Late to the Party: Ratchet & Clank Future Tools of Destruction

On 06/30/2020 at 11:02 PM by Ranger1

So during my Ratchet & Clank marathon, I've realized that I abandoned this game part-way through when I bought it ten years ago. I know this because I checked the date on my save files. And as Snee will tell you, my OCD makes sure that I play games in order, so that also means that I never played A Crack In Time or Into the Nexus. Oops! I wonder what new and shiny game came out to tempt me away from Tools of Destruction. Or maybe I got to the so frustrated I needed to stop or I was going to throw a controller phase. Who knows what was going through my mind ten years ago.

Anyway, I think I'm at the point I where I quit before.I keep dying at this one particular spot, so I decided to give the game a rest for a while and write a quick blog post.

The stuff I love:
Having devices and weapons.
Mr Zurkon and the Groovitron.
The Nano-Swarmers, Plasma Beasts, Predator Launcher, Alpha Disrupter, and Negotiator.
The usual silly humor
Clank's new abilities from the Zonis.
Collecting Leviathan souls to sell to the Smuggler.
The new Skill Point system. Some things are worth more than others, depending on difficulty.

The stuff I don't like:
The Visicopter
The Tornado Launcher

The Decryptor

At this point, anyone familiar with the game is going to be seeing a pattern with the stuff I don't like. Namely, the Sixaxis controls. I am so not a fan. Especially the Decryptor. I can ignore the other two items, but I have to use the Decryptor in order to get through the game. There were many, many naughty words shouted at the TV today. I'll get over it, game's too good to be mad at for long. And I still have the RYNO IV to look forward to. I suspect that's what the Holoprint that I've been collecting pieces of is going to be.

I think I'm about 2/3 of the way through the story, maybe a bit more, and part of the fun of R&C games is going around after beating the game, but before starting a new game in Challenge Mode, and collecting all the goodies I missed and trying to get all the Skill Points I didn't get while playing through the story.

I did do a run through of R&C: Quest For Booty, and it was quick, and kind of unsatisfying. No skill points, limited weapons, and no giant bolts to find. It was very short and felt kind of like the crumbs left in the bottom of the chip bag - tasty, but not enough to really satisfy your hunger.

Well, enough for now. I finally got my five movie Jurassic Park/World Blu-Ray set that I ordered from Amazon at least three weeks ago. So much for being a Prime member these days. My plan was to spend my rainy day off having a Jurassic Park movie marathon, but having the power go out for much of the day kind of killed those plans. Oh, well. there's always tomorrow, in between chores.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

07/01/2020 at 02:04 PM

I've never played one of these. Don't know why. But man, the new one looks AMAZING. I'm definitely going to get that.

Ranger1

07/02/2020 at 10:03 AM

Shame on you. That's all I have to say.

mothman

07/07/2020 at 02:49 PM

What Tamwise said. Go to your room and think about what you've not done.

Casey Curran Staff Writer

07/01/2020 at 02:11 PM

Like most Ratchet and games, I loved ToD but prefer A Crack in Time. That's my favorite

07/02/2020 at 10:06 AM

I'm looking forward to playing that one next. I'm having a good time with Tools of Destruction, and I just passed where I dropped it ten years ago. I am looking forward to acquiring the RYNO IV, because who doesn't love a RYNO?

KnightDriver

07/01/2020 at 05:25 PM

I think I stopped playing Quest for Booty because of some jumping element, I forget really. I've played some of the other PS3 R&C games but I don't remember finishing any of them for some strange reason. I have the PS3 collection of the first three games, so I have no real excuse for not doing my own R&C binge. I'm excited about the new one, but I'm not sure I'll have the cash for a PS5.

My procrastination with many R&C games has been that I mostly play with my friend Mark on Xbox. If I can find the time, though, R&C games are high on my list for Sony systems.

07/02/2020 at 10:08 AM

Play the PS3 collection first. And Quest for Booty was pretty meh compared to the rest of the games.

07/02/2020 at 10:09 PM

That's a good plan. Now to create a worm hole where I can go and play for hours in another dimension that only takes minutes here on Earth.

Cary Woodham

07/01/2020 at 07:48 PM

I never played much of the PS3 Ratchet and Clank game because I got it very late in the PS3 lifecycle. The PS4 just runs so much better, although I didn't get my PS4 until two years after it was released, and I got it on a Black Friday sale.

Since you mentioned Jurassic Park, have you played the LEGO Jurassic World game? It's one of the better LEGO games out there and very funny.

07/02/2020 at 10:10 AM

Cary, not only have I played LEGO Jurassic World, but I got the platinum trophy. And I may also have bought it for the Xbox360 and 100% completed it there, too...

SanAndreas

07/02/2020 at 04:13 PM

Like Snee, I have only a passing familiarity with R&C, given that my tastes run more towards RPGs and Nintendo. Sounds like you're having a ball. What does the Decryptor do that you hate it so much?

07/12/2020 at 01:27 PM

It's a gadget that is essential one of those rolling marble puzzles, but you have to use it to connect circuits to get a spark to the correct point. That sunds easy, right? But the six axis controls are terrible and frustrating.

You know that my tastes mostly run to RPGs as well, but if I could only ever play one game/franchise again in my life, I could replay R&C over and over again and not get bored. In terms of my favorite ever franchise, it is a tie with the DQ franchise. Come to the dark side, we have cookies, lol.

Super Step Contributing Writer

07/03/2020 at 08:01 PM

Only R&C I've ever played is renting Going Commando on PS2 and the remake of the original (which apparently is not much like the original) I own for PS4.

But having dealt with motion controls in Dreams on PS4 recently, I can only imagine how horrid the motion controls in a PS3 title when it was new enough that anyone would have given a crap about Sixaxis control.

07/12/2020 at 01:29 PM

Going Commando is and will probably remain my favorite R&C title. Other than the crap sixaxis controls, it was a fun game, though. I just finished A Crack In Time, will blog about that sometime in the next couple of days.

And yes, the PS4 remake is not so good. I wrote a bog entry about it a while back.

07/12/2020 at 02:45 PM

I still enjoyed the PS4 remake, but probably because I have no nostalgia for or memory of the original game.

07/13/2020 at 02:48 AM

It wasn't a bad game. I just expected better than I got, which was a dumbed down version of the first that tried to cram too many things from all of the games in.

07/13/2020 at 03:42 AM

Ah. I heard the movie was pretty meh. I kinda blame the fact there was a movie tie-in for the game's shortcomings. Not cause I know that's the case or have seen the movie; just seems like a likely and easy target of critique.

PixlBit

Late to the Party: Ratchet & Clank Future Tools of Destruction

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