Official Website

Platform: PlayStation 3

Genre: Action

Number of Players: 1

Support: HD 480p, 720p

Welcome back customer 91802 . . .

I can remember a time back when we first started this site and the original Ratchet & Clank arrived for review for those kind folks over at Sony, but I assumed it was just another platform game. Now it’s five years later and Ratchet & Clank still remains one of my favorite series’. Anyone who loves the games was excited to hear the news that Insomniacs dynamic duo was headed to the PlayStation 3, and finally, at long last, that day is here as Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction has finally been unleashed and has become, at least in my eyes, one of the top reasons to own a PS3.

It’s just like any other day on Kerwan, and Ratchet & Clank are back in Metropolis, the city they’ve called home for quite some time now after saving the universe far too many times, and the heroes aren’t about to get any rest. Captain Quark is once again up to his mask in trouble and a distress message warns of an attacking space armada. What the pair discover is that the armada isn’t there to kill anyone . . . expect for Ratchet. The invasion force is lad by villainous newcomer Emperor Percival Tachyon (yes, Percival) of the Cragmite, and he has an axe to grind with the Lombax as Ratchet begins to discover there is a history to his race that he never knew.

If you’ve never played any of the Ratchet & Clank titles before, there are so many things to love about this franchise. It has gone from being a shoot ‘em up platform/action title in the beginning to adding in some minor RPG elements as well as some minor puzzle solving being added for good measure since the very first game. All of those images and screenshots that you have undoubtedly ran across on the Internet or in magazines that you might be assuming were just fabrications or perhaps artist renditions, I can assure you, they are not. Tools of Destruction does in fact look that good and once again the true power of the PlayStation 3 is unleashed, and the games will only get better as time goes on.

One of the key components to success for the Ratchet & Clank series has been that there is a great deal of destruction thanks to having a massive arsenal of weaponry, and as you might have imagined, this doesn’t’ change at all. The pair may have been flung off into the far corners of the galaxy, they might be visiting planets they’ve never heard of, but that doesn’t mean that weapons are in short supply, and there are robot vendors who are more than happy to take those hard earned bolts you collected from crushing Perivale’s forces, smashing crates, and basically causing damage to anything that you can. However, since this is a new game on a new platform, one feature you won’t find is the ability to import save data and add in some familiar weapons from the pervious games. There’s always next game though, and Sony’s pair of heroes certainly aren’t gong anywhere any time soon.

The robot vendors do a little more than just sell weapons however. If you’re in dire need of ammo and there aren’t enough crates handy enough, you can buy ammo for individual weapons or max them all out. Ratchet will also run across a new item; Raritanium. These are separate from bolt and can be traded with robot vendors to upgrade your weapons. This will let you increase the amount of ammo, rate of fire, even the number of bolts or Raritanium dropped by defeated enemies. There are also other robot vendors available that sell devises, something a little different than weapons. You may occasionally run across these in crate and you will find things to use such as the Groovtron, a handy item that will have your foes dancing instead of fighting you, the Leech Bomb that will drain life from your enemies or the Confuzzler Gas which, much like the name might imply, confuses the Emperor’s men and has them attacking each other.

As we’ve seen in the other Ratchet & Clank titles, the RPG elements in the game revolve around two different aspects. The first would be Ratchet himself, and as you kill more and more of Tachyon’s men, you’ll gain experience and increase in level, thus giving yourself more health, and just like with the other games, those Nanotech energy orbs that you’ll find will help you recover. Weapons level up in the same way until they reach their maximum level, five, where they will become even more powerful. That Raritanium that you’ve been picking up however can be used to further improve your weaponry. Vendors can upgrade your gear, and this is set up in a similar fashion to the License Board found in Final Fantasy XII. The upgrade screen is done in a grid-like fashion and as you spend your Raritanium on an upgrade, more will be unlocked. You can increase your ammo, damage, rate of fire and even the amount of bolts and Raritanium that are dropped by enemies and collected from treasure chests found on almost every planet. You don’t just have weaponry at your disposal however, but now devices. There are limited use items and you will usually have just a few accessible, but their uses are quite handy. The Groovitron will distract enemies with some infectious grooves whereas a little robot named Mr. Zurkon will protect you at any cost. There is the Visi-Copter, one of the few items with an unlimited use, that can be used to latch onto targets and lift doors and platforms and if you’re running low on health, the Leech Bomb will suck the life from your enemies.

