Bob Todd
16th November 2004, 02:57 PM
The short review for lazy-arsed gets:
Ratchet & Clank 3: stuffgobang = fun.
The proper review, for people with an attention span:
This review is of single-player mode only.
Ratchet & Clank 3 (tentatively initially subtitled "Up Your Arsenal" but unfortunately/thankfully truncated to its core moniker) is in many ways the worst of the series. Which just goes to show what a fantastic series this has been, as this game is absolutely bastard woo.
However, it could also be said that this is the best game of the series. Well, you've pretty much covered your options there, Ms. Groincrusher. But I'll elaborate, if I haven't frightened and confused you by violating the reviewers' rule of not referring to oneself personally, especially in pronoun form. Hot piss, I'm such a rebel. Che Guevara doesn't have **** on me.
Graphically, very little has changed. This is usually taken as a criticism when discussing videogames, but in truth there is little if at all to improve upon using the graphics engine that the Ratchet series uses. Yes, it's nowhere near photorealistic, but it doesn't even try to be. It's very bright: even the darker levels (and I mean actually darker, not in the gritty urban sense that has suddenly become clichédly fashionable) seem cheerful, and are just as brightly-lit as the grassy levels bathed in sunlight. It isn't, however, patronisingly candy-coloured or simplistic. Everything is wrapped in a smooth, often-sheeny, skin: there aren't any actual textures. This does give the game a very polished and clean look, and in a futuristic parallel universe in which nearly everything is smooth metal or lush vegetation, this probably isn't such a bad thing anyway.
There are some lovely effects and particles on display: one boss battle with a teleporting ship has a really trippy warping effect that dilates and squirls most of the screen in a 'whoa, duuude!'-inducing fashion. The Rift-Inducer has a similar parlour trick: it's a weapon that makes weeny black holes that suck up enemies, and the enemies are even spaghettified as they're vaccuumed up towards their doom.
The explosions and rays are very pretty indeed also, and the way they look befits well their awesome destructive power. The Nitro Eruptor - a grenade-lobbing behemoth that's like a souped-up version of the previous title's Gravity Bomb/Mini Nuke - has a huge blast radius that ripple-distorts the screen (rather like the effect you get when you quickly slide a transparent piece of plastic such as a ruler down a printed page of text) and sends out thunderbolts, and would probably level a house in one if it was used in real life. The Flux Rifle is initially easily dismissed as a clone of the previous game's Pulse Rifle/Vapouriser, but these disappointments are quickly put aside as it upgrades into an absolutely vast laser that punches through multiple enemies and is an over-the-top mix of green and purple. The later evolutions of the handy portable shield are very pretty also. Cracking stuff. Some of the smaller explosions, however, look a bit woolly and fluffy and not pyrotechnic enough.
There are some great set-pieces to be had in this game: the spherical worlds from the previous game make a return. These look very cool, and are not just a gimmick; because they let the developers create a limitless world with a finite area. The two spherical worlds visited have some insane ziplines, and even more high-jumping than in game #2. This is coupled with the task of redirecting a laser beam to specific targets, which (and in other stages in the game) you can also fry enemies with if you're so inclined.
Another great point in the game is the journey through a trippy series of tunnels in order to meet the robot popstar Courtney Gears (see what they did there?) and grill her for information. The tunnels, as well as looking completely head****y, require the use of gravity boots: handy things which let their user walk up walls and along ceilings. Whizzo fun. The Gravity Boots also really come into their element when Ratchet explores the sewers, battling snot-monsters and looking for crystals made of poo. Really. The first time you enter the sewers, you're restricted to the lower, mapped, tunnels. But come back with the Boots and you can go all over the place, and get thoroughly paranoid as you wander around the tunnels not marked on the map.
So, still much innovation to be had, and what platform staples there are have been done very well indeed. Fartarsing around with the Swingshot (or Hypershot as it's now called) never gets old, nor does flinging yourself off a very high place and then gliding down to safety. And there are a few really neato ideas, such as the improved Quick Select menu, the quick maxing out of all your ammo at the vendors instead of having to access each weapon separately and max out its ammo, and the ability to put camera modes in your Qucik Select as well as weapons and gadgets so that you can quickly switch between first and third-person modes.
