Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (PS3)

Ratchet and Clank is one of the gaming world's best loved series. The fury cat-like Ratchet and his trustworthy robot friend are recognised throughout, but did they mange to pull off yet another game for the PS3? The short answer, is yes, and it's a very big yes.

== Story ==
Ratchet starts in Metropolis, where he and Clank are trying to finally settle down and forget about saving the universe; unfortunately, it's doesn't last ...
...dislike to Lombaxes, and as Ratchet is the last one in known existance he has decided that he must be "eliminated". Oh, and I forgot to mention that Tachyon tries to take over the universe whilst he's at it.

What starts with Ratchet running for his life, turns into a journey across many galaxies and planets, with space pirates, hordes of enemies, and maybe the occasional black hole or two. I won't reveal any of the key points, ... more

Ratchet and Clank is one of the gaming world's best loved series. The fury cat-like Ratchet and his trustworthy robot friend are recognised throughout, but did they mange to pull off yet another game for the PS3? The short answer, is yes, and it's a very big yes.

Story

Ratchet starts in Metropolis, where he and Clank are trying to finally settle down and forget about saving the universe; unfortunately, it's doesn't last long. The evil ruler of the Cragmites, the proclaimed Emperor Tachyon, has taken a personal dislike to Lombaxes, and as Ratchet is the last one in known existance he has decided that he must be "eliminated". Oh, and I forgot to mention that Tachyon tries to take over the universe whilst he's at it.

What starts with Ratchet running for his life, turns into a journey across many galaxies and planets, with space pirates, hordes of enemies, and maybe the occasional black hole or two. I won't reveal any of the key points, but the plot brings up some un-answered questions about the mysterious dissapearance of the Lombaxes, and delves deep into Ratchet's past. True fans of the series will be glued, and for those who have never played a R&C before, the plot won't be a dissapointment.

Gameplay

Ratchet is a third-person platformer, which focuses itself around the combat and shooting elements. You'll spend most of your time blasting enemies off their feet, but the gameplay is mixed up by the grind-rail and spaceship sections. The objectives are at the core of it quite bland, like go to point X or activate lever Y, but it's what's inbetween one objective and the next which make the game interesting. The option to travel back to previous planets, combined with some nice set pieces and boss battles make sure that one is not sitting around doing the same thing over and over again.

The shooting part

Constant killing may seem labourous to some, but once you start to appreciate just how many weapons and gadgets there are you'll soon change your mind. This is what the game prides itself on. It's not a matter of "a lot of weapons", it's really a case of having the whole dam arsenal. The weapons range from electric-whips, rocket launchers, tornado launchers, to slime-beasts which follow you around and launch themselves at the nearest enemy. Not only that, but then you've got your "devices". These are the most fun to use; let me use one example, the Groovitron. Surrounded by a gand of bloodthirsty enemies with no where to run? Have no fear! Simply throw the Groovitron into the air and watch as your opponants drop their weapons and begin to dance to the funky beat, allowing you to dish out some heavy damage of your own. It will bring smiles to the grumpiest of faces to see a giant robot spider simply stop his killing rampage and begin to bounce from side to side. This is just one of the many original and excighting things about playing this game.

All this asides, the combat is solid. Some may fidn that the larger enemies take too long to kill, but generally the game is balanced out nicely. There's an auto aim feature, which can be combined with strafe, that makes the combat fluid and run smoothly, but most of the weapons only require a "point-and-shoot" method.

The not-so-much-shooting part

When you're not playing around with your firepower, you'll be busy with one fo the platforming sections. These include the grind-rails, sky-diving, swimming, hacking computers, or even flying. They mix up the gameplay and keep things running. There are also Clank sections, he comes with his own set of useful skills and altough it's totally different, it still manages to feel like the same game. Ratchet makes good use of the Sixaxis motion sensor, intergrating it into the smaller and less important areas of the game; this is definatly the way forward.

Don't start thinking that these parts have been hastily put together in an attempt to create some more varied gameplay; It's quite the opposite. These parts are just as much of the Ratchet and Clank games and are well put together, and , most importantly, fun.

One of the worst parts of the game are the starship parts. They are reminiscent of Lego Star Wars, and seem to have been forgotten about during the game's development. It's a shame, but thankfully there are only a couple of these sections.

Longevity

The campaign can be completed quite quickly with some players, 11-13 hours or so, but the re-play value is surprisingly good. You can replay the whole game to try and find gold nuts to unlock new character skins, or try to complete the schematics for the game's "ultimate weapon", and because it's great fun. Some people will complete this within a week or so and never open it again, but it sure is a good week.

Graphics

In short, it's a beautiful looking game. The cut-scenes display the characters brilliant, and are vibrant and fully detailed. Not only in the videos, but each planet is vast and great to look at. During the first level it's hard not to stop and watch as ships fly around wildly and buildings topple to the ground as the Cragmite attack begins. Great when running it in 720p HD glory.

Multiplayer

It's a shame, Ratchet features no mutliplayer or online, but maybe it's for the better. The single-player campaign is fully filled out, and it meant that the developers could put their full attention to it. It's not a ground-breaking loss, but some will be dissapointed with the lack of splitscreen modes.

Conclusion

Tools of Destruction builds masssivly on the old games, whilst still retaining their unique and original feel. Old fans can't go wrong with the game, so go out and buy it. I think that for people who have never played the series, this game is the right place to start, although if you have played previous games and couldn't stand them then not much will change.

It's good old Ratchet...but better.

Thanks for reading. 

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