trashtabby
Definitely the best a Ratchet and Clank game has felt to play. It's a whole lot better balanced than Tools of Destruction was, and the hover boots are a great addition. The ship exploration is fun and simple, and while it's not a sharp looking game it's got a great art style.
The only place where it still really falls short is the writing, which is again filled with badly aged 2000s video game humor. The melodrama is more enjoyable though, even if its plot blatantly contradicts itself.
The only place where it still really falls short is the writing, which is again filled with badly aged 2000s video game humor. The melodrama is more enjoyable though, even if its plot blatantly contradicts itself.
This review contains spoilers
Came to this having only played a couple of hours of the original and all of Automata (and the FFXIV crossover). I liked it a bunch, while I'm kinda mixed on the plot overall the four main characters really sold it for me. I loved listening to them banter about whatever is going on. The voice acting is great too, especially Kainé's and Weiss's voices.
The (intentional) repetitiveness does get a bit too tiring after the second time through the game though, as routes C/D don't really have enough interesting things going on to really feel worth going through the game's latter half again. That being said: ending E is incredible and I love it as a response to ending D, which frankly kinda sucks.
The (intentional) repetitiveness does get a bit too tiring after the second time through the game though, as routes C/D don't really have enough interesting things going on to really feel worth going through the game's latter half again. That being said: ending E is incredible and I love it as a response to ending D, which frankly kinda sucks.
Probably one of the nicest looking games I've ever seen, the art direction is incredible. The platforming itself can be fun, but far too often feels frustrating due to its unnecessarily unforgiving design.
This clicked a whole lot better with me than Spider-Man PS4 did. It's shorter but also feels a whole lot less bloated. There's no more bad stealth missions and the writing is a whole lot better. The plot is pretty predictable but I like the characters a whole lot more and the banter is actually funny.
The story is also pretty stand-alone, there's callbacks to the previous game but it's not really required playing for this. And while it still has some of the same issues with how the main antagonist is written, Spidey thankfully doesn't work much with the NYPD much in this story.
Gameplay-wise it keeps things mostly the same, with some meaningful changes in the combat. Swinging through the city is mechanically the same but does feel a bit different with Miles's animations having more character to them than Peter's. Mainly to show his inexperience with this Spider-Man thing but still, as a result it's a lot more fun to just watch him swing around.
So yeah I liked this a whole lot more and I'd take more of Miles over more Peter stuff. Hope the next game doesn't sideline him too much when it'll inevitably focus on Peter again.
The story is also pretty stand-alone, there's callbacks to the previous game but it's not really required playing for this. And while it still has some of the same issues with how the main antagonist is written, Spidey thankfully doesn't work much with the NYPD much in this story.
Gameplay-wise it keeps things mostly the same, with some meaningful changes in the combat. Swinging through the city is mechanically the same but does feel a bit different with Miles's animations having more character to them than Peter's. Mainly to show his inexperience with this Spider-Man thing but still, as a result it's a lot more fun to just watch him swing around.
So yeah I liked this a whole lot more and I'd take more of Miles over more Peter stuff. Hope the next game doesn't sideline him too much when it'll inevitably focus on Peter again.
2020
Just very charming, and surprisingly has a lot of queer characters.
Replayed it since I was curious about the remaster's improvements, and swinging around in this game still feels incredible. The combat is still pretty fun as well and I do enjoy the stealth when playing as Spider-Man. Especially now that it runs at a better framerate. The PS5 version's graphical improvements generally look great as well, with maybe the exception of Peter Parker's new model. Which isn't really all that bad aside from that most of the time he's noticeably less expressive than both the original model and other characters in this game. It feels as if less custom animation work was done on him here which is a shame.
