Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

"A very enjoyable platformer, especially if you're new to the series."

Ratchet and Clank is yet another PS3 exclusive title, developed by Insomniac, who made the PS3 shooter Resistance. I don't play many platforming games, I've played most of the Mario games and a few Sonic games, but that's pretty much it. Since I already mentioned in my Resistance review I got the PS3 mainly for it's exclusives (which so far have been pretty impressive, much better than what I've played on the Wii), which is what drew me to Tools of Destruction. I hadn't ever played a Rachet and Clank game before, meaning Tools of Destruction was my fist. ToD was actually quite a nice surprise (considering I got it cheap from Argos, £15 was a bargain), ToD is definitely one of the most enjoyable exclusives on the PS3.

The story line is a fairly standard affair, although it's got more detail than the Mario games. Whilst overall the story is fairly similar, ToD has a lot of back story to it and really sets the scene for a sequel (especially the ending). The game sees us play as Ratchet and Clank, the latter being a robot and the former a Lombax. Tools of Destruction starts off a new story line, whilst featuring the same characters from previous games, the story doesn't require knowledge of previous games to understand. As far as I am aware, this new story arc is essentially the "Future" series (Future is included in the sub-title in America, but here in the UK it's just ToD), with the next game in the series being the recently released "Quest for Booty", with the next game looking to be released late 2009. The game sees our heroes caught in an invasion. The leader of the cragmites, a terrible race, have taken over the city, and barely just escaping, it's up to Ratchet and Clank to stop them. You travel to many different planets, get chased by some Pirates (with the leader named Captain Slag) and meet a variety of colourful and interesting characters. The game also has a few extra story elements. A lot of mystery is surrounded around Ratchet, who is the last alive Lombax, and the past rivalry between the Lombax's and Cragmites. Another element are the Zoni, a mysterious race that confront Clank when he is alone. Apart from that, like I said, it's fairly standard affair, a bit like the Mario games (just go through the levels until you find and defeat Bowser), but with a bit more depth to it. The game is also quite funny, however the jokes are never stupid and don't just appeal to the children. ToD is very much a family game, however a maturer audience will still enjoy the game, and I personally found it quite funny. One notable part was where the game essentially played a trailer kind of video for the Arena, claiming it was rated "M for Mature", which only the slightly older players will understand (and although I live in the UK I still know what the US rating system is, for the most part).

Essentially, the gameplay is fairly similar to other platformers. However, ToD adds a element of shooting to it. You control Ratchet who can run, jump, crouch, high jump, and hover/glide a little due to his robot Clank (who hangs around in his backpack). You're equipped with a wrench, a very useful tool indeed, which allows you to simply attack enemies without using weapons. Dotted around the levels are Nuts and Bolts (the currency used to by new weapons and armour), and another currency (they're basically like crystals, the name is in my head but I can't remember how to spell it) used to upgrade your weapons. So yeah, apart from your wrench, there are around 25-30 other weapons for you to use. These range from simple guns to flame throwers, grenades, hookshots to get across gaps, and massive rocket launchers/Laser guns. Guns play a massive part into the game, and they're handled well. When using a gun, you can use the L1 button to aim the gu like a third person shooter and shoot that way. You can also use L2 to lock onto enemies (sort of, it basically locks onto enemies but it isn't a proper system), or simply press R1/Circle to shoot (albeit, less accurately). The guns, for the most part, are rather varied though and make the game much more fun, and of course different to other platformers. You can upgrade them in two ways. By getting kills, you gain experience. EXP is automatically gained after defeating an enemy, and the game doesn't even tell you that you've gained EXP, you just get it. Below your HP (yes, it's HP, not a health bar or anything) is a small meter, when this fills up you gain 1 more HP and it resets (I had going on 200 HP by the end of the game). Guns use a similar system. Whilst for HP it doesn't matter what weapon you use, when you get a kill what a particular weapon, that weapon gets EXP. You can level them up for LV1 to 5 to make them much more stronger. As mentioned earlier, you can also upgrade them using a separate currency to bolts (again, they're used to buy new weapons, armour and ammo), using a grid system. You can upgrade the damage, the ammo used (ie, to shorten it), and the effect of the weapon. It's a fairly well done system and the mix between platforming and action works well. The controls were fine and I didn't have many problems with the gun combat. The game also includes a few mini-games to take advantage of the Sixaxis controller. These mini games range from Halo jumping into a city, using a glider, and unlocking doors. This mini game sees you tilting a circuit board to move a ball. The idea is to get the spark, that follows a certain path, to reach a certain point on the board. To do this you must tilt and hold the ball in between certain areas where the path is broken, so the spark can travel over these gaps. Fortunately, the developers were clever. If you fail a mini game so many times, you are presented with the option to change to analogue control, instead of sixaxis. Lets face it, the Sixaxis controls aren't perfect, and although I stuck with them for the whole game, it's much easier to use the analogue sticks, and the choice is there for you. Another feature of the game is the flying ship parts. On occasion, when you travel to other places you must literally fly there. If you've played Kingdom Hearts, it's exactly the same as the Gummi ship parts, almost. You can't customise your ship, but you still move around the screen whilst the enemies and scenery scroll by, with you simply killing everything you can. These are quite fun, but aren't very often and they aren't as good as the flying parts on Kingdom Hearts (which, until you got the teleporter, were a massive pain).

