Story wise, it's really the most touching one in the series. Putting the relation of the duo in the center of the story was clearly a good choice because it made it feel really emotionnal and I for the first time in the serie I felt moved during some of the cutscenes.

But I have a major complain about the game and it is making it half of the playtime in the ship. I'm the kind of player that HATES spaceship and plane missions in videogames because they almost all the time kill the pacing of the game and ACiT is no exception. I think the game would have benefited a LOT of being more story focused than trying to fill in playtime with terrible spaceship gameplay. For the rest, it's juste like TOD so it's really good and they finally made Clank gameplay interesting and enjoyable after all those terrible moments in the previous games.

The pinnacle of Ratchet & Clank. Witty storytelling, genuinely fun and challenging time-based puzzles for Clank gameplay, an all-around excellent arsenal with new and returning weapons to utilize, great character development, a surprising twist ending, there is so much to love about this game. Only knock off a few points for the space exploration, which is really fun for 80% of the game, but definitely overstays its welcome by the end. Right up there with UYA, the best in the future franchise, and the last truly amazing Ratchet & Clank game.

I like this game a fair amount, but I honestly think it represents a departure and step backwards from Tools of Destruction.

First: the good

The Clank puzzle sections are well made and pretty fun to figure out. I wish the game gave you more optional than forced tutorial time, but whatever. The challenge puzzles you can do for gold bolts require you to both think carefully about it and also do really tight platforming across each Clank instance to get them done in time. I would play a whole game that's just these puzzles tbh.

The narrative is the best told and probably most engaging of the entire series thus far. People commonly invoke Pixar when talking about these games, but this is where it starts to feel the realest. It's a story about characters realizing that they don't need to be their forefathers and staking their own way in life. It's nothing ground breaking, but it's nice to see in an R&C game. It's also nice for the series to have more fully realized characters and NPC allies that fight alongside you, it was sure a long time coming.

The modular upgrade-able constructo weapons are so fun to dick around with. In general, this game has a pretty strong roster of weapons, but if you don't do all the gladiator matches as soon as you can you may find yourself confused as to what you're missing.

I genuinely like the planetoid segments. I have wanted more of these since the single planetoid segment for Ratchet in Going Commando and Arsenal. These don't deliver as well or hold as much promise as those, and mostly serve to pad content, but some have genuinely fun platforming challenges. Mostly great from them is the visuals: you see the planets in the system upside down as you are on different points on the planetoid's surface, etc. While I wish these weren't so formulaic and content-y, I don't dislike them.

Actual boss variety is happening in this game, which is great. I enjoyed pretty much all of them, including the Vorselon post game rematch. It's nice not to see the same big space pirate miniboss copy pasted over and over, yeesh.

I like the development and fleshing out of different alien races and factions inhabiting the galaxy. It leads to less NPC variety, but I like seeing the characterization build up. You have your Navi/Sid the sloth Fongoids, the huge moron jock Agorians, the dorky Terachnoids, the scavenging Vullards, the lesbians, and each has different aesthetics in their tech. Pretty cool.

Dr. Nefarious obviously is great, Armin Shimerman always leaves it all on the court. Also, the tiny segment where you get to wear a Nefarious hologuise and yell for Lawrence/demand your robot minions be immediately executed was a nice touch. The short part at the beginning of the Nefarious fight where he uses his moves from the Arsenal final boss fight was very nice, videogames.

The meh:

There needed to be way more (and better) time trave set pieces in this game. This game doesn't have many planets, and like well over half of them have set pieces that you can't go through again until a new playthrough.

The ship combat leaves much to be desired. Don't think I need to say more about that.

The gladiator arena challenges mostly continue retreading. I like the arena, but when are we getting some new challenges? The arena in Arsenal has more variety than this.

There aren't really any huge damage weapons like the one in Tools and the sniper in Arsenal. Let me have fun.

The hoverboots are okay. It's nice to see the charge boots become something that makes a little more sense.

There are some cutscenes where Ratchet and Azimuth are inexplicably capable of breathing in the vacuum of space.