You will find some familiar items from the previous games as well. Grind boots, charge boots, and gravity boots have been in the Ratchet & Clank series for quite some time now as well as the ever popular, and highly necessary, Swingshot. There are also various types of armor to buy, the Bolt Grabber which helps to grab those handy bits of interstellar cash at a greater distance, and a few new items as well. For those players who are feeling adventurous enough, there are also parts of a secret weapons scattered across the galaxy and if you collect all of them, there is a smuggler who will help you put the whole thing together. He’s also the same man you’ll want to go to if you collect Leviathan Souls, highly sought after items that are gathered from some of the more large and deadly monsters that are worth a lot of bolts, or might need to be gathered for payment to access other necessary devices.

What about Clank, Ratchet’s sidekick from the very beginning? You’ll get a chance to play as him as well, and he has some new friends, the robotic Zoni that only he can see. They also have given him some new abilities. You can control them much like robots in the past games, and along the way you’ll gain a pair of robotic wings, perfect for gliding and the Geo-Laser, a handy devise that you can use to cut into weak portions of walls when all other means of access fail. Yet another familiar return is the Arena, the perfect place to gain more bolts and earn some respect from fans of the sport, and a nice side quest for those wanting to do everything that the game has to offer, not to mention there is still that matter of collecting gold bolts and trying to accomplish the different skills that the game offers.

Aside from the usual brand of platform action that Ratchet & Clank offers, you will find a few stages that have you piloting a spacecraft that happens to be an old Lombax relic. These stages don’t offer you full control, and control is relegated to simply following a track, using the left analog to move and the right to fire. Occasionally Clank will take control of the cannons, but to add in another bit of difficulty, there are not only skill points to be earned but gold bolts to be found, and these can be tricky.

As for SIXAXIS controls, the game does use them, and in some rather inventive ways. Ratchet will do a few Halo jumps, sometimes avoiding traffic in busy cities, other time trying to stay out of the line of fire, and the SIXAXIS is used to move around the screen. The controls also are used when you are flying with Clank’s new wings or when you are using the Geo-Laser, and in this particular mode, you have to be quick. There is a decoder, a new twist on the Ratchet & Clank means of hacking locks, and here you will use the SIXAXIS to navigate a steel ball through  maze and help a small electrode make its destination at the end of acircuit board. The controls also extend to weapons, and the Tornado Launcher in particular will allow you to use the SIXAXIS to control the storm itself while still having full control of Ratchet. It takes a few times to get used to, but once you’ve got it, the tornado can be fun and destructive. You’ll even use the motion controls to get down with a bit of pirate dancing.

With some new controls, new weapons, new allies and enemies, Ratchet & Clank might be a game that has given us minor improvements, but they are appreciated nonetheless, and with each and every game it seems that the developers just can’t do anything better, but they certainly do. Tools of Destruction plays like a familiar friend, and that’s what we are all looking for in our games; familiarity with just enough changes to keep it fresh.

Again, those screenshots that you’ve seen or those wallpapers that you might have downloaded that made you think that maybe it wasn’t quite what the game looked like; it does. Ratchet & Clank is an amazing looking title. The cutscenes flow together almost perfectly with in-game graphics. The games have always looked great, but the next generation Ratchet & Clank outdoes everything. The stages are even lusher and more vivid than seen previously. Slashing your wrench through bushes and grass will show them moving from the swing, boxes stacked on top of each other will tumble over as you smash through them and the shine and the wrench, the weapons, and everything else is glorious to watch. If you’ve played the demo and were in awe of the crumbling buildings during the grind rail portion of the game; that is merely the beginning of the glory that Tools of Destruction will hit you with. There are however just a few minor glitches like enemies getting suck in walls after defeating them, but that’s what patches are for, and it in no way takes away from the gameplay itself.

The only thing that is missing is a multiplayer mode, but I’m sure that will come in time with some kind of downloadable content. If you still doubt the power and capability of the PlayStation 3, and at this point you honestly shouldn’t be as Sony and third parties have released some fantastic titles, Ratchet & Clank will most certainly prove otherwise. The duo that many had little faith in at the very beginning, and I’ll confess I was one of those, have become a familiar sight on the PlayStation platforms and have become Sony’s equal to Nintendo’s Mario. This is the one game that has the tools to destroy the competition, and the future of the franchise will undoubtedly be even better than what is showcased here.

-mike-