This is possibly the most pointless game I've ever played, in the sense I don't understand why it was a unique SKU. This is a (lame) level or two of a regular Ratchet and Clank game. It could have easily been DLC for the first Ratchet and Clank Future game, since it was only released digitally in its home country anyway. It could have been the beginning of the next Future game. It could have been an email.

Quest for Booty feels like such a tech demo I feel like I'm rating a 8th grader's rough draft of an essay they plagiarized from themselves. Like, I can't give you a failing grade, because you technically did your homework, and I was able to comprehend it. But robot pirates have souls? But their robot brains can be brought back to life without souls? But their souls can animate heads without their brains? What are you DOING, and is it a regulated substance?

Special shout-out to the woman on the front cover who I will never learn the name of due to her nothing contribution to both this game and the previous one, who even the game hates to the point another named character refers to her as "Ratchet's female"??? Like, they call Ratchet by his species when they're being disrespectful. But she's just species: female. But Ratchet's female. She doesn't even get to be her own female. Even though she's not a lombax! Did the people MAKING this game know her name? Does she have a name???

Where the fuck is Angela?????

An ever so slight improvement over Tools of Destruction, if only because I was still enjoying myself by the end of the game unlike ToD's later half. Weapon selection is more limited than ToD and some of the picks that came back are really strange to me (why did the janky Tornado Launcher return?). The enemy variety is also fairly limited but understandably on purpose and I think it's fine considering this can be finished in less than 2 hours. Really appreciate there being more puzzles and actual platforming than what Tools of Destruction had, as brief as this game is. Story's just fine, serves more as connecting tissue to Crack in Time than anything.

Even though it basically reuses all of Tools of Destructions assets, in a very limited format, it still has a few unique mechanics to it. For one thing the wrench now has an actual use outside of battle other than turning cranks.

It focuses a lot more on platforming - probably the most since the original games, which I guess was them making use of the fact there's no Clank, and thus half your "easy" movement options are gone.

It does ultimately feel a little pointless though. I played it on PS Now so I dunno the release history of this game, but it feels like it should have been a prologue to the next game rather than a standalone thing between releases that you have to pay for. It's not bad but it's just such a limited version of R&C to spend your time (and money depending on how you get it) on.

Quest for Booty is an inoffensive trip with some neat ideas, but utlimately lacks the impact of its siblings.

There are no new weapons; they're all taken from Tools of Destruction (yet the player's full arsenal isn’t present). Item-grabbing and the wrench tether seem like original mechanics at first, but they're both used later in A Crack in Time (CiT)

Major fights from Tools of Destruction (ToD) are also reused: Destroying a slew of pirate ship cannons was a particularly memorable moment in ToD, so having it implemented in a less challenging way feels cheap. It’s also disappointing that the player does this fight on a turret, as shooting shit with a turret is perhaps the series’ least engaging gimmick. The large mechanical pirate bosses also make a return, and since they were already overused in ToD, having to fight even more of them was tiring. Additionally, many battles are treated as "waves." Essentially, the player sits in one spot and fights tons of enemies as they spawn on top of them. R&C usually has the player progressing through areas and fighting enemies that are naturally placed; I assume this new system was implemented to pad the game's length.

Quest for Booty suffers from a severe re-use of assets in general. The game begins and ends around a collection of pirate ships (from ToD of course) that are sailing across a terribly animated sea with a few shittily modeled rocks placed to create the illusion of motion. The pirate enemies are also reused from ToD.

Quest for Booty being a direct sequel to ToD cheapens the game’s ending. ToD ended on a significant cliffhanger, and at the time, it was the most story-driven game in the series. To have it continue with mediocre filler is mind-boggling. I wouldn’t mind if it were a spin-off, but the events of this game are unfortunately necessary to bridge the gap between ToD and CiT.

I also have mixed feelings on how long it takes for the action to begin. Quest for Booty’s first and second levels are exclusively platforming puzzles (not including the introduction). This is a cool idea conceptually, but many of these puzzles felt a bit too simple to be engaging. Some of the windmill puzzles are clever though, like when you grind across a rail and have to quickly pick up a bomb to toss at a weakened gate. And avoiding ravenous winged creatures while cautiously traversing narrow platforms in a dark cavern is Quest for Booty’s most inspired quality.

Thankfully, the final boss is mechanically exciting. Jumping between pirate ships throughout a multi-phased fight is a fun idea; however, like I stated earlier, the environment itself isn’t original. I would have enjoyed it more if the player’s full arsenal from ToD was available and Insomniac treated the fight itself as a super-boss. I was playing Quest for Booty on Hard, yet the base game for ToD featured a far more challenging final boss.

Even after all the issues I have with this game, Quest for Booty features ToD’s excellent mechanical foundation. This instantly makes parts of it fun, regardless of how unoriginal half of the content is.

Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest For Booty is a quick but engaging little sidegame for the series. I saw it on PS Now many times but never got around to playing it because I always thought it was a full game, but once I learned that it was actually only a few hours long I figured it would be the perfect game to beat in one sitting and feel like I was actually making progress with something while im sitting here sick as hell. And well, there really isnt much to say about it. Its not different from the other Ratchet games I played. Thats to say it doesnt do anything new but its still a really fun time. The story isnt really there but its funny and entertaining. Theres a few annoying parts and bad checkpoints but theres not much to complain about either. Its just a short little fun time that you probably wont remember much of and sometimes thats just what you need.

Time Played - 5 hours 9 minutes
Nancymeter - 75/100
Game Completion #52 of 2022
May Completion #2

Just barely better than tools of destruction. I think this mostly comes from the fact that I actually had fun killing the enemies in this game. The weapons didn't completely peter out by the end of the game like in ToD and that in and of itself solidifies it just above that game for me. However, the game feels incredibly uninspired. Nothing in this game really matters and it's a largely forgettable experience.

Would I recommend it? That's a tough call. The only people who should be playing this in the first place is people going through the future saga. I hesitate to call it a trilogy as some online do due to the fact that this game is incredibly short and overall unimportant to the story at hand. All it really exists to do meaningfully is do a teaser ending to get you excited for the next game. This is mostly DLC to ToD.

Still, it's somewhat enjoyable. If you played through Tools and think it's overall a good game, you'll probably have fun with this as well.

I'm a little confused about why this exists. It's essentially an expansion for TOOLS OF DESTRUCTION that's about a quarter as long, has -literally zero- new weapons (and about a quarter of the previous game's total arsenal), has no secrets, unlockables, or any kind of optional content, and since Clank isn't in it (for story reasons) Ratchet only has about half of his normal moves. There isn't even any shooting combat for close to half of the game, and all of the sudden, the focus is squarely on platforming and puzzle solving. It honestly plays like some kind of Ratchet UNCHARTED, and wow, that is not what I'm looking for from these games! Is this what CRACK IN TIME is like?! Yikes.

Definitely regret spending $15 on this. Three hours of the instantly-tiresome pirate crap from TOOLS with close to no new assets and zero replayability. Baffling.