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

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty (2008)

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

At the end of Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction something happened that was later resolved in Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time.  This mini adventure slips in between those two larger games and tells the story of what Ratchet got up to with Talwyn.  He went looking for booty (not hers).
It’s the same running, double jumping, simple puzzle solving antics that we've come to expect from the series.

As usual, the game engine is almost flawless.  You can dodge, strafe or jump in all directions while targeting and shooting with ease.  It added the ability to lift various things with your wrench (the ever-reliable Omniwrench Millennium 12), which became a regular feature.

It’s a short game, you can finish it in one or two sittings (depending on how long you consider a “sitting” to be - I’d estimate it takes about 5 hours) but it has the same high standards as the full length games.  The developers care about the franchise and it shows.  Textures and character models look amazing in HD, if you care about such things.  My one complaint is some of the cavernous levels are almost too dark.  I had to tinker with the contrast more than once.

For me the real fun in the Ratchet games comes from levelling up the ridiculously named and oversized weapons.  They start small and after many kills eventually become a devastating explosive barrage of hot death.  It feels good having a weapon the size of a coffee table on your shoulder.

Buyer’s Guide:
PS3 only.  Originally a PSN title.  It was later released on a regular blu-ray disc in Europe only.  Because of its short length it was a lower price than normal.

3 Crotchetizers and butterscotch Snickerdoodles out of 5

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