Ratchet & Clank

"A GREAT game with a few minor flaws..."

I bought this game with my doubts but in the end I am so grateful I have it. It was one of the first PS2 games and an extremely good one...it's most definitely a must have. The best plat former I have ever played.

Story - 9/10
The typical sort of platform story: the world (or, in this case, space) is in danger of being destroyed by an evil alien who wants everything for himself but because of a few twists its much better than most. It begins with Ratchet working on his ship so he can cruise around the galaxy but he's missing a crucial part. We then meet Clank who is a reject from a robot factory for being to small, he finds out that the factory owner is planing to steal parts of planets from the galaxy so he can use them to make his own planet. Chairman Drek (the factory owner) spots Clank and sends his guards after him, Clank then makes it into an escape pod and gets away but unfortunately ends up crashing his ship, right next to Ratchet. Clank explains Chairman Drek's plain and they both decide they need to stop him, installed into Clank is the part that Ratchet needs to complete his ship. They decide to go find Captain Quark who they think can help them stop the evil.
It gets a bit more in depth than that but overall it is a quite good story. but what I really love about it is that you start with two people rather than either having to wait for the nest game for more people or having to get like 3/4 of the way through the game to get the 2 person

Graphics - 10/10
True, this is sort of an old game so you might not think it has the best graphics...well your wrong. This has great graphics, everything looks great: the characters, the environments, the explosions, even the gears that shoot out of the robots when they blow up. The expressions are also very good especially because they are supposed to be cartoonish. The environments are beautiful and colorful and when you go into the weapons menu while the game is paused the weapons are extremely detailed and look incredible. The only thing I didn't like in the graphics was Ratchet's eyes which seemed a bit off to me

Gameplay - 10/10
This game's is a blast to play. There will never be a time when your not busy, either shooting something, blowing something up, catching something on fire, swinging from your Swingshot. It's got a sort of cartoony GTA gameplay shooting wise, only without all the blood. There's plenty of levels and areas to rome around in and plenty of enemies to kill

Sound/Music - 9/10
Each enemy makes different sounds when they are provoked killed or injured which isn't usual for a platformer. All the sound comes in very clear and was all very well produced. The music is typical of that of a platformer which also come in very clear and really sets the mood quite well

Replay Value - 10/10
There's so much extra stuff to get in this game, even after the last level you can go back get all the golden bolts or try to find a secret tunnel or go hoverboarding, or best of all, go back and kill tons more robots, it's all great.

The Flaws...
In the title of the review I mentioned that the game had it's flaws, although they are minor flaws they may aggravate you at some time, but it's not to bad, here are some flaws....
-you are bombbarded by enemies from the first level and you only have four hits until you die, although you can find health all around you sometimes it's not with you at the most crucial times so it may be difficult for some less experienced gamers
-The camera moves really slow which can be a problem during boss battles
-If you come to some arches in the game with enemies on the other side and they don't notice you, you might use your Taunter the enemies will begin to run up to you but will stop at the arch as if there was an invisible wall, and now you can shoot them, doesn't happen at every arch but it sort of annoys me and shouldn't happen
-You can't save at any time so there are only one or 2 points where it saves automatically in each level so if you die you go back there, but if you get really far in a level, but then all the sudden fall off an edge you might have to go back to the beginning of the level...which is a bit aggravating

Other than those minor flaws this is an excellent game

Rent or Buy?
It is such a great game and now it's only $20, you have to buy it, case closed.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/13/04