Review: Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time

[Snotnarok]

More of the same is not ALWAYS a bad thing, I've been on a Ratchet and Clank fix recently and I somehow missed this game came out and I ran out and bought it. It's gonna be fun but I can already tell the second game in the series "Going Commando" will always be the best for what it brought to the table, space fights, hoverbike races, bikers with low self esteem, the sheepinator.

Anyway *throws a Groovitron* everybody disco!

 

[Kollega]

With all due respect sir, I disagree. Leave the game-bashing to ZP - This game (and series) is a god in disguise.

Listen to this man,for he is speaking the truth.

Anyway *throws a Groovitron* everybody disco!

I command you to DANCE! All of you!

 

[Phantomess]

Yeah, see I'm a die-hard R & C girl. They were the games that made me want to get into making games (and subsequently get my degree in making them). I love the stories and the weaponry... oh I do LIKE the weaponry!

Personal fave has to go to Deadlocked (or Gladiator as it was released over here). I really liked the arena combat and the Supernova was pretty awesome. As for variations on the RYNO, I like the Rynocerator - I quite like the fact that I can turn everything into dust with a reasonably rapid firing rate.

I think this game was pretty good, given that it's an internal storyline. I suppose that you have to think of it that way, rather than a franchise-long story arc. After all, the first five games were stand-alones and were quite brilliant by just playing off certain things that happened, rather than building on them... I don't think I'm explaining it rather well, but I know what I mean - each game acknowledged the previous ones but didn't continue the previous one's plot.

Either way, I still love those games and would continue buying them if any more were made.

 

[TinyMAG]

This game was everything we love about R&C (from a hardcore fan boy's perspective) but the writers wrote a crappy story, and Insomniac added in a bunch of new gimmicks that only serve to spoil the sweet taste of nostalgia. The story ruined the acting and would somebody PLEASE JUST KILL QWARK ALREADY!!! (yes he IS supposed to be annoying but seriously people, come on, the joke DIED YEARS AGO! This game is meant only for kids. Anyone over the mental age of twelve will find the humor lacking and will catch themselves playing only to reach the end and find out what happens before taking the game back to GameStop and selling it. Little replay value at all, the R.Y.N.O. V was the worst incarnation yet and the writing was just plain sad....Insomniac I'm sorry to say - but you've lost *it*.

I don't know guys...maybe we didn't play the same game. R&C was the best game I had ever played on PS2 until Going Commando came out. Same for Going Commando until Up Your Arsenal came out. But after Deadlock I got the distinct feeling that Insomniac suddenly hit ROCK bottom. They couldn't think of anything new to do so they messed with the CORE of the game-play and created something that plays, but not as well. This is of course my opinion only, but they did SO much wrong in this game that everything that made the original three great is washed out. For starters, the game was too easy! Introducing difficulty levels felt like a cop-out catering to the very young. The "jokes" and humor of the story were so gimmicky and poorly executed that even the phenomenal voice acting of Ratchet and Clank was lost in the soupy and sticky bile that was the story line and the weapons selection was easily the absolute worst yet. I played the whole game start to finish using only the starting guns and the Judiciator, went back through and after 3 restarts had all the weapons fully upgraded and found them all extremely boring to use...unlike R&C 1 where jumping to the weapons screen would mean minutes of indecisive glee as I had to choose: Devastator? Visibomb? How about the trusty Blaster NO! NO! the Whaloper! NO I GOT IT! YES PERFECT RIGHT as I ran around turning all living beings on the planet into Chickens...I could go on and on but then no one will read this and no one will gain the benefit of my warning: (See line 1)

 

[TheDoctor455]

Uh... Jordan, you do know that the Ratchet and Clank was using spherical planet-levels LONG before Mario Galaxy even came out, right?

 

[mjc0961]

I find your logic a little backwards. If you've never played a Ratchet & Clank game, it will feel like more of the same? Does that make sense? or is it me?

No, it's not just you. As soon as I read this part, "But if A Crack in Time is your first exposure to a Ratchet & Clank game, you may not be as appreciative of Insomniac Games' reluctance to stray too far from the formula they cooked up in 2002.", I asked myself how the hell that made any sense. If you've never played Ratchet and Clank before, you'll be annoyed that it's just like every other Ratchet and Clank... Even though you've never played them?! Terrible way to start off a review.

Uh... Jordan, you do know that the Ratchet and Clank was using spherical planet-levels LONG before Mario Galaxy even came out, right?

Exactly. Ratchet and Clank did moon levels (the spherical worlds) long before Super Mario Galaxy was even in development at Nintendo, and it does them better. No fighting with the controls every time you get to the "equator" of the area when you're playing Ratchet like you have to when you're playing Galaxy.

And that's pretty much the nail in this review's coffin. Claiming that the game borrows from Super Mario Galaxy cements that the reviewer hasn't actually played older Ratchet and Clank games (at least not Going Commando), and yet claims that the series is stale and should be avoided: even if you've never played before?! I agree with fogmike: Leave the bashing to Zero Punctuation, at least Yahtzee knows how to get the job done right. This particular "review" is pathetic.