Hello Everyone, I recently got my 20th Platinum in Ratchet and Clank and wanted to quickly review the game's Platinum. To quickly state my point I feel this game was very fun to Platinum, it's definitely in my top 3 and would recommend it to any achievement hunter.
So this game has basically 4 kinds of trophies:
-1 Mandatory Story ones- Which I'll skip since they just involve Doing the Story
-2 Fun Joke Ones - There are quite a few "joke" trophies that are easy to get but more humorous than anything else. Stuff like: Lazy Lombax- Ride every catwalk without moving in Kalebo. Et tu, Copernicus?-Find Qwark's Lounge on the Deplanitiser. Pool Sharks Are The Worst-Get eaten by a Pool Shark in the Pokitaru Ocean.
-3 Mini Challenges - These require the player to do a specific thing well. Examples Include: Kerwan Gladiator-Complete the Fitness Course on Kerwan in under 70 seconds. Death By Disco-Use the Groovitron on every type of enemy.
-4 Play Challenge Mode - These require the player to have to play Challenge Mode, the game's New Game + in order to get the Trophies. Note that you can keep playing Challenge Mode repeatedly if you miss some. Examples Include Master of War- Upgrade every weapon to maximum level. These Go To Eleven- Unlock every modification for every weapon. Mr. Fancypant-Upgrade Ratchet's health to maximum level.
Story Ones are Story Ones so not much to talk about there. I like the joke ones because of how unexpected and humorous they can be. Mini Challenges are quite fun as they require you to ace some activities. I especially love the ones for beating the Gold Hoverboard Races under a certain Time because the Races themselves are fun and the times aren't crazy strict.
The only really troublesome Trophy is Death By Disco-Use the Groovitron on every type of enemy. Since the game doesn't keep track of which of the 50ish enemy Types you have used the Groovitron On.
The Challenge Mode Trophies mostly require you to play the game while focusing on levelling up individual weapons. This mostly just takes time and like, 2 Challenge Mode Playthroughs Max. It's fun because Challenge Mode introduces a multiplier that increases the number of Bolts you earn as you defeat enemies up to a max of 20x but it goes back to 1x if you take a single hit. This encourages the player to play more skilfully while still rewarding persistent players who aren't as skilful and really get used to using every weapon. Though the game doesn't get too difficult even on the hardest difficult and loses most of its challenge when you get a decent aresenal. I kinda wish there was an extra hard option that upped Enemy Types and Numbers to match your expanded arsenal at this point.
Note that this Challenge Mode is pretty lenient compared to past Ratchet Games where you had to do 3+ playthroughs minimum to earn stuff like the RYNO. Here, you can basically do it in 1-2 if you're skilled.
I am a little sad there's no arena like in past Ratchet games and trophies associated with that because I enjoy the combat and would have liked it to be used in more creative situations.
While I'm here I might as well give a quick review on the game itself. On the gameplay side, the game is quite fun. I like that each world has like 2-3 branching paths which makes exploration more interesting (though I don't mind if it were linear either since I have to explore them all anyway) like the earlier Ratchet games.
Combat is fun with all the varied weapons and strafing/dodging but I am mixed on a few things. Firstly is the way weapons upgrade. As you use weapons, they gain EXP which allows them to level up giving them a slight power boost and being able to buy more upgrades for them. This does encourage you to use weapons based on their EXP rather than utility. I have had instances where I had to use the close range flamethrower on longer range enemies since it was the lowest levelled weapon in my arsenal as it can feel like a waste to use weapons which are maxed out since they don't get the EXP. Second is the Raritanium upgrade tree. It doesn't feel satisfying to go into a menu every now and again and buy nodes for a 5% increase in rate of fire or bolt drop rate. I think it would have been more engaging if Weapons didn't have a EXP based on usage system and instead levelled based on just feeding each weapon like, x amounts of Raritanium for a sizable upgrade. Trim the fat and just give the juicy stuff as it were. To account for this with trophies, just have a trophy for getting x number of kills with each weapons like how Uncharted does it.
I do have other smaller issues with the gameplay, there's a lot of dialogue that seems unnecessary and annoying like the GadgetTron Vendor and Quark's "Ratchet can't breathe underwater" lines, the odd music during Clank's levels since Clank's levels are supposed to be the slow and puzzle focused contrast to Ratchet's fast paced levels. The in-engine cutscenes that feel more stiff and lifeless than the ones from the 2002.
All in all, I like the gameplay and would recommend it on that merit.
The story is where I'm a lot more negative though.
Firstly, The game plays like it's a movie licensed game....which is because it kinda is. The game uses clips from the 2016 movie to tell its story. Which I'm actually Ok with. For years I've been saying that Games often struggle with telling a movie-like story through just cutscenes. So I'm cool that you have the Ratchet Movie that's focused on the story stuff, and a Ratchet Game focused on the gameplay stuff so both can shine their best in mediums best suited for that. So my issue isn't with the decision for the existence of the movie to do the heavy lifting for the story, my issue is with the direction of the movie and times when more of it should have been placed in the game to add some context.
