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I am a huge fan of the series, having played both the original and the sequel. The first game is a stand alone classic and the second was even better. This blows both of them away.
I liked the weapons upgrades in the second game and this greatly improves it. Instead of one level up, there are FOUR. Combine that with the upgrades on challenge mode and your weapons will never get stale.
The minigames in the game are really fun. It has arena matches like those in the second game and adds combat missions alongside the Galactic Rangers. These can prove challenging but reward you with many bolts.
The first game had lots of humor in it. The second had some but not as much. This game returns to its roots and gets you laughing throughout the cut scenes.
Final Review: This game is bigger, better, and more fun than either of the first two games. Fork out the money and get it. Its well worth it.
Difficulty: Medium
Gameplay: Really Fun
Duration: 15-25 hrs (over 25 hrs to get everything)
Recomended: Most Definitely
Wait to Get It: Are you kidding me?
Final Score: 10/10
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The Ratchet and Clank series is one of the best all around gaming fun on the market. The games are long but interesting, you can replay them countless times, and now it's online too!First, the game is fun for kids and adults. There's a fair amount of humor that will go right over kids' heads, that adults will laugh their heads off of. There are all sorts of references to Aliens, Halo, and other pop culture events. There are also many references to the previous two Ratchet and Clank games, so I highly recommend you get those and play through them.
The graphics are really great in a cartooney way. The characters seem quite lifelike far more than in some pseudo-photorealistic games I've played recently. It's a testament to the talent of the animators of this game. You really do come to be quite fond of the various characters involved.
The weapons are simply BRILLIANT and now each one has four levels of upgrade, which makes them change in appearance and improve in functionality. You have lava guns, electric arcing guns, mini-turrets, and my favorites, the little doomie robots. Actually, each weapon is my favorite in certain situations. That's the brilliance here every weapon can be really a lot of fun.
The levels are all plotted out with their own look, feel, music, indigenous monsters, you name it. It is truly amazing how much this affects game enjoyability. Other games I've played recently had music that was lovely, but just didn't fit the mood of the level. It really makes a huge difference to have that done well.
Because you can go back to levels and gain more bolts, look for secret bonusses, find the titanium bolts, use your magnetic shoes, etc. etc., there is always room for more fun. This isn't a game that you play through once and put on a shelf. It's just as much time the second or twentieth time through the game, blasting away with your zappy electric gun or setting loose hordes of doomies.
And let's not forget the plot, which is full of laugh out loud comments and great, sly comments. This game just has everything you could want.
But there's more! The brilliant addition with Up Your Arsenal is the online gameplay. If you become a super player, not only can you kick through the game with ease, but you can take your gameplay online and find out just how good you really are! All of the great weapons and graphics are there for your enjoyment!
A must-buy for PS2 fans, 5/5.
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Ratchet and Clank was a suprisingly fun game. It's your typical 3-D third person shooter, like Destroy All HumansStory
Up Your Arsenal is the 3rd in a series. I have not played the first two, but I am inclined to try them out. It follows the humorous story of Ratchet, a cute cat-like alien wielding a big gun, and Clank, his little robot sidekick. However, from the perspective of most people in the game world, the roles are reversed. Clank is a James Bond like secret agent, and Ratchet is his bumbling chaufer.
This leads into the the comical nature of the story. For the most part, it's not gut busting comedy, but there's enough dry wit to keep you smiling, and sometimes laughing through the cut scenes, and sometimes during the game play as well.
The story also features Captain Quark, "The best superhero the galaxy has ever seen," who though being a coward and moron, overshadows Ratchet as well.
The game is also chalk full of references to other games and movies. There's enough that I'm certain to have missed a lot of them, and those I caught I really enjoyed. A few examples: One of the cowardly troops in the game exclaims "We're all gonna die! Game over, man!" borrowing from the movie Alien. Also there are a number of mini-games that are very similar to some old-school Atari games.
Weapons
Unlike many shooter games, you don't start off with a lame weapon that becomes increasingly useless as the game progresses. I'm speaking of course about that stupid single-shot pistol.
Instead, you start off with a wrench (melee weapon) that can 1-shot groups of small enemies both in the beginning and end of the game, as well as having a powerful jump attack that can 1-shot large enemies in the beginning, and 2or 3-shot large enemies in the end game. It's particularly useful in the end game to clean up groups of enemies to preserve ammo, or take out one or two enemies that have gotten too close.
The first ranged weapon you get in the 1st level is a shot-gun, a weapon powerful enough to be reserved for mid-game in similar games. The remaining weapons only get more powerful from there. The 2nd weapon you'll get is a ranged area-effect bomb that can groups of large enemies in a single shot.
