This game was technically the first Ratchet and Clank game I played because my friend wanted me to join him in beating it along with a few other friends. It turned out to be a really fun time, and we decided to keep playing it till we beat it. Aside from a few hiccups and when and where people were able to meet we were finally able to beat it today.
All 4 one is a bit of a long Co-op game, but certainly is entertaining enough to not drag on. The game can be a bit hard at times near the end too, but this point becomes moot once people upgrade the zoni blaster and most importantly, the critter strike. At which point the game becomes laughably easy to manage and there really is no need to use the vast majority of weapons anymore. While the game does have a lot of cool new weapons, along with a few returning ones, there really isn’t much of a point to use half of them as they are just rather hard to manage compared to the others. The weapon balancing in this game is simply too broken and only about 5 of the weapons are ever really worth using. As well the individual weapons were a nice addition, but overall just didn’t impact the game as much as it probably should have. On top of that, a lot of the puzzles were simply 2 people press buttons at the same time or using each other to launch them to a place where you normally couldn’t. Overall it just felt like the Co-op for this game was more so forced in then actually made for it. This is a shame because the game practically sells itself as a Co-op experience; when it could have just been better with a more defined single player experience. By simply taking out or focusing less on Co-op it could have been possible to make the game a lot more about exploration or full engaged combat fields compared to a bunch of players must get from point A to point B to finish the level.
The story itself is also quite entertaining and does have its funny moments throughout, but the majority of the music is really just lost between the louder, more iconic sound effects, and friends shouting at you. The graphics and overall atmosphere in this game is astoundingly pretty, and really lets you see the PS3’s power if you would just pay attention to some of the background or look at some of the cutscenes, but is easily lost through the heat of battle.
Final Thoughts:
All 4 one seemed to sacrifice what could have been a far better single player experience into a rather average Co-op experience, riddled with simple puzzles and an unbalanced weapon arsenal. But not all is lost in transition, and the game still provides for an entertaining story and a somewhat long, but enjoyable co-op run.