Complete destruction, utter annihilation and satirical violence

In the middle 2000s must have been when every developer wanted to make something dark and edgy in the broadest way I can describe it that I wouldn't even say that they're really edgy but more of a tonal shift than the developer intended. Naughty Dog with Jak X, most of Square's game during that time, Shadow the Hedgehog and Insomniac with Ratchet Deadlocked. In wanting to test something, I ended up replaying Ratchet Deadlocked again and beating it in one sitting. Ratchet Deadlocked brings some of the best third person gunplay the PlayStation 2 has to offer with the wit and humor the series has been known for at this point. Inspired by Halo and sadly looked down by the developers themselves, Deadlocked is extremely different from the original PlayStation 2 trilogy. Clank is gone from the title, a much darker, only a bit edgier honestly, and removed most of the unique platforming challenges in lieu of arena, obstacle courses and makes the journey a true fight for survival compared to the exploratory flow of the last games. Why I keep coming back to it is the infectious and high paced gunplay that I haven't managed to find anywhere else along with the weapon customization and how each weapon really feels powerful to use.

The premise of the story is fairly simple, Ratchet and his crew get kidnapped and forced to compete in DreadZone, an extremely violent and deadly game show where heroes are pitted against each other to death by Gleeman Vox, owner of Vox Industries and Vox News, Vox Sports and so forth. Even with the constant character assassination from Vox News (yeah you can guess where they got the name Vox from), Ratchet ends up being popular despite the marketing campaign against him. I would say the premise is darker but the humor that the series is known for is still here and honestly hits harder for me.

The visual and audio aspect of Deadlocked is something I've come to really appreciate too with how moody and atmospheric some of these worlds and tracks are. From the brooding metropolis of Kronos with its dark cathedral to the sleek, tall and apocalyptic view of Stygia, these planets aren't tourist destinations and always have danger looming in every corner. The soundtrack is even better especially hearing this after entering the smog and trash ridden planet of Orxon again. Even then the final levels are some of my favorite in these regards but as much I want to gush about them, I rather people experience it themselves.

The sound of metal scraping from the barrel as you launch a bomb onto something while trying to dodge beam attacks that can two shot on the four star difficulty (Hero) difficulty is pretty tough. It's extremely hard to find anything adrenaline fueled and visceral as Ratchet Deadlocked's gunplay especially for the console it was on. Only ten weapons in this iteration but they're the most customizable and useful they have ever been with no useless weapons barring maybe the shield launcher unless you're playing on higher difficulties where you will truly need it. Each gun feels good to use and you can tell they put a lot of work into this aspect of the game. They default you to lock strafe controls from the bat compared to third person from before and it plays so much better. From machine pistols, rail guns, rocket launchers to a explosive flail that shakes the fuck out of your camera when you use it, every weapon legit feels feels powerful. Customization comes from adding mods that can increase the fire rate, ammo count, impact of the shot to increasing the area of effect of the shot with one tier of modding to customizing the element to the other tier. Make your dual pistols fire faster and provide arcing shock lightning around enemies to quickly kill smaller enemies in numbers or do what I did and make every single explosive weapon you own explode into mini bombs that just lag the hell out of your game like THE BOUNCER from the second game. The weapon leveling and health progression is back and even more ridiculous than ever as weapons go up to level 99 in this one. I feel like it's a real quality vs quantity approach here for the weapon design. Something to mention is how you also have to dodge like a manic on a substance on higher difficulties where everything two shots you no matter how much health you have in the higher difficulties. Ratchet doesn't have Clank here so he's just limited to double jumping for aerial movement but it feels more in control and allows better timing for jumps.

Can't be a Halo inspired game without vehicular combat and Deadlocked has that too in addition to the gunplay. Four playable vehicles are used from the fast and light hoverbike, the warthog inspired Puma, the quadrupedal tank Landstalker and the aerial Hovership itself for aerial combat. I think the vehicles are generally fun to use overall and can cause just as much carnage as you can especially later on. I also forgot to mention you're actually part of a team, you're accompanied by two bots that essentially do all of the menial stuff for you which I think is a smart inclusion as it gives you more chance to actually play the game. Eventually you'll have to do side missions to continue on the campaign which I feel pads the game a bit but fortunately those missions are short and actually pretty fun so it's not the worst thing. An average playthrough is five to seven hours so the game never really overstays its welcome and offers a ton of replayability with challenge mode.

Hard to believe I beat this game five times and never got bored especially with the weapon variety to keep in mind. Deadlocked is just a short, funny and visceral romp from start to finish. It's not a perfect game by any means but it's one of the few games that gets the brain cells flowing as explosions fly and the PlayStation 2 lags out because I spammed mini bomb mines against ten zombies again. If you played the original PS2 trilogy and haven't played this yet, you already know what I'm gonna say.