But, as fun as blowing **** up is, and as much of a god you'll feel when it all goes so right, it's not wheefun all the way through. Sometimes it can all feel a little repetitive; something which was absent in the first two titles. At times I got a bit sick of doing minor variations of what was basically the same cunting storm-the-fortress mission just so I could get to the next world. The eight deathcourse challenges in the gladiator arena are all exactly the smegging same except for the arrangement of a few flaming floor tiles. Yes, all eight of them. Probably took five minutes to think them all up. Good thing they're actually quite fun, then, otherwise I'd be even more annoyed. And it's obvious that this game doesn't take itself seriously (one of the characters is called Skid McMarx), but a villain called Dr. Nefarious? What the funge? Did you even ****ing try?
And a few features seem shoved in for the sake of it. The Tyrhhaguise (a gadget that disguises you as an alien so that you can persuade other Tyrhhanoids to open doors for you by pressing buttons in a fashion that I am probably obliged to liken to Parappa the Rapper) and the Warp Pad (a fairly self-explanatory gadget that allows you to navigate airlock-door-type obstacles by setting it up, pressing a switch to send it away, then teleporting yourself to where you left the now-moved Pad) are nice ideas and rather fun too, but you hardly ever get to use them. And that can make you wonder why they bothered to put them in except as padding, when they could have been so much more.
There are also few new weapon ideas: most of the weapons are clones of ones in the previous two titles, even ignoring the fact that some of them are the actual ones from game #2, unlockable by using a save file from the second title. The Nitro Eruptor, although prettier and more powerful, is the Gravity Bomb in all but name, and the Flux Rifle is the Pulse Rifle, so why lie about it? Why change the name? And although very pretty and with a nice targetting system, the Spitting Hydra is an inferior version of game #2's Plasma Storm, made all the more pointless by the fact that you can unlock the actual Plasma Storm (woo yay! one of my favourites) later on. The now-obligatory ray gun that turns enemies into cute animals (first chooks, then sheep, and now ducks) is getting a bit tired also. I'll forgive them that last one, though, because later evolutions of the weapon turn the enemies into flaming ducks that lay explosive eggs, and still later on fly by your side and dive-bomb untransformed enemies, which is genuinely funny in play.
What is new is pretty damn cool, though. The Plasma Whip would beat the funge out of Soul Calibur Ivy's steel one, and even more so when it becomes the very sexy Quantum Whip. And the Holoshield Generator is damn handy: creating walls that block enemy fire so you can sit back and pick them off with the Flux Rifle and its amazing zoom sight at your leisure. Sniping without the boring hiding.
The game feels a little spoiled by the fact that it seems so short. It could be just that my skills have got madder since playing the last game, and I'm more into the mindset of the series now (you can't always just go in all guns blazing, and you have to be sure to pick the right weapon for the right job). I'm not sure whether it's just my imagination that there are fewer worlds; I haven't been arsed to count them yet. There also seems to be much less incentive for going back to a lot of worlds. Exploring the sewers getting all 100 poo crystals or pwning all the challenges in Annihilation Nation will keep you busy for a while, but there seem to be far fewer places that have areas that can only be accessed with a gadget you pick up later on. And I've encountered far fewer secret areas, but it's debatable whether that's because they're fewer, or just better hidden.
The way the HUD is presented seems a lot flimsier and much less compact, too. It feels more like an unfinished demo than what you'd expect in a completed game. Not only is it a fugly shade of orangy-brown, but it's rather dull, and has a too-big font and too-similar and unmemorable weapon icons (often leading me to mindless and confused scrolling as I looked for the particular boom-stick I wanted). Compare it to the sleek blue WipEouty menus of the previous game, and it makes you really wonder why. I think it's a mistake also that the missions are all displayed in one big list a la Jak II, instead of organised by planet as in the first two Ratchet titles. And they still haven't sorted out the stupidity of having to go to your ship and look at the display there in order to see how many Titanium bolts (uber-currency for rare stuff, like the Gold or Platinum bolts of the past games) you have in a particular world. Would it really have been that hard to let me see that from the planet's map screen?
