Juego From the Past: Ratchet and Clank Tools of Destruction

Platform: Playstation 3
Genres: Action, Shooter
Developer: Insomniac Games

-Overview: “Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction” is the first Ratchet and Clank game on the Playstation 3. Although this title is the first in its “Future” series it is the fifth game in the overall “Ratchet and Clank” franchise. In “Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction” you play as Ratchet, a lombax, and his friend Clank, a robot. The goal is to defend the galaxy from a large robot army led by the evil Emperor Tachyon who intends to kill Ratchet, the last lombax in the galaxy. Outnumbered, Ratchet and Clank set out on a mission to save the galaxy…again.

-Controls: With all the different game mechanics, weapons, and gadgets it would have been easy for this game to get carried away with crazy button combos, but it doesn’t. Quickly switching from one weapon to another is easily done by holding the triangle button and moving one analog stick around a circle of various weapons. Movement is also easily mapped out. Two analog sticks, one for the camera and one for moving your character are used. The X button is used for jumping which could be coupled with the right side bumper button for longer or higher jumps. The only areas where the controls feel out of place are the motion censored controls. Sky diving, Flying, and a lock-picking mini-game require you to tilt the controller to move around. While sky diving Ratchet can only move side to side on a 2d plane, this made it a little easier to control. But when flying around in a 3d environment however, I often found myself over turning and hitting walls. The controls also don’t feel right outside of the game, playing while leaning back or sitting crouched over isn’t possible because the controller always has to be level and so I was forced to play the game sitting straight up. It is understandable that since Tools of Destruction was one of the first major titles on the PS3 it set out to show off many of the systems new capabilities such as motion control. However it felt pushed onto the player instead of being seamlessly tied in.

- Combat: Ratchet and Clank’s selling point has always been its wide variety of weapons and gadgets. In Tools of Destruction, Ratchet returns with even more firepower than before. With 23 usable weapons and gadgets Tools of Destruction offers the biggest arsenal yet. One problem with all these weapons however is that there’s really no need for a lot them. My first play through Tools of Destruction I only used 4 main weapons and there was really no need to buy more. Although the option to have more weapons is nice, but not needing to use all the weapons makes a lot of them feel wasted. The second major problem with the weapons was that some were very overpowered compared to others, this lead to me only using those weapons. The Lightning Ravager and the Alpha Cannon were the two most overpowered weapons during the first play through. The Lightning Ravager was an electrical whip which had an enormous range and would kill most enemies in two hits. Toning down the weapons capacity would have helped its overpowering feel. While the Alpha Cannon only held 5 chargers it dealt enough damage to take away more than half the final boss’s health in only those 5 charges. Toning down the power or capacity of either of these weapons would have helped guide the player to use many of the other weapons available.

- Graphics: Graphically Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction does an outstanding job. The character animations are all very smooth and even during points of game play where there are 15 or more enemies on the screen the frame rate rarely drops bellow 60fps. When switching from game play to cut-scenes it was always seamless, which helped greatly with the games immersion. Tools of Destructions graphics don’t only make the game look great but they helped the game play as well. There were many times when I would see enemies far into the distance and I was able to plan out more effective strategies in order to take them down before they started to actually attack me.

- Art: The art direction was fantastically done in Tools of Destruction. Working together great with the amazing graphics, the vibrant colors and adorable characters give the Ratchet and Clank universe a feel no other title can match. Each character no matter how big or evil has some cartoony aspect to them. The backgrounds to each planet all have a very distinct feel, and even though each is so different from the next, the overall art style stays the same keeping the player in one overall universe/galaxy. The art of this title really grasped me, and it allowed me to get sucked into this world feeling as though I was actually there.

- Artificial Intelligence(AI): The AI was where this game struggled the most. This games overall difficulty was too easy and a lot of it comes from the AI. During the first levels I accepted the lack of difficulty, but after being 5 hours in the difficulty hadn’t risen and it started to severely hurt the overall fun of the game. I was getting new upgrades for my weapons to make them stronger and faster but the enemies wouldn’t scale with me. It was only during the last 2 levels where I felt a small rise in difficulty, but by then it was already too late, I had fully upgraded all my favorite weapons and each enemy still posed no threat to me in anyway.

-User Interface(UI): Having so many different items to choose from, so many enemies on the screen, and bolts flying all over the place the UI still kept everything extremely manageable. When holding down the button to select all a weapon the game would pause allowing the player to calmly pick a new weapon out of a circle that popped up in the middle of the screen. Ratchets health was displayed in the center top of the screen with a big blue bar that easily indicated his health. Bolts, the game’s currency, were tracked in the top right hand corner and weapons with ammo in the top left. Having all of the players most valuable information on the top of the screen allowed me to easily keep track of everything without having to frantically look at all sides of the screen. Not using the other 3 sides also allowed for me to see more of the beautiful environment.

- Level Design: The Ratchet and Clank series has always had great level design and Tools of Destruction is no exception. With many different devices to use, Tools of Destruction utilizes them all and is careful not overuse any single device. In the starting level the players is quickly thrown onto a grinding rail where they must dodge mines and jump over gaps. Later on metal paths are introduced with Ratchet can walk upside down using magnetic boots. One level focuses on flying around using futuristic wings, while the other has small plots of land scattered around and the player must use teleportation pads to get around. Having so many different ways to get around Tools of Destruction doesn’t forget that simple walking and jumping can be fun too, and so there is a perfect balance in each level. Tools of Destruction is pretty linear but within that each player has options to explore all the planets in their own way. Many different levels have many different ways to explore and complete them, many of the more challenging ways around each level reward the player with special golden bolts or weapon blue prints.

-Overall Experience: My overall experience with Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction was an amazingly fun one. The games funny dialogue, fantastic graphics, beautiful art, and amazing level design made it hard for me to stop playing. Some parts could have been improved such as a harder difficulty setting which would have lead to me using more weapons and experiencing more of the game. Another issue was Tools of Destruction was that it relied on players already knowing some controls from the series’ past games. When you first start out playing as Clank, Ratchets side kick, there is no prompt or hint that says you need to press a button to control other robots. This was very frustrating for my friends who had never played any Ratchet and Clank before while they were trying to do a simple task such as open a door. Other than that however, Tools of Destruction is a fantastic game and I highly recommend it anyone who is looking for a fun and exciting experience.