Gameplay

Ratchet and Clank starts out with a simple story to get you into the action. You're Ratchet, a catlike alien with a penchant for fixing things. One day you're working on your spaceship and from out of the blue another spaceship crashes down nearby. Ratchet goes exploring, and you discover Clank, a small robot who's on a quest to find Captain Quark, the greatest superhero in the galaxy. Clank needs to contact Quark to let him know that the evil residents of a wrecked planet are going around stealing parts of healthy planets in order to build their own. Of course, Clank wants Quark to stop the evil aliens, but the game ends up with Ratchet and Clank doing all the saving. Ratchet and Clank jump into Ratchet's ship, and the adventure begins.

So the gameplay…well if you've ever played Spyro the Dragon, Ratchet and Clank plays almost the same. You roam around fighting off bad guys while grabbing powerups and other items to help you along the way. In Ratchet and Clank, you need to collect bolts, which appear in crates (which you can smash) and whenever you beat up a bad guy he'll break into a pile of bolts. While it seems simple enough, you must always be sure to pick up every bolt you can find, since later in the levels you'll use those bolts as currency to purchase newer weapons and upgrades for Clank.

Speaking of Clank, he functions as a sort of personal utility kit. In the beginning of the game, he just rides around on your back, but later, after some upgrades, he becomes an able helper. Early on you'll buy a helicopter kit, which allows you limited flying and gliding capability via Clank. Along with being a great helper, Clank's naïve personality leads to some cute cut-scenes that really give this game personality.

Controlling Ratchet is simple enough, with the left stick handling movement, the right handling the camera. If you prefer, you can of course use the D-pad for movement. Should you find the camera hasn't caught up with all the running you've been doing, a quick tap on the R1 button will immediately re-center the camera. It's not often necessary, but it certainly is helpful. The face buttons allow you to jump, crouch, fire weapons and quickly select your preferred weapons.

Weapons are pretty basic in Ratchet and Clank, but they're great fun. At the start of things, you'll be equipped with a wrench and a bomb glove. The wrench is your close-in weapon, allowing you to knock out the enemies from short range. By jumping in the air then hitting the wrench attack, you'll deliver a massive axe-swing style club attack, doing heavy damage to the baddies. The bomb glove is a mid-range weapon that flings small bombs at the target of your choosing. Later weapons include the suck-gun, an absolute riot to use as it first sucks enemies into it, and then lets you fire them out of it as high-speed projectiles. When using the suck-gun, I found myself frequently saying "this is exactly how the vacuum should have worked in Blinx for Xbox". To obtain new weapons, you'll have to have plenty of bolts to trade with the local weapons vendors, so don't miss any bolts as you run through the level or you'll find yourself going back through the level again to find them so you can buy a new weapon.

The levels in Ratchet and Clank are bright and "happy" with plenty of eye-candy. While the game itself is somewhat easy, the puzzles are what really keep you playing it, along with learning how to make things "work". Early levels have you trying to cross what appear to be broken bridges, then realizing you have to use your wrench to crank a giant bolt, which raises the bridge. It's little touches like that, which add plenty of fun and an element of discovery to Ratchet and Clank.

Graphics

The graphics in Ratchet and Clank quite simply amazed me. I had to double check that I was playing a PlayStation 2 title at one point. I simply could not believe they could pull such incredibly color and detail out of a console that's over three years old at this point. Ratchet, Clank and all the bad guys are well detailed, with little signature looks and motions that make you want to just stop and watch them at times to see what they'll do next.

Animation is as fluid as it can get, with the game never once choking on screens full of enemies, bolts and terrain textures. I was pleasantly surprised by the almost complete lack of clipping in Ratchet and Clank, as lately I've run across one too many titles where I was able to walk through walls and disappear into terrain objects. If you swing that big wrench at a wall, 99.9% of the time it's going to bounce back at your with a little shower of sparks, letting you know there's no clipping here!

While most games rely on "Now Loading" screens to handle the transition between levels, the developers at Insomniac opted to make it a little more interesting. In place of the boring old loading bar, you get to watch our heroes jump into their spaceship and fly to the next world. You'd never know you were watching a load screen, especially since load times are so minimal.

Sound

Ratchet and Clank has the happiest soundtrack I've heard in a long time. After dealing with so many dark Xbox and PC game soundtracks, it's nice to hear a score that keeps you awake while keeping you interested in the game. On more than one occasion I've been told, "stop humming those weird little songs", only to realize I was humming level music from Ratchet and Clank.

Along with the fun little score, the game sounds themselves are well done. From your wrench crashing through crates to the chopper sounds of Crank's helicopter upgrade, it's all good stuff.

Voice acting is of a very high quality, too. I particularly like the fact that each voice really fits the appropriate character, without being annoying at all. Captain Quark sounds like your typical cheeseball superhero, while the alien overlord is all about being a cosmic business man, he's got that slick and sly voice that lets you know he's going to do something sneaky.

Replayability

There are over a dozen worlds to explore, each with a variety of puzzles and hidden levels, so you're sure to find plenty of replay here. Just as it was with Spyro, there's always a reason to go back and "try that blasted level one more time" to see what you can find.  You may finish Ratchet and Clank pretty quickly, but that doesn't mean you won't come back to it again and again.

Overall, Ratchet and Clank is my platformer of choice for the PlayStation 2. If you're looking for all the magic of the old Spyro games with a lot of fun new twists and a major graphical upgrade, skip the new Spyro and head straight for Ratchet and Clank. A definite buy.

See more screens on the Ratchet and Clank media page