This is supposed to be the last game in its series (unless it gets taken up by another developer as with Spyro and Crash), but it really doesn't feel like it. The story is too woolly and some bits are not explained fully, and the final cutscene was pretty pants. I was not unsatisfied by the ending, though, thanks to the fantastic boss battle, which is challenging to the point of feeling worthy of my abilities, but not frustrating. It was damn fun and I felt much triumph upon beating it. It was like beating Drek again, instead of the disappointingly easy and repetitive Uber-Protopet of game #2 (that one left me expecting another one to come along). For a final game, it really should've gone out with more of a bang than that.
So, depending on your attitude, it's either a woo game with a few meh moments or a meh game with some woo moments. It's not the king of character action, but it's up there with a fat estate and gilded bog-roll holders. It's definitely worth a look, and if you don't normally like the character action genre, this may make you realise that they're not all bad. Go on, buy it. And be prepared to want the prequels too if you don't already have them.
Graphics: 7/10
Bright to the point of psychedelic, and smooth and sharp. Brought down by little to no lighting/shadow effects and nasty orange-brown menus.
Sound: 5/10
Quirky but not particularly imaginative music, standard whoosh, whirr and bang sounds. The voice acting isn't bad (unlike the slightly-embarrassingly goofy voices in Insomniac's older series, Spyro), but no extra points for doing what should be expected anyway.
Gameplay: 8/10
Blow **** up! Better difficulty curve than previous incarnations. A few features feel unnecessary.
Story: 3/10
Asshat. Still, better than Devil May Cry 2. And it gives you a chance to use the phrase 'dramatic irony' when describing (what little there is of) the story to someone.
Lifespan: 7/10
Feels shorter than the first two, earning it a 6; but Challenge Mode, trying to max out all the weapons (which get uber bastard-cool at level 5) and get all the skill points give it an extra point, plenty of reason not to return it to the shop.
If online, the game has a potentially infinite lifespan, in which case add a point or two to this score.
Overall score (not an average): 7/10
Get over the fact that the main character looks like the unholy lovechild of Disney's Timon and Garfield, on steroids. If you like blowing stuff up, buy it. If you like varied platformer action with arcade silliness, buy it. A very worthy title indeed that will leave your brain's gaming centre exhausted but strangely satisfied. And I say "your dad blows goats" to those who allege otherwise.
Your dad blows goats!
Ratchet & Clank 3: stuffgobang = fun.
The proper review, for people with an attention span:
This review is of single-player mode only.
Ratchet & Clank 3 (tentatively initially subtitled "Up Your Arsenal" but unfortunately/thankfully truncated to its core moniker) is in many ways the worst of the series. Which just goes to show what a fantastic series this has been, as this game is absolutely bastard woo.
However, it could also be said that this is the best game of the series. Well, you've pretty much covered your options there, Ms. Groincrusher. But I'll elaborate, if I haven't frightened and confused you by violating the reviewers' rule of not referring to oneself personally, especially in pronoun form. Hot piss, I'm such a rebel. Che Guevara doesn't have **** on me.
Graphically, very little has changed. This is usually taken as a criticism when discussing videogames, but in truth there is little if at all to improve upon using the graphics engine that the Ratchet series uses. Yes, it's nowhere near photorealistic, but it doesn't even try to be. It's very bright: even the darker levels (and I mean actually darker, not in the gritty urban sense that has suddenly become clichédly fashionable) seem cheerful, and are just as brightly-lit as the grassy levels bathed in sunlight. It isn't, however, patronisingly candy-coloured or simplistic. Everything is wrapped in a smooth, often-sheeny, skin: there aren't any actual textures. This does give the game a very polished and clean look, and in a futuristic parallel universe in which nearly everything is smooth metal or lush vegetation, this probably isn't such a bad thing anyway.
There are some lovely effects and particles on display: one boss battle with a teleporting ship has a really trippy warping effect that dilates and squirls most of the screen in a 'whoa, duuude!'-inducing fashion. The Rift-Inducer has a similar parlour trick: it's a weapon that makes weeny black holes that suck up enemies, and the enemies are even spaghettified as they're vaccuumed up towards their doom.
