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I can't pretend to have any knowledge this way or that, but this game feels like it was supposed to be a PS4 launch title, couldn't make it, and then was stripped way back and released as it was for PS3. It runs absolutely horridly pretty much all the time, chugging hard. That being said, the lighting/atmospheric effects are amazing and it generally is one of the absolute best looking PS3 games I've ever played.
There is just nothing here, unfortunately. There's so little substance, you get blasted through in just a few hours. You can feel they intended this to be the last one. I'm sad that they didn't get (what feels like) their desired chance to cap it off on PS4 with a fully realized game, because this one could have been really great. I guess the franchise returns to form with Rift Apart, but I can't speak on that quite yet.
The traversal tools in this game are nice, but just lacking in polish. The jet pack upgrade controls well, and the segments using it are fun. But Ratchet just kind of flops bored looking through the air when using it. The hoverboots are back, but you have them for like 2 hours of the game tops. They also (UGH oh my GOD) share right trigger with your clank movement options, so sometimes you launch into like a super super jump because you activated the boots for a split second. There is no slow and fast mode like in Crack in Time either, so if you want to adjust before a ramp you need to stop entirely. But this introduces the issue that sometimes you initiate your boots on a hoverboot ramp and actually end up just doing a clank long jump instead of a booster jump. I know I am explaining this like complete shit, but trust me when i say that even with the short time you spend with the hoverboots they had me mad as fuck.
I guess the narrative is okay? They make a point of killing off some comic relief characters (not a spoiler because that describes nearly every R&C character) which I didn't appreciate.
Clank platforming segments were good? Some of the gravity puzzles were sort of inexplicable and you could kind of lock them into a failed state it seems.
The arena is nice. It actually implements some new challenge types. Nice! Like all other things in this game, there could be much more.
You can pretty easily get the RYNO before the final boss in this, which is crazy. I don't think I have ever fought the final boss with the RYNO in any other playthrough of any Ratchet game in my entire life.
The little gravity tube platforming things are fun, and the game proceeds to do pretty much nothing with them.
Finally, and the greatest sin of this game, is that you can't play with the original R&C control scheme. Can't do it. You have to do third person over the shoulder shooter targeting with L1, and you can't even switch the function of buttons and triggers. You can't really rebind shit, which is a HUGE miss imo. I like that pretty much every non-weapon tool in Ratchet's kit has a dedicated button, but how much better is that really than like, idk, using the dpad as a quick select for them? It works just fine in Crack in Time, there's no need to reinvent the wheel, Insomniac!
So much of this game is just barely not there, and, like I have probably said 13 times already, it's a shame. The art direction in this game is like, astoundingly good. Everything looks so nice. There's some genuinely really fun platforming/gunplay reaching heights unseen in the series since Going Commando. But the whole thing collapsed under its own weight. This one died in the incubator for FUSE, dude. Fuse. From here on be the age of Ratchet uncertainty - the overall failure of the remake and movie tie-in project pushed Insomniac toward just filling Marvel licenses. We've not seen hide nor hair of Ratchet this decade, and leaks indicate that he might not be around again until I'm in my 30s. I grew up with Ratchet, and I miss him. That's kind of how this game left me feeling.
There is just nothing here, unfortunately. There's so little substance, you get blasted through in just a few hours. You can feel they intended this to be the last one. I'm sad that they didn't get (what feels like) their desired chance to cap it off on PS4 with a fully realized game, because this one could have been really great. I guess the franchise returns to form with Rift Apart, but I can't speak on that quite yet.
The traversal tools in this game are nice, but just lacking in polish. The jet pack upgrade controls well, and the segments using it are fun. But Ratchet just kind of flops bored looking through the air when using it. The hoverboots are back, but you have them for like 2 hours of the game tops. They also (UGH oh my GOD) share right trigger with your clank movement options, so sometimes you launch into like a super super jump because you activated the boots for a split second. There is no slow and fast mode like in Crack in Time either, so if you want to adjust before a ramp you need to stop entirely. But this introduces the issue that sometimes you initiate your boots on a hoverboot ramp and actually end up just doing a clank long jump instead of a booster jump. I know I am explaining this like complete shit, but trust me when i say that even with the short time you spend with the hoverboots they had me mad as fuck.
