Funny, touching and gorgeous, A Crack In Time is a brilliant conclusion to the Zoni story arc.

User Rating: 9 | Ratchet & Clank Future 2 PS3
Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time is the conclusion to the trilogy of titles thus far released on the PS3. The game starts with a run down on events from the previous games by the universe's greatest hero Captain Quark for those who are starting the series as late comers. In short, carrying straight on from it's previous installment Quest for Booty, ACIT sees Ratchet continuing the search for his partner and best friend, Clank, whose whereabouts are unknown having been kidnapped by the mysterious Zoni.

Though holding a fairly serious story-line exploring friendship and trust, ACIT is still a game that never takes itself too seriously. The dialogue is genuinely funny especially moments with Captain Quark reminding me quite a lot of animated Pixar movies. There is rarely a dull moment to be had.

Like the other games in the series ACIT is essentially a platforming title, though there are plenty of other elements thrown into the mix. During Ratchets search there will be plenty of enemies in the way, some native to the planets he lands on, others lying in wait for him intentionally. Fortunately it doesn't matter because Ratchet is a walking armoury carrying standard weapons such as pistols and shotguns to more bizarre sci-fi armament like groovitron disco balls and guns that transform enemies into toy monkeys. Each weapon levels up the more it's used dealing extra damage as well as added effects like explosions or more missiles per shot depending on the weapon.

Ratchet's weapons and armour are not the only equipment at his disposal as he also owns a rather snazzy space ship. During his travels pirates and other nasties will often pick fights with Ratchet enabling for some excellent dog fighting sequences with some occasional bosses thrown in the mix. While certainly fun and a nice change of pace from on the ground combat sadly the AI is a bit lacking making them incredibly easy especially when the ship is upgraded. The freedom of movement between planets using the ship however is what really opens the game up over the previous PS3 installments. There are plenty of smaller planets full of side missions to explore as well as some space side missions like towing damaged ships to be repaired all of which result in cash or upgrade pieces for weapons.

While Ratchet searches for his partner, Clank himself isn't sitting idle and between chapters gets levels to explore on his own inside a giant clock at the centre of the universe. Though Clank does get into some combat situations, most of his time is spent solving rather clever time related puzzles. Each puzzle revolves around a door needing to be opened by several buttons at once sometimes using a set order. Clank can however makes physical recordings of himself using a set amount of time pads to enable several copies of him to run out and hit the buttons opening the door. The puzzles start off very simple introducing the concept and get progressively harder as the game progresses though they never feel cheap or frustrating adding a nice change of pace to the straight forward combat focused Ratchet sections.

A Crack in Time's visuals are outstanding. It's incredibly colourful and vibrant no matter what the location. Each planet has it's own unique look and design as do each race that Ratchet runs into. The sound is equally impressive with some brilliant voice acting no matter how big or small the part is making the game not only a joy to look at, but also one to listen to.

I found the game surprisingly lengthy for a platformer though it could be sped through in a dozen hours it took me about 30. There are plenty of extras to play through such as arena battles as well as extra characters to unlock, gold bolts to collect, as well as extra tough optional time puzzles to try and crack. Overall A Crack in Time is by far the best release of the series this generation so far. While sticking to it's guns on many aspects it throws in just enough extra to keep it exciting. It's a must buy for any R&C fans and a pretty good place to start for anyone new to the series.

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+ Genuinely funny yet often touching.
+ Amazing visuals and sound.
+ Time puzzles are great fun.
+ Open exploration.
+ Welcoming to new players of the series.