Developer: Insomniac
Games
Publisher: Sony
Computer Entertainment
Reviewed on:
PlayStation 3
Available on:
PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita
Released: November 11th
2003
Continuing on with the
review marathon of the Ratchet & Clank series we're now
taking a look at the sequel to the original game, Ratchet &
Clank: Going Commando (or Ratchet & Clank 2: Locked and
Loaded for us Europeans). This game marked the beginning of the
focus being taken away from straight up platforming and moved it more
towards the shooting elements which were present in the first game.
I actually played this
game for the first time for this review, so unlike with the previous
game, I don't have any nostalgic attachment to the sequel. I don't
know why I skipped this one and went straight to the third game as a
kid, but let's take a look and see what I missed out on all those
years ago shall we?
The story of Ratchet &
Clank 2 begins a while after the first game; after
having saved the galaxy from Chairman Drek, the duo became
celebrities but since then, nothing much has been going on, which
leaves Ratchet wanting to go on another adventure. After being
interviewed for a TV show, Ratchet and Clank are suddenly teleported
to another galaxy, where Abercrombe Fizzwidget (the owner of
MegaCorp) tells them that one of his new creations has been stolen
and tasks Ratchet with getting it back. Meanwhile, Clank is hired as
the company's senior accountant while Ratchet completes his mission.
Ratchet eventually
locates the thief but is shown via a video link that they've
kidnapped Clank. After quickly retrieving him the reunited duo head
out to stop the thief together. Now knowing what Ratchet is capable
of, the thief hires a gang of mercenaries (Thugs-4-Less) for
protection, but Ratchet makes quick work of them and finds the stolen
MegaCorp creation, which turns out to be a small fluffy creature.
After meeting up with
Fizzwidget and handing over the creature, Ratchet and Clank are left
on a (mostly) abandoned planet after Fizzwidget accidentally destroys
their ship and activates the ejector seats while trying to put the
radio on. They then come across the thief who is revealed to be
Angela Cross who is also the same species as Ratchet (a Lombax). She
tells them that the reason she stole the creation from MegaCorp is
because it has the potential to destroy the galaxy because of how
aggressive it is and how it can duplicate itself at will. To make
matters worse, MegaCorp is now cloning the experiment and selling
them to the public as 'Protopets'.
Is it just me, or does this Fizzwidget character look suspiciously familiar?
Ratchet and Clank
locate Fizzwidget's whereabouts and attempt to find him to tell him
about the danger the Protopet presents, but they're captured by the
Thugs-4-Less boss who is now working for MegaCorp and is aware
Ratchet has teamed up with Angela Cross (who became an enemy of MegaCorp
after she stole the Protopet earlier in the game). Ratchet and Clank
escape confinement but then learn that Angela has been captured too,
and head out to save her. After defeating the Thugs-4-Less boss and
destroying their base, the duo are reunited with Angela and decide to
go to the headquarters of MegaCorp to find Fizzwidget and put a stop
to the Protopet distribution before it's too late.
Upon finally finding
Fizzwidget, he reveals himself to be Captain Qwark (a celebrity who
ends up being disgraced by Ratchet and Clank after he betrayed them
in the first game). His plan is to let the Protopets cause
significant damage to several planets in the galaxy and then stop
them using a device Angela has created, thus once again becoming a
hero and reclaiming his status as a celebrity. However after he uses
the device on the original Protopet, it grows in size and eats him.
Ratchet defeats the mutated Protopet (saving Qwark's life in the
process) and Angela fixes her device, using it to put a stop to the reign of Protopets
across the galaxy.
After the events of the
game, it's shown that Ratchet, Angela, Clank and another female
robot who befriends Clank throughout the game are together in an
apartment (implying that Ratchet and Angela are going to become a
couple, and that Clank and the female robot also have a romantic relationship),
meanwhile, Qwark is now a test subject at MegaCorp, where he
undergoes several painful experiments as a punishment for his
deception.
Ratchet eventually ends up falling in love with Angela, but this sub-plot isn't explained very well and feels a bit out of place in the context of the wider story.
The basic overall story
of Ratchet & Clank 2 is pretty good, there's a few interesting
twists to keep you hooked (like the thief turning out to be an ally and the reveal that Fizzwidget is actually Qwark). However, the way the story is presented is where
it falls down.
