Ratchet & Clank (2016) | TZERØ Reviews

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVgGclL9hKY

Welcome to TZERØ! Today I want to give you my opinion about a childhood classic's remake: the game that came out together with the omonymous movie of one of the most beloved series of all time on Play Station: Ratchet & Clank.

1. What Is the Remake About?

It's still Ratchet & Clank 1, but you have different (and more) weapons from the start!

Ratchet & Clank retells the story of the first title in Quark's perspective. The story isn't completely made up, as per the usual Quark's stories, but it does have a couple things changed. The narrative trick of making it an actual retelling by an in-game character doesn't break immersion, even for players that played the original title.

The other big difference is having Quark as a narrator throughout the whole adventure, which adds some notes of fun, as he has his very doubtful "takes" about himself.

The defining factor of Ratchet & Clank, though, will always be the weapon arsenal, and how it works. With that, the remake does a lot. There are things I love, and things I'm doubtful about. Let's explore them together.

2. The Weapon Arsenal

The arsenal is so fun and wide! I'll probably make a tierlist about it!

When I reached the final stages of the game, I realized how well the entire Ratchet & Clank arsenal fits with the gameplay. I expected one weapon or two to be completely broken, and that I would've used only those two for the entire run, and yet, it does have much more to say than that!

Even though there are some weapons that are undoubtedly S-Tier, and a couple that I ended up not powering up, I want to expand on why you'll end up using most of them.

The Pixeliser HD is my favorite weapon in this game: the idea, animation & graphic design of the effect, and the effectiveness of the weapon are all outstanding. I've had so much fun with this!

First: weapons have different "roles" they lightly fit in. It's nothing set in stone, but you quickly realize it, while you slowly become a little army yourself:

• Defense-focused: some weapons are used to defend yourself from enemies in some way, making the battle easier. Setting up a Groovitron (Groovibomb when omega) at the beginning of the fight is key to make the fight much easier, as everything in the area of effect of the weapon literally stops shooting. Spawning a Mr. Zurkon is also a way to take care of close enemies you didn't notice, like those pesky robo-pets that end up too close for comfort so many times, even if it's theoretically an offensive one.

• Midrange: there are also a couple weapons that are worth setting up, that do take care of enemies while also dealing their own damage: Proton Drum and Glove of Doom are AoE control and ground-target management, without any more effort than just throwing them.

• Assault: the actual punch-packing weapons, and the most fun I've ever used. The Pixelizer is my favorite weapon, and it's the pump rifle of this game: it stuns the enemies too, which does wonders for AoE crowd control at close range. Probably the strongest weapon in the game. Another easy favorite is the Warmonger, that does its best when it evolves (I'll leave this spoiler-free!).

• Specialist: there are other weapons that don't do enough to warrant your advance quick, unless they're used in a specific way that maximises their effectiveness. The most obvious is the Pyrocitor, which does best with dealing with low HP enemies in one blow, or the Plasma Striker, that is wonderful for shooting big, stationary enemies like warships while out of range.

The Groovibomb is probably the strongest weapon in the game, especially early on. They also made a dancing animation for literally every single enemy, including bosses, which shows dedication!

This shows that Insomniac really knows what they're doing with their kit. Even at Normal difficulty, I never felt like I could completely forget about the enemies and march forward, even if my optimization choices were all effective - it's something I've been learning by playing gacha games, after all!

I'll 100% be playing this in Challenge mode, after I take a break with some narrative game, to keep a healthy mix, after playing a single genre for such a long time.

Now, there's an elephant in the room I want to address: the main reason why I like going back to Ratchet & Clank is the very unique system of weapon progression and evolution: the wonderful thing I love about it is too see how the actual attack design changes, and becomes more effective, given you invest in it. I was incredibly impressed with what Ratchet & Clank 3 did with this, and I had high hopes about it in Ratchet & Clank (2016) too.

I love those little buddies! Was so happy to find them, while playing the game.

You have three ways to upgrade your weapons:

• Leveling: you just need to use them! They become stronger, and unlock special upgrades

• Upgrading: it's like the spherography in FFX: you unlock nodes that make the weapon stronger in something. A fun part of this is that you need to unlock all the nodes around special upgrades to enable them. You get one per level up. You need raritanium for those, which is a rare resource you can find or drop from monsters

• Evolving: evolution is what happens when you do the last weapon level-up: this unlocks a new attack pattern or mode.

Weapon upgrading with nodes looks amazing, and the addition of special upgrades in the middle makes choosing what to upgrade much more of an actual "choice". Amazing work!

What I didn't like about evolving weapon was the fact that you couldn't go beyond the evolution level: using them when at full power didn't bring any other reward, and I ended up using other weapons instead.

Maybe this counts as a plus too, though, as it indirectly incentivizes the player to use weaker weapons, in order to make them reach their full potential.

3. Setting and Tone

One of the most amazing settings in platformers, it does feel full of life. It's a more grounded, metallic world than the dreamy Spyro, but it sparkles "Insomniac" vibes nonetheless.

Insomniacs is well known for their setting since Spyro. Ratchet takes a much more metallic take. The settings are full of colorful details, much less dreamy, keeping some western cartoonish vibe, but without ever looking exaggerated in style.

