Ratchet & Clank 2 Review

Just one of the quirky, varied yet beautiful vistas that R&C delivers for each planet.

When designing a sequel to a very popular game, you always run the risk of alienating current fans, but with Ratchet & Clank 2, that’s very unlikely to happen. Using a slightly enhanced version of the original game engine, Ratchet & Clank 2 sets our two platforming heroes the challenge of uncovering the truth about a stolen ‘experiment’ that bumbling Professor Fizzwidget asks you to recover after warping you to the Bogon galaxy.

Setting the game in a new galaxy altogether allows for twenty completely new planets for you to investigate and smash your way through. Each of these planets have a few objectives to accomplish within them, through a combination of platform shooting action and various other so called ‘maxi games’ (including quite respectable space combat action sections) that vary gameplay enough to create a very enjoyable experience. Ratchet & Clank fans need fear not that too much has been changed, although in a single year of development it is quite outstanding how much is new and how long the game is.

Pals & Challenges

Sometimes I wish this guy was a boss... At least then you'd only have to face one of them.

With Jak II also recently released for the PS2, ‘team’ platformers seem to be very much in style and because it seems that Ratchet & Clank 2 is aimed at a slightly younger audience than Jak II, it never tries to take itself too seriously. Even on the title screen, we can see our pair relaxing on the sofa, playing video games. Amusingly, among the sections of Ratchet & Clank action, there is a definite nod to Jak II, showing Ratchet playing it (rather badly).

Gameplay is well broken up with regular cinematics and amusing adverts for products by Megacorp, the company you are working for in the recovery of the aforementioned experiment, a ‘protopet’. Since this is a new galaxy, none of the weapons in the original game are standard equipment here, with all new guns taking the stand. These vary from spiderbombs (controllable bombs on legs) to the sheepinator that turns your foes into harmless sheep. Naturally variations on the standard shotgun, machine gun, rocket launcher, cluster bomb, sniper rifle and many more are present to give an all round arsenal that can be used with a strategy to take your enemies out in the easiest way

Weapons & Upgrades

When fighting a dangerous enemy, taunting him with a snowball fight probably isn't the best way to go.

To confuse and impress collectors, the more enemies you kill with each weapon raises an upgrade bar that once complete will exchange your current weapon with a ‘gold’ version of the same weapon, which is normally both more powerful and more interesting. The Sheepinator, for example, is replaced with a Black Sheepinator that turns your enemies into black sheep that differ from the normal sheep by wandering around and exploding, killing other enemies nearby.

Other add-ons to Ratchet’s repertoire include a levitator jet pack with limited fuel, a hand glider for certain maxi games and an electrolyser that opens up the inner workings of a computer and lets you fix it by switching gates around at certain moments. Ultimately, the sheer variety of gameplay styles is complimented by the sharp and quirky graphics; After all, who wouldn’t want to grind (think skateboarding) down various cables, jumping from one to another as a gorgeous cityscape whizzes past.

Planets & Structures

Ratchet soon learnt that stalling a hand glider was easy.

Each of the planets visited by the dynamic duo (Ratchet & Clank, in case this was a Batman reference too much) look and play differently depending on the beautifully designed environment. Never is there a moment where the chase cam doesn’t expose something good looking about the world, and the frame rate remains consistent even during the more frantic multi-enemy battles.

The sound certainly hasn’t been left by the wayside either, with the effects being perhaps the most impressive part of the ensemble. Taking a hoverbike race as an example, never is it more apparent that you’re travelling fast than when you can hear the whoosh effects of speeding through segmented tunnels. It’s really a marvel to behold, and although the music is never much more than an accompaniment to the action (perfectly adequate background, but probably nothing you’ll take away afterwards) it never feels out of place and represents the areas you are visiting and the theme of the moment. Finally, the voice acting and dialogue works well, with some rather quirky voices and some scripting that will intrigue even the most literary of us.

Twists & Bosses

This boss is especially tricky considering your weapons can't hurt him. Still, you can outrun him around the city.

There are enough twisting plotlines to keep you entertained throughout the twenty odd hours it will take you to get through the game first time without finding everything, but where the plot really shows its worth is during the occasional boss battle. Bosses could be considered a cliché of gaming culture and while those that you must fight in Ratchet & Clank 2 are unique and visually stimulating, taking them out is never more than shooting them straightforwardly until they die. Fortunately, plenty of fun comes from avoiding their attack patterns while having time to get off a quick shot back. One (optional) boss even takes place in a swamp where you are jumping from floating leaf to leaf as the boss is swimming around, pushing the leaves around.

Even after defeating the final (rather amusing) boss, there’s a lot of gameplay left for you to enjoy. You are offered the chance to begin a new game in ‘challenge mode’, which leaves you your powerful weapons and increases the general difficulty of all enemies so that you’re no longer at the top of the food chain. More challenges have been added to the game, and you can even purchase a further upgrade to your previously ‘best’ weapons, which can then be upgraded again by repeated use. If you plan on getting everything within the game, you’re in for a long haul.

Musings & Conclusions

You learn pretty quickly not to stand still on a dangerously shaking platform.

I did thoroughly enjoy playing through the game once I’d found myself confident with the controls and although consistently buying new weapons and upgrading them may make it seem as if the game gets easier rather than harder as you near the finale, the enemies do seem to often have an edge on you, keeping things a challenge when you arrive at a new planet and you have to face a whole load of new foes.

Ultimately, Ratchet & Clank fans won’t get a whole new revolution from the sequel, but instead an enhanced version of more of the same. When you’re dealing with such a great original game however, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, and newcomers to the series will be thrilled with the sheer scope and length of the game. When compared with Jak II, as much as I was hoping to have a clear champion, I was pleased to discover that they are different enough to warrant a purchase of both if you’re a fan of the genre.

Playing through the games left me asking just one question… why are all of these great PS2 platformers all titled in the format ‘Player Character & Comic Sidekick’?