The explosions and rays are very pretty indeed also, and the way they look befits well their awesome destructive power. The Nitro Eruptor - a grenade-lobbing behemoth that's like a souped-up version of the previous title's Gravity Bomb/Mini Nuke - has a huge blast radius that ripple-distorts the screen (rather like the effect you get when you quickly slide a transparent piece of plastic such as a ruler down a printed page of text) and sends out thunderbolts, and would probably level a house in one if it was used in real life. The Flux Rifle is initially easily dismissed as a clone of the previous game's Pulse Rifle/Vapouriser, but these disappointments are quickly put aside as it upgrades into an absolutely vast laser that punches through multiple enemies and is an over-the-top mix of green and purple. The later evolutions of the handy portable shield are very pretty also. Cracking stuff. Some of the smaller explosions, however, look a bit woolly and fluffy and not pyrotechnic enough.
There are some great set-pieces to be had in this game: the spherical worlds from the previous game make a return. These look very cool, and are not just a gimmick; because they let the developers create a limitless world with a finite area. The two spherical worlds visited have some insane ziplines, and even more high-jumping than in game #2. This is coupled with the task of redirecting a laser beam to specific targets, which (and in other stages in the game) you can also fry enemies with if you're so inclined.
Another great point in the game is the journey through a trippy series of tunnels in order to meet the robot popstar Courtney Gears (see what they did there?) and grill her for information. The tunnels, as well as looking completely head****y, require the use of gravity boots: handy things which let their user walk up walls and along ceilings. Whizzo fun. The Gravity Boots also really come into their element when Ratchet explores the sewers, battling snot-monsters and looking for crystals made of poo. Really. The first time you enter the sewers, you're restricted to the lower, mapped, tunnels. But come back with the Boots and you can go all over the place, and get thoroughly paranoid as you wander around the tunnels not marked on the map.
So, still much innovation to be had, and what platform staples there are have been done very well indeed. Fartarsing around with the Swingshot (or Hypershot as it's now called) never gets old, nor does flinging yourself off a very high place and then gliding down to safety. And there are a few really neato ideas, such as the improved Quick Select menu, the quick maxing out of all your ammo at the vendors instead of having to access each weapon separately and max out its ammo, and the ability to put camera modes in your Qucik Select as well as weapons and gadgets so that you can quickly switch between first and third-person modes.
But, as fun as blowing **** up is, and as much of a god you'll feel when it all goes so right, it's not wheefun all the way through. Sometimes it can all feel a little repetitive; something which was absent in the first two titles. At times I got a bit sick of doing minor variations of what was basically the same cunting storm-the-fortress mission just so I could get to the next world. The eight deathcourse challenges in the gladiator arena are all exactly the smegging same except for the arrangement of a few flaming floor tiles. Yes, all eight of them. Probably took five minutes to think them all up. Good thing they're actually quite fun, then, otherwise I'd be even more annoyed. And it's obvious that this game doesn't take itself seriously (one of the characters is called Skid McMarx), but a villain called Dr. Nefarious? What the funge? Did you even ****ing try?
And a few features seem shoved in for the sake of it. The Tyrhhaguise (a gadget that disguises you as an alien so that you can persuade other Tyrhhanoids to open doors for you by pressing buttons in a fashion that I am probably obliged to liken to Parappa the Rapper) and the Warp Pad (a fairly self-explanatory gadget that allows you to navigate airlock-door-type obstacles by setting it up, pressing a switch to send it away, then teleporting yourself to where you left the now-moved Pad) are nice ideas and rather fun too, but you hardly ever get to use them. And that can make you wonder why they bothered to put them in except as padding, when they could have been so much more.
There are also few new weapon ideas: most of the weapons are clones of ones in the previous two titles, even ignoring the fact that some of them are the actual ones from game #2, unlockable by using a save file from the second title. The Nitro Eruptor, although prettier and more powerful, is the Gravity Bomb in all but name, and the Flux Rifle is the Pulse Rifle, so why lie about it? Why change the name? And although very pretty and with a nice targetting system, the Spitting Hydra is an inferior version of game #2's Plasma Storm, made all the more pointless by the fact that you can unlock the actual Plasma Storm (woo yay! one of my favourites) later on. The now-obligatory ray gun that turns enemies into cute animals (first chooks, then sheep, and now ducks) is getting a bit tired also. I'll forgive them that last one, though, because later evolutions of the weapon turn the enemies into flaming ducks that lay explosive eggs, and still later on fly by your side and dive-bomb untransformed enemies, which is genuinely funny in play.