Most story development
takes place in cutscenes and they sometimes appear to be extremely rushed which in turn creates plot holes and inconsistencies. For example, Ratchet
seems to develop a love interest with Angela out of nowhere, one
second she's just a neutral character and the next second Ratchet is
heavily invested in saving her from Thugs-4-Less. It feels like
several scenes where Ratchet develops his relationship with Angela
were cut and this makes it feel less important to the player when
we're tasked with saving her.
Because the game
doesn't really have a consistent main villain it creates a situation
where I didn't really care very much about what was going on. At the
start of the game, Angela is the bad guy, then it's the Thugs-4-Less
boss, then it's Fizzwidget and then it's Qwark and this overly
complicated plot structure doesn't work very well for the type of
game that we're playing. Chairman Drek was a much more developed and
threatening character and I think this is because the first game's
story kept it simple, which allowed him to have more screen time.
Do you think this character is evil? What gave it away? Was it by any chance the red glowing eyes and the cold blue skin?
There's also a ton of
inconsistencies between Ratchet's character from the first game and
this game. While a lot of these inconsistencies can be explained by
his change of personality which happened at the end of the first
game, there's one big element of the story that was really annoying
me. In the original Ratchet & Clank, Ratchet knows instantly that
Qwark is going to betray them but goes along with Clank who is sure
that he's legit. However in Ratchet & Clank 2, it's perhaps even
more obvious that Fizzwidget is evil and yet Ratchet is constantly
unaware of this and keeps thinking his attempts to stop them are
accidents. While this isn't a big deal, it did annoy me a little bit
because I want Ratchet to have somewhat of a consistent character,
but this game almost completely changes him from the first game. Some
of the changes are positive (for example, he no longer acts like a
spoiled teenager), but he almost feels like a totally different
character in this game.
While the entire game's
story feels rushed and lacking in detail, the ending to the game is
especially bad for this. The big reveal that Qwark is actually the
main villain is almost thrown to the sideline straight away, the last
boss appears out of nowhere and the actual ending is underwhelming because it just happens and then
cuts to the credits so abruptly.
While Ratchet &
Clank 2 tries to have a better and more complex story, I feel like it
completely falls flat and the original game's simpler but more
fleshed out story is far superior to this game's. This is extremely
disappointing given the fact that I had such a positive reaction to
the way the first game handled it's plot, I expected better from the
sequel.
Other NPC characters are mostly just there as a way of introducing new game mechanics as opposed to moving the story forward, but some of them are more memorable than the main characters of the game.
But let's face it, the
gameplay of Ratchet & Clank is where the game shines, so
how does the sequel expand on the already fantastic experience of the
first game? Well, at it's core, it's the same sort of situation; you
platform around levels using a number of gadgets to help you traverse
and explore a ton of different levels. Each level is set on a
different planet which sets them apart visually and opens up new
gimmicks for each stage. The actual design of the levels is exactly
the same as the first game; you'll start the level in a hub area
which branches off into two or three different paths and by exploring
each of these paths you'll find a new reward which will enable you to
revisit old levels and find new areas or will progress the story and
unlock new levels.
The main difference
between the original game and the second game (in terms of gameplay)
is that you can now level Ratchet up by gaining experience from
defeating enemies. Upon leveling up Ratchet will gain more health
which allows him to take more hits from enemies and therefore become
stronger by doing so. Ratchet's defence isn't the only thing that can
be upgraded though, every single weapon in the game can now transform
into a stronger version of itself if you use it enough, which is
fantastic for adding variety into the shooting aspects of the game
but also made me actually want to use all the different weapons I
unlocked because I wanted to see what they transformed into. The RPG
style experience gathering for the weapons and Ratchet himself is a
welcome addition to the series and it makes you feel like you're
progressing as a player, which is a fantastic aspect of the game.
Another major
difference between the first game and this one is how Bolts (the
currency in Ratchet and Clank's universe) can be gained a lot faster.
This is great because weapons are now way more expensive than in the
first game and they're also more numerous (there are 16 weapons in
the first game, compared to the 25 weapons in the second one) but, unlike in the first game, defeating enemies and breaking boxes isn't the only way you can earn
money.
