A great HD conversion of 3 great platform games.
What You Get
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The HD Collection, or Trilogy as it's called, contains Ratchet & Clank 1, 2 and 3. All of the games have been remastered in 1080p, and there's an option to play the games in 3D, though the resolution will be set to 720p during this. The collection also adds trophies to each game, each receiving their own platinum trophy. The games are represented in their fullest, with no features, or content, being added or removed; this also includes Ratchet & Clank 3's multiplayer option. Ratchet & Clank: Deadlocked (or Gladiator as it's known by in Europe) is missing, though it has been teased in Japan, as a separate release on PSN. Americans also has a unspecified bonus heading their way, once it launches this fall.
Story
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R&C1 tells the tale of Ratchet, a young Lombax living on the planet Veldin. While fixing his space ship, he finds a robot named Clank. Together, they try to stop Chairmain Drake, who plans to steal pieces from every planet in the galaxy, in order to create a new planet for his own race. The story is hardly the main focus of the game, and that's probably a good thing. It doesn't really do anything special, nor does it really manage to create some great characters. The writing is entertaining, but it becomes a bit inconsistent later on.
Thankfully, the story aspects only improve from here on. R&C2 sees the duo hired by Mr. Fizzwidget, the founder and CEO of Megacorp. Their mission is to capture a stolen experiment, called the Protopet. The writing is better than in R&C1 and the game actually manages to make Ratchet a likeable character, something that the first game never managed to do. It's a lot funnier as well, with a few clever jokes thrown in here and there.
In R&C3, a new villain has emerged, named Dr. Nefarious, who's sent his army of robots and Tyhrranoids out to attack several planets. Veldin is among them, which causes Ratchet & Clank to take action and tries to defeat him. Unfortunately, there's only one person who's ever defeated him, and that's Captain Qwark, so the quest is on to find Qwark and have him help the battle against Dr. Nerfarious. The plot is miles better than the previous two games, and the jokes are good as well, ranging from small jokes to straight up parodies, it's hilarious. The writing is a lot better as well.
8.0
Gameplay
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As mentioned before, the Ratchet & Clank games are platform games, which mean you have a lot of things to collect, platforms to jump to, and environments to explore. All three games consist of several planets that are surprisingly huge for its time. You usually have a few objectives to tackle, once you find a new planet, but the game lets you chose which missions you complete in your own order. Most of the planets also have secret areas, some of which can't be accessed until you've obtained a certain gadget or weapon. One of the main focuses in the game is collecting bolts, the game's currency. Bolts are acquired by killing enemies, as well as breaking boxes, or destroying things that's hidden in the environments. Almost no matter what you do, you're bound to get bolts, and it's very rewarding.
Where the game differed from its competitors, were the combat. Ratchet & Clank were among the first platform games that successfully merged guns and platforming together, and that's before Jak 2 went ahead and included guns. It's not just regular guns either; rather it's guns that had unique abilities. You did get something that's more or less the same as a rocket launcher, shotgun and machine gun, but you have weapons that turns enemies into sheep/chickens, a gun that opens a rift and sucks in your enemies, and… well, mentioning the rest would kind of be a spoiler. Much of the fun in the game consists of figuring out what the weapons do, and they usually live to some hilarious and awesome incidents. All games also have sections, where you play as Clank. As he is weaker, Clank relies on other robots to assist him, whenever it's for defeating an enemy, to simply unlock doors. They aren't bad, but they're the low point of the games, so to speak. They are very creative and fun to use. The game does offer some very simple melee combat however, if you don't prefer the weapons, for some reason.
Enough for the overarching gameplay elements how are the games by themselves? Well, that depends on which game you are talking about. R&C1 is still better than the average platformer, that came out back then, and even among those that are out today. It is very simple though; you can upgrade your health at one point, but your weapons can't be upgraded, unless you are willing to spend gold bolts on them. The controls may take a little while to get used to, as they aren't as quick to react as some might remember. Shooting is also inaccurate, as Ratchet can't strafe. This means that you'll have to jump around an awful lot, trying your best to point the camera in a position where you won't lose your lock on. Outside of the main game, R&C1 also has a hover board mini game. It's not bad at all actually; the controls are fine, and as you progress, you can even do small tricks. The only downside is that there are only two planets that has hover board racing and they are only needed for one special event. After that, they lose all purpose.
