2007-Oct-13 - Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
Ratchet and Clank Future, Insomniacs second game for the PS3. Ratchet is back and in High Def! Within the first few minutes of the game Ratchet and Clank find themselves in a battle to save the planet from attacking fish like aliens?! Lead by the evil Cragmite Emperor Percival Tachyon...Percival?! Who is out to destroy the last of the Lombax. The rest of the story is about Ratchet unlocking his past and the discovering what had happened to the rest of the Lombax, kind of. The story really doesn't unfold, toward the end of the game you kind of just get told what happened, there was no real progression. It just kind of happened, no real build up just a bunch of jumping from world to world.
Speaking of worlds, the ones Ratchet and Clank fight across have never looked so spectacular, with gigantic stages packed with dozens of opponents, tons of destructible objects, lots of explosions, and more colorful characters. Lets not forget bolts, millions and millions of bolts! It almost makes up for the lack of original story.
There are a ton cool new weapons that can be upgraded by using a rare element called Raritinium. There are also the schematics for the Ryno hidden in the different worlds. This is a lot better than just selling the best weapon in the game, it makes a player earn it. There's also a bunch load of crazy new gadgets; one of my favorite gadgets is the groovitron, a disco ball looking device that sends the battle field into a Disco Night Fever reenactment. Another gadget that I couldn't get enough of was Mr. Zurkon, a laser toting robot with hilarious one liners. Clanks also got a few new features, like the geolaser that can cut through obstructions, the Hydro pack that speeds up Ratchet’s swimming, a new Jetpack, and some dragonfly looking wings (awesome).
The gameplay hasn't changed much since the originals, pretty much bash a robot's head with your wrench until a bolts come out, then use those bolts to upgrade your weapons. Of course there some added events, like flying Ratchet's spaceship through an asteroid field while defending against marauding pirates. There's also a section where you play as Clank and control little space creatures called the Zonie. This looks like a cross between the Clank section in Size Matters (where Clank has to give orders to the Gadget Bots) and E.T. Insomniac also included the Six Axis in a few new mini games, like dodging flying cars while falling, controlling Clank's geolaser, and lock picking.
Even with a lack of an original storyline I found Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, if anything, entertaining. I could spend hours upgrading every weapon, and trying out every weird gadget I could get my hands on.
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