Late to the Party: Ratchet & Clank remake

On 08/21/2019 at 02:09 PM by Ranger1

I suck at blogging these days.

I've been a huge fan of the Ratchet & Clank franchise since the first one came out on the PS2. That said, I was seriously on the fence about the remake. But it showed up in the PSN Summer Sale, so I figured "why not?" and bought it. I know it got all kinds of great reviews, but I found it disappointing. I'm not saying it's a bad game, I just feel let down. It took me a while to figure out what my issues were (this after playing through twice). So here I go:

1. The remake story. Ratchet's kind of an asshole to Clank in the original game, but he comes around at the end. This is called character development, and is essential to many stories. The remake has him as a "gee whiz, I wanna be a Galactic Ranger! And I love this little robot I just found!" right from the start. So yeah, remake story didn't do it for me.

2. Lack of in-game skill points. Yes, I know, it has trophies. Yay. But I still miss the in-game skill points. Imagine my delight when I decided to try out a new weapon by shooting the Statue of Captain Qwark at the start of the fitness course on Kerwan and it blew up and a little notice popped up telling me I had a skill point. And you never knew what silly thing you'd do to get them.

3. Not enough destructible items in the environment. The original games let you pretty much blow everything up. And awarded you skill points for doing it.

4. Tried to hard to cram too much into too short a game. Sometimes less is more. It seemed to me like they were trying to cram as much from all the previous games that they could into one remake of the original.

That's pretty much it. It's a great game, if you've never played a Ratchet & Clank game before. I think I'm going to hook my PS3 back up and replay the original three PS2 games that got the HD makeover for the PS3 and regain that sense of glee when blowing up the entire level.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

08/21/2019 at 04:05 PM

You need to take a Remedial Blogging class.

Ranger1

08/21/2019 at 04:44 PM

Brat.

08/21/2019 at 04:55 PM

You need one of those Blog GED courses.

SanAndreas

08/21/2019 at 07:12 PM

Sony just bought Insomniac, so hopefully they'll come up with a new R&C for you.

08/21/2019 at 08:22 PM

I shudder to think what this may entail. I'll just go back and play the old ones.

KnightDriver

08/21/2019 at 10:31 PM

I've had the originals for years. Now I have the remasters on PS3. Still haven't played them. Want to. Played the remake and really liked it. Your comments make me want to play the originals like I always intended to do. I have the choise of PS2 or PS3 now. Hum. . .

08/22/2019 at 08:12 AM

I'd go with the PS3 HD remakes. All on one disk, no memory cards, and they look great. Plus, you get both skill points and trophies!

08/23/2019 at 09:15 PM

Cool. I remember collecting those games for PS2 thinking I would probably love them. They got great reviews too in the magazines I was reading . I ended up getting to some of the PS3 ones but never got back to the first three. I got to find some time for them.

08/24/2019 at 08:11 AM

Those three games have remained consistently in my top ten since they were released. Play them in order, as they get increasingly more difficult, and it helps if you've gotten used to how to swap weapons and gadgets and how the controls work in a slightly easier setting.

08/24/2019 at 10:57 PM

I'll have to set up my PS3 again. I don't see them on PS Now.

Cary Woodham

08/22/2019 at 09:02 AM

I think the Ratchet and Clank games were some of the best 3-D platforming in the PS2 generation era. No disrespect to Mega Man Legends, but the first three Ratchet and Clank games are what a 3-D Mega Man game should've been. I haven't played the remake yet, but I did see the movie that I think it was based on. The movie was OK, but it just made me want to play the old games again.

08/22/2019 at 08:59 PM

The game wasn't bad, it just wasn't as good as the original three on the PS2. The levels weren't as long, not as much to do, and once you finished a level, most of the enemies and crates didn't respawn on revisits, so really hard to upgrade the weapons and collect bolts to buy new stuff. If I had never played the originals, I wouldn't be as disappointed with this remake.

PixlBit