15 out of 15 people found this review helpful.
Up yours!
Date of Review: Apr 26, 2005
The Bottom Line: This game ranks with some of the best of 2004
Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal
Genre: Action/Adventure
Dev/Pub: Insomniac/Sony
Player(s): 1-4 (offline), 1-8 (online)
PS2 exclusive
Money s worth: Very High
The Ratchet and Clank series has always delivered top notch games but Up Your Arsenal takes it to new heights. Not only does it have more fire power, newer weapons, bigger maps and among other upgrades but it also boosts a great, new online mode. If you re looking for a serious story, look somewhere else. R&C3 has a funny, quirky story that is jam-packed with crude humor and weird characters. Ratchet has grown from his old childish self, Clank is informative as ever and some other characters make a return like Captain Quark the hilarious super hero/salesman turned bad and some new and old faces will pop up during the game. The story starts off with Ratchet and Clank sitting at home watching TV when a news report pops on the TV and talks about Ratchet home planet being under attack. Ratchet worried about his planet heads over to fight off the invading forces. The story soon branches out.
The gameplay has been tweaked to utter perfection. While it doesn t bring anything new to the overall gameplay of R&C series, the gameplay is much more enjoyable. The gameplay varies from puzzles, platfroming bliss, flying and straight up blast-a-thons. Now there are three different controls to use from, the standard third-person control scheme, a FPS type of control scheme and a new strafe-lock control scheme that has the camera view of third-person but controls of a FPS shooter. The new control mode is a big improvement in the control department because it s much easier to control what clank is doing.
Upgrading is a big part of R&C3. Health, armor, and weapons are all upgradeable. The weapons and health use a RPG type of system where experience, which is gained by killing enemies, helps upgrade the weapons and Ratchet health.
Weapons are defiantly a big part of R&C3. There are now 20 weapons, some old some new, that can be upgraded seven times. Each weapon has there own unique gimmick that can be useful in different situations. For instance, if there was a pack of enemies in the way, Ratchet can use the infector gun to infect some of the enemies and make them turn against each other or he can use the Blitz Gun to blast multiple enemies at once. Other awesome weapons are the lava gun, which spews out lava until the ammo runs out and can later be upgraded into a liquid nitrogen gun that can freeze enemies right away and there is other old weapons like mini turrets or the Glove of Doom, which sends four little robots to fight enemies. Upgrading weapons is fun and at can be time consuming but defiantly worth the effort. A weak weapon can mow down tons of enemies once it s upgraded. One weapon that is a good example of this is the Bouncer; it throws little bouncing bombs at enemies but can be very effective once upgraded. The weapons are defiantly a big draw of the game.
Music, while not a masterpiece, is enjoyable but won t leave a big impression. The voice acting is great; each character is represented well by the voice actors and it is on par with any top notch voice acting in any game. All other sounds are very clear and don t sound cheesy. Graphics wise, this game is beautiful. Character models are well done, the vehicles of the game look great and the gigantic worlds of this game look very detailed. Anything from the close by trees to the far away mountains looks great.
The biggest addition to this years R&C is the online mode. It is very welcome addition and is on par with other great PS2 online experiences like SOCOM 2. It allows up to eight players compete in matches like Deathmatch, Siege, or Capture the flag. The most unique mode is siege; in siege the object of the game is to attack the opposing team s base and there are nodes through out the map where each team can take over. While the core gameplay of R&C3 online is so fun, and lag free, I would have enjoyed if they would allow more freedom in the customizable content in the online mode.
The puzzles and Mega games are still intact. The puzzles are great and are different from pass R&C puzzles. The arena that was introduced in R&C2 is still intact but has been expanded. Now it has platforms levels in where Ratchet has to go through a path full of obstacles. The normal arena type battles, where you go through rounds of enemies, are still intact but have added content in them like new stipulations. Another notable mega game is the quark platform levels that take gamers back to the good ol days of 2D platform games. Clank has missions in this game too. In clank missions you can control little robots that will do what they are told or Clank will carry a banana gun in which he can tell a monkey where to go, like unreachable areas. While not very many Clank missions, they are very fun and different from the rest of the game. There are also parts in the game where Ratchet is a sergeant and needs to help friendly soldiers in battles. These battles are broken down to a mission based system where Ratchet gets money after completing a mission. While some of the mega games from past Ratchet titles are gone, they are not missed because of all the other ones that take its place.
R&C3 has just about everything perfect and even an online mode. All in all R&C3 is defiantly Game of the Year material.
Rating:
R&C fan 10 out 10
Platform fan 10 out of 10
Normal gamer 10 out of 10
