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Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal Review
8 years ago
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What’s better than a robot and Lombax fighting an evil Blargian mastermind? Fighting an over-the-top robot mastermind.
Heeeeeeellllllllll’s yeah
RATING: 10/10
So Ratchet and Clank are relaxing in the Bogon Galaxy when they see a news bulletin stating that planet Veldin is being invaded by a race of aliens known as the Tyhrranoids! So Ratchet and Clank go back to save their planet, then find out that a nefarious ruler named Dr. Nefarious is trying to cause chaos. So now they gotta stop him. And now we have our game!
All right, there’s no need to go over the controls. You jump, you hover with Clank, you blow shit up with weapons, you travel to planets—it’s all the same. I will say some of the weapons have changed though, a few of which I think are pretty cool. There’s one weapon that sucks enemies into an alternate dimension, you got a weapon that turns enemies into ducks, stuff like that. A majority of the weapons in the game are actually from the previous two games (which you can get for a discount if you got save files on your memory card. I thought that was a neat addition. ) That being said, you got your discount shotgun, your discount blaster or machine gun, your discount rocket launcher, blah blah blah. It’s not really different, but if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
I do enjoy the fact that despite everything that’s happened, Ratchet and Clank still maintain their personalities. Ratchet is still a hero who goes around trying to save the universe, but at the same time, is cocky and enjoys the thrill of adventure. I just love how when Ratchet has to take the Path of Death in the first stage, he just rolls his eyes. And then later on after seeing a commercial for Annihilation Nation, he just mutters “Another day, another death course.” It’s like the writers clearly knew that all the players are used to these death courses from the previous two games and know they won’t be challenging at all. XD Clank is still the lovable nerdy robot who figures out all the technical stuff while Ratchet does all the shooting. But everyone loves Clank. So much so that he’s a movie star now. A cheesy, action, James Bond rip-off movie star, but still. He’s getting paid.
I also really enjoyed that a majority of the characters from the first game returned and have their own role in this game—again, without their personalities changing. Helga is still the abrasive trainer who constantly throws condescending insults at you; Big Al is still the fat, lovable nerdy…whatever Big Al is; Skidd McMarx is still that totally awesome hoverboarder who speaks in that surfer voice and acts like he’s a badass when he clearly isn’t, and of course, Captain Qwark is back. Which is awesome, because he actually has a character arc that pays off! Basically Qwark has gone crazy, but after playing some vid-comic games (I’ll get into that later) he gets his memory back and forms the Q-Force: a special team designed for stopping Dr. Nefarious and the Tyhrranoids. And Ratchet & Clank are part of this team who do most of the heavy work. Because Qwark is just a glory hound.
Which is why when he sacrifices his life to grab a data disk from Nefarious’ star cruiser was jarring in a good way. The guy willingly put his life on the line and it ended up paying off big time. Kinda hard to imagine Qwark doing something like that, especially after what happened in the second game. But then you find out he didn’t die and that he basically ran away and went into hiding. But that’s okay, because Ratchet gave him a Reason You Suck Speech and then he comes along later and redeems himself by helping Ratchet during the final battle. And given what Qwark did in the first two games, I can say his character arc was solid! They clearly won’t drag out Qwark’s character during the Future games, right?!
So unlike the previous game, this game improves on its villain. The last game, you don’t find out who the villain is until literally ten minutes before the game ends. Here, the game says “Here’s an evil robot. He wants to turn everyone into robots. Go stop him.” It’s basic, it’s simple, it’s straightforward, and I love it. And clearly Dr. Nefarious loves it too, because he’s so fucking over-the-top. This guy knows who he is and how he acts. He’s not trying to be dark and gritty, and you don’t take him too seriously. Chairman Drek had some funny moments too, but he was still taken very seriously and his crimes are extremely heinous. But here, it’s just a wacky villain who laughs a lot and wants everyone to be robots. It fits very well with the tone of the series. Also he has a very snarky-ass butler. Because why not.