The bad:
Honestly, separating Ratchet and Clank for this long just doesn't work. I found myself missing my clank mobility options so often. The biggest sin, though, is when you finally get clank back and you can't toggle the jet pack instead of the heli pack..... Cmon man. Without clank movement, and especially before you get the hover boots, being ratchet feels like complete ass.

Enemy variety at possibly its lowest in the entire franchise to this point.

Where's talwyn??? I like her! This game now lacks a female voice again.

Wish this game had More, which I always find myself wishing with these PS3 games. In Tools I wanted more of those well-crafted platforming and classic R&C level design taken up a notch. In Crack I wanted more planets! More levels please!

The gadgets are not great man :( The hoverboots take up a gadget slot that would normally just be Clank-filled, the swingshot is the swingshot, the time bombs you get late and don't really HAVE to do anything with (psst... They help a lot on the final post game Vorselon fight), and the water soaker thing is just.... truly a nothing device that is only used as a Key in set pieces.

The gold bolts are less Special and cleverly hidden than ever before.

A Crack in Time follows on from the first R&C Future Game Tools of Destruction's story having gameplay elements that evolves the franchise. You may want to read up on Quest for Booty to fill in a plot hole between the two games.
The first major change is the space piloting. It is done in an open world setting where you can land on mini planets to complete challenges rewarding you upgrades. This was vastly improved from ToD even making the spaceship more manageable. This is a good idea as it makes the whole R&C playable areas far more interactive.
The main 'gimmick weapons' to traverse the stages have changed, showing real innovation of the franchise. However, there was less focus on platforming and removed gliding, but added hover boots to increase mobility and speed in the larger levels.
There are slightly fewer levels but they larger giving more depth to each world. The levels using Clank have been greatly expanded upon with more engaging puzzles which was welcomed. The graphics took a small yet noticeable upgrade once again which felt like playing a low budget Pixar short film in the 2000's.
I really enjoyed the game but slightly prefer ToD. It could be the charm but also likely due to upgrade system in weapons and weapon variety. As A Crack in Time I felt the weapons, although diverse, were limited in how practical they can be. Both are amazing games and worth 20 hours of your time.

And so comes to a close my latest journey through a Ratchet & Clank game, and it's also the last of the pre-reboot games (well, at least the big budget, physically released ones by Insomniac). I got most of the collectibles, but not quite all. This game was just so fun to play, I didn't mind hunting around for the large majority of them, and I even checked out the whole of the in-game museum~. It took me around 15 hours to beat the Japanese (mostly) version of the game.

This game picks up sorta where Tools of Destruction leaves off, but more technically where the digital exclusive Quest for Booty leaves off, with Clank kidnapped by the Zoni and Ratchet off looking for him. Clank wakes up to find the recently returned Dr. Nefarious (from the third game) attacking the Great Clock, a giant complex that keeps time and space from ripping themselves apart. Ratchet still hasn't quite found Clank, but he knows where to look, and the story hops between both of their narratives before their final reunification. The story of this game is something I would call a step down from the previous game (and if you want 2700+ words on why I think that, you can read about it here), but it's still fine on the whole, save for how this is easily the R&C with some of the most poorly aged humor (a lot of really exhaustingly unfunny "oh look at what nerds they are" non-jokes as well as easily the most casual transphobia the series has ever had XP).

Gameplay-wise, this is easily the strongest the series had ever been up to this point. The platforming action that returned in ToD is back again here, and its bolstered even more with some semi-open world spaceship flying. Actually fun spaceship flying is back once more! You can fly around a 2D plane in each system you're in, going between the major planets as well as small moons that are either platforming or combat challenges that you can do for extra goodies. You can collect lost Zonis to upgrade your ship (and you'll also need to to progress the story), and there are also a good deal of little side quests to do. These spaceship segments are good fun, and a good way to break up Ratchet's platforming and action, which are as fun as ever. There are also a bunch more very fun guns in this game too, including one which I think is my new favorite. It's basically a burp gun, and you need to time when you fire it to get the biggest possible burp (and therefore the most AOE and damage out of it).

