latch on to special objects in the level to manipulate them with the analog stick. I found this feature rather interesting, and I wonder if this will show up in the third part of the trilogy when I get to it.

Speaking of new features, this is also the first Ratchet & Clank game to feature a difficulty setting, contrasting with all previous games where there was no option. I'm not sure whether this is a good or bad thing, though given the nature of the game this can be seen as a way to get more mileage out of your purchase.

So is it worth the money? I would say yes, since even though it is a more condensed Ratchet & Clank experience, it still manages to hit all the points of a full-length installment. The characters are enjoyable, there is still some humor thrown into the dialogue, the gunplay is really well-done, and there is a good amount of challenge in the level design. I would recommend this game to anyone who has played Tools of Destruction, and especially to ratchet & Clank fans in general. In fact I would say it's a must-play for anoyone who wants to experience the full Future Trilogy, due to it filling in story gaps and an intriguing scene at the end, seeing the return of a rather nefarious enemy.

[OLD] Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

Continuing through the Ratchet & Clank series in anticipation of Sly 4, we come to Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, released in 2007. It is the first game in what is known as the Future Trilogy, as well as the first Ratchet & Clank game released for the PS3. For the first next-gen game in this series, I would say that it's really well done, though a minor problem arose during play.

On the planet Kerwan, Ratchet is fixing up a hoverbike when Clank gets a distress signal from Captain Qwark, who is under attack by a swarm of heavily-armed robots. They try to reach him through the hoverbike, but crash before fighting their way to Qwark's base. Once there, the duo finds out that the robots are actually trying to eliminate Ratchet, and try to escape. However, they are stopped by the robot army and learn that they are being controlled by Emperor Percival Tachyon, leader of the Cragmite race, who's goal is to wipe out all Lombaxes for eradicating his kind. However, Ratchet escapes before Tachyon can finish the job. As the last Lombax in the universe, Ratchet must defeat the Emperor, also the last of the Cragmites, with help from some friends he meets along the way. Meanwhile, Clank comes into contact with a mysterious group of aliens called the Zoni, who seem to know more about the future than one might anticipate.

The new characters introduced in this installment are pretty enjoyable and not annoying, though it was also nice to see some old faces every so often. I also felt the new female lead, Talwyn Apogee, seemed fairly well-rounded, complimented by some amazing work from her voice actress, Tara Strong (she recently lent her voice to Harley Quinn in Batman: Arkham City). However, that is not to say the rest of the voice acting isn't great, as everyone gave a solid performance overall. While I'm on the sound side of things, I should also compliment the music, which is just as engaging as ever, including an entertaining bit of music from a new gadget, the Groovitron.

Speaking of which, there's a plethora of new weapons and gadgets to use in this game, in fact so much that the Quick Select is now divided into three rings instead of two. Switching between these rings is much easier than in Deadlocked, since it utilizes the shoulder buttons to go through them really quickly. Like in previous games your arsenal can level up over time, though here the maximum Level is back to 5. There is a system similar to the Mods in Deadlocked present through a vendor, but this time it can be used to upgrade various aspects of your weapons, including Ammo capacity, Bolt drops, and Raritanium drops among others, the latter of which is used for the upgrades in the first place. One of my favorite items to use was a robot called Mr. Zurkon, who can be very handy in taking down tougher enemies while hilariously delivering trash talk (one of my favorites is where he compares a target's fighting to "an infant bird-fly").

An interesting addition to the gameplay is the way that the DualShock 3 controller is utilized. Using the Sixaxis functionality of the controller, you can perform actions such as cutting through rock by moving the controller in the desired direction. Fortunately, if there is a point where this becomes too hard to handle, you are given the option to use an analog stick instead for the rest of the game.

The graphics are amazing for an earlier PS3 title, and the physics are actually improved upon, if only in a more minor, yet noticeable sense. Crates this time are smaller and have more weight compared to previous games, in that if you manipulate them in certain ways they will fall over as opposed to just dropping down. While this might cause you to lose a crate if you aren't too careful around gaps, it's still very impressive to behold. When you visit some planets throughout your journey, since there is more texture it's interesting to think of it as Ratchet placed in a modern video game setting, as well as the subtle contrast it creates.

I've brought up the checkpoint system in previous games, and the qualities of it seem to work the same way here. However, this is not the minor problem I mentioned before, since I've learned to expect this sort of thing from a Ratchet & Clank game. The aforementioned problem is actually an instance where the sound in one cutscene went out of synch for whatever reason. Aside from that incident, the synchronization was perfect throughout the game.

Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction is a nice step forward for the Ratchet & Clank series. It has many great improvements to the formula, the graphics are still stunning after a few years, and there are plenty of strong performances all around. The story also is very engaging and leaves on an interesting cliffhanger. If you are a Ratchet & Clank fan, this is one game you don't want to miss.