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Platform: Playstation 2

Developer: Insomniac Games

Publisher: SCEA

Genre: Action/Adventure

ESRB: November 2002

Ratchet & Clank

Last holiday season the gaming world was treated to SCEA's 3D platformer Jak & Daxter.    The game earned high marks in the game play and graphical departments and was classified as one of those games "you’ve gotta have."  This holiday season SCEA will try to one-up its previous year's performance with a kiddy, but oh-so interesting game called Ratchet and Clank (R&C).

Insomniac Games, the team behind the popular Spyro games on the PSOne, has been working on R&C for nearly three years.  The sci-fi themed storyline resolves around a furry hero that teams up with a reject robot to save the world from the evil bad guy. 

Chairman Drek, leader of the planet of Orxon, decides he wants to leave his run-down planet and assemble a new one by taking the best parts of all the other planets and create one super one.  Drek plans to accomplish this by amassing an army of robots and Blargs (the inhabitants of Orxon).

Clank, the reject robot, fully clad with a conscience and a mind of his own, learns of Drek's plans and flees the planet.  His ship is shot down, but it lands within the confines of Ratchet's home planet.  Thus the story and the adventure begin.

R&C's selling points are the plethora of weapons (the fact sheet boasts a total of 35) and the number of cool moves you can do (there are 20 standard moves, but the number will increase as you gain weapons).  Each weapon promises to be unique and will allow the gamer to devise their mode of strategy against the large number of enemies the game promises to have.

Insomniac acknowledges the strain of cataloging as many as 35 different weapons and has added a Quick Select option.  You will be able to quickly change weapons and check your ammo.

With a variety of weapons and moves the game play appears to be a boatload of fun.  What worries me from the fact sheet is the company's promise that the combat system is "easy to comprehend" and that any enemy can be "killed easily with the right weapon."  Let's face it, the Spyro games weren't the hardest games in the world and neither was Jak & Daxter.  I was hoping that there would maybe be a few difficulty levels or the promise of improved enemy AI.  The main drawbacks to those aforementioned games were the lack of a replay value and difficulty.  Whether or not R&C follows down that road remains to be seen, but the promise of an economic system that will be used for the purchase of additional gadgets, weapons, ammunition, and infobots (clues to new levels) will maybe point the game in the right direction.

Another improvement over Jak & Daxter will be the ability to play as both characters.  Ratchet will also be given the opportunity to use vehicles that he finds throughout the game.

Ratchet and Clank also looks like it will push the PS2 to the limit in the graphical department.  Just from a few screenshots and trailers, the game looks impressive and smooth.  Jak and Daxter had a few jaggies and I would think with another year of experience under their belt that they would be non-existent in this game.

The game made a lot of noise at E3 recently and the hype will only build as the November release date nears.

-Tim Martin