R&C2 starts out by adding a strafe option, which makes combat a thousand times better. It also adds RPG elements, so both your weapons and health can be upgraded. The hover board games have been replaced by pod races. They are faster than the hover boards, and you do receive bolts from winning them, so they do have some purpose. But like with the hover boards, there's only 2 planets that lets you race around, before they are largely ignored. There are some new flying sections, which involves you flying around in your space ship, shooting down other ships. While these sections, more or less, functions as a tribute to Star Fox, they do work surprisingly well, though you do wish there were a little more variety in their missions, which range from shooting enemies to a small race.. Lastly, there are the challenge arenas, where you basically have to survive wave after wave of enemies, with different rules, in order to win bolts. These parts are a lot of fun and easily one of the best additions.
R&C3 adds vehicles for certain levels, which plays surprisingly well. The challenge mode returns, but there's also several instances where you have to help the galactic rangers in fighting the Tyhrranoid army. Qwark has also been added as a playable character, though only as part of the Captain Qwark vid comic series. A small disappointment however, is the omission of the flying ship sections. Finally, the RPG elements have been expanded, so both your health and weapons can be expanded more than once. It should be noted, that while all of the games are challenging, R&C3 is the hardest game, of them all, with the final sections being really difficult.
Surprisingly, the online multiplayer has been kept intact. It allows up to 8 players to duke it out across several maps, based on the environments seen in the campaign. It's ambitious, having extensive stats and leaderboards, hell it even has clan support. Multiplayer was actually pretty popular when it came out, but with that said, there aren't a lot of gamers playing the game right now. Out of all the times I tried to play it, I only got into one match, and it had one of the players lag, while another ended up killing both me and the other player, without us being able to even kill him. Blame it on bad skills, but that third player had it way too easy. It can be a fun diversion, but it's doubtful that it'll be able to sustain the players' interest, and don't expect any DLC either.
Each of the games should take around 10-15 hours to complete. Once finished, you can replay the game on a higher difficulty, with the weapons and bolts you earned the first time around. There are several gold bolts to collect in (almost) each level, and there's also skill points to find. Skill points are basically in-game achievements, which require you to do special things in order to unlock. Getting these can be difficult, as the game won't tell you the conditions, until you've unlocked them. If you're the kind of gamer, who wants 100% in everything, you'll have quite a lot to collect in these games.
9.0
Graphics & Sound
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All of the games have a cartoonish look to it, both in regards to monsters and character designs. They're alright, but they fit the game's tone and humor quite well. For PS2, these games looked pretty good, and they still look fine today. They obviously can't compete with modern graphics, but it would be unfair to say the games aren't good looking. From game to game, the differences a minor, though there seems to me a small improvement in textures.
The sound department fares well. The voice acting is excellent and the various sound effects are pretty entertaining. The only minor complaint is the soundtrack, which is completely forgettable, though it does tend to become a bit better as the games proceed.
8.5
HD Conversion
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Disappointingly, not all of the cut-scenes have been remastered, making them appear compressed and ugly. There are a few graphical bugs as well: some character's eyes disappear in one or two scenes, which can be a bit scary for the younger audience. There are also a few weird instances of the game showing some unfinished portions, of the place you find yourself in, when the game is switching from cut-scene to cut-scene. In one instance, it ended up replaying a previous cut-scene, without the sound and background. These don't affect the game however. Overall, the HD Conversion has been kind to the games.
Overall
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Ratchet & Clank is a series that continued to improve upon themselves, as each new release were made available. The first one might be a bit outdated, due to lack of strafing, but it's still a fun game, with 2 & 3 being miles better. For around $30-40, you're getting some of the finest platform games that were ever made on the PS2. The games hold up pretty well today, and are well worth investing in, especially for the younger audience.