Let me start with an analogy, let's say someone wanted to reboot the Spider-Man films (I know, shocker right) and make these new films' characters more likeable and fun. So instead of Peter Parker being a down on his luck millennial whose choice to be a superhero interferes with his civilian life but does so out of guilt and an obligation to his Uncle, Peter is now a rich kid living in luxury with all his parents alive and decides to become a Superhero because it's cool. Even if it ends with Peter dressing up in an iconic Spider-Man suit and web swinging and stuff, it would be less interesting because you lose those aspects that made Peter such an endearing and interesting character.
It's the same idea with Ratchet and Clank. Ratchet in original 2002 game was a selfish dick at times. And Clank had to work hard to try and nudge Ratchet into doing the right thing which caused them to butt heads. It was only at the end after such a rough journey that the 2 became inseparable friends and on the same page which was so satisfying to watch. The world itself was also quite messy. It was this capitalistic wasteland where even the people you saved would still charge you anyway for their services which was a nice piece of satire. It was honestly a pretty original setting and take. It was the story of a selfish hillbilly mechanic who is a dick and a defective product that ends up being more useful than the copy and paste product he was supposed to be, that reluctantly team up and discover the galaxy they're in is messed up and superficial but are able to cut through that BS and become real heroes by striking at a specific businessman using the system, and finally become close friends by the end. It wasn't perfect. Ratchet's characterization was inconsistent at times as he would flip flop between chill Ratchet and Selfish Dick Ratchet in between cutscenes for no reason but it was still an interesting dynamic.
But in the 2016 game, that edge has been softened. Ratchet is now a goody two shoes and is immediately friendly with Clank rather than have any conflict. Clank doesn't really have much of a push or pull with Ratchet which makes their dynamic less interesting. It feels like they're together because their names are on the cover rather than through organic events that made then allies. The duo rarely even talk to each other and Clank doesn't even help Ratchet with his ship. You could replace Clank and little would change about the story. Quark has more of an arc than Ratchet or Clank since he has the whole "betray the rangers but is guilty about it" storyline. And even that is messy because the story flip flops on his reasons- Did he join the bad guys because he was jealous of Ratchet or to try and protect the Rangers? Because the Story can't seem to make up its mind and it suffers as a result. Quark being jealous doesn't line up with the story since him working with Drek tarnishes his reputation. And Quark doing it to protect the Rangers doesn't line up since he only joins up with Drek when Ratchet and Clank show up after defeating some of Drek's fleet.
The world itself is also much softer. People actually give Ratchet free service for saving them. The "satire" is now just the occasional reference to nerd culture/online criticism and some r/FellowKids "hashtag GadgetTron" comments. Stuff like this doesn't inform the setting or characters, it makes it appear more mundane and generic.
Even ignoring the comparisons to the past games and looking at this version on its own merits, it still has its faults. But starting with the positives, I like the idea that even though Ratchet is a goody two shoes, he still has a criminal past and is trying to make himself look more heroic in front of Clank who appears naive but can put the pieces together quickly. I wish more was done with this premise though. Maybe have Ratchet brag about his "accomplishments" throughout the story to which Clank occasionally questions him. When Ratchet fails at stopping Drek the first the time, he sees himself as a fraud and it's Clank who goes "Yeah, I knew you were lying about most of the stuff you did, you weren't an official ranger, but could certainly fight better than them" and then talk about how Ratchet was capable despite "being a fraud". That would certainly help give the duo more of a dynamic that ties into their relationship instead of a generic "you gotta accept responsibility".
I feel this is quite the missed opportunity because a Ratchet 1 is the only time where you can write a story where the duo have a conflict and different dynamic since after this, they are friends.
I have other issues as well; having Nefarious come in and dethrone Drek as the main villain suffers because then Ratchet doesn't get to settle the score with Drek and Nefarious has barely been in the game so far. It also weakens the villains' overall plans since in the original, Drek wasn't being altruistic or misguided, he was doing all this to make more money which both made him more despicable and tied into how messed up the world of the original was.
So yeah, it's odd that while the gameplay of the 2 games are about even and fun, one has better and more engaging story and characters despite being from 2002 and not that focused on the story and the other is a major animated movie and a modern game.
Regardless, going forward, I hope the new series of Ratchet games at least do the following for the story:
-1 Have the duo interact more in the game.
-2 Don't then retcon that Ratchet is the last Lombax of his kind and Clank was built by wise Time People. I feel that twist just weakened the story by trying retrofit the Duo as "chosen ones" rather than regular people who became heroes.
I haven't played Rift Apart Yet but I am looking forward to playing it one day.
But sadly, this may be my last Platinum for a while. I'm playing Genshin Impact which seems to be a long game with some really long platinums I don't intend to pursue. And Soon I might be travelling and not have a PS4 on hand. Regardless, my next platinum will probably be Saints Row 4. I hope to see you then.
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