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| | Title:
Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal
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System:
Playstation 2
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Genre:
Platformer
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Publisher:
Sony
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Developer:
Insomniac Games
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Release:
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Online:
Yes
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ESRB:
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Wow. I’ll say it again, holy-frickin wow. Insomniac you are my new hero. You’ve done the impossible; taken a seamlessly perfect game and evolution of the genre and once again made it better and even more evolved. So anyone and everyone who is thinking about making a platformer look no further to the near faultless example that is Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal.
The Ratchet and Clank series started off very quietly in the early days of the PS2. When released Ratchet and Clank (the first in the lineage) received good reviews of nines and higher. It was the first game to introduce weapons into the platforming mechanic. Since it was a new way of approaching the genre there were many quirks (how Ratchet handled) that prevented the game from standing next to heavy weights like Metal Gear Solid. A few years later the direct sequel arrived titled Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando. The improvements from the first to the second were amazing. The game play was more streamlined, the controls tighter, and the overall feel was of a better effort. There was truly nothing wrong with the game. Well now Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal has been released and yes Insomniac has made the giant leap in quality once again. Thanks to this and the addition of old-school platforming minigames as well as a deep multiplayer Up Your Arsenal is the best Ratchet and Clank yet.
At the heart of this amazing title is the gameplay. Although numerous games have tried to copy it, including some very triple A quality games (Jak 3) none can pull it off. There is just something about walking into a huge area and blasting the crap out of intimidating and smart enemies with over the top kick ass weaponry. There is no equal. One of the most welcome improvements found in Up Your Arsenal is how smart the enemy A.I. has become. In previous games enemies would have literally just one attack and would execute it no matter where Ratchet was. Although this is the case with many enemies in this game, the combination of enemy types and effective tactics make the whole experience much more rewarding. Enemies best at long range will stay back; firing off their weapons as they let the smaller more melee-oriented drones bull rush Ratchet. It’s also nice to see different classes of similar enemies as the game progresses, resulting in tough encounters no matter how powerful Ratchet is. Be warned Up Your Arsenal is the toughest Ratchet and Clank yet. Insomniac is assuming you’ve played their previous two games and have mastered them. There are also boss encounters in this game. In terms of difficulty they range from really easy to somewhat hard. Oddly enough the final boss in the game is probably the easiest in the series (it doesn’t require the RYNO while the last two games truly did). Ratchet this time around controls as tight as humanly possible. Those gamers who cursed as he slid slightly in Ratchet and Clank and even in Going Commando need not worry anymore. He can turn and stop on a dime and thanks to the brilliant new control scheme known as Lock-Strafe, will no longer be pointing in the wrong direction as enemies assault him off screen. The Lock-Strafe control scheme essentially makes Up Your Arsenal handle like a first person shooter. The left analog stick controls Ratchet’s forward and backwards movement as well as his side-to-side strafing. The right analog stick is in charge of looking up and down and turning from left to right. Jumping has been moved to the L1 button, and shooting off the weapon has been moved to R1. For switching to a different weapon the triangle button still holds that duty and now can be tapped to switch between the last three weapons or gadgets used. It helps keep the action faster paced but only those who have a good memory are going to be using it. I found myself still safely pressing the triangle button to switch to my weapon of choice. In a stroke of brilliance so as not to alienate the hardcore Ratchet and Clank fans, Insomniac gives players the option to choose their control setting. Trust me in the end all players will gravitate towards the Lock-Strafe it truly is that good.
To take on all these tougher enemies and bosses Ratchet needs weapons and Up Your Arsenal doesn’t slouch on providing some of the most original and deadly firearms to be found in a videogame. The total number of weapons equals 20 which includes the Shock Blaster, Nitro Launcher, N60 Storm, Plasma Whip, Infector, Suck Cannon, Splitting Hydra, Agents Of Doom, Flux Rifle, Annihilator, Holoshield Glove, Disc Blade Gun, Rift Inducer, Qwack-O-Ray, Miniturret Glove, Lava Gun, Shield Charger, Bouncer, Plasma Coil, and RY3NO . Each of these weapons can be upgraded eight times (five in the normal game and three times in the challenge mode), resulting in essentially 160 different weapons. This upgrading is a carry over from Going Commando, which adds in a very well done and addicting RPG element into the platforming genre. I literally spent hours just visiting levels over and over again to upgrade all my weapons to their max level. The drive and want to have the biggest and baddest weapons in the game is so addicting. Because of this the play length of Up Your Arsenal is increased significantly. Don’t think that because of this large weapon count that some weapons are better than others; infact every weapon Ratchet can get his furry hands on works. Some are more situation specific while others work in any condition, but never does a gamer get the feeling that the weapon he or she is wielding is ineffective.
