A Crack in Time is a prime example of money being poured on a skeleton that is yet unformed. There is no level design. Combat was hilariously, tediously boring even on Hard. The story is nonsensical, retcon-y ameature-hour drivel. But the generic level concepts are rendered with incredible detail, the character animations are the best in the series so far, and the comedic timing with Dr. Nefarious has been honed to greatness. Controlling Ratchet feels smooth and satisfying, and his rocket boots are a great addition to the series. There’s just no substance to support all the elements that are real works of love, a truth that makes me laugh in frustration.
Trying to describe the frustrations of A Crack in Time are akin to when Amazon asks you to provide photo evidence of a package not being delivered. The Ratchet Wiki has lists of planets, hidden trinkets, and side missions, just like many other Ratchet games. But unlike other Ratchet games, where you needed to prod and explore levels to find secrets and rewards, aCiT puts its trinkets out in the open. It puts checklists on map menus and tells you what you’ll find on a planetoid before you land there. The story-critical planets are incredibly linear experiences, but filled with bombastic NPC pyrotechnic displays meant to hide how little the game is asking the player to do.
It feels like a war is happening within the soul of A Crack in Time, as if it doesn’t want to be a Ratchet and Clank game. First off, it splits the two up immediately, meaning Ratchet cannot high jump, long jump, or glide, meaning Ratchet’s platforming levels can only require use of a basic jump. Clank’s moveset is even more limited, but also becomes the primary vector of aCiT’s platforming half of its shooter-platformer genre designation. As a result, both halves feel like watered-down experiences. I expected this split was a tutorial mechanic to ease players into the full Ratchet & Clank moveset, but by the time they reunited, it was time for the final boss.
During the third time the game made me fight a hydra tank, (but this time two at once! Without re-balancing their moveset from their being fought one at a time!), upon Ratchet’s dramatic death animation, I said, out-loud, “This is so boring!” with a sincere laugh. Because the idea that I was bored, contrasted with the visuals on-screen, was absurd. A war between cartoon aliens was happening around me! Space vikings and robot dragons were dancing underneath an exploding disco ball! I had a gun that opened a portal to a tentacle monster named Fred!
But none of Ratchet’s weapons made enemies react in different ways, so all of them were equally useless, their utility externally decided by how much they depleted an on-screen enemy health bar. Enemy shots could reach Ratchet from across the map, far beyond what could be shown on screen, so the level’s layout didn’t matter. There was nothing for my brain to do but jump when it saw a flashing light, and hold down the shoot button.
Luckily the shallowness of the gameplay gives me some room to comment on the story, which is weird. I was going to say it is entirely without women, since none of Ratchet’s females from previous games return, but then I remembered it introduced a whole species of Valkeries that Ratchet kind of genocides. Like, villains from previous games have had ambiguous cartoon deaths to come back later, but the dialog of aCiT says that Ratchet just straight-up killed these ladies. It’s very weird.
Women are so absent from aCiT that it ends up actually feeling kinda gay? We meet a friend of Ratchet’s dad who is real sad that Ratchet's parents are dead. He really loved Ratchet’s dad. Carries around a locket with a picture of them together. But we never learn Ratchet’s mother’s name?! Googling “Ratchet’s mom” brought me to the most hilariously depressing wiki entry I’ve ever seen, where the only thing we know about this woman is she was shot dead in front of her husband? And Ratchet never shows an ounce of curiosity in learning anything about her?? Like her name???
Dr. Nefarious and Lawrence are both excellent cartoon villains, but come from that great Disney tradition of queer-coding their love of evil theatrics and drama. So much so that my head tilted when an in-game news report referred to them as “partners.” Maybe that word didn’t have that connotation in the year of this game’s release. Or maybe it did, and the makers of this game just had no idea what they were doing with queer representation. Like, there’s an armor vendor who looks like James Stephanie Sterling and is very queer-coded, wearing pink, and having an affectation associated with gay fashionistas. But since his role is so minor, no other characters interact with him, (even Ratchet!), so his inclusion almost wraps back around into unironic positive queer representation? I’m sure he was meant to be a joke, but then the only joke could have been “lol a gay alien.” But, since there’s no mockery, no punchline besides a faithful recreation of a fat gay alien, it’s not a joke, just inclusion. This hurts my brain.
I guess it had to have been meant as a joke because Captain Quark is back and spends a good third of the game in terrible drag. I hate him so much and there is no space for him in any of these games past the first. He bloats and worsens every game he appears in. As I’ve said before, I will give 5/5 stars to the first Ratchet game that lets me permanently kill him.