I guess the narrative is okay? They make a point of killing off some comic relief characters (not a spoiler because that describes nearly every R&C character) which I didn't appreciate.
Clank platforming segments were good? Some of the gravity puzzles were sort of inexplicable and you could kind of lock them into a failed state it seems.
The arena is nice. It actually implements some new challenge types. Nice! Like all other things in this game, there could be much more.
You can pretty easily get the RYNO before the final boss in this, which is crazy. I don't think I have ever fought the final boss with the RYNO in any other playthrough of any Ratchet game in my entire life.
The little gravity tube platforming things are fun, and the game proceeds to do pretty much nothing with them.
Finally, and the greatest sin of this game, is that you can't play with the original R&C control scheme. Can't do it. You have to do third person over the shoulder shooter targeting with L1, and you can't even switch the function of buttons and triggers. You can't really rebind shit, which is a HUGE miss imo. I like that pretty much every non-weapon tool in Ratchet's kit has a dedicated button, but how much better is that really than like, idk, using the dpad as a quick select for them? It works just fine in Crack in Time, there's no need to reinvent the wheel, Insomniac!
So much of this game is just barely not there, and, like I have probably said 13 times already, it's a shame. The art direction in this game is like, astoundingly good. Everything looks so nice. There's some genuinely really fun platforming/gunplay reaching heights unseen in the series since Going Commando. But the whole thing collapsed under its own weight. This one died in the incubator for FUSE, dude. Fuse. From here on be the age of Ratchet uncertainty - the overall failure of the remake and movie tie-in project pushed Insomniac toward just filling Marvel licenses. We've not seen hide nor hair of Ratchet this decade, and leaks indicate that he might not be around again until I'm in my 30s. I grew up with Ratchet, and I miss him. That's kind of how this game left me feeling.
I like this game a fair amount, but I honestly think it represents a departure and step backwards from Tools of Destruction.
First: the good
The Clank puzzle sections are well made and pretty fun to figure out. I wish the game gave you more optional than forced tutorial time, but whatever. The challenge puzzles you can do for gold bolts require you to both think carefully about it and also do really tight platforming across each Clank instance to get them done in time. I would play a whole game that's just these puzzles tbh.
The narrative is the best told and probably most engaging of the entire series thus far. People commonly invoke Pixar when talking about these games, but this is where it starts to feel the realest. It's a story about characters realizing that they don't need to be their forefathers and staking their own way in life. It's nothing ground breaking, but it's nice to see in an R&C game. It's also nice for the series to have more fully realized characters and NPC allies that fight alongside you, it was sure a long time coming.
The modular upgrade-able constructo weapons are so fun to dick around with. In general, this game has a pretty strong roster of weapons, but if you don't do all the gladiator matches as soon as you can you may find yourself confused as to what you're missing.
I genuinely like the planetoid segments. I have wanted more of these since the single planetoid segment for Ratchet in Going Commando and Arsenal. These don't deliver as well or hold as much promise as those, and mostly serve to pad content, but some have genuinely fun platforming challenges. Mostly great from them is the visuals: you see the planets in the system upside down as you are on different points on the planetoid's surface, etc. While I wish these weren't so formulaic and content-y, I don't dislike them.
Actual boss variety is happening in this game, which is great. I enjoyed pretty much all of them, including the Vorselon post game rematch. It's nice not to see the same big space pirate miniboss copy pasted over and over, yeesh.
I like the development and fleshing out of different alien races and factions inhabiting the galaxy. It leads to less NPC variety, but I like seeing the characterization build up. You have your Navi/Sid the sloth Fongoids, the huge moron jock Agorians, the dorky Terachnoids, the scavenging Vullards, the lesbians, and each has different aesthetics in their tech. Pretty cool.
