Ratchet and Clanks 2016 reboot is something I had been looking forward to rather intensely once it was announced due to being a long time fan of the series ever since I first played the original way back in 2002 and I've been eagerly waiting for the next true big Ratchet game to come along for some time now as most of the releases since the last truly great game; A Crack in Time, have been kind of small and forgettable.
While this new version of one of my most beloved classics certainly gets by on simply being incredibly fun and having absolutely astoundingly gorgeous visuals with the series' trademark colorful stylistic aesthetics looking better than ever it is rather disappointing that outside of the raw presentation and better than ever gameplay the game feels quite watered down and "safe" in regards to its attitude and especially its sense of humor and overall writing.
Where the original trilogy had everything from subtle and clever masturbation and dick jokes to a character literally yelling fuck (though of course it was bleeped) to bad guys proudly boasting about committing mass genocide the remake seems like it was filtered through some kind of excessively family-friendly marketing machine and so a lot of its sass and wit and cleverness was lost along the way. If this is where the writing of the RnC games has headed and will stay indefinitely, I'm deeply saddened.
Not to mention the tie in with the recent film adaptation has clearly had a massively negative impact on it as well between all the shoe-horned in one note bland side characters and sub plots that seem to just abruptly end at times as well as the cringe-worthy awful jokes that are so bad so often I could even see a five year old frowning in disappointment frequently.
To really get specific, the game begins with Captain Qwark being imprisoned and he then begins retelling Ratchets origin story to a fellow inmate and every now and then when the game cuts back to this scene a character called Solitary Bill quips in with a poor attempt at cynical wit to mock Quarks story telling but not only are his lines really terribly unfunny the fact the writers felt the need to call a guy who is very very obviously in solitary confinement; "Solitary Bill" rather than just "Bill" pretty much sums up how little they think of their audience and how stupid they think the average kid is.
As someone who grew up watching some of the best animated shows and films ever created during the big 90s boom of amazing animated entertainment it is depressing to see kids today be given such sub par treatment with this level of very low quality writing. To say whoever lead the writing team of the remake (and likely the film as well) are talentless hack frauds, who certainly don't deserve to be writing anything at a "professional" level would be a gross understatement.
Thankfully as I mentioned already the game is tremendously fun if not addictive to play. After many years and many iterations you would hope that the series really figured out how to perfectly nail its core systems and that certainly is the case here. Whether you're using the Sheepinator to turn enemies in to literal sheep, the Groovatron to stun groups and force them to perform unique dances (which even works on tanks) while they are being shot or simply whipping out one of your numerous high powered and incredibly satisfying explosive rocket firing weapons their is a very nice variety of ways to blitz your way through the varied roster of creatures, robots and aliens trying to take you down as is a long time staple of the games.
The platforming itself is still relatively simple but nicely breaks up the pacing between fire fights and while I still sometimes find myself messing up my swingshot jumps I'm certainly glad to see that particular gadget still be a part of Ratchets traversal through the wonderfully realized and super creative worlds he travels to. The improved jet pack also makes for one level in particular being especially fun to float around in while new shooting segments where you control Ratchets ship add some basic but enjoyable breaks between the core gameplay which is as polished as its ever been.
Not content with simply remaking each world originally featured in the first game, Insomniac also went quite a bit further and expanded many of them in scope while dramatically altering others for the better as well as including entirely new places to visit. And while the game can arguably still be completed in a little under 7 to 8 hours it remains very consistently enjoyable and highly replayable especially with the leveling systems created for the sequels now being brought in to the remake to add some nice incentive to vary up your choice of weapon and go hunting for more bolts, raritanium and cards to unlock further weapon upgrades.
If you loved the older games you'll likely be disappointed in the writing but whether or not you've played any Ratchet before you'll certainly find tonnes of fun to be had with this one as it is certainly one of the most fun and very highly polished action platformers we've had in recent years.