This game review will self destruct in 10 seconds . . .
From the main menu of the game you have three options. The first is "Load Game". Once you have a game started and saved, this is where you go to resume play when you next turn on your system. The second option is "New Game" and is where you go when you originally start out on this game. The third and final option is "Options", where you can adjust a number of game settings including toggling the subtitles on/off, adjusting music and sound effects volume levels, toggling helpdesk text on/off, and toggling helpdesk voice on/off.
When you start up a new game you will be taken right to the first level. As you complete levels and advance through the game, other levels will be unlocked for play. However, on Secret Agent Clank you don't just control Clank, you control a few other characters as well. When you want to select a level to play just hit the Start button to bring up the in-game menu and then select the "Case Files" option. This brings up a list of all levels unlocked for play game, separated in to categories per character as follows:
The main story levels of the game fall under the Clank category. Clank's levels are the longer levels in the game and require you to perform a lot of different tasks. Things to watch out for while you make your way through Clank's levels include crates full of bolts (you also earn bolts by destroying enemies), ammo crates, health orbs (smash all of these objects to get at the goodies inside), Titanium Bolts, as well as other more unique objects such as keys and key cards. You'll also want to look out for the booths that take Clank down to a weapons vendor. This is where you spend your hard earned bolts on weapons, weapon upgrades and gadgets for both Clank and Ratchet. Besides the normal amounts of running, jumping and fighting that Clank has to do throughout these levels, every once in a while he'll have to perform a rhythm challenge. Whether it be dancing with a fem bot or navigating your way through some laser beam trip wires, in order to successfully complete the challenge you have to press the buttons that scroll across the bottom of the screen in the correct sequence with the correct timing (kind of like a Guitar Hero type of thing). You can also perform stealth takedowns in this game. Just sneak up behind an enemy who has his back turned to you, press the square button and then input the random series of buttons that comes up on screen within the time limit to take him down quietly. For performing these types of takedowns you earn yourself a "Stealth Bonus".
You also get to play a number of levels with Ratchet. His story throughout the game is that he is stuck in prison and of course a lot of his inmates he is responsible for putting in there in the first place! The levels with Ratchet are simple challenges where you have to survive a certain number of rounds of inmate attacks and just survive the level, pretty basic. Each batch of challenges takes place in a different area of the prison, the kitchen, the workout yard, the showers, etc., so you always have environmental objects that will hinder your progress, but also some that you can use to your advantage. What you have to watch out for during Ratchet's levels are ammo crates and health orbs. Each time you complete a set of Ratchet's challenges you earn a Titanium Bolt.
The three tiny Gadgebots that Clank carries with him at all times have their own set of levels. At times throughout the game Clank will get stuck or he won't be able to gain infiltration somewhere, this is where the Gadgebots come in. When you take them in to action there are no pickups to worry about, and not a lot of fighting either, most of the time you just have to solve environmental puzzles involving getting them from point A to point B, in the process providing a solution for Clank.
Not to be outdone, Captain Qwark makes a few appearances in this game too! He is in the process of writing his biography but really he is just telling tall tales, following Clank around from planet to planet and piggybacking off of the action he is getting in to throughout the course of the game. Qwark makes up a story of some great battle he fought on each planet he lands on, in these levels you take Qwark in to action and relive these imaginary battles. Things to watch out for in these levels include weapon pickups and health orbs.
The last set of levels in this game are called "Special Missions". Although you control Clank in these levels they vary greatly from the regular story levels of the game. They are more like Ratchet's challenge levels and most of the time involve piloting some manner of vehicle. The vehicles you get to control include a snowboard, a speedboat and some sort of car/hovercraft thing. As you race away from your enemies with each of these vehicles you will have some sort of challenge to complete such as simply defeating all enemies, defeating a certain amount of enemies within a time limit, or collecting a certain amount of golden rings. Things to watch out for in these levels include weapon and health pickups.
Throughout the game you will press the Start button in order to bring up the in-game menu a fair amount. There are seven options on this menu, the first of which is "Map/Missions". When you select this option a map of the area you are currently exploring will be brought up, you can zoom in and out on it. Areas on the map marked in white are areas you have yet to explore, whereas areas marked in yellow shows where you have already been.
The second option is called "Inventory" and is where you can view all of the weapons, gadgets and items that you have found/purchased for Clank. The third option is "Restart Challenge" . . . pretty obvious.
The fourth option is simply called "Help". When you select it you will be presented with a few sub options. The first is the "Help Message Log" where you can scroll through a list of help subjects and hopefully find the assistance you're looking for. The second is called "Controls Help", here you simply view the default control scheme for this game. The last sub option is called "Moves Help", where you can view a list of all Clank's fighting moves/combos.
Option number five is . . . "Options"! Once you select it you have a number of choices to make which include Save, Load, Camera & Controls (adjust strafe function, flip flight control axis, flip 1st and 3rd person control axis's, as well as adjust the camera behaviour), Audio/Visual Settings (takes you to the same menu as Options does from the main menu, as I discussed at the beginning) and Quit.