Dr. Nefarious obviously is great, Armin Shimerman always leaves it all on the court. Also, the tiny segment where you get to wear a Nefarious hologuise and yell for Lawrence/demand your robot minions be immediately executed was a nice touch. The short part at the beginning of the Nefarious fight where he uses his moves from the Arsenal final boss fight was very nice, videogames.
The meh:
There needed to be way more (and better) time trave set pieces in this game. This game doesn't have many planets, and like well over half of them have set pieces that you can't go through again until a new playthrough.
The ship combat leaves much to be desired. Don't think I need to say more about that.
The gladiator arena challenges mostly continue retreading. I like the arena, but when are we getting some new challenges? The arena in Arsenal has more variety than this.
There aren't really any huge damage weapons like the one in Tools and the sniper in Arsenal. Let me have fun.
The hoverboots are okay. It's nice to see the charge boots become something that makes a little more sense.
There are some cutscenes where Ratchet and Azimuth are inexplicably capable of breathing in the vacuum of space.
The bad:
Honestly, separating Ratchet and Clank for this long just doesn't work. I found myself missing my clank mobility options so often. The biggest sin, though, is when you finally get clank back and you can't toggle the jet pack instead of the heli pack..... Cmon man. Without clank movement, and especially before you get the hover boots, being ratchet feels like complete ass.
Enemy variety at possibly its lowest in the entire franchise to this point.
Where's talwyn??? I like her! This game now lacks a female voice again.
Wish this game had More, which I always find myself wishing with these PS3 games. In Tools I wanted more of those well-crafted platforming and classic R&C level design taken up a notch. In Crack I wanted more planets! More levels please!
The gadgets are not great man :( The hoverboots take up a gadget slot that would normally just be Clank-filled, the swingshot is the swingshot, the time bombs you get late and don't really HAVE to do anything with (psst... They help a lot on the final post game Vorselon fight), and the water soaker thing is just.... truly a nothing device that is only used as a Key in set pieces.
The gold bolts are less Special and cleverly hidden than ever before.
First: the good
The Clank puzzle sections are well made and pretty fun to figure out. I wish the game gave you more optional than forced tutorial time, but whatever. The challenge puzzles you can do for gold bolts require you to both think carefully about it and also do really tight platforming across each Clank instance to get them done in time. I would play a whole game that's just these puzzles tbh.
The narrative is the best told and probably most engaging of the entire series thus far. People commonly invoke Pixar when talking about these games, but this is where it starts to feel the realest. It's a story about characters realizing that they don't need to be their forefathers and staking their own way in life. It's nothing ground breaking, but it's nice to see in an R&C game. It's also nice for the series to have more fully realized characters and NPC allies that fight alongside you, it was sure a long time coming.
The modular upgrade-able constructo weapons are so fun to dick around with. In general, this game has a pretty strong roster of weapons, but if you don't do all the gladiator matches as soon as you can you may find yourself confused as to what you're missing.
I genuinely like the planetoid segments. I have wanted more of these since the single planetoid segment for Ratchet in Going Commando and Arsenal. These don't deliver as well or hold as much promise as those, and mostly serve to pad content, but some have genuinely fun platforming challenges. Mostly great from them is the visuals: you see the planets in the system upside down as you are on different points on the planetoid's surface, etc. While I wish these weren't so formulaic and content-y, I don't dislike them.
Actual boss variety is happening in this game, which is great. I enjoyed pretty much all of them, including the Vorselon post game rematch. It's nice not to see the same big space pirate miniboss copy pasted over and over, yeesh.
I like the development and fleshing out of different alien races and factions inhabiting the galaxy. It leads to less NPC variety, but I like seeing the characterization build up. You have your Navi/Sid the sloth Fongoids, the huge moron jock Agorians, the dorky Terachnoids, the scavenging Vullards, the lesbians, and each has different aesthetics in their tech. Pretty cool.