The game's writing I'm more mixed on. This rendition of Peter Parker is mostly hitting the right notes, stuff like him struggling to get by and helping a homeless shelter fits incredibly well with him. Much better than him being Tony Stark Junior in the MCU movies. But then for a lot of the game he also pals around a whole lot with the NYPD, which was bad when this game released and just looks even worse now after this past year. What's also frustrating though is a trend that pops up in a lot of superhero media, which is that the villains try to do the right thing but in the wrong way, while it also feels like the writers never thought of a right way to do things aside from locking the bad guys up in a prison.
Oh also the stealth missions where you play as someone other than Spider-Man still suck. All that being said: the stuff this game does right it still does incredibly well so I still mostly enjoyed this a lot.
The game's writing I'm more mixed on. This rendition of Peter Parker is mostly hitting the right notes, stuff like him struggling to get by and helping a homeless shelter fits incredibly well with him. Much better than him being Tony Stark Junior in the MCU movies. But then for a lot of the game he also pals around a whole lot with the NYPD, which was bad when this game released and just looks even worse now after this past year. What's also frustrating though is a trend that pops up in a lot of superhero media, which is that the villains try to do the right thing but in the wrong way, while it also feels like the writers never thought of a right way to do things aside from locking the bad guys up in a prison.
Oh also the stealth missions where you play as someone other than Spider-Man still suck. All that being said: the stuff this game does right it still does incredibly well so I still mostly enjoyed this a lot.
2020
Turns out the way to make me care about PlayStation nostalgia is by making all of the characters cute robots.
Decided to play through the PS3 Ratchet & Clank games before the new game comes out and this was a rough one to get back to.
The first half or so of the game is alright, the weapons are fun to use and the usual Ratchet & Clank jump and shoot gameplay holds up. But as the game ramps up its difficulty it also makes more and more of the earlier weapons in the game useless. A lot of enemies also become bullet sponges unless you tediously grind in the arena to get your weapons to do bigger damage numbers. By the end of the game there's not really much room for experimentation, with only a few weapons actually being effective.
Also stuff like bad checkpointing and the typical 2007 video game humor is obnoxious. Hope that the rest of the Future series holds up better.
The first half or so of the game is alright, the weapons are fun to use and the usual Ratchet & Clank jump and shoot gameplay holds up. But as the game ramps up its difficulty it also makes more and more of the earlier weapons in the game useless. A lot of enemies also become bullet sponges unless you tediously grind in the arena to get your weapons to do bigger damage numbers. By the end of the game there's not really much room for experimentation, with only a few weapons actually being effective.
Also stuff like bad checkpointing and the typical 2007 video game humor is obnoxious. Hope that the rest of the Future series holds up better.
2021
A neat short game that very much feels like Nintendo experimenting with open world Mario level design.
Great game up to the reverse castle, which just kinda sucks
2021
At its best it's a great and really satisfying throwback to NES games. It feels really good to play, especially after unlocking other abilities like the dash. Unfortunately a lot of those abilities get unlocked pretty late in the game, and it can often feel too unforgiving. Especially in levels with spike traps that are instant death even if you are in the recovery period after being hit by enemies that knock you back.
It also doesn't help that the difficulty curve is all over the place. The game's second chapter is easily one of the hardest chapters in the game (mainly due to the aforementioned spike traps), and just feels like an unnecessary roadblock to some pretty good level design that comes after.
Still, I really enjoyed the game when it's at its best. Just a shame that the lows are as low as they are.
It also doesn't help that the difficulty curve is all over the place. The game's second chapter is easily one of the hardest chapters in the game (mainly due to the aforementioned spike traps), and just feels like an unnecessary roadblock to some pretty good level design that comes after.
Still, I really enjoyed the game when it's at its best. Just a shame that the lows are as low as they are.
Better than the first game. The relationship between Bruce and Joker works much better than it should though as usual the writing around mental illness is messy. Still liked it overall though.
Solid take on Batman where while I appreciate the focus on Bruce Wayne, it also doesn't feel like it really does enough interesting with him.
2017
There's a couple of zones with frustrating level design but overall still love this game.
An okay Crash Bandicoot-like game that I have a lot of nostalgia for.