Apart from those features, the game is fairly standard. You run through the levels killing the enemies until you reach the end. The game can get pretty repetitive, but there are a nice mix of varied things in the gameplay to keep you interested. The mini-games are good fun, and the flying parts are also pretty good too. However, very similar to Resistance, the design of the game is solid. The levels are fairly varied and there isn't plenty to do. The whole single player took me around 15-20 hours to complete. Although the game wasn't as challenging as Resistance (which is for mature audiences), I still felt for a family game ToD was certainly challenging. The levels in the game are absolutely massive. There are plenty of things to unlock and do. When you beat the game you can start Hard mode which doubles the difficulty of the game, but you can take over your HP, Armour and weapons (also, you can get a bolt multiplier, when you kill an enemy it goes up by 1, but when you get hit it resets). Another feature taken from Resistance (which I may have forgotten to mention) are the skills points. These are essentially achievements, but in-game. All of them aren't detailed though and are simply named. They're split into different levels (ie, there are level specific skill points to unlock for all of the levels), and just general skill points. During the game you can collect Gold Bolts, complete the arena, or collect different schematics (or something like that) to complete what's probably the best weapon in the game. I never got it though.

The graphics in ToD were very good. However I did feel slightly disappointed. Prior to getting the game I heard the graphics were meant to be mind-blowing, but I personally didn't think so. The graphics were of good quality but they just didn't seem as detailed as some games. Granted, it's a family game so I don't mind the bright and colourful graphics, but I felt it was missing something. However the scale of the game was impressive, considering it loads the whole level as one and they are pretty big. I had no frame-rate issues with the game, although I still can't tell if a console game is running at 30 or 60FPS. The music and voice acting in the game were pretty good (I don't know why but the voice for Ratchet sounded familiar), although quite a lot of the time I couldn't hear the music much. One of the best pieces though was the Pirate theme, which sounded just like the Pirates of the Caribbean theme.

Although I didn't expect the game to be rubbish, I was still surprised with ToD. ToD was my first Ratchet and Clank game, so maybe I was able to appreciate it more (as far as I am aware most complaints are toward the fact it's very similar to the older games), but I still enjoyed it and I'm giving it a good review. The game can be enjoyed by all ages (children, teens and adults) and is definitely one of the best exclusives on the PS3 so far. If you've never played a Ratchet and Clank game before, definitely try it out.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/30/08

Game Release: Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction (EU, 11/09/07)