Dr. Nefarious obviously is great, Armin Shimerman always leaves it all on the court. Also, the tiny segment where you get to wear a Nefarious hologuise and yell for Lawrence/demand your robot minions be immediately executed was a nice touch. The short part at the beginning of the Nefarious fight where he uses his moves from the Arsenal final boss fight was very nice, videogames.
The meh:
There needed to be way more (and better) time trave set pieces in this game. This game doesn't have many planets, and like well over half of them have set pieces that you can't go through again until a new playthrough.
The ship combat leaves much to be desired. Don't think I need to say more about that.
The gladiator arena challenges mostly continue retreading. I like the arena, but when are we getting some new challenges? The arena in Arsenal has more variety than this.
There aren't really any huge damage weapons like the one in Tools and the sniper in Arsenal. Let me have fun.
The hoverboots are okay. It's nice to see the charge boots become something that makes a little more sense.
There are some cutscenes where Ratchet and Azimuth are inexplicably capable of breathing in the vacuum of space.
The bad:
Honestly, separating Ratchet and Clank for this long just doesn't work. I found myself missing my clank mobility options so often. The biggest sin, though, is when you finally get clank back and you can't toggle the jet pack instead of the heli pack..... Cmon man. Without clank movement, and especially before you get the hover boots, being ratchet feels like complete ass.
Enemy variety at possibly its lowest in the entire franchise to this point.
Where's talwyn??? I like her! This game now lacks a female voice again.
Wish this game had More, which I always find myself wishing with these PS3 games. In Tools I wanted more of those well-crafted platforming and classic R&C level design taken up a notch. In Crack I wanted more planets! More levels please!
The gadgets are not great man :( The hoverboots take up a gadget slot that would normally just be Clank-filled, the swingshot is the swingshot, the time bombs you get late and don't really HAVE to do anything with (psst... They help a lot on the final post game Vorselon fight), and the water soaker thing is just.... truly a nothing device that is only used as a Key in set pieces.
The gold bolts are less Special and cleverly hidden than ever before.
Honestly, what a fine generational jump for Ratchet. This console generation is just about the perfect position for a game with the artstyle of R&C, old hardware not encouraging "realistic" texture vomit just for the sake of doing it, while at the same time improving enough over the past to allow for better lighting, filters, and surface effects. My disk is old and decrepit, often breaking the cutscenes, but whatever. I had a fabulous time with this game, loved so many of the weapons too. They straight up just give you a charge shot gun that fucking annihilates huge dinosaur guys.
This game does suffer from some repetitious enemy types that are a bit out of form for the franchise, but I do think the sheer amount of detail and fun in this limited cast does nearly make up for it. The main enemy types that Tachyon throws at you are these jaunty fishbowl robot men that crack and spill out their inhabitants when destroyed, how great. The story leaves some to be desired, but we are giving ratchet some lore. Whatever, not really why you pay admission for R&C.
This game has simpler gold bolts than the original trilogy, but many of these are located at the end of actually pretty carefully constructed, dare I say rewarding puzzles. Some of the gadgets are kind of a throwaway, but they're fun when implemented well (and they all have their moments). Tell me why this fucking game released 16 (SIXTEEN) years ago has better functioning and more enjoyable gyro puzzles than Breath of the Wild, a game I'm being told is the best ever and the blue ribbon standard of the open world genre. Did I ever feel less of a sense of discovery coming around a corner in R&C into a new environment than I did happening upon one of the scant few surprise structure encounters in BotW? No, not really, because I'm not a moron and I understand both to be structures engineered in this video game specifically to be found and explored by me, the player. I am not a baby or an idiot, so the fact of walking through a whole bunch of poorly textured, waving grass or not doesn't mystify me into thinking something drastically different is occurring. This R&C game has straight up more stuff to DO than so many games touted as life ruiners these days crammed into a package you can blast through in around a week if you're nasty. What is happening to this medium? Are games now intentionally wasting your time and hard drive space to keep you from entering the MTX ecosystems of other games? When I turned this fucking game on I didn't have to install anything. I didn't have to do a huge patch download that actually contains the game, with the disc itself acting as some kind of DRM ticket. Am I going on a completely insane tirade that has nothing to do with my enjoyment or evaluation of this game, freaking out about concepts foreign to it and the vast majority of games until GTA5 dropped about half a decade later? Yes.