Some weapons actually become vastly different after upgrading them, which keeps you wanting to know what they'll do after leveling them up.
There are now arena
areas where you can complete a variety of missions which involve
defeating waves of enemies which are actually really fun and
highlight the larger emphasis on shooting and action over straight up
platforming. Some of these missions even involve you fighting against
bosses which is a cool reward for finishing the more basic missions.
Other missions can involve taking out enemies within a time limit,
using the wrench only or having more hazards appear in the arena.
The space dog-fighting
returns from the first game but is much more expanded and follows the
same mission based structure as the arena combat. While the flying
sections in the first game basically just consisted of moving the
ship, shooting and firing rockets, you can now perform dodge rolls,
change weapons, move more freely and boost. On paper this all sounds
great, but these sections just weren't all that fun for me
personally. All the space missions feel very similar to each other
and basically just consist of moving forward and shooting constantly
while firing the occasional missile and by doing this you'll complete
pretty much all of them without breaking a sweat. There are a couple
of more interesting missions, like taking out a ghost ship that turns
invisible every so often, but even when they introduce cool ideas
like this, it just ends up still feeling like you aren't doing much.
This could have been a problem in the first game, but because there's
only three occasions you ever fly your spaceship and the levels where
you do are a part of a normal platforming level, it doesn't feel
anywhere near as boring and actually offered a nice change of pace.
Here though, there's way more than three flying missions and it
begins to feel a bit monotonous after a while.
Then we have levels
which consist of massive wide open areas where you're tasked with
collecting 100 crystals and by cashing them in, you'll receive a
ton of Bolts. These sections are really boring and I seriously think
the game would have been better off without them. The second area
where you're tasked with gathering crystals is perhaps the worst part
in the entire game because of the enemies being so relentless,
numerous and difficult to kill that it really just passes the point
of not being fun and becomes a grind to get them all. Of course, you
don't have to get all of the crystals to progress the story, but if
you're wanting to complete the game fully then you're going to have
to put yourself through the arduous mission of getting them all.
As far as doing side
missions to earn extra Bolts, the arena, open collecting areas and
space dog-fighting are the primary ways to do this, however, there's
still a ton more gameplay styles featured throughout the game.
The dog-fighting sections in this game are a good example of how making something more complex can actually result in a worse result.
There's moon areas
where the gravity will be altered and you are able to run around the
whole spherical area (similarly to Super Mario Galaxy)
which are technically impressive but don't add a whole lot to the
gameplay experience, there's crane puzzles, where you control a crane to pick
up bombs and boxes for Ratchet to open doors and get to new areas
which are interesting but not very numerous and glider sections where
Ratchet will be gliding through the air and have to make his way
through aerial obstacle courses which are actually quite fun.
Returning
from the first game are hacking missions where you use a gadget to
access a minigame and upon completing it, a locked door will open.
There's actually two minigames this time around and in my opinion these aren't quite as fun as they were back in the original Ratchet & Clank. First
of all we have the Electrolyzer minigame in which you have to get
sparks to hit connectors, but you have to flip the connectors so the
sparks hit them in the right position otherwise you'll blow the
circuit and have to start again. There's so many sparks and
connectors to keep your eye on though that it can be quite
overwhelming, it's a good test of reflexes. Then we have the
Infiltrator minigames which involve you working your way through a
complex maze in order to get an electric current to make it's way
back to where you started, thus completing a circuit and completing
the hack. Neither of these minigames are particularly bad, but I preferred the first game's hacking because it was more logic
based and required puzzle solving as opposed to being a test of
memory or reflexes like the two games in Ratchet & Clank 2.
I much prefer the Electrolyzer minigames over the Infiltrator minigames simply because some of the later Infiltrator sections can be infuriating.
We
also have sections where we take control of Clank; like in the first
game he can communicate with little robots and make them attack,
follow him, wait or enter doors but we're also introduced to three
new types of robot that Clank can interact with. First is a Bridge
Bot who (as the name suggests) can create bridges to help Clank and
his followers cross huge gaps, then there's Lifter Bots who can lift
large objects out of the way to allow Clank to pass under them and
finally there's Hammer Bots who can smash objects in Clank's way and
allow him to fly up high on see-saws. Overall, I have the same
criticism with these sections as I had with the first game, however, I
actually think it's worse in the second game. That criticism is that
these sections just aren't expanded enough and they never become
challenging enough for my taste. This is an annoying issue because
all of these mechanics could create some really interesting puzzles
and platforming sections but it just never happens and all of the
Clank areas are basically filler material because of this.
