Ratchet and his buddy Clank are back, Locked and Loaded going on a new action packed adventure as they venture through the even weirder and more corrupt Bogon Galaxy. Ratchet 2 is a very weird game for me especially since I loved the first game so much, i don't hate it in fact there's a lot to love about this game but there's a few fatal flaws that kept it from being a perfect sequel, I don't know if this game deserves an 7 or 8/10 but i think I'll give it an 7 just due to those good moments really hitting but there's unfortunately many flaws that hurt this game.

Looking at the development of this game, Ratchet 2 was greenlit just months before the original game's release with Visual Production of the world and setting starting in August 2002, The team had one goal in mind: Make it Bigger. They wanted to add so much to the original game while also fine tuning those elements that needed a bit of work in the first game, adding things such as newer and more ambitious Gadgets and Weapons, RPG Elements, more variety, a better and more comedic story. The answer is did they succeed? The answer is Yes and no (but mostly Yes). With only 8 months to develop this game along with doubling up the team it's impressive how well this game managed to be however it does have a few trappings around the 2nd and especially the 3rd Act.

This can be seen in the Story, it perfectly follows up the first game though not as well as Sly 2. Taking place a few months after the first game, Ratchet and Clank are being interviewed by someone (which i headcanon is the same guy from Spyro 1), while Clank is somewhat content with not doing much, Ratchet seems physically and audible disappointed not doing much of worth, luckily he wish of doing something greater as they are quickly teleported to the Bogon Galaxy by a man by the name of Abercrombie Fizzwidget, the founder and CEO of Megacorp who informs the duo of a Thief who had stolen Megacorp's most valuable experiment, The Proto-Pet. The Plot starts really strong, giving "Commando Training" to Ratchet to iron out his character from the first game while giving us 2 Comedic Villains (The Thief and the Thugs of Less Leader) that know how to get shit done to face off, one thing that they wanted to avoid in this game is having the pitfalls of Ratchet's so much so that they decided to quickly recast, I don't get the criticism of Ratchet undergoing an Arc, they may have overdone it a tiny bit but the complaint at the time was aimed at Ratchet having the arc in the first place, which is like complaining about how the Chris Tucker dude from Rush Hour isn't likeable from the start, due to this the character arcs are gone till Deadlocked which is a shame in my opinion since i feel it would have given the characters a bit more edge, but in favour the comedy here is amped up, the first game was funny but this game is on another level, Satirical Humour, Slapstick, 4th Wall Breaking, References etc, It's more of a treat to see these one off characters since you never know what your gonna get, however while the comedy is top tier the story just stops? It's weird after the Desert Planet you find out the thief is a female Lombax (Angela) who I don't really like since after her unveiling she's kinda used as a clumsy plot device and clearly didn’t get enough time to be her own character, and that Fizzwidget is a bit sus after "accidentally" injecting them/crushing their ship and "accidentally" giving them the wrong password. The game also gives some cutscenes of what happened to Qwark after the events of the first game, look if it wasn't clear enough along with Fizzwidget saying "Qwarktastic'', Fizzwidget is Qwark, but you have to wait till the last few minutes to find that out, one of the main reasons why the first game's story worked so well is that it felt so tightly written, every planet had agency and there was a sense of urgency as you progressed. In 2 you have a few stages with little to no story apart from "lol Megacorp is fucked up" then all of sudden something like the duo getting arrested or Angela getting captured, or them confronting Angela and realising they helped the villains, or the Proto Pet meance finally getting released into the world, these are good story moments both comedically and character wise but it takes a while to get to, plus the last 3rd of the game has this dumbass fetch quest of a Gadget only used twice, it just feels like they had all these cool planets and characters they wanted to use but didn't make a compelling story or reason to have them be in the game, like of course the Plumber returns which is cool since he isn't used as the almighty Chekvo's Demigod but they also use the RYNO Vender again from the first game to give you the 2nd flying gadget of the game (oh by the way he's really big now i guess). I feel the Plot could have tighten itself through having the Proto Pet Menace be released way earlier, also there's no Infobots, which was a great way to bridge gaps between Planets organically, Instead the characters either find these Floating Flat Screen LCD TVS or magically pull them out, it feels messy and like they ran out of Plot throughout the game so much to the point where the finale feels rushed with Chekvo's Infobot coming in at the last second, like with this definitely not thought out twist they have the original Fizzwidget come in and says Thank You for releasing me!, now being more posh than Qwark's impersonation but they presented that Megacorp was a rotten company for some time even if we assume Qwark did all those heinous stuff in a matter of a few months (which it wasn't) like they left employees to die in a swamp, drove Gadgetron (the company from the first game) out of business but maybe you could say Fizzwidget had a hard look at himself while inside the closet and evaluated all the bad stuff he did in the past now so it’s okay i guess.

