Developer: High Impact Games
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Genre: Third-Person Action
Platform: PS2, PSP (Reviewed on PSP)
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone 10+)
Players: 1 (1-4 Online)
Hours Played: 15 hours
Game Progress: Finished single player twice
Before I bought a PSP I was checking out reviews of games online to see which were the best titles. I wanted to make sure my starting library was top notch. I ended up getting Killzone, God of War and Resistance along with the Ratchet and Clank PSP bundle. Least to say I was stoked to get home and start playing some of those games, I didn’t really care much for Ratchet at the time. I figured I’d play Ratchet first just to get the game out of the way, I mean it came with the bundle and was at least worth a try, right? That was about two weeks ago and I have barely touched any of the games I had purchased separately. Fifteen hours into the game, I have finished the single player game twice, played online matches against other people and still have items to collect and weapons to upgrade. Size has always mattered, you just won’t realize it until you play Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters.
Not having played any of the other Ratchet and Clank games, I was unsure what to expect. I had heard and read very positive things about the series, but personally wasn’t expecting much. I was simply blown away by how much fun this game is! There are a handful of different planets to explore, tons of weapons and armor to find and even the weapons themselves are able to be upgraded in many ways. It is interesting seeing RPG elements being thrown into the game by allowing your weapons to gain experience.
The more you use a weapon the more experience it will gain and eventually level up. Each weapon has multiple levels to keep you busy, many times I went back to previous planets with my favourite weapons killing and blowing up enemies to max out their level. Everything from the cow gun to the rocket launcher are crazy fun to play with, turning enemies into exploding animals is way too sweet. Sometimes it can be hard to choose what weapon you want to use because they are all so fun to play with. Luckily all you have to do is hold down the triangle button to bring up the quick select menu, making it easy to switch between all of your favourite weapons. If you have ever played Diablo you know that different armour sets gave you different bonus effects, just like in Diablo, Ratchet and Clank’s armour sets give you special bonus effects. These effects range from ice shards exploding from the ground damaging any nearby enemies to laying down pulsating mines.
There are plenty of different maps to explore and blow things up. Each planet has a different theme, which can feel a little like High Impact Games randomly decided the different environments. Randomness aside, the environments are extremely well done and look great. Maps never feel too difficult, enemies are well placed and there are tons of secret areas to find. To get everything in this game you will have to play through it multiple times, which really isn’t a bad thing. After you have gone through and collected everything you can hit up some online with up to three other people. Deathmatch was the only mode I tried and found it to be very fun, though now it may be hard to find enough people to fill up a match.
The reason why you go to all these different planets is not because Ratchet is bored and decides to going blowing things up randomly, but because a girl you meet at the start of the game is captured by robots. Naturally the hero he is, Ratchet goes all over the galaxy finding clues and hints as to where the girl has been taken and what they want with her. Oh, I know, it’s revolutionary. It’s not a new idea but it could have been a lot worse, and is really the only major complaint about this game that I have.
If you are a fan of platforming and lots of action you need to pick up this title if you don’t already have it. Ratchet and Clank Size Matters can be picked up for only $19.99 at most retail stores so there really isn’t an excuse to not own this game.
Summary
Graphics:
+ Environments and characters look great on the handheld
+ Weapons look crazy sweet
+ Lots of cool explosions/effects
Audio:
+ Voice acting is good, really good
– Some audio cancels out when the action gets intense
Gameplay:
+ Phenomenal action, lots of guns to choose from
+ Controls are very solid
+ Upgradeable weapons can become very powerful and pretty bad-ass looking
– Could use a few more planets to explore
Lasting Appeal:
+ Tons of items to collect and upgrade
+ Online multiplayer
9.0