But to shoot off these wonderful weapons at the terrible enemies Ratchet needs the playground to do it. That is where the levels of Up Your Arsenal come into the light. The biggest problem with previous Ratchet and Clank games were the fact that the levels felt short. The action in these games is so well done and intense that when the levels would end it would feel abrupt, there was no winding down. Well Insomniac finally seemed to realize this and has taken steps to lengthen the levels. The end result is that some levels are the same short design while others are at least an hour in length. The biggest addition to these hour long levels are the combat missions that act very similar to the arena challenges in Going Commando. Up Your Arsenal is taking place during a war, and at certain key planets players will have the ability to take part in major battles. These battles are broken down into sub missions at about five a piece. Successful missions yield bolts. While these missions may not seem all that special they offer two bonuses. The first being that once a level is completed the number of enemies decreases across the whole level. Not so in the missions; players who are forever craving hectic action can always be satisfied. Also players wanting a quick way to upgrade their weapons can also look to the missions.
If Insomniac stopped there Up Your Arsenal would have still been an amazing game. But they didn’t. They instead went that extra step that separates the great games from the perfect games. So what did Insomniac do? Why they added not only an incredibly fun and nostalgic 2D side scroller platformer minigame but also decided to build an online multiplayer component (a first for the series). The minigame does not feel like a tacked on last minute addition either. Its purpose is very deeply engraved into the plot of the entire game by revealing the past of the most famous superhero in the galaxy Captain Qwark. With five very different levels in total, every single side scroller cliché is used.
The real spotlight though is on the multiplayer. The controls are identical to the single player (Lock-Strafe is recommended) as are the weapons available (eight in total). There are three game modes to choose from; Deathmatch (which can have teams), Capture the Flag and Siege. Siege is where the real chaos ensues and it the best of the three. Siege is similar to the Onslaught game type of Unreal Tournament 2004 in that teams need to find, secure and defend locations on the map in order to clear a path to the opponent’s base and destroy it. While it is true Unreal has already mastered this type of game, there is just something special about running around with a Sheepinator defending a node that no game has yet captured. In short the action is amazing online with hardly any slow down. The only minor gripe is it is at times very hard to find a game to join online. But if you do manage to find enough friends online Up Your Arsenal supports a fully functional clan option, which should appeal to a lot of gamers. Insomniac also added in the V2 option for weapons within online to make the gaming a little more interesting. Should a player kill another, they can then pick up a V2 version of a weapon. V2’s significantly better than the weapons started out with and evens the field for noobs and the pros.
Finally the two last aspects of this game that need to be touched upon are the graphics and sound. In short the game looks and sounds amazing. The environments Ratchet ventures in are breathtaking, offering colorful vistas for mayhem and carnage. The weapons and the damage they dish out are also particularly pretty. Best of all is that there is hardly any slow down time whatsoever. Ratchet himself is also looking exceptionally good, with more subtitle animation in his movements that make him truly come alive on the television set. As for sound, let me just say that the music is no longer annoying. In past games the music was catchy but not all that great; nothing to make the player stand and just listen. Up Your Arsenal finally has melodies players will want to enjoy. I know I did.
Overall, this is one heck of a good game. From the perfect gameplay, the fun weapons, longer levels, beautiful graphics, amazing sound, I could go forever. But after reading this you should know what to do. Get up, go to your nearest game retailer and buy this game. Buy it, play it, love it. A 10 out of 10.
| The Core Score |
Overall
10 |
| Fun |
|
10 |
| Gameplay |
|
10 |
| Graphics |
|
9.5 |
| Audio |
|
9.5 |
| Replay |
|
10 |
|
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