Ratchet & Clank is a relatively modern game that feels shackled by design flaws of a different era.
While the presentation and overall flow of the game are good, it struggles to do any one thing exceptionally well despite presenting a modest scope.
Beginning with the positives the levels are mostly well-designed offering sufficient opportunities for exploration while maintaining a steady pace for combat encounters and platforming.
The highlight of the game for me was the Clank levels, which feature smartly crafted puzzles that make good use of the kit given to Clank. Aside from making these rare sections more frequent, it would have been ideal if they were not completely divorced from Ratchet gameplay or at least if Ratchet had some more complex puzzling to do on his own.
Combat is one of the major areas where things begin to fall apart. Wielding Ratchet's weapons generally feels good and hits against larger enemies and bosses, in particular, feels satisfying. However, in some encounters with smaller and more mobile enemies they can tend to drift into the background.
There is also a pretty significant lack of feedback when Ratchet is hit and he tends to lose health in chunks rather than at a consistent rate which can make some deaths feel cheap.
Ultimately, the most pressing issue with combat is the lack of variety in enemy types. While the game gives you a large arsenal there are very few reasons to alter your weapon choices after you find a strategy that works because it will be applicable to every encounter throughout the game, with even bosses susceptible to the same tactics.
It would have been interesting, for example, if some enemies had armor that required damage from Ratchet's wrench or heavier artillery to break or if an enemy type was immune to or could shut down your AOE attacks. The game instead ramps up difficulty by simply adding more enemies or increasing their damage input, leaving the only decision for you to make in any encounter whether you should take out the larger, stronger enemies first.
The platforming is also extremely undercooked, with a complete lack of any interesting ideas or novel mechanics to make traversing obstacles feel interesting. This leaves most gaps as things you feel annoyed to have failed to clear, rather than challenged to oercome.
A lot of this builds up to a general issue where the game struggles to communicate progression. The new weapons you acquire don't really alter the way you engage with combat past a certain point and the game occasionally gives you new tools for traversal, but they are often limited to very specific situations and the game also frequently takes them away entirely at times.
Upon release, the game was praised for its visuals and while they do largely hold up some levels don't make use of the gorgeous color palettes and lighting used on the beach-themed Pokitaru, often falling into drab industrial designs or washed out oranges tones.
The narrative is hardly present and at times even seems to be missing key elements from the movie that released alongside it, but it graciously doesn't insert itself too frequently to interfere with the gameplay.
Overall, Ratchet & Clank remains a fun game despite its flaws and its brief runtime makes it a pretty low-investment game to give a spin but it ultimately winds up feeling dated beyond its actual age.
While the presentation and overall flow of the game are good, it struggles to do any one thing exceptionally well despite presenting a modest scope.
Beginning with the positives the levels are mostly well-designed offering sufficient opportunities for exploration while maintaining a steady pace for combat encounters and platforming.
The highlight of the game for me was the Clank levels, which feature smartly crafted puzzles that make good use of the kit given to Clank. Aside from making these rare sections more frequent, it would have been ideal if they were not completely divorced from Ratchet gameplay or at least if Ratchet had some more complex puzzling to do on his own.
Combat is one of the major areas where things begin to fall apart. Wielding Ratchet's weapons generally feels good and hits against larger enemies and bosses, in particular, feels satisfying. However, in some encounters with smaller and more mobile enemies they can tend to drift into the background.
There is also a pretty significant lack of feedback when Ratchet is hit and he tends to lose health in chunks rather than at a consistent rate which can make some deaths feel cheap.
Ultimately, the most pressing issue with combat is the lack of variety in enemy types. While the game gives you a large arsenal there are very few reasons to alter your weapon choices after you find a strategy that works because it will be applicable to every encounter throughout the game, with even bosses susceptible to the same tactics.
It would have been interesting, for example, if some enemies had armor that required damage from Ratchet's wrench or heavier artillery to break or if an enemy type was immune to or could shut down your AOE attacks. The game instead ramps up difficulty by simply adding more enemies or increasing their damage input, leaving the only decision for you to make in any encounter whether you should take out the larger, stronger enemies first.
The platforming is also extremely undercooked, with a complete lack of any interesting ideas or novel mechanics to make traversing obstacles feel interesting. This leaves most gaps as things you feel annoyed to have failed to clear, rather than challenged to oercome.
A lot of this builds up to a general issue where the game struggles to communicate progression. The new weapons you acquire don't really alter the way you engage with combat past a certain point and the game occasionally gives you new tools for traversal, but they are often limited to very specific situations and the game also frequently takes them away entirely at times.
Upon release, the game was praised for its visuals and while they do largely hold up some levels don't make use of the gorgeous color palettes and lighting used on the beach-themed Pokitaru, often falling into drab industrial designs or washed out oranges tones.
The narrative is hardly present and at times even seems to be missing key elements from the movie that released alongside it, but it graciously doesn't insert itself too frequently to interfere with the gameplay.
Overall, Ratchet & Clank remains a fun game despite its flaws and its brief runtime makes it a pretty low-investment game to give a spin but it ultimately winds up feeling dated beyond its actual age.