Official Website

Platform: PlayStation 2

Genre: Action

Number of Players: 1

Last year, Sony and Insomniac Games introduced us to a new breed of action heroes. This unlikely duo managed to capture the fascination of many fans of the 3D platform genre with humor, fantastic locations, and enough weapons and ammunition to warrant a US invasion due to having weapons of mass destruction. Of course I’m talking about Ratchet and Clank, a game that was surprisingly entertaining, and addictive on top of that. Even before the games release, Sony’s PR department has been doing a fantastic job at tantalizing the media with some goodies and plenty of information. The first look at the DVD that was sent a few months ago showed that R&C 2 wasn’t going to be just another follow-up, and instead the designers were thinking ahead, and improvements were the main area of focus.

In Going Commando, Ratchet and Clank 2, it’s been a few months since the duo managed to defeat Drek, the galactic menace that was putting together his own patchwork planet, of course at the expense of inhabitants of countless worlds. While the two received quite a bit of fanfare at first, it seems that now, no one needs a hero. That thought is going to be short lived though, and Ratchet and Clank soon find themselves spirited away by Abercrombie Fizzwidget of the Megacorp Corporation. It seems that someone has stolen a experiment that’s very precious to Megacorp, and it’s up to Ratchet to get it back. Clank on the other hand is given a desk job, at least for the time being, until the two meet up again and set out again to save the universe from the threat of evil.

Since E3, there have been plenty of titles coming out for the holiday season that I’ve been anticipating, and this is one of them. I’d been fairly well burned out on the 3D platform genre for a while, but games like R&C as well as another Sony title, Sly Cooper, revived my interest a great deal. This isn’t just a cheap attempt at doing a sequel though with little changes put in place. No, this isn’t Tomb Raider, this is something better, and it shows right from the start.

Putting a focus first on graphics, Going Commando looks even better than the original game did, and it really looked good when it was released. You still get the same plenty of cut scenes that are designed to match the graphics during gameplay, and that was one of the things that made R&C entertaining. I don’t mind CG animation, but it takes away from the game a little bit. The graphics here though are easily twice as good, if not more, than the predecessor, and that’s quite an accomplishment. There is a heavy amount of detail with just about everything, and the space travel scenes are extremely well done, although brief. However, I did manage to catch a few graphical glitches that occasionally cropped up from time to time, but they are so brief that it doesn’t take away from the gameplay at all. But, there’s plenty to destroy, and we’re not just talking about the enemies here, and though it’s not to the same level of interactive destruction that Red Faction II was, and that’s going to be hard to top, it makes for some interesting gaming.

If you’ve played the original title in the series, than you already know that it wasn’t about just destruction, but destruction with a vast array of weapons, and that’s the same here as well. There are a few from the first game that have made it back in or are similar in many ways to older weapons, like the Lancer and the Gravity Bomb for instance, but there are also a great deal of new weapons as well. Examples of your new toys are things such as the Pulse Rifle, and while it sounds like something that the Space Marines in the Aliens films carried around, it’s quite a bit cooler, especially with that nice sniping option. The Miniturrent Glove is also a nice accessory, and allows you to just a cannon that will track and destroy enemies. Ratchet also has access to Omniwrench again, as well as the usual blend of handy gadgets that, while not used for obliteration, will help in some tight situations.

What’s interesting though is that the weapons aren’t just a one-layered item. As you progress further, and kill more opponents, your weapon will gain experience, and once you’ve hit enough, you’ll gain an upgrade, adding in more power. It’s not a bad concept, and it extends beyond weapons to Ratchet himself. You will gain experience yourself, and gaining a new level will add more health, at least letting you survive a little longer. But, don’t think that more health means an easier game. The enemies here are no slouches at all. Usually, with most platform games at least, enemies will simply walk away if you’re too far out of their line of site, but that’s not true here. Once you’re spotted, or if you try and do something like taking someone out at a distance with the Pulse Rifle, it’s obvious that Ratchet is around, and they’ll start to look for him, even firing blindly in areas where they think that he is. To make thing harder though, they tend to work together in teams, so it isn’t quite as easy to just run and gun or try and find the closest place to hide. You’ll have to be quick and on your toes at all times.

There are plenty of mini games as well, although they tend to at first be a part of the storyline. Ratchet will find himself in arena battles, filled with a mass of enemies, traps, and deadly weapons, outer space dogfights, and even a hover race or two. For the most part, the arena battles are easy, at least at first, and a great way to not only gain bolts, but experience as well. The space battles finally find you making more use of your ship, and lucky for you, there’s a place to get some upgrade to make these battles a little easier. The hover bike race is very similar to the popular science fiction racing series Wipeout, minus the techno soundtrack, but looks a little bit like the pod race from George Lucas’ abominable The Phantom Menace. Much like Wipeout, you’ll have the option to use weapons that you pick up as well as turbos, something that really is the main key to victory.

There are also mini levels, done as complete spheres. What this means is that you’ve got a mini planet essentially that you will run across, and while they aren’t enormous levels, they are a bit tricky to navigate, even when you try and use the map function. That doesn’t make it bad though, and instead, ads somewhat of a nice challenge.

Much of the rest of the game is set up like the first one though. You’ll have to gain information by any means necessary in order to move to the next part of the game. Usually, this isn’t a difficult thing, but other times it’s time to break out the thinking cap and figure out exactly where you made a wrong turn. Unfortunately, your ship doesn’t come equipped with On-Star, so you’re on your own. You’ll occasionally take a break from playing as Ratchet and take control of Clank in order to get through some areas that Ratchet just can’t access, or get him out of a tight situation. Clank also has some new abilities in the line of controlling robots. He now has bridge builders, lifers, and other robots at his disposal, and in case you haven’t already done the math, that means that playing as Clank will take a bit more that just sending robots out to destroy anything that’s in your path.

All of the humor is still there, though the cut scenes tend to be slightly shorter, at least it seems that way, in many cases. You’ll meet up with a few old and familiar faces throughout your adventure, as well as plenty of new ones, and may even see others that are from other Sony games as well. And, if you still have a save file from the original game, you can even use a few weapons from the first R&C, proving that it isn’t always to your advantage to perform a weekly memory card cleanup. Unfortunately, I’ve done far too many of those, and as a result, have no save file for the first game. I guess it won’t be until the second time through that I check out some of the other extra weapons. Best of all, there aren’t any changes with the controls at all, so if you’ve recently been playing the Greatest Hits version of Ratchet and Clank, getting into this one won’t even be an issue.

As for a downside to Going Commando, there really isn’t one. Again, I loved the original, and this one is even better, and so addictive and fun to play that I have yet to even touch that copy of SOCOM II that Sony shipped the day before. (Don’t worry Sony; I’ll get to it, I promise.) Once again, we’ve got a more than triumphant sequel on our hands here, and it’s one that may very well surpass sales, and popularity, of the original. In a time when often, sequels are more than just lackluster, R&C2 is heads and shoulder above the rest. If you loved the first one, you’ll go crazy, you’ll go ape, heck, you’ll go commando for the sequel, and it’s one that if you don’t already own, make sure it makes it onto your list for immediate purchase.

- mike -