What is new is pretty damn cool, though. The Plasma Whip would beat the funge out of Soul Calibur Ivy's steel one, and even more so when it becomes the very sexy Quantum Whip. And the Holoshield Generator is damn handy: creating walls that block enemy fire so you can sit back and pick them off with the Flux Rifle and its amazing zoom sight at your leisure. Sniping without the boring hiding.
The game feels a little spoiled by the fact that it seems so short. It could be just that my skills have got madder since playing the last game, and I'm more into the mindset of the series now (you can't always just go in all guns blazing, and you have to be sure to pick the right weapon for the right job). I'm not sure whether it's just my imagination that there are fewer worlds; I haven't been arsed to count them yet. There also seems to be much less incentive for going back to a lot of worlds. Exploring the sewers getting all 100 poo crystals or pwning all the challenges in Annihilation Nation will keep you busy for a while, but there seem to be far fewer places that have areas that can only be accessed with a gadget you pick up later on. And I've encountered far fewer secret areas, but it's debatable whether that's because they're fewer, or just better hidden.
The way the HUD is presented seems a lot flimsier and much less compact, too. It feels more like an unfinished demo than what you'd expect in a completed game. Not only is it a fugly shade of orangy-brown, but it's rather dull, and has a too-big font and too-similar and unmemorable weapon icons (often leading me to mindless and confused scrolling as I looked for the particular boom-stick I wanted). Compare it to the sleek blue WipEouty menus of the previous game, and it makes you really wonder why. I think it's a mistake also that the missions are all displayed in one big list a la Jak II, instead of organised by planet as in the first two Ratchet titles. And they still haven't sorted out the stupidity of having to go to your ship and look at the display there in order to see how many Titanium bolts (uber-currency for rare stuff, like the Gold or Platinum bolts of the past games) you have in a particular world. Would it really have been that hard to let me see that from the planet's map screen?
This is supposed to be the last game in its series (unless it gets taken up by another developer as with Spyro and Crash), but it really doesn't feel like it. The story is too woolly and some bits are not explained fully, and the final cutscene was pretty pants. I was not unsatisfied by the ending, though, thanks to the fantastic boss battle, which is challenging to the point of feeling worthy of my abilities, but not frustrating. It was damn fun and I felt much triumph upon beating it. It was like beating Drek again, instead of the disappointingly easy and repetitive Uber-Protopet of game #2 (that one left me expecting another one to come along). For a final game, it really should've gone out with more of a bang than that.
So, depending on your attitude, it's either a woo game with a few meh moments or a meh game with some woo moments. It's not the king of character action, but it's up there with a fat estate and gilded bog-roll holders. It's definitely worth a look, and if you don't normally like the character action genre, this may make you realise that they're not all bad. Go on, buy it. And be prepared to want the prequels too if you don't already have them.
Graphics: 7/10
Bright to the point of psychedelic, and smooth and sharp. Brought down by little to no lighting/shadow effects and nasty orange-brown menus.
Sound: 5/10
Quirky but not particularly imaginative music, standard whoosh, whirr and bang sounds. The voice acting isn't bad (unlike the slightly-embarrassingly goofy voices in Insomniac's older series, Spyro), but no extra points for doing what should be expected anyway.
Gameplay: 8/10
Blow **** up! Better difficulty curve than previous incarnations. A few features feel unnecessary.
Story: 3/10
Asshat. Still, better than Devil May Cry 2. And it gives you a chance to use the phrase 'dramatic irony' when describing (what little there is of) the story to someone.
Lifespan: 7/10
Feels shorter than the first two, earning it a 6; but Challenge Mode, trying to max out all the weapons (which get uber bastard-cool at level 5) and get all the skill points give it an extra point, plenty of reason not to return it to the shop.
If online, the game has a potentially infinite lifespan, in which case add a point or two to this score.
Overall score (not an average): 7/10
Get over the fact that the main character looks like the unholy lovechild of Disney's Timon and Garfield, on steroids. If you like blowing stuff up, buy it. If you like varied platformer action with arcade silliness, buy it. A very worthy title indeed that will leave your brain's gaming centre exhausted but strangely satisfied. And I say "your dad blows goats" to those who allege otherwise.
Your dad blows goats!