Can we like... go back to this?? I drastically prefer the carefully curated content of a game like this to the all-consuming open-world archetype's compression of all things into Traveling Around And The Map Is Big. I feel like this sort of game dying and the Open World Form becoming so commonplace is sort of indicative of a general death of the craft. It takes a lot of inspiration, creativity, and specific directorial skills to make More Good Content To Do in a theoretical case where you wanted to make a game like R&CF:ToD (lmfao) but huger! Way bigger! But the same sort of artistic flourish is not required for crafting a huge, cavernous, technologically impressive open world with realistic horse shitting and balls retracting mechanics. All that takes is the resources to put up a veritable army of 3D modelers, texture artists, etc... individual artists utilized by indecisive/incompetent "creatives" and studio execs for nothing more than building a resource library, of all things. A game with curated areas and content like this allows the designers to communicate ideas to you WITH the game design(!!!), not just with the writing and narrative. It makes me feel seen and as though I have entered dialog with another living, breathing human when I spot the little tricky, hidden access point to start a gold bolt platforming puzzle, not so much when I am given another waypoint to walk my fat ass over to.
Bless this fun little game (other than the electrified pirate guys that chase you down FUCK THEM) and bless video games! Also Mr. Zurkon is in this game and has specific taunts for different enemies. He wants smoke with everyone.
Oh, I also don't understand what the hell people are smoking when they say this game "loses the comedy" of the original trilogy. This game is plenty silly! Qwark is still a moron comic relief character, Ratchet and Clank have some fun and comic bants, there are silly characters, lines, interactions everywhere. Was the Plumber himself reappearing not enough of a gag for you? I think if this game does anything it's take a paring knife to the more cringeworthy or just flat out unfunny cuts from the first few games, leaving what is usually more refined and enjoyable comedy. Sure, it takes itself more seriously with the plot than the original trilogy... but that is mostly because it's actually bothering to have a plot! Seriously, have you played those games lately? They barely make any sense! Their "plots" are mostly an excuse for Ratchet to just go to different places, other than the actual attempt at something of a fleshed-out narrative in Arsenal (still halfhearted, only sort of has stakes that still have nothing really to do with the main characters at all). I mean, Going Commando is my favorite R&C game, but it has like 4 characters in it for god's sake.
ALSO they locked up my boy Slim Cognito. FREE HIM!
Edit: to contextualize the low enemy variety complaint, there are around 34ish truly unique enemy types in this game counting bosses, and an additional 6-8 slight remodel/recolor higher powered versions of previous stock enemies. This isn't awful, but the problem is more with pacing/variety than with the sheer number. You spend quite a few planets fighting room after room of drophyds and space pirates, while the larger variety of enemies are mostly consigned to a few less plot-integral planets and even exclusive to the gladiator arena. I wish more time had been devoted to increased variety among the recurring "faction" type enemies, but it's not that big of an issue.
This game does suffer from some repetitious enemy types that are a bit out of form for the franchise, but I do think the sheer amount of detail and fun in this limited cast does nearly make up for it. The main enemy types that Tachyon throws at you are these jaunty fishbowl robot men that crack and spill out their inhabitants when destroyed, how great. The story leaves some to be desired, but we are giving ratchet some lore. Whatever, not really why you pay admission for R&C.
