The Gaming Experiment

I was quite busy week for the first week of this experiment. First I finished Uncharted, which I really loved. But I also was able to finish Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction.

Let me start off by saying that is this my first Ratchet and Clank game that I have finished. I have messed around with the series before, but never delved too deep. I can say that if this iteration of Ratchet is any indication of how the rest of the series has been, then I have missed out tremendously.

What a fantastic game! The characters are funny, witty, and well animated. The dialog is well-written and the voice acting is some of the best I have ever seen.

In this outing, you play Ratchet, the last Lombax in the universe trying to find out why he is the last and where are his roots. You have your robotic sidekick clank that not only offers witty retorts but also adds some functionality to Ratchet.

The universe is under attack and Ratchet is torn between discovering more about who he is and saving the universe. Luckily, he is a good enough protagonist that he can handle both causes. From what I’ve read, this chapter in the franchise is more gun heavy than the previous games, but from my point of view, the weapons were some of the best parts of this game. There were your standard weapons, like the Combuster, a gun that shoots balls of fire, and there was the Groovatron, which was a gun that shoots out a disco ball, and all enemies in an area of effect begin to dance and are completely vulnerable to attack. I found the Predator Launcher, a rocket launcher that can target multiple enemies, to be the most affective, and in many cases, the most fun to use.

The platforming and puzzle portions of the game were fun and felt very solid. The enemy design was great too. Plus who doesn’t like fighting robots that are controlled by fish.

Even though I hadn’t played the previous R&C games, I was still enjoying and able to follow the story. This is definitely a game that I can recommend. And right after I finished R&C, I downloaded the downloadable game Ratch and Clank: Quest for booty, and I am really enjoying it too, more platforming and fewer weapons so far. But I am only a couple hours in.