--Dr. Nefarious, Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal
More than 20 years ago, the first Ratchet & Clank game came to the PlayStation 2, the next two years each seeing one sequel for the same system reach the public. The series has since had a reboot starting with a remake of the original game in addition to entries made for the PSP and PS3. The core PS2 trilogy was eventually brought to the PS3 and PS Vita with an HD collection that marks the only time the franchise ever appeared on the Vita. This collection has a vast amount of content, and it fits well alongside the other HD collections of PS2 games on the Vita like that of the first two God of War games. The limitations of the Ratchet & Clank PS2 trilogy will just be more apparent by comparison to contemporary games since they are fairly old by this point.
Production Values
The jagged, sometimes blurry graphics of this trilogy are distinctly outdated, but that does not lessen the quality of the game in light of its era and platform. This is an HD version of a PS2 series transplanted onto the PS Vita, a handheld console from 2012. To expect PS4 or PS5 level graphics would be to ignore the differences in the age and power of the systems. What Ratchet & Clank Collection does accomplish is preserving the presentation of three PlayStation 2 classics and moving them to a portable system where they are more accessible to people who cannot play them on their original system. The sound, including the voice acting and the noises of each iconic firearm of the trilogy, has indeed aged better than the graphics, as longtime gamers might expect, and now each of the three games has its own set of trophies on the Vita to distinguish then from the PS2 versions beyond just the portability and control changes (such as to account for the rear touchpad of the Vita).
Gameplay
The gameplay of the trilogy has its renowned weapons and mild platforming all intact here, but it needs to be clarified that the controls are the greatest enemy of this collection. The rear touchpad of the Vita must be held down to strafe, but the strafing either does not always activate or will disengage randomly in one of the worst Vita-specific controls I have ever encountered. Since there is no lock-on button and the strafing controls are absolute shit, in the first two games, one will have to dodge by making unnatural movements to the left and right while trying to take a few shots at the same time, whereas in the third game, there is an option for a strafe-locked third-person camera and a first-person camera that lets you walk around--in Ratchet & Clank and Ratchet & Clank 2, you must stand in place to use the first-person camera, although you can fire weapons while doing so.
This somewhat major issue of controls aside, the core gameplay of Ratchet & Clank and its two PS2 sequels have very similar but solid gameplay with evolutions of certain aspects introduced in each consecutive game--and there are even ways to bring all purchased/unlocked guns from the first game into the second and from the first two games into the third, although this is a one-time mechanic, so having purchased as many as possible beforehand is ideal. The weapons range across the trilogy from a glove that releases grenades to a shotgun-like energy weapon to a plasma whip to a suction device that turns small enemies into projectiles. In Ratchet & Clank 2, weapons can be upgraded one tier by killing enough enemies with them, and Ratchet's maximum health increases for killing enough enemies with any weapon, up until a fixed total amount, of course. In Ratchet & Clank 3, weapons can be upgraded by use past a single tier, and Ratchet can earn up to a capacity of 200 health points by leveling up enough.
There is also mild platforming, optional arena-based battles, secret bolt collectibles, and the occasional race required by the story to progress. These races can be the hardest parts of the game until you adjust to them after at least a few rounds of practice. Adjusting to them is partly a matter of developing skill as needed and partly overcoming the trait of the fellow racers where they go faster than you by default, an idiotic choice on the part of the game designers, as even hitting every boost pad and ring barely keeps you ahead of their natural speed in the first game. As daunting as they might seem, even the parts of the trilogy like this can be finished, albeit after lots of practice for some people.
Story
Some spoilers are below.
The first game opens as Clank is produced by a factory that fails to make him meet the standard specifications--he is very small and much less imposing, and he escapes the factory to crash land on Ratchet's planet of residence. Chairman Drek of the corporation Clank fled wants to build a new planet for his species using parts of other planets, without regard for how this will impact other beings. Clank hopes to find an alleged hero called Captain Quark to save the solar system. After eventually defeating Chairman Drek, Ratchet is tasked with recovering a stolen bioweapon because of his celebrity status in the second game, and after the adventures of the previous two games in the trilogy, Ratchet and Clank return to Ratchet's homeworld in the third installment to repel an invasion of machines led by Dr. Nefarious, a seemingly sentient robot that wants to exterminate organic life to usher in social equality for machines
Intellectual Content
Ratchet & Clank and its two numbered sequels are far from philosophically deep games while having story elements related to corporatism or the nature of artificial intelligence. There is still a great amount of skill and sometimes forethought necessary to intentionally complete certain parts, and there is also the optional collectibles that can require far more environmental analysis than much of the main objectives. Since entertainment can succeed in other ways even if it forfeits the higher greatness of abstract themes or profound characterization, this does not make any of these three Ratchet & Clank games bad, just lesser than plenty of other games in key ways.
Conclusion
These main Ratchet & Clank games before the reboot series started in 2016 certainly lack the thematic complexity or philosophical weight of something like Sony's other series God of War, but they are still competent in other aspects like their variety of weapons and in their demonstration of how a series can steadily improve on the mechanics of prior games with each release. That some of the same control flaws persist well into this collection of games could make for a very frustrating experience for people who do not want to randomly jump back and forth while attempting to shoot enemies. All the same, players seeking nostalgia, curious about the kinds of games that Sony once published for the PS2, or looking for plenty of content in a single Vita release, Ratchet & Clank Collection gets enough right to deserve at least some attention.
Content:
1. Violence: There is little to no blood despite the frequent fights with enemies.
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