Speaking of Clank
sections, the areas where you play as big Clank also make a
return, but this time they are only used in boss fights, and these
fights are very lacklustre to say the least. You can punch, fire
rockets and throw bombs at your enemy, and by destroying buildings
and helicopters you can gain health and more ammo. The issue is that
these battles last too long and become tedious and the enemies you
fight never really change their tactic which results in these areas
becoming boring very fast.
Overall there's a very
serious problem with Ratchet & Clank 2 which is that all of the
different styles of gameplay (outside of the main platforming and
shooting) are either worse than they were in the original game or
they're new additions that are mediocre or just plain bad. I've not
listed all the different playstyles in the game (because it would
take forever to talk about them), but none of them stand out against
the first game's.
Certain gadgets make a return from the first game, two notable examples being the Swingshot and the Grind Boots which were two of my favourites throughout the original Ratchet & Clank.
To compensate for this,
the base gameplay has been expanded a lot. Not only is there the
aforementioned RPG elements, but you can now upgrade Ratchet's armour which makes enemy attacks do less damage, you
can upgrade your ship (which makes changes to the weapons available,
the speed you boost at and more, but also
makes cosmetic changes to the ship) which is an awesome touch and
makes your ship feel a lot more
personal than it did in the first game. You can also upgrade your
weapons even further (beyond the experience based level up) by visiting an
arms dealer who will mod your guns if you pay him Platinum Bolts
(which are this game's equivalent to the Gold Bolts from the first
game that are found in secret and hard to reach areas).
Skill Points make a
return from the first game and this time they actually unlock some
really cool stuff. Primarily they give you access to a cheat menu,
which is actually quite poorly named because it isn't really cheats
as much as just different character skins for Ratchet and other
characters. Some of these skins are great (my personal favourite
being the snowman) and give you a reason to actually go out and find the Skill Points.
Other than that there's
a ton of new weapons (some of which are fundamentally the same as ones from the previous game) which offer a diverse
range of combat styles, there's returning weapons from the first game (which you can get for free if you have save data from the first game
on your system), there's new and returning gadgets which offer
different styles of platforming challenges and I like the fact that
Clank keeps his Hydro-Pack, Thruster-Pack and Heli-Pack that he
receives in the first game without having to collect them again. It's
not often games do things like that, so it's nice to see a continuity
being developed here.
The arena sections are one of the best things added into Ratchet & Clank 2, not only are they a great source of bolts but they offer interesting challenges that don't appear elsewhere in the game.
One of my
issues with the first game was that it didn't have many boss battles; this has been addressed, but annoyingly, not very well. None of the boss levels are any good at all and
basically just consist of shooting constantly and running around
them. The only boss where this is different is perhaps the lowest
point of the entire game. There's a section where Ratchet is fighting
a giant robot but in order to do any damage he must jump onto turrets
which are placed around a small arena-like area. The issue here is
that the boss never changes his attack pattern and he has so much
health it's unbelievable. This fight drags on and on and this isn't
helped by the fact that he hardly ever opens himself up to be
attacked. It's a really badly designed portion of the game and should
have been cut because of how tedious it is.
One thing I want to
mention briefly is the secret Insomniac Museum you can access in the
game. I absolutely love the amount of effort and love the creators of
this game had for this series. This secret section of the game is
perhaps one of the greatest secrets in any video game I've ever
played, offering a glimpse into how the game was made with developer
commentaries, showing cut content (even going as far as to let you
drive a vehicle that was cut from the final game), giving you some
debug mode areas where you can make your own bullet and smoke effects
and a whole test level where the developers decided on how far and
high Ratchet should be able to jump and fine tuned his general
movement. This is an incredible section of the game and for it to be
a fully playable area set in the Insomniac Games offices
adds so much charm to the whole thing.
