There's some rushed development here, what with shorter levels and cut side content like races. But it doesn't feel like the game necessarily suffered from it, instead it's more like the game just got a higher focus on the action aspect (which may or may not be a good thing depending on who you ask).
There are times when I did feel the shortcuts taken though, like how some levels have 4/5 missions that all take place in the same exact area and just have you mow down hordes of enemies. The hovership sections are hugely nerfed and less fun versions of the spaceship battles. The arena battles don't have anything as flashy as the cage matches from before (but there are now a few extra challenges like cycling weapons, and of course the obstacle courses...which reuse the same routes for all 10 or so ones).
But Up Your Arsenal definitely has some direct improvements, particularly some quality of life ones. Being able to refill all ammo at once from a vendor is such a huge improvement.
The plot now feels a tad more focused by having a hub world that you go back to between many of the levels. I liked that it utilised many of the past side characters well. Much better than past games which kinda just chauffeured you from one planet to the next.
Great villain with fun chemistry with his sidekick/butler.
The Qwark Vid Comics are a really great side activity, not only letting you play as Qwark, but also bringing in a brand new style of gameplay (2D Platformer).
Even the Clank sections didn't feel that bad this time around. But maybe that's just because I'm used to them now. The giant clank battle was definitely infinitely less annoying than the ones in Going Commando though.
There's some things that I think remain the same too, obviously the combat itself is basically the exact same (which isn't a bad thing). But it even carries over the flaw of puzzles just not being hard. Like when you use the refractor it's always 100% obvious what you need to do, so it feels like you're just wasting a bunch of time to equip the item over and over. Plus like I said in my last review, I really dislike how the weapon upgrade system works in these games. It promotes using weapons in bad context, and, ironically, ignoring fully upgraded weapons because it feels like a waste of exp. It is at least nice to see how close you are to levelling up weapons in terms of numbers now though I guess.
I'd basically say this game is a sidegrade than an upgrade or downgrade to the last game. It giveths and it takeths away.
There are times when I did feel the shortcuts taken though, like how some levels have 4/5 missions that all take place in the same exact area and just have you mow down hordes of enemies. The hovership sections are hugely nerfed and less fun versions of the spaceship battles. The arena battles don't have anything as flashy as the cage matches from before (but there are now a few extra challenges like cycling weapons, and of course the obstacle courses...which reuse the same routes for all 10 or so ones).
But Up Your Arsenal definitely has some direct improvements, particularly some quality of life ones. Being able to refill all ammo at once from a vendor is such a huge improvement.
The plot now feels a tad more focused by having a hub world that you go back to between many of the levels. I liked that it utilised many of the past side characters well. Much better than past games which kinda just chauffeured you from one planet to the next.
Great villain with fun chemistry with his sidekick/butler.
The Qwark Vid Comics are a really great side activity, not only letting you play as Qwark, but also bringing in a brand new style of gameplay (2D Platformer).
Even the Clank sections didn't feel that bad this time around. But maybe that's just because I'm used to them now. The giant clank battle was definitely infinitely less annoying than the ones in Going Commando though.
There's some things that I think remain the same too, obviously the combat itself is basically the exact same (which isn't a bad thing). But it even carries over the flaw of puzzles just not being hard. Like when you use the refractor it's always 100% obvious what you need to do, so it feels like you're just wasting a bunch of time to equip the item over and over. Plus like I said in my last review, I really dislike how the weapon upgrade system works in these games. It promotes using weapons in bad context, and, ironically, ignoring fully upgraded weapons because it feels like a waste of exp. It is at least nice to see how close you are to levelling up weapons in terms of numbers now though I guess.
I'd basically say this game is a sidegrade than an upgrade or downgrade to the last game. It giveths and it takeths away.