I feel some fixes i would have done would be either keep the Qwark Twist but have it happen either when the duo get stranded in the Desert or when they get arested or just ditch Qwark for the next game since i still think his multi game arc could still work since let's be really he isn't really that funny or even threatening as a villain here since he isn't given the time needed to thrive or maybe tease him at the end of this game like Deadlocked and instead make Fizzwidget the villain like was intended, have Fizzwidget personally tell them that he's the big bad guy before they're arrested and despite the hold he has on the Galaxy, he just wants more money with the Proto Pet and the people of the Bogon Galaxy to respect Megacorp as company even more, present Megacorp as a company that was rotten from the start of the game instead of slowly dripping it any of the NPCs you talk to so resentment to Megacorp but can't do anything due to Megacorp being that Big, make Ratchet fully realise that in his pursuit of wanting to live the glory days, he accidentally helps the Villain fulfil his goal and should have had more light shed on it, realising that he needs to make it right, have this realisation after they get arrested, also in the Desert Stage Ratchet is fulling trusting of Megacorp and Clank is a lot more less distrusting, a sort of role reversal of the first game, and instead of a confused old guy he's more akin to how Drek was in the first game and will do anything in order to get what he wants, including kidnapping Angela or releasing the Proto Pet Meance early. Then at the end of the game we see him through everything at Ratchet, then after the final boss, we have Fizzwidget pleading Ratchet that all he wanted for people to respect his company again as it's been passed from Fizzwidget to Fizzwidget and as his duty he needs to preserve it for future generations, Ratchet lets Fizzwidget go and the ending (set few months after) shows that Megacorp is slowly but surely recovering to its former glory. I think the scenes with the Thug 4 Less Leader with Fizzwidget could show that he's more sympathetic about his actions, making the ending feel a lot more earned. I think that would work better than "Megacorp is bad or is it?" like they kinda discard it at the end for a cheap twist but while i do think my rewrite fixes a lot of the issues of this story, i feel it doesn't really matter? Like you can tell the animators (Yes Animators wrote this and the previous game) wanted to focus on comedy above all else which while is disappointing i can't complain here since the story isn't take as seriously as say the 3 Future games or Sly 4 where critique is warranted but since the comedy is done so well, i feel it shortcomings are sorta made up for.

But in terms of it's presentation, i feel Locked and Loaded keeps the same bar of the original while slightly dropping it, compared to the first game and let's be honest, apart from animation which is just as great as the first game if not more so is slacking compared to its other PS2 contemporaries, not bad by any means but i just find Sly 2 or even Jak 2 to look more aesthetically pleasing, the game looks good but i find more often that the colours look washed out, the game trades the rustic/cyberpunk aesthetics to a more clean and sterile aesthetic and this plus environments make it not as memorable as the first game, like for instance the game's take for Metropolis (Megapolis) is a great level with strong level design and an pretty cool and funny game mechanic of the robotic cleaners topped with some great callbacks, a decent boss and a nice Clank section but pales in comparison to Metropolis in terms of it Vibes and Level design, a lot of areas look great such as exploring an Illegal sky port, a large desert/tundra filled with crystals, the countless of unique factorys/test facilities that Megacorp owns, the beautiful greenary/forest areas, space vegas and even a not as cool "we reuse the first level but harder" thing from Ratchet 1 now with the airship from the beginning, however i feel a lot of the City's apart from Megapolis blend together into one Beige mess that while have great level design, don't do much to differentiate themselves from each other. I think this also goes for music, not bad, some great but mostly forgettable, again I don't have much to say about the Ost of most Ratchet games since they only really fit the mood/atmosphere of the stage and aren't my kind of thing anyway, but one thing that sorta stays same is the Voice acting, Mikey Kelly is replaced with James Arnold Taylor of Johnny Test fame and i think he does a mighty fine job doing his voice though i felt it was bit to far in order to make Ratchet have less of his edge, the voice acting is as good as the first game but there's some standouts like Steve Blum as the Thugs for Less leader, not only is he already a funny character but the delivery absolutely sells it for me, he manages to perfectly balance between threatening and insanely comedic, it's quite a shame he's barely used in the series again since he perfectly does what a Ratchet Villain is suppose to do.