The sixth option is "Case Files" which I discussed briefly before, where you go to view a menu of all the unlocked levels in the game. And the seventh and final option from the in-game pause menu is called "Special". There are a few options here, including Cheats (enter cheat codes), Skins (use Titanium Bolts to unlock different outfits for Clank), Skill Points (view a list of all skill points in the game and which ones you've accomplished), Cinematics (view all unlocked in game cut scene movies) and Check Size Matters Save (if you have a save file for Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters you can unlock additional skins for Clank).
In total there are around 60 levels in this game and despite there being a lot of different types of levels, some things remain consistent with the other Ratchet and Clank games. For example there are still Skill Points to be earned by performing certain tasks at points throughout the game. Also, as you gain experience and fight your way through the game your nanotech will automatically increase, giving you more health to work with. And as per usual, my favourite part of this series, with extended use the weapons utilized by both Ratchet and Clank in this game will automatically upgrade themselves to more powerful versions! I love that feature.
As for the controls, they are pretty consistent with the Ratchet & Clank series and are, for the most part, quite easy to use. Movement is accomplished using the analog stick, strafing in any direction is done by using the directional buttons on the control pad. Rotating the camera around your characters point of view is done by pressing the L and R buttons. To jump press the X button, pressing it in mid-air again will make Clank do a double jump. Once you have the Jet Boots gadget you can hold the X button after the double jump to slowly glide great distances. The square button is your melee attack, press it in sequences to perform combos. Triangle is used to bring up your weapon quick select menu. When you hold the button down a roundish icon will come up on screen showing all the weapons/gadgets you have available. Use the directional buttons/analog stick to select what you want and then release triangle to exit. The circle button is used to fire/utilize the current weapon or gadget you have equipped. Select is used to alter the game view between 1st and 3rd person and the Start button brings up the in-game pause menu.
Those are the default controls for Clank but there are some subtle differences concerning the other characters you use in the game. The controls for Ratchet remain the same as above but for Captain Qwark they are a little different. The X button can only be pressed once as Qwark can't double jump. Also, he has no weapon quick select option, the triangle button is used to fire the lone special weapon he may be carrying in any given level. The circle button is used to fire his standard issue blaster. All other controls remain the same.
The Gadgebot controls are way different. Movement, strafe and camera controls remain the same but most everything else is different. The X button is used to switch control between the three Gadgebots. The circle button is used to make the bots stand on top of each other and make a ladder, tap it again to disengage. And the triangle button brings up a quick select menu, but not for weapons. This menu gives you a list of commands to issue the other Gadgebots, there are four in total including attack, stay put, follow and repair. The square button remains the melee attack.
Last are the various vehicles you use in the Special Missions levels. Steering remains constant with all of them, you can use either the analog stick or the directional buttons. Now, for snowboarding you use X to jump, the down button to slow down, the square button for a brief stop, the circle button to toss land mines, and the L and R buttons to perform shoulder checks. For the speed boat you use X to jump, the square button to brake, the triangle button to fire missiles, the circle button to drop bombs, the L and R buttons to fire your side bumpers, and hold L and R to hydroplane. Lastly for the weird car/hovercraft thing the X button is used to jump, square is used to slow down, triangle fires missiles, circle tosses land mines, the L and R buttons are used to throw shoulder checks, and holding the L and R buttons in conjunction with square is used to go up on two wheels.
As for presentation this game is pretty bang on. The graphics are well done and have a lot of polish, plus it has the usual colourfulness that accompanies the various environments of a Ratchet & Clank title. The sound is great and as usual the storyline and cinematics are funny and very entertaining to watch. Gameplay is high as is the fun factor.
In terms of pros and cons there are a couple on each side. For pros what I really liked about this game was the various different types of levels it contained. Not only being able to control Clank but also Ratchet, Qwark, the Gadgebots and then the three different types of vehicles, that really mixed things up and kept it fun and fresh. As I just discussed above I also really liked the game's presentation, it was an audio/visual feast in my eyes (and ears). And lastly I liked the overall length of the game, having close to 60 levels is a whole lot of game! On the cons side of things I really liked the feel of the game but the one control issue I had concerned the strafe feature. I found it awkward and clumsy, the thing never really worked for me. I had to learn to play it without the strafe function. The other con I found was that despite the game being a pretty good length, it seemed to get tedious at times as a lot of the levels were very similar to each other, almost like they'd rehash a previous level with minor differences just to say they added another level to the game. But overall the pros way outweigh the cons.
There aren't many tips and tricks I can think of. First, don't even bother with the strafe function! Learn from square one just to play without it. Also, don't just rush headlong through the game. If you missed some Titanium Bolts on a level or you think you could have done better, go back and redo it then and there. This will give your nanotech and weapons more of a chance to upgrade themselves early on and make the rest of the game that much easier. Plus, the more bolts you earn early on the sooner you can purchase all of the weapons and their various upgrade modifications. Last of all, keep your eyes peeled, especially above and below you. Some of the Titanium Bolts in this game are easy to find but most of them require a good deal of searching. I found that most of them seem to be above and below Clank's usual plane of reference.
Overall this is a very well rounded game with a lot of bang for the buck. I know that you can go through after you beat the game initially and play it again on Challenge Mode, unlocking even more goodies and what not, but I don't have time for that at the moment. Despite the couple of downsides this game contains they pale in comparison to all of it's strong points. Secret Agent Clank is a worthy addition to the wonderful universe of the wacky Ratchet & Clank!