While Ratchet does his platforming and shooty-bang-gun stuff better than ever, Clank is off exploring the Great Clock, and he actually gets a bunch of unique mechanics to do it. Clank solo segments have been in just about every R&C game that Insomniac has done, but this is easily the best they've ever been and they've never felt nearly so mechanically or narratively justified. Clank is the keeper of the Great Clock, and therefore a keeper of time, so his segments are made up of some relatively simple action segments, but also a bunch of time-based platforming puzzles. You play through two to four "recordings" of Clank to simultaneously operate parts of puzzle rooms to open the door at the opposite end. They have a really good difficulty curve to them, and never quite out stay their welcome. More straightforward action segments and platforming parts also intersperse between them to give his segments a good sense of pacing. They're not nearly as long as Ratchet's segments, but they're a great and very clever spin on what has usually been a pretty underwhelming series staple up to this point.

The presentation is a pretty mixed bag, and honestly the biggest black mark on the game. Visually and musically, the game is great. It looks really clean and pretty, and the art style is good. This is also another R&C game with a pretty solid musical score, and is much closer to the previous Future game than the original series in how good it is. The audio balancing, however, is borderline unacceptable in just how poor it is. I said at the start that I played through the "mostly" Japanese version of the game, and that's because I switched over to English audio about a third of the way through the game because I was sick of just not understanding anything. Not only is this yet ANOTHER R&C game with no subtitles for the large majority of the dialogue, but the directional audio is completely broken. Voices are often far far too quiet to hear unless the camera's perspective is directly on top of them, so Ratchet facing a character is actually one of the worst ways to hear them, paradoxically enough. Even in English, I had a consistently difficult time actually understanding what characters were saying, and it's frankly shocking how it was able to launch in this state. It's far from a deal breaker, but it makes what story is there so much more frustratingly difficult to enjoy.

Verdict: Recommended. This is a bit of a weird one to recommend because while it is VERY fun to play, the writing also falls so consistently flat. I wanna say that the writing isn't THAT bad, but I also wrote over 2700 words about how poorly done it is (and that's not even mentioning just how poorly so much of the comedy has aged), so clearly I have a pretty meaningful problem with it XD. If you're someone who can safely ignore story in games, I think this is an easy suggestion to grab as a PS3 exclusive action platformer, and even then, it's fun enough to play that I think most people who enjoy action platformers will be able to look past its faults and have a good time with it regardless.

Actual peak Ratchet and Clank. The storytelling is at its best here as well as the art direction and gameplay. The space travel is great and overall everything combat wise is much more balanced and fun versus the past Future titles. The space radios are great and full of amazing music. I also love the simplification of gadgets and the new ones presented here with the Hover Boots.

Really my only complaints is that the arsenal doesn't feel as developed as previous titles and that the turret sections are as usual the weakest point. Also a severe lack of Talwyn but I think it was on purpose to have the partner character Azimuth have a deeper connection to both Ratchet and the player.

My favorite game in the Future triliogy, but it doesnt come with some drawbacks. Clank stages are fun on the first playthrough but replaying puzzles is a slog. Other than that, great game. Rewards exploration and makes you finally see the galaxy you're traveling through instead of just a loading screen telling you you are. Plot is one of if not the best in the series, and the ret-cons honestly are well earned for the amzaing story it tells. It really shows how much Ratchet has grown since the first game.

Mechanically, this is the best game in the entire franchise. The amount of creativity on display with the levels, characters, and the time-based game mechanics, really give this game an air of wonder. It doesn't hurt that the trademark of the series, the weapons, are firing on all cylinders here, with a solid selection to choose from, all balanced nicely to complement each other.

There's a pretty good story in here too, one that explores the 2 leads in a way that the franchise hasn't really attempted to do before, and arguably since. The dichotomy between playing as Ratchet and playing as Clank really keeps the game paced to never allow any one style of gameplay to become too repetitive too quickly.

This game is just pure fun, a game that looks great, plays great, and is written to keep things light and comedic while still telling an engaging narrative. Games like this are just cozy, and fun no matter when you play it. It may not be my personal favourite in the series, but I can't deny that this is the best Ratchet & Clank game made so far.