To keep the weapons useful as the game progresses, they each become more powerful, the more you use them. Taking the shotgun for example, in the beginning it has a short range, but wide (cone) effect. When it gets to level 3, it gains a charge up ability increasing the depth of the cone, as well as damage done. At level 4, it can lock-on to enemies, so you can shoot easier while moving, and at level 5 (max) it gets a charge up ray effect with the power of the BFG in doom (no joke, it can level the playing field quite easily)
There are also a series of unique and very fun weapons, such as the Suck Cannon. A gun that vacuums up enemies, and then spits them out at other enemies. Also one of my favorites, the Duck Gun. A gun that just turns your enemies into harmless ducks! Strategically, I haven't found much of a use for it, but it's just fun turning things into ducks!
Difficulty
For the most part, I found the game relatively easy to play. There are about 20-30 different weapons to choose from, but the controls make it rather easy to swap weapons mid-combat. I've been able to use the rope gun to swing from one ledge to another, mid fall, switch to the remote turret launcher, and by the time I land have the laser whip in my hand to wreak havoc.
The game-play was easy enough to be relaxing and enjoyable, but not so easy that I got bored. I typically had to tried each level 1 to 3 times before I got passed it. For the most part each level is unique enough to keep me moving with out that "been there done that" feeling (like what you get in Halo) The levels were easy enough that I didn't feel the levels were impeding my ability to enjoy the story.
The only exception would be some of the last 3 or 4 levels that were to the point of difficulty that I had to spend 3-4 hours trying and retrying to pass them.
One thing to note, is the save style in the game. It uses save points and continue points (similar to Halo). Save points are places where you can start after turning off your Playstation. Continue points are places where you can start over from in the event of death, so you don't have to start over from the beginning, so long as you don't turn off the Playstation. For the most part this wasn't too bad, but there were a couple places where I was forced to repeat a boring (easy) part that took 5 minutes, just to get to die at the hard part, over and over and over again. That got frustrating, but at least there weren't too many such places.
Play Time
Ratchet and Crank is a quick game. With out any prior experience with the game or others in the series, I was able to beat it in about 20 hours of game play. If I tried again (which I'm certain to do soon), I could probably beat it in about 14 to 15 hours play time. Someone who knew it inside and out could probably beat it in about 10 hours.
Replayability
The game is loaded with hidden location, and unlockable features. Even after the 20 hours of play time, I'll be going back to levels I've already beaten to find those secret locations, so I can unlock more skins, cheats, etc. Similar to Rogue Squadron, there are places in earlier levels that are inaccessible with out tools or weapons that are earned later in the game, encouraging the player to go back and replay some levels to unlock various secrets.
It's also a fast enough game, with enough humor that I wouldn't be surprised to find myself playing it through from beginning to end again with in the year.
Honest reviews on Ratchet & Clank Up Your Arsenal - PlayStation 2
Without doubt, the Ratchet & Clank series has my favorite PS2 games. This installment of the series has the solid foundation of the first two and thus it's still a good game. However, this game simply didn't deliver the entertainment of the first two.Pros:
1) The game writers retain their sense of humor, which I believe is CRITICAL in a Ratchet & Clank game.
2) The major new feature of this game is a mini-platform-game. It's a Super Mario Bros. type game with Cpt. Quark and it's really fun.
3) They replaced the rocket ship battles with hovercraft battles and they are almost all optional.
Cons:
1) The game was too short. I completed the single player in 20 hours and I usually complete Ratchet & Clank in 40.
2) Multiplayer mode doesn't make up for a lacking single player game. Unreal 2004 is much better for this type of multiplayer game.
3) The diversity of monsters is disappointing. The first three worlds show the usual Ratchet & Clank gameplay of each world having its own monsters and the best weapons to kill them. The following worlds see the same monsters over and over so combat gets repetitive.
4) The many ways weapons upgrade is pretty fun, but if you use a weapon infrequently, it'll become useless later because it doesn't have the power you need.
5) The laser-allignment puzzles to open doors have changed to speed challenges requiring minimal intelligence and fast reflexes. There are no intellectual puzzles anymore.
6) Nearly all of the acrobatic challenges are restricted to the arena and they aren't very challenging. There is only one significant swingshot and powered platform challenge. The skating and rail-grinding challenges are completely gone.
7) There's only one 'asteroid' world.
Overall, this version of Ratchet & Clank is much more focused on combat and far less on puzzles and acrobatics and the combat isn't as varied as it used to be.
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I've loved all three of the games in the Ratchet and Clank series, this one no less. I'm not an active Online gamer, epecially where Shooter games are concerned, so that wasn't a big deal. Unfortunately, it seems that the Online mode caused the One-player mode to come up a little short in this installment. There just seem to be fewer levels. That could only be a perception, however. As I've not counted the number of levels/missions, I can't back that up with statistics. It just seems that I flew through the main story more quickly than I did the first two (or at least the second, Going Commando).Pros:
1. New weapons (the Rift Inducer is really cool), with more levels of upgrades than before.
2. Freebies from saved games of R&C 1&2
3. Online capable
4. New mini-games
5. Acquiring bolts is much easier
Cons:
1. One-player mode seems to lack size in comparison to Going Commando (fewer worlds?)
2. You don't have the 'dogfight' missions in your spacecraft. Sure, there are hovercraft missions, but they aren't as cool.
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