A Guy Ritchie film in VR mixed with a bit of Uncharted. The story isn't anything special but the performances are great and it's well told. The game is a hell of a lot of fun though. I had a few times where I could tell the limitations of the PSVR caused some issues, but overall it worked really well. All of the guns felt really great, the pump-action shotgun being the highlight. I had never considered how fun a pump-action in VR would be. I would really love either a sequel or a port to PSVR2, I feel like it could really shine there. As it is now though, its still a really fun time. I would love to see more like this from London Studio.

This is probably the Ratchet game I've played the most, and I love this game so very dearly, but this recent playthrough finally made me notice some flaws I willfully ignored for years.

To start with the good, I think people are way too harsh on the writing in this game. Ratchet may be a bit too mean when he gets pissed at Clank, but that's part of what endears me to this version of him. He is such an asshole for the middle third of the game, that him reconciling with Clank towards the end is nice to see, with the ending leaving us in such a way that you can feel the friendship that has grown between them over the course of the game. Drek is also delightful as a villain, he is just truly evil and the perfect example of the team's critique of the hyper-capitalist hellscape we've all found ourselves in. As a whole I still find this game incredibly funny, even after hearing all these jokes too many goddamn times. I don't think the writing here is perfect or anything but I still think it holds up pretty well.

I haven't played Going Commando in years and I only played Up Your Arsenal once probably 16 years ago, so maybe I don't have the best perspective here, but I really think this first game has my favorite soundtrack in the series. Every planet has a memorable theme, with each one fitting the vibe perfectly.

Now here's where the negativity starts. I enjoy the gameplay in this game a lot. Even with the problems I'm about to talk about, I love it. With that said, wow is the input lag a problem. Ratchet feels incredibly heavy in this game, and I don't buy that it was all intentional. I died a couple times from him having the turning radius of a semi. The magneboots slow the game down like crazy and just aren't fun. Same goes for the hydrodisplacer. Now, those are all those own problems that would drop it a point on their own, but the checkpoints? That is what hurt this playthrough the most. Now, I didn't die too frequently, I've played this game too many times for that, but whenever I did it sent me back far enough to just be obnoxious. More than a few times when I died at the end of a level, I got sent all the way back to the beginning. The worst of this was during the final boss. There isn't a single checkpoint during the fight. It doesn't help that I had a couple times where the game just kinda freaked out and I fell through the ground. It also doesn't help that the game doesn't refill your used ammo when you respawn, meaning you can absolutely run out of money buying ammo and have to go grind bolts somewhere else.

This all just hit me in a way it never has before, and I came away from this playthrough kinda sad realizing these flaws with a game I absolutely adore and means so much to me. I still love this game, but it hit a little different this time around.