Jack Burton Adventures #1  Everyone’s favorite hero, Jack Burton, is back and ready for action. With Lo Pan defeated, Jack can get back to what he does best, driving his truck. But there is a bit of unfinished business between Jack and the Chinese Wild Man. Suddenly, Little China doesn’t seem so small. 8-Bit #1  Dexter works for the video game world record organization Parallel Universes and he has more VHS tapes of player scores than he can handle. When Dexter drifts off while watching a high score attempt, he finds the game has come to life and he is in the middle of a new 8-Bit reality.
|
News > Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
|
NOV
04
|
|
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
By: Brad Hodson
|
 |
 (enlarge by simply clicking)
UPDATED I had never played a Ratchet & Clank game before. I had hardly played a platformer since Super Mario World. With that said, I hope that my review is relevant enough to stand aside the other reviews of this game while standing independent of them. This review will not try to tie the game in with the other games of the franchise. This review will not compare this game to the others in the series, I have no experience with them.
I do, however, hope this review will tell you how this game fares, standing on its own merits.
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction is Insomniac's first R&C game on the PS3, but their second attempt at developing for the PS3. Their first was the smash hit launch title Resistance: Fall of Man, which turned out to be the only game of worth for the first few months of inception. The game was solid, engaging, and (as I'm told) was in keeping with Insomniac's obsession and skill for making sweet weapons. Each weapon in Resistance had two functions, each was quite unique from each other and other weapons we've seen, and all had a purpose, place, and time for effective use. It all made sense.
Playing Ratchet & Clank, you get this feeling on overload. There are about 30 weapons in the game, each ranging from long-range fire blasters to short range wrist blades, to pylons you can set that trash all enemies in a certain radius. Each weapon is customizable by obtaining 'Raritanium' (UPDATE I'm assuming this is a play off of The Core's Unobtainium Raritanium was included since the inception of Ratchet & Clank, the first game appearing a year before The Core, thanks RCROX2000!) which you can use to purchase upgrades (more ammo slots, larger area of effect, faster shooting, etc). The weapons also upgrade over time depending on the frequency you use them. All weapons damage (or don't damage) enemies in certain severities, so you have to constantly trade between them when fighting various enemies.
There are also Devices which are designed to give you that "catch of breath" and hopefully allow you to progress the most nasty of parts. You've probably seen the Groovitron, a disco-grenade that morphs your battlefield into a dance-off forcing your opponents to bring down the house. There's also a little robot you can summon to help you fight for a time, as well as leach bombs to steal health from your enemies. You may think you will never need these, but you'll be begging for them when you run out in a heated battle.
The control scheme is quite easy to pick up and doesn't try to complicate things. You have one melee attack button (square), you have a jump button (X, or twice to double jump, hold to glide). You have a weapon select button that you hold down to access, with a menu that roles over with the L1 and R1 buttons. It's all quite intuitive and says a lot about the developers. Bravo.
UPDATE: Concerning the SIXAXIS integration: there are two really good uses, and one that doesn't work so well (at least for me). The thing that really blew me away in the demo was using the motion sensing to guide Ratchet as he free falls through Coruscant/Fifth Element traffic. This was just brilliant and really made you feel weightless (if only there was rumble for when you hit things). Likewise, the circuit-completion minigame works well with the motion sensing. What doesn't work is controlling the "Geo-cutter" and hitting specific marks to cut holes in walls. I failed the first wall so many times that it asked if I wanted to switch to stick control (which worked SO much better).
The reason I never played a Ratchet & Clank game was because I always thought I was above that. "Those are kiddy games!" I'd say, or "You mean you have to use your hands? That's like a babies toy!" But, when the demo went up on the PSN, I decided to give it a shot and found it to be very fun. The whole game is like a Pixar film. You have the clever jokes and animation, and you also have the great storytelling, characters and a sense of a wide market. The broad audience appeal is very strong with this game. Something for everyone.
However, therein lies a problem. See, I asked my nephew (he LOVES games) what he thought of the game after playing the demo and to my utter surprise, he said with a bored sigh, "it's okay..." Why didn't he just love it?! It's his type of slapstick humor, his kind of destructive gameplay. It's because the game is single player only. I'm not talking about online multiplayer death matches (which could be cool with all the different weapons), I mean there's no two-player cooperative mode. There's something for everyone here, but not everyone can play the game at the same time. Unfortunate.
There is also a few issues with the camera that I found to be somewhat annoying. An example is when you're pinned down in a corner, facing the corner and you try to turn the camera to face away from the corner, it wigs out. I also found a couple holes in the floor and a few minor collision issues, but what game doesn't have bugs? I used to be a game tester, so these will stick out to me more than other people.
When you're playing the game (by the way, play this game), just look around you. Look at the metallic tile flooring, or at the brilliant flowers and plantlife in the exotic worlds. Observe the lighting and reflection effects. Just breathe it all in, because it is gosh darn refreshing. This game is BEAUTIFUL.
I was aghast to NEVER see a load screen. I had yet to play a game that was ever completely rid of load screens. Although, I did discover that between worlds, the ship travelling through space is a cover up for the real loading, which is kinda nice. The big thing, though, is that each level is so incredibly expansive, with so many things going on and there is not a single load screen and no load lag during gameplay. I also never experience any slowdown, either with big things happening or with auto-saving checkpoints. And with graphics as beautiful as these, that's just incredible.
This game is a fantastic platformer and a brilliant second shot from Insomniac on the PS3. It's probably the best experience you can get on the system right now. It really makes you wonder where all the Japanese developers are when the PS3 is getting such great games in the meantime from the American studios.
|
Chang Sing Hand Sign T-Shirt  Impress your friends with your knowledge of Chang Sing hand signs! Let everyone know you are a friend of the Chang Sing and always ready for a street fight. Shutter #1  When an obsessive inventor builds a camera that can actually take men's souls, this unusual device sets in motion events that could bring about a calamity of apocalyptic proportions. Shutter is a sweeping tale of the darkness that lay inside the soul of every man that went West. |