More fun than a bus full of cheerleaders, Ratchet Deadlocked on PS2 felt like the developers recognizing that they've expunged their creative motivation to make new entries involving Ratchet and Clank exploring vast planets with a healthy mix of platforming and blasting (case and point: R&C 3), and decided to embrace the direction they've been leaning towards with every sequel, which is BLASTING, BLASTING, and MORE BLASTING!
Despite its initial lukewarm reception, Deadlocked is easily one of the best games the series has to offer. While it can be considerably one-note, it sings that note with absolute expertise using its dense enemy-count, banging tunes, amusing commentators, and explosive weaponry!
Where people saw absolute reduction in the environmental variety, weapon-count, and characters, I saw a tighter, more-focused direction in these aspects, making for very charming interactions throughout regarding the narrative and characterizations, and fun-filled action regarding the raw gameplay.
Speaking more on narrative, I adore the stronger, slightly sharper bite this story had regarding fame and corruption that tends to follow with that lust for admiration and profits. It's all still cartoonish and funny, but perfectly serves the slight edge this game has compared to its predecessors.
With that said--and looking back at this game more than 15 years later--this is the last real Ratchet & Clank game in my eyes. It felt like a perfect series finale to everything the stories before it represented. Helps that it's a fun game too.
Despite its initial lukewarm reception, Deadlocked is easily one of the best games the series has to offer. While it can be considerably one-note, it sings that note with absolute expertise using its dense enemy-count, banging tunes, amusing commentators, and explosive weaponry!
Where people saw absolute reduction in the environmental variety, weapon-count, and characters, I saw a tighter, more-focused direction in these aspects, making for very charming interactions throughout regarding the narrative and characterizations, and fun-filled action regarding the raw gameplay.
Speaking more on narrative, I adore the stronger, slightly sharper bite this story had regarding fame and corruption that tends to follow with that lust for admiration and profits. It's all still cartoonish and funny, but perfectly serves the slight edge this game has compared to its predecessors.
With that said--and looking back at this game more than 15 years later--this is the last real Ratchet & Clank game in my eyes. It felt like a perfect series finale to everything the stories before it represented. Helps that it's a fun game too.