Ratchet: Deadlocked

"A little short but just as good as the three before it."

I've been a big fan of the Ratchet series since it first came out. I remember getting the demo in the mail and counting the days down until its release. Played it, beat it, loved it. I had passed on the sequel but rented it once it hit Greatest Hits status and then went out and bought it and the 3rd title. I actually beat the 3rd title, and then beat it again for 100%. That's how much I enjoyed it. I quickly grabbed Ratchet: Deadlocked on its release. Read on for my thoughts!

Ratchet is kidnapped by a TV mogul who's going around kidnapping heroes and forcing them to partake in a battle to the death. It's up to Ratchet and try and win and get off of TV. It might be the weakest Ratchet plot but I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in one of the Ratchet games like I did in this one. It's the characters we've come to love and it's some of the dialog is just too funny. I really enjoyed Juanita.... So the plot may be a bit weak but the characters make up for it.

The graphics in the game are just as good as the last titles. Enemies seem to be a bit more detailed. I really enjoyed the ghost enemies in the final levels. Character models all look good. The levels themselves may be smaller but they all look nice and I never noticed a jaggy or anything. The best part about the graphics is the huge amounts of explosions in some insane battle where all you can see is flashing lights because you're killing so many enemies at once and things are exploding and it's just jaw dropping because.... there isn't an ounce of slowdown! I was impressed with that fact.

The sound in the game is top notch. The voice acting is on par with the rest of the series and everyone seems to still have the same voice actor. The sound effects are good as usual. Things go boom and sound like they are in fact going boom. Guns sound interesting. The music in the game is really nice; it's a mix between what you would expect from some kill all tournament and just the kick butt Ratchet music we've come to love. Nice all around.

The control in the game is tight, for the most part. Everything is very responsive but I did have a few problems. When you start the game it sets up the right stick for you, which is your camera stick per say. It's how you aim up, down, left, right ect. I found that setting it backwards for left and right really worked well due to the vehicle missions and that keeping up and down normal worked well, except on the flying missions which just felt weird anyway. What's cool is that you can switch it on the fly. It's still easy to change weapons (triangle I believe), Jump, use your wrench and shoot. It's all very smooth and I never once blamed the control or camera for anything.

Ah, the game play. Many people were nervous about online play taking over the single player game. I can't answer if it does or doesn't because I didn't touch the online player, or the multiplayer stuff. Let's talk about the single player stuff shall we.

The game plays just like the previous titles but still slightly different. The game still features different worlds. I believe this one only has 11 worlds. Each world is a whole thing to explore, slightly smaller than before as well and less to explore. You make your way from point A to point B. There's about four of those per world, sometimes more, sometimes less. The missions always vary. From having to turn everything, or use a vehicle to blow up certain things ect. It spices things up and keeps you on your toes since you rarely know what the game will throw at you next. Now, once you beat a world you can go back and do a couple bonus missions. These tend to be very different than what one might expect. Some are fairly hard; I found the ones in the Landstalker to be difficult. Oh and each world has 15 skill points. Those can keep you busy as well. You tend to get about 5 or so of the skill points on just a normal play through of the world without trying for them.

Now, the game still has the wrench as a melee weapon and guns as your main weapon selection. There are only 10 or 11 guns in the game and like the last few games they level up after killing so many enemies. These guns go to level 10. Once you finish the game and buy the upgraded version they can reach level 99. What's cool though is that as you get further in the game new mods are available to buy. You just buy it once and can put it on any gun you want. Mods are like acid spray, lava spray, electric, that kind of stuff. You can put whatever on most. This is cool and makes it a little more fun. Only one mod per gun though. Oh and as they level up you gain ammo mods and stuff like that; those give you more ammo and stuff. You can unequip them if you want to make the game a bit harder. Oh and Ratchet's life also levels up in this game as well.

Speaking of making the game harder, the game offers a number of difficulty settings. Easy to very hard. You can a certain amount of stars. Easy is 1, normal is 2 ect. You need to collect all 450+ stars to unlock one of the games secrets but that's a lot to do and if you really want to milk the game you can start on easy and work your way up. The game still features the challenge mode as well.

The game also offers 3 vehicles to use in different missions. They handle fairly well. The landstalker is slow but powerful and is used the most. The hoverbike is used only once in a main mission and a couple times in the extra missions. The ship is used only 2 or 3 times in the game and it's rather fun to use.

There are also 2 partner bots that tag along with you. You use them to turn stuff or set bombs or to throw an EMP grenade. They also attack and all that fun stuff. They keep the game fun as well because the game makes sure that you do need them for most missions and I do believe a friend can control one of them but I could be wrong. None of my friends like to play games…

I can't comment much on the replay value of the game but let me say this. I beat the game today and then I told myself that I was going to stop playing and a hour later I was a couple worlds into the challenge mode. It's just an addictive game. It is short though, under 6 hours for me on my first play through and that was with just over 60 skill points and all missions completed.

The game offers multiplayer. I didn't play it, due to no friends who want to play games. But it seems like each world is offered as a playable level. There are different skins to get which is nice, most have to be bought using stars. Going by the manual the multiplayer features the normal, capture the flag and deathmatch and the few other ones. One minus is that the game does not feature bots in multiplayer.

Online play has the same modes and stuff as multiplayer. I was unable to try this out due to me not having my Playstation 2 hooked up yet to my cable internet but when I do I'll revise this review. However, going by what people are saying on the message boards, the online play runs smooth. I do know the game uses the keyboard and/or the mic. Also, I am unsure at this time if the game offers a scoring board or anything like that for online rankings.

I really do think that Ratchet: Deadlocked is a fine game. It's insanely fun and addictive. Offers a lot to do. It keeps track of almost all states in the single player. Offers multiplayer and online play. The single player game is a bit short but you can milk it out start on easy and working your way up. I really think that this game is worth its price tag of $40. It might not be as great as the ones before it but it's almost just as good.

Story – 7/10
Graphics – 9/10
Sound – 9/10
Control – 10/10
Game Play – 9/10
Replay Value – 9/10

Final Score – 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/31/05, Updated 10/31/05