This game fuses the previous games into one and creates a whole new game that is too epic for words.
User Rating: 10 | Ratchet & Clank 3 (Platinum) PS2
What do you get when you take the best multiplayer game on the PS2, add online play, add more weapons then ever before and add quirky yet funny characters? You get Ratchet and Clank 3. What seemed to be the best platformer on the PS2 just got even better. The story is that Dr Nefarious has created a breed of alien called the tyranoids and he wants to destroy Ratchet's home planet, Veldin, along with some other planets. After you kill some tyranoids you meet up with the galactic rangers who give you a gun and you take out some more tyranoids and you fly to another planet. After that you meet up with (SPOILER ALERT!) Captain Quark who you must fight and take back to the Starship Phoenix and then your real journey begins. This is a third person shooter/platformer. You go around laying waste to enemies such as tyranoids, robots, bugs and tribesmen. The controls are simple and very well executed, you jump with X, shoot with circle, select weapons with triangle and use your wrench with square. To strafe, hold down L2 or R2 while running. To switch into a first person perspective, hold down R1. The graphics are awesome, everywhere looks detailed, colourful and upbeat. The only time I didn't like the graphics was when you travel through the sewers, the graphics look all grainy and murky in those parts but since it's a sewer then you can't really blame the developers for that because the setting is supposed to be dull. I really enjoyed the vehicle sections, whether it's driving an armoured car, piloting a hovership of controlling a turret, these moments are great. It's just a shame they are few and far between. One cool and very noticeable feature is that you can play as Captain Quark. Through each mission you collect Quark vid comics which are video game cartridges, to use them you go to the Starship Phoenix, find the console and choose which game to play, it's that simple. The boss battles are creative, yet so annoying. Most of the bosses use cheap hits that will kill you in less than a minute but the bosses are fun so you won't really mind. Another great feature is the return of the battle arena, here you can kill enemies, win gadgets, kill bosses and even compete in death courses. These new death courses are littered with traps, fire pits, bottomless pits, robots, 2 way doors and many more things. Also, when you finish the game you can play again but you have to choose from 2 choices, starting again with no weapons and gadgets or starting again with all of your weapons and gadgets and the ability to upgrade your weapons even higher than they already are and even some old classic weapons. Speaking of which, if you have a save file containing Ratchet and Clank 1 or 2 then you can get your old weapons back which was a smart move by the developers.
The only real problem I had with the game was that it can become brutal at times, the difficulty can get intense in some places especially the final boss, I was over the moon when I defeated him, well worth it. Ratchet and Clank is a stunning game, with awesome graphics, perfect controls, outstanding weapons, a strong start, creative story, very fun boss battles and even an online multiplayer mode. The only problem was the hard difficulty but if you want a true platforming experience then you can't go wrong with this. Buy it now.