In my rating system, 2 stars represents an average, C rank game, and although I enjoyed parts of it, A Crack in Time is a solid C-. The art direction has aged amazingly, and Dr. Nefarious is wonderful. I did not have zero fun playing this game. But my god, it would have been possibly an improved experience if all the gameplay was stripped and turned into a walking simulator GRIS-style. At least then its shallowness wouldn’t distract me from its strengths.
Trying to describe the frustrations of A Crack in Time are akin to when Amazon asks you to provide photo evidence of a package not being delivered. The Ratchet Wiki has lists of planets, hidden trinkets, and side missions, just like many other Ratchet games. But unlike other Ratchet games, where you needed to prod and explore levels to find secrets and rewards, aCiT puts its trinkets out in the open. It puts checklists on map menus and tells you what you’ll find on a planetoid before you land there. The story-critical planets are incredibly linear experiences, but filled with bombastic NPC pyrotechnic displays meant to hide how little the game is asking the player to do.
It feels like a war is happening within the soul of A Crack in Time, as if it doesn’t want to be a Ratchet and Clank game. First off, it splits the two up immediately, meaning Ratchet cannot high jump, long jump, or glide, meaning Ratchet’s platforming levels can only require use of a basic jump. Clank’s moveset is even more limited, but also becomes the primary vector of aCiT’s platforming half of its shooter-platformer genre designation. As a result, both halves feel like watered-down experiences. I expected this split was a tutorial mechanic to ease players into the full Ratchet & Clank moveset, but by the time they reunited, it was time for the final boss.
During the third time the game made me fight a hydra tank, (but this time two at once! Without re-balancing their moveset from their being fought one at a time!), upon Ratchet’s dramatic death animation, I said, out-loud, “This is so boring!” with a sincere laugh. Because the idea that I was bored, contrasted with the visuals on-screen, was absurd. A war between cartoon aliens was happening around me! Space vikings and robot dragons were dancing underneath an exploding disco ball! I had a gun that opened a portal to a tentacle monster named Fred!
But none of Ratchet’s weapons made enemies react in different ways, so all of them were equally useless, their utility externally decided by how much they depleted an on-screen enemy health bar. Enemy shots could reach Ratchet from across the map, far beyond what could be shown on screen, so the level’s layout didn’t matter. There was nothing for my brain to do but jump when it saw a flashing light, and hold down the shoot button.
Luckily the shallowness of the gameplay gives me some room to comment on the story, which is weird. I was going to say it is entirely without women, since none of Ratchet’s females from previous games return, but then I remembered it introduced a whole species of Valkeries that Ratchet kind of genocides. Like, villains from previous games have had ambiguous cartoon deaths to come back later, but the dialog of aCiT says that Ratchet just straight-up killed these ladies. It’s very weird.
Women are so absent from aCiT that it ends up actually feeling kinda gay? We meet a friend of Ratchet’s dad who is real sad that Ratchet's parents are dead. He really loved Ratchet’s dad. Carries around a locket with a picture of them together. But we never learn Ratchet’s mother’s name?! Googling “Ratchet’s mom” brought me to the most hilariously depressing wiki entry I’ve ever seen, where the only thing we know about this woman is she was shot dead in front of her husband? And Ratchet never shows an ounce of curiosity in learning anything about her?? Like her name???
Dr. Nefarious and Lawrence are both excellent cartoon villains, but come from that great Disney tradition of queer-coding their love of evil theatrics and drama. So much so that my head tilted when an in-game news report referred to them as “partners.” Maybe that word didn’t have that connotation in the year of this game’s release. Or maybe it did, and the makers of this game just had no idea what they were doing with queer representation. Like, there’s an armor vendor who looks like James Stephanie Sterling and is very queer-coded, wearing pink, and having an affectation associated with gay fashionistas. But since his role is so minor, no other characters interact with him, (even Ratchet!), so his inclusion almost wraps back around into unironic positive queer representation? I’m sure he was meant to be a joke, but then the only joke could have been “lol a gay alien.” But, since there’s no mockery, no punchline besides a faithful recreation of a fat gay alien, it’s not a joke, just inclusion. This hurts my brain.
I guess it had to have been meant as a joke because Captain Quark is back and spends a good third of the game in terrible drag. I hate him so much and there is no space for him in any of these games past the first. He bloats and worsens every game he appears in. As I’ve said before, I will give 5/5 stars to the first Ratchet game that lets me permanently kill him.
In my rating system, 2 stars represents an average, C rank game, and although I enjoyed parts of it, A Crack in Time is a solid C-. The art direction has aged amazingly, and Dr. Nefarious is wonderful. I did not have zero fun playing this game. But my god, it would have been possibly an improved experience if all the gameplay was stripped and turned into a walking simulator GRIS-style. At least then its shallowness wouldn’t distract me from its strengths.
Speedy
1 year ago