This would most likely be my favorite Ratchet and Clank game for a number of reasons if Going Commando didn't exist. Insomniac went above and beyond in developing this title, and it shows.

This game introduces a bunch of new things that all land spectacularly. Namely, Clank sections are now actually fun by introducing the time puzzles. Seriously, I could play an entire game full of these things. You can now fly your ship in between planets, getting into space battles, doing brief missions, and exploring moons with challenging platforming sections. Hover boots are a welcome addition, allowing Ratchet to zoom across levels quickly. You can customize certain weapons with different combat effects. Combine all this with the usual Ratchet and Clank gun combat, and you got yourself a great fucking videogame. My only real complaint is that it takes some time to really get into gear, but by the time you reach the second sector it gets real good.

The music is done by David Bergeaud anymore, but there are a few memorable tracks here and there. The soundtrack leans more towards something ambient, with the music picking up more during certain combat sections.

I still believe that A Crack in Time has the best Ratchet and Clank story to date. I won't go into too much detail as I believe it's best experienced for yourself. However I will say it takes almost everything that was set up in Tools of Destruction and Quest for Booty and gives it all a perfect payoff. The ending to this game is something I will never forget.

Overall, A Crack in Time is a near perfect Ratchet and Clank game that many fans regard as the best in the series. It's my personal second favorite, with Going Commando beating it ever so slightly. If you wanna get into the Ratchet games, don't miss out on this one. Or if you are looking to fill out your PS3 library, this would make a perfect addition!

Oh, man, this is the Future series at its peak. It's got so much to do, so much to see, the story does a far better job counterbalancing comedy and gravitas than Tools did, it even takes fun jabs on the plotholes espoused in the previous entry if you know where to look. It has its problems: namely the removal of gadgets in favor of converting two of them into real weapons, which creates some balancing issues, and sometimes the hoverboot controls can get a little wonky, but Crack in Time does so much with what it's given. The Insomniac Museum even returns in this one.

....The elephant in the room is of course, Nefarious. The primary antagonist of UYA is back and he's out for blood. This is certainly great as; as of yet, no villain has been reintroduced in this way. (Later games in the series however will stop at nothing to shove him back on screen, unfortunately...) Excellently portrayed as out for revenge and power-hungry, Nefarious and his butler steal the show of every scene they're in. They're not even the "primary" antagonists this time, but they sure feel like it.

Pirate Radio is the best station, by the way.

Insomniac brought their A-game during the darkest and most desperate era of PlayStation history - the early lifecycle of the PS3. Of all the R&C games I've played (which admittedly isn't close to all of them), this is the pinnacle. In terms of gameplay it hits all the familiar and dependable beats, but what sets A Crack in Time apart is that it's the funniest, the most epic and (story wise) the most engrossing entry in the franchise.

A shame that it's practically lost to time now. No pun intended.

A Crack in Time is still a lot of fun, unsurprisingly. I genuinely think the script is maybe the worst it's been in a mainline Ratchet game, and the humor almost never lands at all (though it's also just inoffensive at worse), but actually playing the game is mostly a joy. Also sort of feels like a sequel to a game that doesn't exist, because I feel like it introduces things that I'm supposed to know about and have been in the series before, but somehow haven't, but maybe I'm just being pedantic.

Seeing a PS3 game that both looks good and runs great is a surprise (unpopular opinion maybe, but I really think no other generation's graphics have aged worse overall). Gameplay wise, it's mainly just a continuation of what every previous R&C game has been, meaning a lot of running 'n gunning, and some occasional platforming, but also more platforming than in, say, Tools of Destruction since there are several optional, smaller planets that exist just as platforming challenges and are a lot of fun. The weapon arsenal is maybe not the best in the series, but it gets the job done, and outside of the cryo-mine glove I did get use all of them enough to get them upgraded. They also do more damage (or enemies have less health, I guess), than in ToD, so we're back to combat feeling satisfying and not just tedious and dragged out, while Ratchet also can take a bit more of a beating, even on Hard Mode (which honestly isn't really ever hard). Always annoying that enemies have a tendency to shoot at you from off-screen, but it's not a huge deal.

