Already beat it and loved it, but I'm a Ratchet and Clank fanboy. While not the best R&C game ever, both Going Commando and Up Your Arsenal are, it's still a really great game. It is the best looking R&C game, though. The comparison to Pixar is not unwarranted, but it's been said since Crack in Time. This is a step up from that. Some of the cutscenes are pulled directly from the upcoming movie and while there is a slight difference between them and the in-game visuals, they both look spectacular!
Many of the planets are almost perfect recreations of the original, right down to the placements of hidden items like gold bolts. Even the race tracks are the same. The flooding sewer section was made easier but still scares my inner child. Some planets were removed and melded into others to create larger levels, but made the game feel a little smaller.
Gameplay is some of the best of the series, but combat can get a bit difficult. The game is generous with checkpoints so death is no inconvenience. There are 15 weapons in total, counting the Bouncer preorder bonus. Weapon selection is a few from the original game with most returning from PS3 era, like Tools of Destruction. Only two weapons are new, the Proto Drum and the Pixelizer, and the RYNO is the RYNO IV from Tools, which is kind of disappointing. Though I would have been satisfied if all they used was weapons from the game that this is a remake of.
A few of the Trespasser and Clank puzzles were real brain teasers but not overly taxing. I wasn't expecting them to be as hard as they were, actually. The Trespasser parts can be auto-completed so little kids won't find themselves too frustrated if all they want is to shoot hordes of aliens.
The story is a modified retelling of the first game, but the addition of Dr. Nefarious really worked to the detriment of Chairman Drek as a villain. He was great in the original, but here he's kind of silly and the choice of voice actor doesn't help. That may actually be the point, though. The story is told by Quark in the form of a flashback, so it's possible he fudged a lot of the details and straight up lied about the whole the thing. He even added a "heroic redemption" for himself.
The tone leans on the kid-friendly side. There is one scene that hints at some existential/body horror involving a certain weapon. I'm surprised none of the previous games had this scene and I wish it went on a little longer.
Darla Gratch also looks exactly like Juanita from Deadlocked. Not sure why I mention that, just... I noticed it and it bothers me to hell.
Like the last the few R&C games, this one is on the short side. Took me between 9 or 10 hours to beat the regular mode and get all the hidden collectibles; your mileage may vary. Anticipate it to be at most another 7 to beat challenge mode, max out all weapons, and get every trophy. Have all the trophies for every R&C game so far, so I need this for completion's sake.
If you love Ratchet and Clank or just like action platformers in general, at $40 there's little reason not to pick this one up.
