Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal review

The third game in the Ratchet & Clank series on the PS2 is here. These games have been released every year since 2002 with the first one simply named Ratchet & Clank followed by R&C: Going Commando in 2003 and now R&C: Up Your Arsenal. Overall they could be described as platform shoot-em-ups with a cartoon theme, focus on a good story and a healthy dose of humour. Let’s check this one out.

Enter the rabbit

The R&C series has been developed by Insomniac games which is no stranger to this type of game having developed the first three Spyro games. Instead of a baby dragon we now have an alien who seems to be a cross between a cat and a rabbit (Ratchet) and a small robot slash TV star (Clank). Ratchet is the one who does all the work while everyone else gets the credit.

He has at his disposal an impressive arsenal of weapons to help him along with a suit of armour that features some useful gizmos. His default weapon is a giant wrench but along the way you will come across a sniper gun, a gun that fires bolts of electricity, one that turns enemies into sheep.

Then there are some indirect weapons such as one where you plant mini-turrets that shoot at the enemy, a vacuum that sucks up enemies and uses them as ammo and a weapon that spurts out little ankle-biting robots that protect you. A nice feature is that your weapons will level-up with use and attain more abilities such as auto-targeting, more power, increased range and so on.

These diverse weapons will come in handy as the game progresses because your enemies become tougher and require tactics to defeat, especially bosses. The fun part is that you can develop your own strategy; there is no one correct method. I, for example, was fond of using the mini-turrets, letting them do all my dirty work, while others recommend levelling up your basic weapons. Every enemy defeated leaves behind bolts which are used to buy new weapons, upgrades or ammo.

Mr. Roboto

The story is simple; an evil robot-villain by the name of Dr. Nefarious is planning to turn all organic life form into robots and it is up to our two heroes to stop him. Along the way they meet some old friends from the previous games like Captain Qwark and his creepy one-eyed monkey.

Captain Qwark, who is like Pixar's Mr. Incredible only completely lacking in morals, decides to set up a taskforce in which you’ll have to do take all the risk and none of the glory.

The game progresses by finishing missions which have a wide variety to them throughout. You will control all sorts of vehicles such as a hovercraft, fight your way through a lethal game show (similar to the one from the movie The Running Man) and play a 2D platform console game within the game (an amusing homage to those old Atari/Commodore/Spectrum games).

There are many of cutscenes but this is one game where you won’t be eager to skip them since they add a lot to the game and its innovative story. They are also remarkably well made, you sometimes get the feeling you are watching a Pixar animated movie.

Last Ratchet standing

Your first mission is a tutorial where you learn how to control Ratchet. Controlling him is not complex and it’s an easy game to get the hang of right away, you simply jump, shoot and strafe if you feel so inclined. The control setup serves its purpose well and the camera has been improved from prior R&C games, now enabling you to use a first person in addition to a third person view.

The game runs incredibly smoothly, especially considering the multitude of enemies that are constantly coming at you and the impressive graphics. The voice acting is also very well done along with the sound effects. I did not get to try the multiplayer function as well as I would have liked to since I have no friends (well, not ready-to-play-PS2-when-I-command-them-to friends at least) but this added feature is new to the R&C games. You can have up to 8 players for online mode and the scenarios will be familiar with FPS fans, especially Siege mode which is a take on Unreal Tournament 2004 Onslaught mode. Other scenarios are Deathmatch and Capture the Flag.

The World according to Ratchet

R&C3 is not really a challenging game nor does it try to be, it places key emphasis on being fun and fast paced. For those who want an action adventure that is challenging I’d recommend Prince of Persia: Warrior Within that I reviewed last week.

It isn't just a kiddie game, although it can give that impression with its cartoon look, it has that same general appeal that movies such as Shrek 2 and The Incredibles have, and a similar type of wacky cartoon humour.

If I would have to pick one word to describe it, it would be fun in the ideal sense of the word; you enjoy progressing through it and following the story without any frustration (or any real challenge which can be a double-edged sword). It is somewhat long (well over 10 hours) and the challenges lie in getting all the extras. This is a game that has an upbeat feel to it and is very colourful. Technically it’s an elegantly designed game with a well written storyline recommendable to any action adventure fan.