Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

Oct 23, 2007

The Ratchet & Clank franchise has been around for what seems like forever, and while it certainly didn't invent the platforming genre, it certainly invented the platforming-with-guns genre. Given its long history, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (which sets a record for most words in the title of a R&C game) might look like a simple rehash at first glance. But beyond the intensely gorgeous graphical improvements and tried and true platforming design, there are enough minor gameplay innovations to satisfy PS3 owners with a hunger for jumping through precarious hoops. Of course, if you're as big a fan of this series as we are, Ratchet & Clank Future is the culmination of almost everything awesome about the franchise.

Fire Arms

Longtime followers of Ratchet's & Clank's hijinks know that one of the key features of the series is the huge upgradeable arsenal that Ratchet can employ. Developer Insomniac has upped the ante significantly by adding new gadgets and devices like our very own Sterling McGarvey's personal favorite, the Groovitron -- a psychotropic disco ball that forces all nearby enemies to dance rather than attack.

Meanwhile, the Tornado Launcher (which shoots twisters, duh) lets you control foe-felling whirlwinds using the Sixaxis' motion control. Like the best implementations of the Sixaxis, the Tornado Launcher relies on tilting the controller in order to guide the raging winds; even though it's easy to use, it's still the least manageable of all the game's motion-sensing features. That says a lot about how incredibly particular Insomniac was when choosing which functions should use motion-sensing and how refined they are in this game.

Other uses for the Sixaxis include: guiding Ratchet through a freefall (just tilt the controller to scoot him around the screen), gliding along on Clank's new Robo-Wings and rolling a small, highly conductive metal ball around delicate electronic equipment (R&C's inventive hacking minigame). All of these work surprisingly well given the spotty implementations of Sixaxis motion control in many other games (yeah, we're definitely talking about Lair). In fact, the tilt mechanic actually puts Tools of Destruction's hacking mini-game in competition with BioShock's for the title of most addictive hacking mini-game ever.

Getting back to the weapons (and, let's face it, that's what Ratchet & Clank is really all about), as in past iterations each blaster in your arsenal will become more powerful the more you use it. Still, there are alternate means of upgrading your slug-throwers as well, and you'll find a wealth of weapon stations where you can purchase new guns, ammo and upgrades on every planet in the Polaris galaxy (about one for each planet, making a total of roughly 15 different hand-cannons) .

This leads to what many consider the series' finest trait: a constant feeling of progression and reward. You can only bop around with the standard fireball-slinging Magma Combuster until you start to yearn for some other method of demeaning your hapless opponents, and that is something that Insomniac understands very well. Consequently, you get a steady stream of new toys that steadily increase in power as you learn how to use them. It's a simple equation, and yet it's no less compelling because of it (anyone remember Megaman?).

Vistas Without Windows

Besides the delicious hook of the scads of weapons, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction also sports some breathtaking visuals. The move to the high-definition world of PS3 has produced a significantly snazzier-looking Ratchet & Clank game. That said, we don't necessarily agree with the back-of-box quote from the New York Times that equates R&C Future's graphics to those of a Pixar film. The game is incredibly beautiful, but come on... don't make us post a side-by-side screen of Captain Qwark and Mr. Incredible in a battle of the poly counts.

Similar to other top PS3 titles like Heavenly Sword and Warhawk, R&C Future has a penchant for offering huge panoramas packed with detail. The horizons of each planet stretch off into the unseeable distance, fooling you into believing that the richly detailed environments cover the entire planet. Yet the areas that you get to run around in are actually quite huge all by themselves, so although the window dressing backdrop is exactly that, it still makes for a seriously immersive experience.

Of course, all of this grandeur doesn't come without a price, and we noted a few instances where the horsepower of the PS3 was taxed a bit beyond its limits. Though rare, we ran into a handful of activities that always resulted in frame loss and stutter (like using jump pads to fling Ratchet across an entire map). The most obvious of these slips can be seen in the inventory menu where weapon, gadget and device models rotate fairly smoothly, but with noticeable dropped frames. Still, the game is both beautiful and enormous, so some concessions must be made.

Lonely Lombax

Sadly, Ratchet & Clank Future has no multiplayer component to speak of, which bothers us both because we love multiplayer and because the series had a bit of a multiplayer groove for a while. While hardcore fans of the series might not miss it, we're a little upset by this oversight because we particularly enjoyed the Iron Lombax mode from Size Matters and were hoping that it might make it into this burlier, HD-gen version. Unfortunately, if you're hoping to match your wits against other human opponents, you'll have to break out your PS2 or PSP because there is none of that kind of horseplay to be found in this game.

Granted, while those that are growing tired of the platforming genre in general will undoubtedly see Ratchet & Clank Future as more of the boring same, gamers that have come to love the series and what it does best will be unquestionably stoked. Similar to Dynasty Warriors Gundam (though not in quality by any stretch of the imagination), R&C Future delivers exactly what you'd expect it to in a spectacularly attractive package. It is a total refinement of the Ratchet & Clank platforming experience with a few new innovations thrown in for giggles.

The question you need to ask yourself, then, is as follows: do I like the Ratchet & Clank series? If the answer is anything other than an emphatic "no!" then you owe it to yourself to check out this newest installment. If your answer was an emphatic "no!" then you may want to re-evaluate your passion for gaming, because it's hard not to love a game so focused on providing a continuous jet of combustible goodies while still maintaining a decent sense of humor about the whole affair.