Ratchet and Clank: Review of Destruction - 9/10

Ratchet and Clank: Review of Destruction
By Justin Murray

Few studios can make a triple A game in one year. Even fewer can do that on new and notoriously complex hardware. But that’s just what Insomniac games have done with their second outing on the Playstation 3. After dealing with the chimeran hoard in the SC-FI retrospective shooter and Playstation 3 launch title Resistance: Fall of Man. Insomniac has retuned to the Ratchet franchise they kick-started in the Playstation 2 era. The unlikely duo have made the jump to HD, and in the process they have gained some wacky and deadly tools of destruction.
Ratchet brings furries in to HD

Tools of Destruction starts off with our heroes receiving a call from intergalactic super hero and universal suck up Captain Quark. Quark states that a heavily armed space armada is attacking the planet. Ratchet takes off to investigate but soon lands in the culches of Emperor Percival Tachyon, the last of the Cragmites. Who seems to be hell bent on destroying Ratchet, the last of the lombaxes. The story of tools is for the most part well written. With excellent character interaction and a cohesive feel to it, that gels the action and exploration of the game together in a neat and tidy way. What sets the script for any Ratchet game apart from the pack is the cleaver humor that so few games manage to capture in a believable and funny way.

the Holo-Pirate disguise is so adorable

The platforming and exploration elements of Tools are often relegated to hidden areas and extra curricular activities. Which in return reward you with bolts or raritanium, or possibly even elusive gold bolts and holo plans. While platforming may not be the games major focus it is handled with same excellent controls, and the level of polish that the rest of the game enjoys.

Grind rails return in Tools of Destruction

As with any other Ratchet game the major focus is blowing things up, and the destructive tools with which you do so. Tools has kept this tradition very much alive with a killer selection of weapons that are both useful and fun to use. With weapons such as, the whip-like lightning ravanger or the mine-like plasma beasts, Ratchets arsenal in Tool’s wont disappoint. To get more out of your weapons you can upgrade its stats such as range, damage, area of effect and firing rate with the raritanium that is scattered around the environment, Making them even more deadly than before. The weapons also upgrade as you use them, rewarding you for using a weapon consistently.
Happy Feet

The big new addition to the series is the “combat devices”. These are weapons that are much rarer but much more powerful than the other weapons in the game. The combat devices include the dance inducing “grove-a-tron”, the “ Transmorpher” which changes enemies into penguins and many more. These are very handy in a pinch and ones like the grove-a-tron are just fun to use just to see the enemies dancing helplessly.

Dancing robot pirates, dose it get any better?

All the weapons in the world won’t help a title if you can’t control and fire them with ease and accuracy. But luckily Tools of Destruction can handle both of these fundamentals with grace, just not with its default control scheme. On default the game plays like any 3-rd person platformer, which is fine but defiantly not optimal. I’d strongly suggest changing to the lock strafe mod which makes the game control more like a 3-rd person shooter and its makes it much easer to get the enemies in your crosshairs
Planet Sargasso is one of the larger and more free roaming environments

Graphically Tools of destruction is head and shoulders above most PS3 games. From huge city metropolises being destroyed around you to epic space battles. This game is a real treat to the eyes and really shows off what the PS3 can do. The animations in Tools are also top notch. With each enemy in the game dancing to the grove-a-tron and just generally being comical. The music of tools is good but generally not all that memorable. How ever the voice acting is spot on and the performances are totally nailed by the entire cast.

The games opening level is just a taste of the great visuals that Tools boasts

Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction is with out a doubt one of the best games to grace the PS3 this year. And a must buy for any ps3 owner, with inter-stellar graphics, great (albeit not the default) controls, good story and voice work and enough crazy weapons to keep any one satisfied. The second PS3 outing from Insomniac is one incredible adventure and it defiantly doesn’t disappoint.


Gameplay 9/10
Graphics 9.5/10
Sound 8/10
Life span 8.5/10
Overall 9/10

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longarms 02/12/2007

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