So, let me start at the beginning. It all started with a wrench. Ratchet could not move and throw the wrench at the same time. Honest. Reminds you of Resident Evil, huh? But you need not fear much; all of that has been remedied. In Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time, Ratchet can throw the wrench while he moves, the environments are more destructible, the script is funnier, Captain Copernicus Qwark is still the man and the Clank levels are not boring anymore. And yes, all of this at 60 frames per second. Well, most of the time anyway.
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Regardless, of my banal banter and my attempts to be humorous, I would like to state, and very categorically at that, that A Crack in Time is the best game in the entire series. But how does it achieve that, you might ask mayhap? For starters, the game has refined itself in various segments, whether it be shooting, platforming and some more, er, shooting and platforming, with some great puzzles thrown in between. Yes, the platforming segments are fantastic in ACIT. As Ratchet, you are in search of your robot pal, Clank, who was abducted by the mysterious beings known as the Zoni (at the end of Tools of Destruction), who have unwittingly managed to hand him over to the duo’s arch nemesis Doctor Nefarious. While the previous games did touch upon Ratchet’s lineage and how he picks up the trail on Clank, ACIT is all about how he attempts to rescue him and in turn save the universe from Dr. Nefarious’, well, nefarious designs.
While all of that is nice and sweet, what matters most in an R&C game is the shooting and the platforming and this game is by far the one that gives the player the satisfaction of some great, responsive controls, a superb level design and plenty of room to blow stuff up. You honestly cannot come up with the name of one other game that gives you a bull frog-like creature as a weapon that uses its loud belches as ammo (that’s my interpretation anyway). What about a pissed off little robot that hovers around you, killing everything in sight while letting the world know that he does not come in peace. Hilarious.
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While travelling to different planets was always a part of R&C games, ACIT gives you inter-planetary travel – expanded. You can now explore space, travel to some smaller planets, find stuff (read Golden bolts and other assorted items) and fight the scum of the galaxy while you are at it. It must be mentioned that these planets have some great platforming segments and are an enhanced version of the ‘spherical worlds’ concept introduced by Going Commando and Up Your Arsenal (also seen in Super Mario Galaxy). This part of the game actually seeks to bring out the ‘collector’ in you. Seek out new stuff, help out a few space travellers and gain some more bolts; not a bad idea at all. The space travel takes place on a 2D plane and while it could have been better with a full 3D plane, I have no complaints about it. You can upgrade your spaceship by collecting items, which might grant you access to better weapons, shields and manoeuvrability.
While you play as Ratchet, Insomniac did not forget about Clank, and boy, have they improved on his gameplay. Clank’s segments centre primarily around platforming and puzzles. While the platforming part has been done well, it is the puzzles that steal the show. These aren’t the ‘fetch and use’ variety that you encounter in most games, but rather the ones that make you use your cranium a bit. All of these involve manipulation of time using ‘time pads’, where Clank can record his actions in a particular time frame and use those actions to help him in another time frame.
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Another way to put it is parallelism. You need to perform, say, two actions at the same time but time and physical limitations allow to do only one. You then use the time pads to perform one of the actions and record it. You then replay it while performing the second action, thereby doing both things at the same time. My explanation may make it sound pretty simple, but you can be rest assured that they are pretty complex the deeper you go into the game. In fact, Insomniac has put in an option of bypassing the puzzles at the press of a button. While I am not in favour of such moves, I can understand that some of the younger gamers would find the puzzles pretty difficult, so they have included the option to bypass them completely.
The R&C series has always been known for its humour and ACIT is no different in this aspect. One-liners, pop-culture references and now even internet humour are included in the game, and they will surely get at least a chuckle out of you from time to time, be it Captain Qwark’s histrionics, Dr. Nefarious’s outrageously clichéd and villainous dialogue, or his butler, Lawrence’s subtle and sarcastic quips.
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You would remember that when Tools of Destruction came out, it was compared (visually) to the Pixar movies. While in reality it did not quite match up to a fully pre-rendered CG movie, ToD had the look and feel of one. ACIT, too, maintains the tradition. It looks fantastic and maintains that visual fidelity throughout the game. Bright colours, fluid animations, massive explosions and swarms of enemies on-screen make ACIT seem like a technical wonder at times considering that it manages to run at 60 fps at most times.
The only areas where I found it a wee bit lacking visually were the lighting, and the frame rate, which can drop on a few occasions when there is too much action on screen. But fun gameplay quite makes you gloss over these minor details. On the audio front, R&C feels quite like the sci-fi action game it is meant to be. But the part that I love the most is the voice acting, which in my eyes (or ears), ranks amongst the best in industry. The delivery and style is impeccable for all characters.
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While there are so many reasons to praise ACIT, the game is after all a culmination of all things great about previous R&C games. It almost feels like a highly polished and refined R&C game crammed with content that will take you some time to be done with. Some might feel that ACIT is ‘more of the same’, but when you are having so much fun, there is hardly a reason to complain and think along those lines. It is however different in some ways; it has a more cohesive story, tighter gameplay, more side missions, challenging mini-games, more things to collect and of course, it is the closure of the Future trilogy. It took me nearly fourteen hours to complete the game and I I haven’t done everything that could have been done.
Conclusion
This game is, above all, about Ratchet and Clank, their friendship, and the bond that they share as friends. If this is indeed the final chapter of the R&C series, for the foreseeable future anyway, then Insomniac could not have chosen a better end. My final words on this – “Go, buy”.
(+) Great platforming segments
(+) Fantastic puzzles
(+) Visually impressive
(+) Great story and closure
(-) May feel a bit similar to the other games in the series
Title: Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time
Developer/Publisher: Insomniac Games/Sony
Genre: Platforming
Rating: 7+
Platforms: PS3 (Rs 2,499)
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