The amount of stuff you
can unlock by completing the game and getting 100% of the
collectables is insane. By doing various things such as accessing new
game plus, collecting platinum bolts and by getting skill points, you
can unlock cheats (which I've already mentioned), but as well as that
you can unlock movies, which include the game's cinematics, credits,
a 'Making Of' video, cancelled 'commercials' and a sketchbook. You can also find a menu full of 'Random Stuff' which is where some very weird things are
placed, like a text diary written by Clank about him visiting the
Insomniac Games studios, some paintings created by the game
developers, endorsement deals (which show the characters of the game
in fake adverts for in game brands) and most weirdly, two full
minigames that involve sheep floating around in space.
One of the best moments in Ratchet & Clank 2 involves Clank attempting to work out a logic puzzle to get an upgraded wrench out of a glass box only for Ratchet to come along and smash the box and get the wrench himself. It's funny but it also highlights how different the two characters are and how they bounce off of each other so well.
One of these minigames is a clone of Space Invaders (which can be played co-op) and the other is similar to
Asteroids, only instead of rocks flying
everywhere there is a sun in the middle of the screen and the
objective is to knock another player into it to be the last man standing. This is seriously odd, these minigames are just tucked away
in a menu and I wouldn't be surprised if some people didn't even know
they existed. This is also the only 2 player aspect of the entire
game which is incredibly strange. Still, I'm happy you can unlock
such weird rewards for completing the game, it beats just seeing a 100% statistic and then having nothing to show for it.
On top of all of these
unlockables, there's also a much more expanded new game plus mode
which introduces brand new game mechanics which drastically increases the replayability of the game. It was incredibly brave of Insomniac
Games to lock this content behind a new game plus mode knowing that
some people would probably never even play it, but it's a risk that I
think will have made fans of the game seriously happy.
So let's talk about
some of the differences the new game plus mode brings to the table.
First of all it's more difficult because enemies deal a lot more
damage, but to counter this, you keep all of your weapons and health
upgrades from your first playthrough of the game. There's also even
better versions of every weapon in the game which can be brought from
the vendor (this is on top of the mods you can get from the arms
dealer and the standard experience based level up you can do with
every weapon), but then these Mega weapons can be upgraded yet
another time (by simply killing enemies with that particular weapon)
into a Ultra weapon. The Mega and Ultra weapons are obviously a ton
more powerful than the standard upgraded weapon but can also carry
more ammo which means they're better in every single way. To balance
this out though, the Mega weapon upgrades can be very expensive, so
you can't just go ahead and buy them all straight away.
One of the best bits in the game takes place on top a fast moving train where you have to defeat enemies and swing from carriage to carriage while also attempting to defeat a boss. It feels very epic, but is quite short lived.
We are also introduced
to a new mechanic called the Bolt Multiplier which multiplies the
amount of bolts you receive by a maximum of twenty times. To get the
multiplier to go that high though, you'll have to kill lots of
enemies without taking a single hit, because upon getting attacked,
your multiplier will go back to zero. This is a brilliant mechanic
and makes the game much more tense because you don't want to lose
that precious multiplier (especially if you get it high). I think
this is something that should have perhaps been in the game to begin
with because it's so good, but it's only available in new game plus.
Other smaller changes made to new game plus include you now being able to unlock a new weapon (which is available
from the vendor) called the Clank Zapper which lets Clank attack
enemies with electricity while on Ratchet's back, the Ryno II weapon
becomes purchasable from the standard weapon vendor, you can access
short cuts to different key sections of the game (which basically acts
as a fast travel) and you can play the game fully from a first person
perspective (essentially turning the game into a first person
shooter). That's a lot of post game content to sink your teeth into!
Other minor nitpicks of
mine about the general gameplay is that there's no option to quickly
refill all of your ammo with every weapon in the vendor menu
(resulting in you needing to cycle through every weapon to make sure
they're full), there's no quick way of warping to your ship at any
time you want (which would have come in handy a lot) and there's a
bit of a problem with how by the time you've unlocked the most
expensive weapon in the game (the Zodiac), you're most likely going
to have completed everything and therefore have no use for it.
The bike racing sections of the game are fairly good, but nowhere near as great as the hover bike sections from the first game.