But in terms of gameplay it's kinda like the story, while one core element really works, the rest feel a bit half-baked. When it comes to the moment to moment gameplay in terms of level design and gameplay mechanics Locked and Loaded hits it out of the park and manages to be as good as Ratchet 1 and even better sometimes, the game uses a lot of the same structure as the first game but fully merges both platforming and shooting into one little glorious mix of 3rd Person shooter goodness and some solid platforming, with Ratchet's new tighter movement and strafing it makes combat so much more frantic and controlled, the strategic feeling of the first game isn't lost however since new to this game is Weapon and Nanotech upgrades, While i welcome the Nanotech upgrades with wither fighting enemies or collecting them, i feel the Weapon Upgrades and the weapons themselves could have used a bit more work, I don't want to overwhelming negatives but the Weapons are handled a bit poorly, they only level up once and hell sometimes they completely change the function, like the Lava Gun which while still a decent level up feels way too different from the original use, also don't like how the Slim Cognito Mods you need to seek out and use Raritanium (which isn't very rare by the way). Most of the time however, the Weapon Upgrades come in handy mostly notably the Bouncer which becomes an absolute beast.

But i mean apart from that i don't have much to say about the weapons of Locked and Loaded, a lot use the same tropes from the first game, normal shooting weapons, crowd control, bots, remote control weapons, long shot beam weapons etc. The newer weapon ideas are pretty hit and miss unfortunately, having Gadgetron weapons is nice i suppose but it's obvious they were more for contextual reasons rather than any good feasible reason for gameplay, i found some weapons like the Chopper or Hoverbomb Gun feel like Weapons that were supposed to be in the first game since they feel more fit for that slower strategic gameplay instead since both trade off speed for stronger attacks making them feel insanely situational but other like the Bouncer, Blitz Gun, Zodiac, Pulse Rifle etc really work for this more action packed platformer while also keeping the strategy elements from the previous game intact, but i do have a few issues with the weapons and other RPG aspects of this game, for one i feel levelling them up takes a bit of time, not too much but just enough where there’s the feeling off “When can this level up?”, the other issues with levelling up is how they handled having Weapons, in the first game each weapon was useful throughout from the start right to end with maybe the exception of the Bomb Glove, In 2 first game Weapons are completely useless as the game progressed, while we're not there yet despite me feeling so luckwarm about Ratchet 3 I find how they handled weapons there to be better since they allow for 5 Levels while also balancing older weapons in the first act for other enemies in later stages, again not too huge of a fan of Up Your Arsenal but this is one aspect that UYA actually improves on previous games, but here not only are some Weapons are in danger of being completely outclassed but the encomny and enemy balance of this game is completely wack, sure you get more Bolts from enemies and Boxes since they are now Gold Bolts, this makes the original Gold Bolts to Titanium Bolts now which is neat I guess, but for some reason Bolt prices for Weapons and especially armour (another new RPG mechanic) are insanely expensive, unless you grind with the Maxi Games and Ship games good luck on getting all the Main Weapons in a first playthrough, speaking of Armour while I like the idea of Armour upgrades, again the economic issues really hold them back from being anything other than a neat little novelty, though they look really bad especially in the PS3 Version were the helmet isn't even on Ratchet's head and it's too big for him.

Also, it just feels like Locked and Loaded losses ideas and steam as it goes along, it gets better during the Hypnomatic quest since I find those levels to be a blast and the aforementioned Sky Port stage but Locked and Loaded 2nd Act levels never get bad per say but a bit boring, in 1 it felt each level was of a consistent quality expect maybe if it was a more obstacle like stage were some frustration could be had, each of them had interesting ideas with Gadgets while also balancing platforming and shooting but in Locked and Loaded 2nd Act levels just kinda don't do that? Again I can't stress enough they aren't badly designed levels but i just feel naturally blending the routes into 2 just makes them less memorable than the first game, this could also be attributed to the Gadgets but one thing that you can clearly show the devs losing steam are the bosses, The Maxigame bosses are inoffensive since they’re just suppose to be an sendoff to the challenge as well as the crystal hunting minibosses but as the game progresses each boss just get worse and worse, from the decent fights with the swamp monster and Helicopter to the great Uncharted esque chance with Angela or giant mech fight (if you’re using V2 Bouncer) to the unfair saucer fight, boring Thugs for Less leader Clank fight and the laughably anti-climatic final boss that you can snipe from a mile away which feels like a boss found in the Maxigames, it’s sucks because they have this great idea of using weapons/ammo from the game but you barely see it since it doesn't take long to beat him, i guess they wanted to make up from the final boss of Ratchet 1 huh?

