Ratchet & Clank (PS2) review

Box art featuring the titular characters.

Ratchet & Clank is one of my favorite video game franchises of all time. Since the next game, Into the Nexus, comes out in North America this month, I thought it would be great to do a written review on every installment to show my appreciation for the series. I begin Ratchet & Clank by reviewing the first installment, simply titled Ratchet & Clank.

After finishing the Spyro trilogy on the PS1, Insomniac Games parted ways with the series to develop a new franchise, and while I’ve never played the Spyro games (yet), I thought it was a great decision overall, pretty much like how Naughty Dog parted ways with Crash Bandicoot to begin Jak and Daxter. What resulted was the beginning (I'll say it again) of one of my favorite video game franchises of all time. But with several sequels making improvements and new additions, does this game hold up as well? Let's find out.

Story

In the Solana Galaxy, Supreme Executive Chairman Drek plans on extracting pieces of each planet in order to develop an artificial planet for his race, the Blarg, since their planet has become polluted and overpopulated. This however, would risk destroying other planets.

Chairman Drek and the artificial planet.

In a robot factory on Planet Quartu, a little robot later named Clank early in the game, finds an Infobot about this evil plan and escapes, only to crash-land on the Planet Veldin. A Lombax named Ratchet finds Clank and takes him in. Ratchet has wanted to leave his planet and Clank manages to fix his ship and begin their adventure to locate famous superhero Captain Qwark and foil Drek’s plans.

All the characters, especially the minor ones are a lot of fun to watch. Some characters like Qwark, Al, and Helga are very entertaining. The relationship between the titular duo is also very interesting, since later on, Ratchet antagonizes Clank after the game’s plot twist, but continue to work together, learning that they need each other in order to defeat Drek.

One aspect the series is most well-known for is the comedy. There’s a lot of hilarious moments, especially during the Infobot cutscenes. Who remembers laughing really hard the first time they watched the Hologuise ad?

Attend robot parties!

Gameplay

Ratchet & Clank is a 3D platformer mixed with shooting mechanics. Throughout the game, you play as Ratchet carrying Clank on his back as you travel through different planets, completing various mission objectives. There are some objectives you cannot complete because you need a certain gadget in order to get through, encouraging you to go back to certain planets to get that certain gadget. Your main objective is to find Infobots which contains coordinates to another planet.

Ratchet is equipped with a wrench which serves as a melee weapon and a tool to get past obstacles by turning cranks. Throughout the game, you purchase a variety of weapons used for defeating enemies. You purchase items by collecting bolts, which serve as the game’s currency, which are earned by breaking crates or defeating enemies. One unique weapon in the game is the Suck Cannon, which sucks up smaller enemies and uses them as ammo.



Some of the weapons from the game.

Although, I do think some of the weapons are useless or have little use throughout the game. Does anyone ever use the Walloper, Decoy Glove, Taunter, or Mine Glove very often? This results in having bolts wasted on weapons you hardly ever use in the game. Also, when Clank is given the Hover Pack, there is option where Ratchet can hover, which I also find pretty useless (other than strafing) and I can see why it never came back in the sequels.

One other complaint I have is that unlike later games, selecting weapons on the quick-select does not pause the game and having to switch weapons or gadgets in the middle of a fight can result in you getting hit by enemies.

You can also purchase or obtain gadgets used for clearing or navigating obstacles or opening doors by using the Trespasser. As you progress, Clank is given various upgrades like the Heli-Pack and the Hover Pack, used for reaching high places or crossing gaps that a normal jump cannot reach.

Clank controlling Gadgebots

In addition to Ratchet, you also play as Clank in areas that Ratchet cannot reach. Clank can control small robots called Gadgebots and give them commands like following, waiting, attacking, and entering small doors to open passageways. The one downside I have with the Gadgebots are that when they die, you have to go back in order to summon them again, whereas in later games, they come back to you without having to backtrack. Later on, Clank will be given the ability to turn giant in order fight off enemies more easily. While controlling him is very slow, fighting enemies as him is satisfying nonetheless.

There are a total of 40 Gold Bolts hidden throughout the game. Gold Bolts are large bolts used to purchase gold versions of weapons which are more powerful than their original counterparts.

There are also hidden tasks called Skill Points. There is a list of Skill Points on the main menu (when you’re in Challenge mode) where you are given just the name, which hints what you’re supposed to do. Completing them unlocks bonus content like sketchbooks and TV commercials. Some would say the Skill Points are a precursor to the Xbox Live Achievements or the PSN trophies.

There are various minigames like hoverboarding and dogfighting. The hoverboarding sections are okay, but I think they could have been executed better.

After completing the game, you can start over in Challenge Mode, with all your weapons and bolts carried over. Unlike later games, however, there is no bolt multiplier, which makes grinding for bolts overall tedious, especially when buying the RYNO, which costs 150,000 bolts. This is probably due to lack of side missions that can award you an amount of bolts.

Graphics and Level Design

The Blarg Research Station... now that's impressive!

The level designs for each world are fantastic to look at, due to the attention to detail, as well as their use of color and lighting to fit the atmosphere for each planet. The animations are also great. I especially love when in the weapons section of the pause menu, you select a weapon and you watch Ratchet play around with that selected weapon which are often very humorous.

Audio

David Bergeaud, the main composer.

The musical score composed by David Bergeaud is very catchy, upbeat and memorable, combining orchestra, ambient, and electronic music, which gives it a light-hearted, otherworldy feel. Some of my favorite tracks are Planet Veldin (the beginning of the game), Metropolis, Blackwater City, and Gemlik Base (my favorite). I also love the sound effects, and the way you hit your enemies with the wrench.

And last of all, the voice acting is great. This is the only game in which Ratchet is voiced by Mikey Kelley, where in later games after that, he is voiced by James Arnold Taylor. For his only time voicing Ratchet, he did a great job, bringing a rather sarcastic and sometimes selfish side to Ratchet, and it’s nice to see him grow as a character throughout the series. The rest of the voice cast like David Kaye as Clank, Kevin Michael Richardson as Drek, and Jim Ward as Qwark all sound great and fit well with their characters.

Conclusion

Ratchet & Clank, while not the best in the series, is a great start overall. While it lacks some elements that its sequels would have like the Nanotech Leveling System and strafing, it is still playable to this day and great to look back at. Even though I never grew up with the series, I get a bit nostalgic every time I play this game.

However, things would only get better when a year later, the revolutionary sequel is released. Stay tuned tomorrow as I review Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando.