Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time (PS3) Review

A BrutalGamer.com review.

Oh how I love Ratchet & Clank games.  Since the very first on the PS2 I have loved the anarchic gameplay, the crazy weapons and the buddy humour of the dysfunctional duo.  With the update to PS3 a couple of years ago Insomniac bought the franchise up to date with some absolutely stunning graphics.  The quality of the visuals made you honestly think you where watching or playing a cartoon.  May a person I have spoken too since has commented that a passer by in the same room thought they where watching a cartoon of some sort on Cartoon Network.  There were a few complaints last time out that the franchise did little to move itself on from it’s PS2 beginnings and, although the game was great fun, I kind of had to agree on some level.  Well Insomniac are back once again with what is reported to be the last mainstream Ratchet & Clank offering.  Let us go and take a look on how the duo go out, is it with a bang or a whimper?

The story picks up right where the previous Ratchet game left off.  At the end of Ratchet & Clank:Future Tools of Destruction Clank is kidnapped by the mysterious creatures know as the Zoni.  Ratchet then discovers at the end of the DLC Quest for Booty that Clank has been kidnapped by the Zoni under the orders of Dr Nefarious (yes he of Up Your Arsenal fame).  So you get the two distinct elements of the game.  Ratchet must now track down his arch nemesis Nefarious to help rescue his friend (with the bumbling aid of Captain Quark!) and Clank must discover where he is, what Nefarious wants with him and what is mysterious past is all about.

Graphically Ratchet is another tour de force.  Sure it can’t touch the likes of Uncharted 2 but it was never meant too.  The cartoon quality is still in abundance, but it seems to not be quiet so jaw dropping this time around.  The garish palette and over saturated hues of the Saturday morning cartoon are all in place and the screen is always alive and vibrant.  The game runs at a super smooth 60 frames per second and the animation is all completely smooth and luscious.  The cut scenes are great and you really can not fault the overall look and feel to the title.  Some of the textures appear to be just poorly made (like some of the metallic tracks that Ratchet walks along with his magnetic boots) and the new cartoon like quality to explosions, fire and smoke are a little puzzling but overall the game looks very nice indeed.  The sheer scope and size of some of the levels is mind blowing as you look out at vast cities and space stations.  You can see the evolution of the engine used in Resistance 2 here and man does it get put through it’s paces.

Sound design has always been another strong element of the franchise and Crack in Time does little to disappoint in this department.  The in game music is always of the highest quality, the sound effects are absolutely spot on and the voice acting impeccable as ever.  My only real criticism of the sound is that it feels fairly re-used from the last game.  I know why re-invent the wheel as the sound was great for the first title.   The same for the orchestral score it is fantastic but fits squarely in the vibe of the previous game(s).  The new characters all come over well in the voice stakes and teh main characters (especially Quark) all play their parts with great gusto and really add that needed 3rd dimension to the characters.

Gameplay has evolved a little this time out. Ratchet still has his main levels as ever before.  This sees the fuzzy hero jumping and gliding his way across many a landscape bringing countless billions of pounds worth of destruction with him.  The weapons on offer, as ever, range from the super useful to the completely bizarre.  A Belching alien gun that acts like a shotgun anyone?  The sheer number of weapons crammed in to this game is awesome to behold – we’re not talking the thousands of Borderlands but these are all specifically designed not procedurally generated.  Action for Ratchet takes the before mentioned stable path of platform with added 3rd person shooter and it’s all very nicely done – again.  The Clank levels are a little more sedate, offering limited combat options, but more of a chance to explore and do a few puzzles along the way.  The puzzles are unfortunately a little generic and kind of jut against the flow of the gameplay making them seem almost like an after thought or a “we gotta make this longer” kind of thing.  That said the Clank areas are just much fun as the Ratchet ones – in fact the very first thing you play, after the fantastic recap story (Captain Quark doing his best rip off of the intro to Pixar’s The Incredibles), is a Clank level.  The Clank levels also employ a clever “cloning” technique to teh puzzle solving allowing Clank to record a series of actions and then play them back.  For example he can record himself walking upto and standing on a switch to open a door.  He then plays this back and whilst his recorded self opens the door the “real” Clank can run through the open door – problem solved.  This takes on more and more ingenious twists as the game progresses but the core dynamic remains the same.  It is very reminiscent of title such as Blinx.

The constant collection of bolts, the games currency, and exploration of many, many worlds will have you hook for a very long time.  The game is coming in at around 10 hours on a quick play through so if you take your time, explore for golden bolts and max every weapon you will have a very lengthy title on your hands.  For me the real shame is that this still does nothing new with the franchise.  That said if I reflect on that thought I really don;t want Ratchet & Clank to change all that much.  What it does it does the best of any other title.  The platforming is fantastic , the gunplay is both responsive and great fun.  The character animations are absolutely flawless and Insomniac should be dishing out large bonuses to their graphics and animations departments.  This version of Ratchet & Clank pretty much gives me everything I could want from a Ratchet & Clank game – great and varied weapons, sublime presentation and tons of stuff to upgrade!  Unlike many games that involve some form of token, coin or in the case bolt collection can become tedious and finding all the bolts of collecting all teh coins just becomes a chore.  Not so in Ratchet!  Just watching those crates or the scenery explode is just so satisfying each and every time that it never gets old and you just want to do it more and more.  To be honest the Lego collection from the Lego Star Wars (etc) titles basically ripped this from Ratchet and it’s one of the things that helped that game work so well.

Final Thoughts:

Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time is a small step on from the previous two Ratchet titles on PS3; and PS2 for that matter.  It is basically just a refinement and an evolution of the game.  Sure it does not move the series or genre on in any great way but at this stage in the life-cycle of Ratchet & Clank do you really want anything more?  It is the best Ratchet experience yet, it looks divine, it sounds incredible and plays like an absolute dream.  If you even remotely liked the previous titles this game will appeal to you.  If you have yet to play a Ratchet game but like platformers, shooters or just plain old fashioned fun games that perform visually and audibly at the top if it’s field, then I urge you to go pick this up today, you really won’t regret the decision for a moment.

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