The game's graphics are
to the same high standard as the first game. There's a ton of small
details in each planet that's interesting (such as the remains of a
Gadgetron HQ that's been destroyed, potentially by
Megacorp who have replaced Gadgetron as the main conglomerate) and adds life and background details to the game's universe. As with the first game you'll sometimes stop shooting for a second and simply marvel at how impressive the game looks (especially for the time) because of how detailed and brimming with life and movement it is.
Ratchet now looks a lot
cooler due to him having a commando suit on throughout the whole game
as opposed to his mechanic attire which he wore in the first game. This is
a welcome change because it wouldn't have made sense for him to wear
the same thing in this game after already having become a hero. Other
characters looks just as varied and charming as they did in the first
game and inject a lot of character into the game because of their
different personalities. Even the enemies are mostly different
depending on the planet you're on which (just like in the first game)
makes it feel like you're visiting different planets as opposed to
just different levels.
Despite the general
high quality of the game's graphics, there are quite a few things
that are quite problematic with this game. One thing that's quite
lazy is that the animation for getting the Platinum Bolts is exactly
the same as it was in the first game, while this isn't a big problem,
it does sometimes make you think; is this game a proper sequel or just Ratchet & Clank 1.5. The camera still looks janky if
you snap it behind you; rather than quickly whizzing around Ratchet,
it just cuts behind him and this is a problem that I also had with
the first game. There's no cutscenes that play for when Ratchet gets
out of his ship, it just cuts and this doesn't look right. It feels like at times the game is rushing too much and cutting out
things that should have been given more context, like how when you
sabotage a jamming array on the first moon level it just cuts back to
Ratchet leaving the moon rather than showing him getting back to his
ship. It's things like this that really impact a games overall
production value and it's so strange for Insomniac to have been
making these mistakes because they have always had such high
production value in their previous games.
I know this is a nitpick but the animation for collecting the Platinum Bolts being the same as it was in the first game really bugs me. It comes across as being slightly lazy and took me out of the game slightly every time it happened.
The controls are
exactly the same as the first game's for the most part, all of the
standard platforming controls feel identical in terms of the types of
jumps available and how they work in the game's environments. This is
great because it means if you know the first game very well you'll be
able to instantly use that knowledge in the second game too, however,
I would have liked a few more attachments for Clank to have a few
more movement types available.
The biggest changes to
the controls are made to the shooting mechanics, because of the
larger emphasis on action this is one aspect that really needed to be
fine tuned. The first game's shooting controls weren't very good and
resulted in me using the wrench as my primary weapon throughout the
whole game but the same definitely isn't true in this game. The
biggest change is that you can now strafe which completely changes
the way the shooting feels, by being able to move left and right
while the camera locks on to one position makes it so you can dodge
and shoot accurately at the same time and this makes the shooting so
much more fun. The level designs are also more suited to this new
control style, often there's more open areas filled with more enemies
which almost turn the game into a full on shooter as opposed to
a platformer. However, because these shooting sections are still
within the platformer levels, the different mechanics all gel
together very well, resulting in some really varied, interesting and
fun levels.
Easily the best thing Ratchet & Clank 2 does better than the first game is the shooting. It's just a shame it doesn't really do much else better.
There's also a few
other small changes made to the controls which act as quality of life
improvements, for example, you can now cycle quickly between the last two weapons you used by double tapping the triangle button. This is a
small but very welcome change because it stops you from having to
open the weapon wheel all the time (which pauses the game) and
interrupt the flow of gameplay. There's a few gadgets that you also
don't need to equip before using them, which is another great change
because it means you don't have to equip too many gadgets on your
weapon wheel (thus wasting space you could have used for weapons).
Unfortunately, the amount of gadgets that this applies to is quite
low, I would have liked to see the auto equip function apply to
gadgets like the Swingshot as well as the hacking gadgets.
The camera is just as
great as it was in the first game, it never got in the way of
gameplay and it's customisable in terms of being able to invert the
camera controls, use a quick snap button to make the camera warp
behind Ratchet and a first person look mode which now actually
displays the gun you're using as opposed to just a shooting reticule
like in the first game.
The only issue I found
with the controls is that it can be quite difficult to lock on to
specific enemies when there are a lot of them on screen. Not only
that but it's difficult to shoot enemies that are high up or low
down, it's like the strafing lock on controls were only designed with
horizontal enemies in mind. I found myself almost wishing that the
game used more traditional third person shooter aiming so that you
could shoot more accurately, but then the issue would be that would
the emphasis would be on shooting more than platforming.
