Ratchet & Clank Proves That Old School Charm Can Win Over Modern Sensibilities
Since the series’s debut in 2002, the Ratchet & Clank franchise has spawned countless sequels and spin-offs. With so many games, an imposing amount of canon has been established that has made it tough for series neophytes to jump in. Luckily for the newbies, Insomniac has made Ratchet & Clank, a re-imagining of the original game which makes for an excellent entry point into the franchise. The new game successfully updates the original for modern tastes while still maintaining the throwback style that made the series so beloved.
Ratchet & Clank’s setting clearly calls upon a Pixar/Dreamworks sensibility, stocking a sci-fi universe with cuddly and not-so-cuddly anthropomorphic animals alongside humans. Ratchet, a member of the fictional Lombax species, is a mechanic living on a backwater planet who dreams to one day join the Galactic Rangers, a sort of galactic police. One day an escaped war-bot crash lands on Ratchet’s planet bearing news that his creators intend on unleashing a robot army to take over the galaxy. Ratchet names the diminutive automaton “Clank”, and the duo proceed to foil the antagonist’s plan while joining the Galactic Rangers along the way.
The game’s writing is generally well-written and often legitimately funny. After playing Insomniac’s other big recent release, Sunset Overdrive, I was a bit weary of yet another game helmed by the developer’s writing team. But while Sunset Overdrive grated with its early 2000s mall-punk aesthetic and too-cool-for-this attitude, Ratchet & Clank’s jokes work because it commits to the goofiness. This silly and irreverent tone helps give life to an otherwise standard plot about the world/galaxy/universe in peril.
As a Ratchet & Clank neophyte, I found its unique fusion of platforming and third-person combat to be exhilarating. The sheer amount of weapons the game gives the player is incredible, but even more impressive is how well thought out each armament is in its design. The Groovitron, a weapon that fires a disco ball that gets all nearby enemies dancing, is a great example of the thought that went into Ratchet’s weapons. Each enemy type in the game all bust out their unique dance moves whenever the Groovitron is used and the results are sometimes incredible. Sure, seeing the humanoid enemies going all Disco Inferno is great, but getting a tank or a towering boss to boogie is something else. Add to that the Pixelizer, a gun that turns enemies into 8-bit versions of themselves, or the obviously-named Sheepinator, and I don’t think any other game can top Ratchet & Clank’s arsenal.
The wide variety of weapons certainly comes in handy, as the game offers a stiff challenge even on the standard difficulty. For the most part it feels fair, although there are times where the difficulty spikes considerably, leading to many repeated tries before I finally got through. Thanks to solid checkpointing this never felt too annoying, save for the endgame. The last few levels seemed to emphasize the worst aspects of Playstation 2 era game design. With sections that included forced stealth sequences, bosses that require rote pattern memorization, and bullet hell sections down narrow corridors, I found myself trudging through the last little bit just to say I completed the game.
The sequences where Clank has to fend for himself are another low point. These parts have Clank solving puzzles by repurposing smaller robots to do his bidding. Unfortunately, this involves picking up each robot, selecting what you want it to do in a radial menu, and throwing them to the correct location. Repeat this a few dozen times when trying to figure out a puzzle and it just gets tedious. Thankfully there are only a few of these relatively brief sequences throughout the game’s duration, but when they appear they can be momentum killers.
Outside of these gripes, Ratchet & Clank offers a great variety of environments and activities to experience. The game is sectioned off into separate planets, accessible through the navigation menu in our protagonists’ space ship. Each planet takes on a different aesthetic, from the desert planet of Veldin to the aquatic biome of Pokitaru, and is supported by an incredible graphics engine. While Uncharted 4 set a new standard for realistic visuals, Ratchet & Clank does the same for stylized aesthetics. I cannot say enough about how good this game looks. There are details like the ability to see individual strands of Ratchet’s fur and there are big things like seeing thousands of particles on screen without any noticeable slowdown in framerate. All of it comes together to create one impressive looking package.
Looking past visual prowess, the environments themselves are well designed, with care given to make travelling on linear paths feel dynamic and open. The levels frequently wrap around themselves, making originally arduous pathways come full circle to reveal new directions to progress, shortcuts to access, and secrets to find. A few levels even include the option for hoverboard racing, which as far as minigames go is pretty fun. I ended up doing a lot of the side challenges and collecting every gold bolt simply to explore these wonderfully conceived domains.
Ratchet & Clank is an outstanding entry point into the series for newcomers. By going back and reimagining the first game in the franchise, Insomniac has successfully updated the formula for modern sensibilities. Having never played a Ratchet & Clank game prior to this, I can’t say how much the game succeeds because of the original’s blueprint versus what was added, but the resulting product is nonetheless excellent. I absolutely recommend it to Playstation 4 owners.