The Gadgets and extra gizmos you get in this aren't as interesting as the first game unfortunately, first Clank gameplay has gotten a huge downgrade atmospherically, it seems that it felt like they wanted to get it over with since "Oh the first game had it so this one has to have it to" in the 2 scenarios (I.e Megapolis and the Prison Break) there's a lot less going on and your essentially just freeing Ratchet instead of soaking in the atmosphere of challenges that may seem easy for Ratchet but harrowing for Clank. Giant Clank however is the complete opposite, they introduced these Spherical world's which are neat little pace breaker that are unfortunately used once for normal Ratchet but they used like 2 or 3 times for Giant Clank, and it is awesome, they added strafing, a bunch of new moves and best of all, the frame rate doesnt shit itself! Now where I’m where I’m really baffled about Locked & Loaded is it’s Gadget line-up, of course you have a few returning ones like the Packs, Swingshot and Grind Boots when you save Clank and also a new version of the Gravity Boots which makes combat a lot better there but a lot of times the new Gadgets in 2 feel like there should be merged in some instances, like the Dynamo and Tracker Beam are 2 Beam gadgets but one is for Bots and Bombs and one is for platforms, could they not have been merged? Another example are 2 Flying Gadgets, The Levitator and Momentum Glider, while these work differently and are very fun i just found them weird since i feel the Momentum Glider is useless since the Levitator is just a better version of it, you also got 2 hacking minigames which while serviceable feel way too trial and error to be considered that fun or even puzzles for that matter. You also get the returning extra items from Ratchet 1 like the Mapper or Bolt Magnetic and even new ones like the Charge Boots which give you a long boost and the Box Breaker that breaks boxes upon slamming. Finally these 2 Gadgets have such cool ideas but aren’t executed the best, these being the Thermanotor and the Hyponomatic, the Thermantor allows you to freeze and refreeze water, this is such a cool idea but in the segments you have to use them in you have to be unfeasibly precise with when you time you shoot the Ice, and the Hypnomatic essentially allows you to be a twin stick shooter robot, while it’s fine and inoffensive it just feels like a waste due to how the 3rd Act is just dedicated to getting all the parts and especially since it’s used twice in the game, one being a tutorial and one being the final, not to mention there’s already a remote control robot in this game.

However despite how I’ve felt throughout this review, one thing that Locked & Loaded nails are the new Maxigames which are new side content ventures that allow you to obtain more bolts that may be mandatory once or twice they are introduced, everyone of these is great apart from Ship stuff which is just ranges kinda boring and really bad with the racing sections, all of these new additions are top-tier, the Hoverbike races are a lot more instance than the Hoverboard in Ratchet 1, you are always in your feet since you could flying through and then one crash could ruin everything, not to mention later on the Power-Ups you use in the stages can be used against you, and the Crystal Hunting stages, yes fuck the snowbeast but these are great, allowing you to explore these giant battlefields finding sellable, fighting enemies and bosses while also leveling up everything and oh the Arenas, fantastic addition, pure fighting bliss filled with non-stop action packed euphoria with each challenge being more unique and gruelling more than the last, this is how any platformer should do variety (mostly), keeping the core fundamentals and gameplay of the main game while also adding upon it and giving the player new and exciting challenges.

But overall looking at Locked & Loaded in a vacuum, yeah it’s pretty good but i feel it could have been better if they had more time to fully develop it’s ideas, when Locked & Loaded gets going with it’s core mechanics like the comedy, music, level ideas and action-packed gameplay, it’s a blast and even matches and surpasses to the first game but when it stumbles, it just kinda falls, it never gets awful which is why i may retract that 7/10 to an low 8/10 since that core is so strong but it’s flaws can’t be overlooked, yeah it’s funny but the story is a bit messy, yeah the music & level ideas slap sometimes but more times than not they mush together and feels a lot less unique that the first, yes that euphoric action-packed gameplay is redefined from the first game with better controls and bigger bolder action setpieces, but it feels like it’s just throwing ideas on a wall and seeing what sticks making for such an inconsistent experience when some stuff lands and some stuff don’t (like there’s Wrench Upgrades in this game why do you need Wrench upgrades???), in spite it all though, Locked & Loaded is still a good game with that core gameplay more than times that not being that fun and is also a solid entry in the series and this genre as a whole but the first game is better, Yeah i just found the first game’s presentation, levels and story to beat this one out due to how much more refined and unique they are, but hey, it’s better than Ratchet 2016 and Up Your Arsenal, so that’s something.