There should have also
been a quick turn button due to the amount of times that you can be
approached from behind while strafing and have to either spin the
camera all the way around Ratchet or stop strafing (which leaves you
more open to attack) and snap the camera behind him and then go back
to strafing. This is particularly a problem in the arena areas.
Weapons and gadgets can now be seen while in first person mode which makes the game feel more like a shooter and also gives you a good close up look at the gun models.
The sound design is of
the same high level as the first game, sound effects are all powerful
and punchy for the weapons which adds a degree of weight to them,
enemies all make different noises when they're hit which gives them
unique personalities and the whole game feels fuller and more alive
due to the general sound design.
The music has the same
problem as the first game, it's good but after playing you
probably won't be able to remember a single song from it. It's not
that the music is bad by any means but it's definitely not a stand
out part of the game as a whole. I also found issues with the music
loops in several levels where it would cut slightly and result in a
moment of silence before the music started again which isn't an issue
I recall happening in the first game at all.
Voice acting is still
just as good as it was in the first game, the main difference is that
with Ratchet's change of personality he also has a change of voice
actor who does a good job of portraying this new more grown up and
level headed Ratchet. He isn't as obnoxious as he was in the first
game and comes across as being much more generally likeable this time
around which is great because it follows on from his change of
character at the end of the first game.
You might come across some references to another famous PS2 platformer series if you keep an eye out. It's a nice to see that Naughty Dog and Insomniac's relationship was still as friendly as it was in the PS1 era.
Summing up my
experience with Ratchet & Clank 2 is quite a difficult task, on the one hand, the basic core gameplay that returns from
the first game has been fine tuned (particularly with the shooting
mechanics) which instantly makes the game more enjoyable; but
everything on top of this basic gameplay is much worse than it was in
the first game, for example, the hover bike racing being nowhere near
as fun or mechanically deep as the hover board racing in the first
game and the space dog-fighting sections in the second game being more complex than the first game's but the levels not being expanded
enough to actually utilise these deeper controls which results in
these sections becoming boring. I do however really like the addition of the
arena areas, but it's unfortunate that this is really the only addition besides the RPG mechanics and shooting controls that improves on the first game.
I also found that the
level themes weren't as memorable as the ones in the first game, even
after just having finished the second game I struggle to remember
specific levels, whereas straight after finishing the first game I
could name several that I really enjoyed because of how much they
stood out.
The best way that I
could sum up Ratchet & Clank 2 is by saying that when it's good,
it's better than the first game, however, when it's bad, it's far
worse than the first game. It's an issue with not being a consistently good game and instead just having moments where it's fantastic and outside of these moments being quite mediocre (especially when compared to the first game). I would definitely recommend the original game over this
one if I was introducing the series to someone who had no previous
experience with the games, and that's disappointing because I was
hoping a sequel would have expanded on the original game in a way
that made everything tighter. I want to like this game more than I
do, but because it's so littered with flaws I struggle to think of
any reason I would ever go back and replay it. It's by no means a bad
game, but it's also not a great game, despite having elements and
sections that could have made it great.
Pros:
- The new shooting
controls are far superior to the first game's and make the shooting
far more fun and rewarding.
- The new RPG elements make the sense of progression you get from playing the game
way higher and make you want to use all the different weapons
available.
- New game plus mode
has been expanded and offers a ton of variety, even going as far as
to introduce brand new mechanics that are only available in a second
playthrough.
- There's so many
unlockables to get that it makes it feel worth collecting everything,
this is a game that you're going to want to 100% just because you
want to see what the next unlock is.
Cons:
- The story is
underwhelming because it feels rushed and creates inconsistencies
and plot holes with itself and the first game.
- Most of the
different styles of gameplay aren't as good as they were in the
first game and the new aspects of the game are mostly mediocre and
aren't expanded enough.
- Aspects of the
visuals seem outright lazy, such as the abrupt cutting upon starting
and finishing certain missions.
- Bosses are more
frequent than the first game but are all average at best and the
final Thugs-4-Less boss is the lowest point of the entire game.
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