It's a colorful, bright, vibrant world, and the color palettes, together with the world elements, enemies and styles change enough to keep the game fresh for the entire journey. The PS4 graphics doesn't take anything away from the original take, and instead the upgrades fit the sci-fi cartoon style really nicely, unlike other traditional platformer remakes, where there are always pros and cons.

Futuristic cities, water planets, and starship fights make the game engaging, and accompany a light-hearted, satiric narrative tone that never feel too heavy, or too light. Ratchet is a bit less cinic than in the original, but it's just a shift: the overall feeling of the adventure stays the same.

4. Minigames and Extras

I found all the races to be easy to complete, even if I was behind. I only lost a couple time in the last course of the game, but I really did bad at the attempts!

When it comes to minigames, Ratchet & Clank has four: the hoverboard, and the spaceship fights, hacking, and Clank's robo-gadgets. There's a lot of work in the presentation of all of them, and they're never too challenging. Easy can still be fun, given that we have objectives to clear and we don't just need to A-press to complete them.

I once crashed right into something and died in one of those courses, but they're otherwise easy: you never end up being struck down, if you take care of a couple seeking missiles! It's still very fun and dynamic, and an obvious tribute to Star Wars starship fighting game (there's a point in which the ship explodes exactly as X Wing vs TIe Fighter!)

The spaceship fights really have the Star Wars: X Wing vs Tie Fighter vibe, with lasers, missiles, missile handling, and the ship interface. You still pilot the ship in third person, though! The minigames are usually fun, and don't pressure you at all in any way: Ratchet & Clank almost never have timers!

I hate blockers so much! The hacking puzzles were fun, even though you sometimes don't see exactly how it's going from the get-go, and click the right solution a bit randomly.

The hacking minigame is probably the hardest of them all: it's not that they're unsolvable: you'll end up finding the combination at some point, as there aren't too many. They can halt your progression for a fair bit, though. I liked solving all of them manually, but the game gives you a auto-hack tool, if it's not your thing. I love the flexibility here!

Clank's pursuit scenes give me the Crash Bandicoot escape level vibes. They're fun, and easy to complete, though, unlike Crash's high challenge levels.

Let's talk about the "Clank" part, in Ratchet & Clank (2016)! Most of the minigames are about taking care of some repair with robot gadgets Clank can repurpose on the fly. They're little puzzles where you always have to use all your resources in the most optimal way. They're slower than the action-focused part of the game, but they still fit decently well in the overall game.

Not too hard, but still challenging to a good degree! They slow down progression a bit, but I found them fine, never really immersion-breaking.

For challengers, Ratchet & Clank offer the "Challenge Mode", where you can keep using the weapons you leveled up in harder levels. I'll be trying it after playing Rift Apart - the last instalment of the series - and maybe re-playing Ratchet & Clank 3, to give you a more in-depth idea about it specifically.

5. TZERØ Scores

Graphics: 9/10

Insomniacs' art design is awesome and unique, and give their platformes life and energy: it comes from colors, detail, creature and level design. A top-notch work that still spills originality. The PS4 hardware allows the game to look awesomely polished, and Insomniacs push it to its best.

Animation: 8/10

There's incredible attention to detail, from just jumping, to having an entire kit of animations for just enemies dancing because of the Groovitron. I loved the bolts showering out of the boxes when you break them with anything, as it happened, in lower definition, in the traditional Ratchet & Clank games. Other animation kits are simpler, but, sometimes, immediate simplicity is what you need from an action-focused game.

Music: 7/10

Ratchet & Clank soundtrack is solid: it keeps you in the groove without invading your spaces. It's functional, yet perfectly fitting. The tones are action-related, with a strong reminder of Star Wars moods here and there.

Gameplay: 8/10

Although weapon evolution isn't explored further, as I hoped, compared to Ratchet & Clank 3, the gameplay loop is amazingly engaging. The boss fights are hard enough, and the minigames are a nice variation on the theme, and they manage to not impair the game vibe.

Innovation: 6/10

With Ratchet & Clank games, Insomniacs does awesomely. This title make it looks shinier than older titles, without losing its alignment with Insomniac's specific traits. It's good, considering how scarce games like these are, but it doesn't go further, adding elements that surprised me, though, besides the incredible polish it overall has.

Flow: 9/10

There's no grind in this game, besides maybe a couple collectibles that require a bit more attention, like gold bolts, but they're completely optional. A game to enjoy once or twice, if you like the challenges!

Overall: 8/10 - Amazing!

Ratchet is very perplexed, but the big brain is really enjoying his Groovitron!

6. Conclusion

Ratchet & Clank (2016) reignited my love for the series. It made me think about the value of taking care of specific aspects of a game - in this game, the weapon system - and making them feel unique. It made me ache for playing the last instalment of the series, Rift Apart, and see how far the series can go with this, considering how good its reputation is.

The colorful setting, effects, and the overall tone of the adventure and its dialogues cheered me up, and made me realize that it's not only gacha games, when it comes to pure aesthetic engagement.

I think this title holds its name very well, and it's a reminder that great games come from dedication, and attention to detail.

I hope you enjoyed the story, and I hope to see you around soon!