This game has simpler gold bolts than the original trilogy, but many of these are located at the end of actually pretty carefully constructed, dare I say rewarding puzzles. Some of the gadgets are kind of a throwaway, but they're fun when implemented well (and they all have their moments). Tell me why this fucking game released 16 (SIXTEEN) years ago has better functioning and more enjoyable gyro puzzles than Breath of the Wild, a game I'm being told is the best ever and the blue ribbon standard of the open world genre. Did I ever feel less of a sense of discovery coming around a corner in R&C into a new environment than I did happening upon one of the scant few surprise structure encounters in BotW? No, not really, because I'm not a moron and I understand both to be structures engineered in this video game specifically to be found and explored by me, the player. I am not a baby or an idiot, so the fact of walking through a whole bunch of poorly textured, waving grass or not doesn't mystify me into thinking something drastically different is occurring. This R&C game has straight up more stuff to DO than so many games touted as life ruiners these days crammed into a package you can blast through in around a week if you're nasty. What is happening to this medium? Are games now intentionally wasting your time and hard drive space to keep you from entering the MTX ecosystems of other games? When I turned this fucking game on I didn't have to install anything. I didn't have to do a huge patch download that actually contains the game, with the disc itself acting as some kind of DRM ticket. Am I going on a completely insane tirade that has nothing to do with my enjoyment or evaluation of this game, freaking out about concepts foreign to it and the vast majority of games until GTA5 dropped about half a decade later? Yes.
Can we like... go back to this?? I drastically prefer the carefully curated content of a game like this to the all-consuming open-world archetype's compression of all things into Traveling Around And The Map Is Big. I feel like this sort of game dying and the Open World Form becoming so commonplace is sort of indicative of a general death of the craft. It takes a lot of inspiration, creativity, and specific directorial skills to make More Good Content To Do in a theoretical case where you wanted to make a game like R&CF:ToD (lmfao) but huger! Way bigger! But the same sort of artistic flourish is not required for crafting a huge, cavernous, technologically impressive open world with realistic horse shitting and balls retracting mechanics. All that takes is the resources to put up a veritable army of 3D modelers, texture artists, etc... individual artists utilized by indecisive/incompetent "creatives" and studio execs for nothing more than building a resource library, of all things. A game with curated areas and content like this allows the designers to communicate ideas to you WITH the game design(!!!), not just with the writing and narrative. It makes me feel seen and as though I have entered dialog with another living, breathing human when I spot the little tricky, hidden access point to start a gold bolt platforming puzzle, not so much when I am given another waypoint to walk my fat ass over to.
Bless this fun little game (other than the electrified pirate guys that chase you down FUCK THEM) and bless video games! Also Mr. Zurkon is in this game and has specific taunts for different enemies. He wants smoke with everyone.
Oh, I also don't understand what the hell people are smoking when they say this game "loses the comedy" of the original trilogy. This game is plenty silly! Qwark is still a moron comic relief character, Ratchet and Clank have some fun and comic bants, there are silly characters, lines, interactions everywhere. Was the Plumber himself reappearing not enough of a gag for you? I think if this game does anything it's take a paring knife to the more cringeworthy or just flat out unfunny cuts from the first few games, leaving what is usually more refined and enjoyable comedy. Sure, it takes itself more seriously with the plot than the original trilogy... but that is mostly because it's actually bothering to have a plot! Seriously, have you played those games lately? They barely make any sense! Their "plots" are mostly an excuse for Ratchet to just go to different places, other than the actual attempt at something of a fleshed-out narrative in Arsenal (still halfhearted, only sort of has stakes that still have nothing really to do with the main characters at all). I mean, Going Commando is my favorite R&C game, but it has like 4 characters in it for god's sake.
ALSO they locked up my boy Slim Cognito. FREE HIM!
Edit: to contextualize the low enemy variety complaint, there are around 34ish truly unique enemy types in this game counting bosses, and an additional 6-8 slight remodel/recolor higher powered versions of previous stock enemies. This isn't awful, but the problem is more with pacing/variety than with the sheer number. You spend quite a few planets fighting room after room of drophyds and space pirates, while the larger variety of enemies are mostly consigned to a few less plot-integral planets and even exclusive to the gladiator arena. I wish more time had been devoted to increased variety among the recurring "faction" type enemies, but it's not that big of an issue.