By far the best part about the game is that it feels like an actual futuristic war-like game. But unlike those kinds of games, the war portion is not disturbing, nor is it trying to beat any morals or whatever against your head. Basically, as you go against the Tyhrranoids throughout the galaxy, you’re given several optional side missions where you must assist a team of soldier robots known as the Galactic Rangers. And yes, most of them are very cowardly, but they’re too adorable to hate. And half the time they actually aren’t afraid to at least attempt to fight off the enemy; they do run alongside you and tend to shoot at the enemy soldiers, even though their blasters suck ass. But since you’re their new sergeant, and since you’re a badass who has saved the galaxy twice, you naturally feel compelled to assist them whenever possible. And that’s how you should feel—you don’t save the Galactic Rangers because the game tells you. You save them because you know that in the back of your mind, taking out Dr. Nefarious’ Tyhrranoid allies and helping the Rangers whenever you can is the right thing to do, and it’s your duty as the adorable badass hero you are to help ‘em out.
Besides, helping out the Rangers means you get loads of bolts, and even a few new gadgets, some of which you need in order to progress in the game. But again, that doesn’t matter. Everytime I play the game, I always play these missions because of how fun they are and the rewarding feeling I get. Sometimes you gotta fight off forces; you gotta take out high-ranking Tyhrranoids; you gotta destroy or capture military bases; you gotta take out dropships, and so on. Missions aside, the game kinda has the same formula as the second one. You find a crucial bit of information or a clue about Dr. Nefarious. You head to the planet, explore around, find a clue or destroy some shit, go to a new planet, explore, destroy some shit, etc. And this is basically the entire game. But unlike the second game, there was an interesting twist during the second act which, upon playing the game for the first time, actually surprised me. I don’t know how I fell for it, but I did. >__<
I do need to point out a negative though, which was something I felt in the second game. It’s not linear, but it feels linear. And I believe that’s mainly because of how invested you are in the overall plot. The original game fleshed out our two heroes as much as possible because there really wasn’t much of anything else to do. So unless they start delving into their backstories (which I’ll get into with the Future games), they can’t really develop them anymore. Because of this, you care more about the plot and stopping the villain, whereas in the first game, you care more about exploring and finding cool shit and analyzing these two characters. The game itself encouraged and punished you depending on how well you thoroughly ventured around the planets. But in this game, it’s just “Go here! Do this thing! Okay cool, you did that thing—go here now!” And yes, I know the first game was technically like this too, but Up Your Arsenal has the Mass Effect 3 feel to it. Sure, you can spend a buttload of time doing side missions. But does it really matter when the galaxy is in peril? Do you really give a shit about finding some missing spaceship in the middle of the galaxy when the Reapers are reigning hell all over the place?
It’s also because of this that I don’t really have a favorite planet. I honestly can’t remember some of the locations because I forgot ‘em already since I last finished the game a couple weeks ago. The reason why this game gets a perfect score though, is because the plot is very straightforward, the characters are wonderful, and more specifically, the overall war themes and war mission involving the Galactic Rangers is what made this game stand out from all the other ones. I actually played this game twice in a row before I started working on this review, and that’s saying something. So it has some of the same flaws as Going Commando, but the Galactic Rangers side missions saved it. As did Dr. Nefarious and Captain Qwark’s arc. This game even has a game within the game—you can play shooter/platforming Qwark vid-comics, some of which are used to find certain clues that drive the plot forward. You gotta give them props for making you play a game as you play a game to make the game’s plot advance.
Again, clear recommendation from me. Even if you don’t have a PS2, they got the remasted collection of the first three games for the PS3 and PS4(?), so jump on that when you can. And again, there are plenty of other wonderful things to say about the game, such as the music and the sheer amount of fun it is blasting away enemies and exploring the environment, but we’d be here all day. And I got lots of other things to work on!
Mkay! So…gonna replay Ratchet: Deadlocked (which I already reviewed), because why not. I’m still…..debating on whether or not I should replay Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters. I really do not like that game, and even tried to sell it.
But I ish a completionist. >__< Of course, in that case, I’d have to buy Secret Agent Clank, along with Quest for Booty, Into the Nexus, All 4 One, and Full Frontal Assault.
Yeah. Scratch that idea.
“Oh, so you spent all that money buying all those shitty Sonic games, but you won’t buy the mediocre Ratchet & Clank games? WTF, JT?!”
