Nut Load. Mini reviews of games old and new. No fuss. No spoilers. Occasional shock face.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time (2009)

Genre: Platformer | Players: 1 | Developer: Insomniac Games

Third and final part of the Ratchet & Clank: Future trilogy, and by far the best.  It concludes the story that began in Tools of Destruction and continued in Quest for Booty.  It’s not essential to have played Quest for Booty, but do play Tools of Destruction first if you want to follow the story.  As such, I can’t go into plot details but people don’t play the R&C games for plot anyhow, it for the big-ass guns that bring big-ass fun and the excellent level design.  There are new weapons and some old favourites (yes, the RYNO but you’ll have to work hard to get it).  There's other equipment surprises, too, that I won't spoil but I predict that one of them will become your new best friend.

New to the series is Clank solving tricky temporal puzzles that start simple: flick a switch and a door opens or floating platform appears enabling progress.  Get deeper into the game and you’ll need to flick three or four switches simultaneously.  Clank can record one of his actions using ‘Time Pads’ and set it to playback while he performs a different task.  You’ll need to record yourself up to four times and get the timing precise to complete some of the trickier puzzles.

You have the freedom to fly your ship from place to place in real time.  It gives you optional tasks and enemies to kill along the way.  You can stop off at small moons and obtain bolts and upgrades etc.

As always, after the main game finishes you can enter Challenge Mode which lets you replay the story with your weapons, bolts, exp, and upgrades intact, and adds the ability to obtain ever more powerful weapons.  There are also some optional Clank puzzles that'll really melt your brain, or maybe cause you to rip out all your hair… all of it, from even the most secret places!  They are feckin hard.

It's the same R&C formula I love, honed and tweaked to perfection.  If you hated the previous games then you'll likely hate A Crack in Time, too.

Buyer’s Guide:
Available for PS3 only, on a regular blu-ray disc.

4 shames for Mr Zurkon out of 5

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