This game also does what no game has done before: making good Clank sections. I mean, I like his Lemmings mini-game in Size Matters, but actually controlling and doing things as Clank is finally fun this time, and also sort of gratifying to play today as I remember having a pretty tough time with some of his temporal puzzles, but not really having any issues at all this time. I would normally say low difficulty on puzzles kind of defeats the purpose, but I actually really enjoy how clever they are, and how novel it feels to have to record Clank and time different recordings' movements to do things in the right order. It also looks like you're some insane 4D genius when everything clicks and the recordings sync perfectly, which is always s fun feeling. Clank's weird planet lasering to destroy time vortexes or whatever are kind of boring, though, but there aren't too many of these sections, and they can be completed pretty quickly.

Okay, y'all weren't kidding, this is the best one in the series.

I know it's still a bit early to call it that, but come on. You don't even need to be a Ratchet & Clank fan to see how truly fantastic this game is in every conceivable way. From what I've read, this was supposed to be the finale for the whole series, not just the Future trilogy, but stellar sales figures caused Sony to pressure Insomniac to continue the series, a decision that would go on to benefit them anyway, at least from what I hear of Rift Apart specifically.

You can really tell this is their magnum opus too since pretty much every individual aspect of this game has been fine-tuned to such an impressive extent—it's the smoothest and most enjoyable to play that this series has ever felt.

Having said that, there are some qualms that hold it back a bit. Namely, the camera can be a real bastard to control correctly whenever you really need it. I'm mainly referring to the little platforming gauntlets on the spherical planets that you can attempt now and then. Usually these challenges involve heavy use of Ratchet's hoverboots, a new addition to the series, at least in this form, and an incredibly satisfying method of traversal. However, when you're moving fast and jumping between platforms on a spherical planet that's constantly rotating as you're moving across it, the camera can get a bit lost, resulting in quite a few retries.

It's not a huge deal, but I wasn't the biggest fan of the spaceflight segments themselves. They get the job done, and granted, they're one of the better iterations of it in the series, but I felt that only being able to move your ship on a horizontal axis made some boss fights more frustrating than appropriately challenging. Granted, you can get upgrades for your ship to make these parts smoother to handle, but it never really feels as worthwhile to play as the Ratchet and Clank sections of the game, respectively.

Problems aside, this game really delivers. Most impressive of all is its story. These games have dabbled in mature themes and storytelling before, but A Crack in Time's narrative takes it to the next level, delivering some truly compelling drama and emotional stakes alongside the standard wacky hijinks you've come to expect from the series. Both characters are set on their own odysseys built on themes of legacy and destiny in their own separate, equally engaging ways. These characters have never been written or portrayed better than they are here, and Insomniac's efforts have really paid off.

I was understandably starting to get a little burned out on these games before A Crack in Time came along and perfected the Ratchet & Clank formula. The combat is tight and satisfying, with a surprisingly deep customization system for select weapons that puts an exciting spin on the combat loop just as it was starting to get a bit stale. Clank's gameplay, in particular the timeloop puzzles, is really inspired, and I'd honestly take an entire game of just those sections. In fact, I kind of wish there were more, but I understand they probably didn't want to alienate people who weren't super into them.

So, yes, A Crack in Time delivered on the monumental hype going into it that, for once, wasn't rooted in nostalgia biases or hyperbole. It really is peak Ratchet & Clank.

9/10

The best R&C game as of 2023. The main draw is definitely the story that was brilliantly set up during Tools of Destruction and executed perfectly in A Crack in Time. Azimuth is one of the first characters with actual depth and layers introduced in the series (excluding Ratchet and Clank themselves), which was surprising coming from the R&C series, known for its simple plot and characters. The game also deviates from its original, linear system to a more open world game which I enjoyed. Unfortunately though, the game did have to sacrifice its famous comedy for a more serious story. At the end, it did pay off with the tremendous amounts of development occurring to Ratchet and Clank and their dynamic/relationship.
Gameplay wise, the game is amazing. Tons of new weapons to try out., the puzzles were simple but in a good way and the game never got too hard which was a re-occurring problem I had playing the series. Planets were decently fun with tons of collectibles and secret areas but I do feel they could be better. On the other hand though, Clank's sections were way more fun compared to its predecessors.
Overall, this game was everything I expected it to be. It had to make some sacrifices but they were definitely worth it in the long run.