Hey.
Shut up. >__>
Heeeeeeellllllllll’s yeah
RATING: 10/10
So Ratchet and Clank are relaxing in the Bogon Galaxy when they see a news bulletin stating that planet Veldin is being invaded by a race of aliens known as the Tyhrranoids! So Ratchet and Clank go back to save their planet, then find out that a nefarious ruler named Dr. Nefarious is trying to cause chaos. So now they gotta stop him. And now we have our game!
All right, there’s no need to go over the controls. You jump, you hover with Clank, you blow shit up with weapons, you travel to planets—it’s all the same. I will say some of the weapons have changed though, a few of which I think are pretty cool. There’s one weapon that sucks enemies into an alternate dimension, you got a weapon that turns enemies into ducks, stuff like that. A majority of the weapons in the game are actually from the previous two games (which you can get for a discount if you got save files on your memory card. I thought that was a neat addition. ) That being said, you got your discount shotgun, your discount blaster or machine gun, your discount rocket launcher, blah blah blah. It’s not really different, but if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
I do enjoy the fact that despite everything that’s happened, Ratchet and Clank still maintain their personalities. Ratchet is still a hero who goes around trying to save the universe, but at the same time, is cocky and enjoys the thrill of adventure. I just love how when Ratchet has to take the Path of Death in the first stage, he just rolls his eyes. And then later on after seeing a commercial for Annihilation Nation, he just mutters “Another day, another death course.” It’s like the writers clearly knew that all the players are used to these death courses from the previous two games and know they won’t be challenging at all. XD Clank is still the lovable nerdy robot who figures out all the technical stuff while Ratchet does all the shooting. But everyone loves Clank. So much so that he’s a movie star now. A cheesy, action, James Bond rip-off movie star, but still. He’s getting paid.
I also really enjoyed that a majority of the characters from the first game returned and have their own role in this game—again, without their personalities changing. Helga is still the abrasive trainer who constantly throws condescending insults at you; Big Al is still the fat, lovable nerdy…whatever Big Al is; Skidd McMarx is still that totally awesome hoverboarder who speaks in that surfer voice and acts like he’s a badass when he clearly isn’t, and of course, Captain Qwark is back. Which is awesome, because he actually has a character arc that pays off! Basically Qwark has gone crazy, but after playing some vid-comic games (I’ll get into that later) he gets his memory back and forms the Q-Force: a special team designed for stopping Dr. Nefarious and the Tyhrranoids. And Ratchet & Clank are part of this team who do most of the heavy work. Because Qwark is just a glory hound.
Which is why when he sacrifices his life to grab a data disk from Nefarious’ star cruiser was jarring in a good way. The guy willingly put his life on the line and it ended up paying off big time. Kinda hard to imagine Qwark doing something like that, especially after what happened in the second game. But then you find out he didn’t die and that he basically ran away and went into hiding. But that’s okay, because Ratchet gave him a Reason You Suck Speech and then he comes along later and redeems himself by helping Ratchet during the final battle. And given what Qwark did in the first two games, I can say his character arc was solid! They clearly won’t drag out Qwark’s character during the Future games, right?!
So unlike the previous game, this game improves on its villain. The last game, you don’t find out who the villain is until literally ten minutes before the game ends. Here, the game says “Here’s an evil robot. He wants to turn everyone into robots. Go stop him.” It’s basic, it’s simple, it’s straightforward, and I love it. And clearly Dr. Nefarious loves it too, because he’s so fucking over-the-top. This guy knows who he is and how he acts. He’s not trying to be dark and gritty, and you don’t take him too seriously. Chairman Drek had some funny moments too, but he was still taken very seriously and his crimes are extremely heinous. But here, it’s just a wacky villain who laughs a lot and wants everyone to be robots. It fits very well with the tone of the series. Also he has a very snarky-ass butler. Because why not.
By far the best part about the game is that it feels like an actual futuristic war-like game. But unlike those kinds of games, the war portion is not disturbing, nor is it trying to beat any morals or whatever against your head. Basically, as you go against the Tyhrranoids throughout the galaxy, you’re given several optional side missions where you must assist a team of soldier robots known as the Galactic Rangers. And yes, most of them are very cowardly, but they’re too adorable to hate. And half the time they actually aren’t afraid to at least attempt to fight off the enemy; they do run alongside you and tend to shoot at the enemy soldiers, even though their blasters suck ass. But since you’re their new sergeant, and since you’re a badass who has saved the galaxy twice, you naturally feel compelled to assist them whenever possible. And that’s how you should feel—you don’t save the Galactic Rangers because the game tells you. You save them because you know that in the back of your mind, taking out Dr. Nefarious’ Tyhrranoid allies and helping the Rangers whenever you can is the right thing to do, and it’s your duty as the adorable badass hero you are to help ‘em out.
Besides, helping out the Rangers means you get loads of bolts, and even a few new gadgets, some of which you need in order to progress in the game. But again, that doesn’t matter. Everytime I play the game, I always play these missions because of how fun they are and the rewarding feeling I get. Sometimes you gotta fight off forces; you gotta take out high-ranking Tyhrranoids; you gotta destroy or capture military bases; you gotta take out dropships, and so on. Missions aside, the game kinda has the same formula as the second one. You find a crucial bit of information or a clue about Dr. Nefarious. You head to the planet, explore around, find a clue or destroy some shit, go to a new planet, explore, destroy some shit, etc. And this is basically the entire game. But unlike the second game, there was an interesting twist during the second act which, upon playing the game for the first time, actually surprised me. I don’t know how I fell for it, but I did. >__<
I do need to point out a negative though, which was something I felt in the second game. It’s not linear, but it feels linear. And I believe that’s mainly because of how invested you are in the overall plot. The original game fleshed out our two heroes as much as possible because there really wasn’t much of anything else to do. So unless they start delving into their backstories (which I’ll get into with the Future games), they can’t really develop them anymore. Because of this, you care more about the plot and stopping the villain, whereas in the first game, you care more about exploring and finding cool shit and analyzing these two characters. The game itself encouraged and punished you depending on how well you thoroughly ventured around the planets. But in this game, it’s just “Go here! Do this thing! Okay cool, you did that thing—go here now!” And yes, I know the first game was technically like this too, but Up Your Arsenal has the Mass Effect 3 feel to it. Sure, you can spend a buttload of time doing side missions. But does it really matter when the galaxy is in peril? Do you really give a shit about finding some missing spaceship in the middle of the galaxy when the Reapers are reigning hell all over the place?
It’s also because of this that I don’t really have a favorite planet. I honestly can’t remember some of the locations because I forgot ‘em already since I last finished the game a couple weeks ago. The reason why this game gets a perfect score though, is because the plot is very straightforward, the characters are wonderful, and more specifically, the overall war themes and war mission involving the Galactic Rangers is what made this game stand out from all the other ones. I actually played this game twice in a row before I started working on this review, and that’s saying something. So it has some of the same flaws as Going Commando, but the Galactic Rangers side missions saved it. As did Dr. Nefarious and Captain Qwark’s arc. This game even has a game within the game—you can play shooter/platforming Qwark vid-comics, some of which are used to find certain clues that drive the plot forward. You gotta give them props for making you play a game as you play a game to make the game’s plot advance.
Again, clear recommendation from me. Even if you don’t have a PS2, they got the remasted collection of the first three games for the PS3 and PS4(?), so jump on that when you can. And again, there are plenty of other wonderful things to say about the game, such as the music and the sheer amount of fun it is blasting away enemies and exploring the environment, but we’d be here all day. And I got lots of other things to work on!
Mkay! So…gonna replay Ratchet: Deadlocked (which I already reviewed), because why not. I’m still…..debating on whether or not I should replay Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters. I really do not like that game, and even tried to sell it.
But I ish a completionist. >__< Of course, in that case, I’d have to buy Secret Agent Clank, along with Quest for Booty, Into the Nexus, All 4 One, and Full Frontal Assault.
Yeah. Scratch that idea.
“Oh, so you spent all that money buying all those shitty Sonic games, but you won’t buy the mediocre Ratchet & Clank games? WTF, JT?!”
Hey.
Shut up. >__>
.... I still need to finish this game...