It’s difficult not to like Ratchet the lombax. He’s cute, he’s furry, and he’s saved the galaxy from certain doom no less than three times! Plus, he’s got Clank, his adorable little British robot-friend. But Ratchet has really gotten himself into a pickle this time- he has been kidnapped by the head of the evil and sinister Vox television network and forced to fight in a series of gladiatorial bouts, which are being broadcast on holovision as a reality show.
Worst of all, Ratchet and Clank have been separated. This is somewhat of as disappointment because the segments in which you got to play as Clank were some of the more enjoyable ones in the previous games. However, Ratchet is not left to trek across perilous terrain alone; he has been given two bots who provide backup fire and follow commands given by pressing the d-pad. In short, they function like teammates in an FPS game, and this is exactly what they are supposed to be like. In fact, the initial control scheme is set up like a FPS. This was really annoying, since I am not a fan of the genre, and I almost put down the controller until the game told me I could change the scheme to one that was more similar to the other Ratchet games. Of course, if your two most favorite things ever are FPS games and Ratchet games, then this if wonderful news. If FPS games are the bane of your existence, then rest assured, you really can change the scheme.
Fundamentally, Ratchet: Deadlocked is almost identical to the previous games. Even though he is being held captive and forced to battle for his life on a reality show, the majority of the game does not take place in a battle arena. Instead, Ratchet rides around on a planetary transport ship to different planets. Each planet has been fiendishly transformed into an obstacle course of sorts. But not just any obstacle course- Ratchet must traverse an evil obstacle course full of enemies. When Ratchet completes the goal, he moves on to his next objective. The aforementioned bots are very handy in these segments. In addition to providing backup fire, they can also disable shields that cannot be penetrated by normal fire. Also, they can “capture nodes.” If you have played any of the previous Ratchet games (or if you have not, just follow along), you might remember encountering a screw sticking up out of the ground. Ratchet could walk up to the screw, latch onto it with his handy dandy wrench and then screw it back into the ground. Doing this might lower a bridge or trigger an event. These screws have returned, but they are called “nodes” now. And you “capture” them by screwing them in. Or, rather, the bots can screw the “nodes” in now, which is nice, because it wasn’t particularly pleasant to run around in a circle frantically screwing in the screw while being shot at.
After the mandatory missions on each planet, there are a series of “optional” challenges. They are not really optional because you need the points awarded for completing these challenges to unlock new planets and tournaments. The optional challenges can involve similar objectives to those found in the regular missions, or you might find yourself piloting a vehicle and trying to make it through a course while hitting all the checkpoints, or perhaps you might have to jump into a mech, shoot at targets, and rack up a certain number of points. More often than not, these challenges are a lot of fun.
Tournaments are also straightforward. Ratchet enters the arena and must fight round after round of enemies until he defeats them all. The tournament usually culminates with a boss battle of sorts, in which Ratchet must defeat a senior gladiator.
Just about anyone who has played (and enjoyed) a Ratchet and Clank game will agree that the fun of the game is not getting from point A to point B, but rather how you get from point A to point B. That is, the weapons you choose to use along the way. In the past, Ratchet games always featured silly and creative weapons like a glove that shot out little animals that would run over and attack the enemies for you, a gun that morphed enemies into harmless sheep or a gun that created a vortex that enemies got sucked into. Ratchet: Deadlocked does not have any fun weapons. Maybe it’s simply the nature of the tournament, but each and every weapon in the game is designed to deal quickly and efficiently with the enemies. However, modifications for the weapons can be purchased for the vendor, so you can add cold damage, shock damage, and even napalm damage to the weapon. Best of all, these mods are interchangeable, so you can switch from cold to shock relatively easily. As always, weapons are purchased with bolts collected from vanquished enemies. There are no bolt crates in this game.
In the past, Ratchet games have also been famous for their gadgets, but there are almost no gadgets in this game. As always, this can be seen as a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your point of view. The only gadget that appears in this game is the Swingshot, which allows Ratchet to cross wide chasms. The Swingshot will supposedly deploy automatically by running off the edge of a cliff and hitting the “O” button. This is the same button used to fire weapons, and I had trouble getting the timing right, so more often than not, I ended up shooting off a couple of rounds before plummeting sadly to my death. Fortunately, for those less talented, you can also manually switch over to the Swingshot by accessing the weapons select screen.
Ratchet begins the game with a relatively small amount of health, but as he makes his way through the various obstacle course, he gains experience. When his bar fills up, he gains another life point. Also, each weapon has an experience bar, and when that bar fills up, the weapons gains a level and becomes more powerful. Eventually, when a particular weapon has leveled up enough, it becomes a super weapon.
Graphically, Ratchet: Deadlocked is very similar to its predecessors. The characters and environments have very cartoon-like characteristics. There were not any apparent instances of graphical slowdown or glitchiness, even during the fierce firefights in which tons of enemies were on screen at one time.
As I mentioned before, Ratchet and Clank are separated from each other in this iteration of the series, so their clever banter is virtually non-existent. They have attempted to fill this banter void with match commentary from a male alien and female robot. Put simply, it doesn’t work. At all. The writers gave the commentary pair some sort of passive-aggressive love-hate relationship, and it’s really annoying to have to listen to them. Also, the mocking reality television undertone of the cutscenes is a little dated and seems a little anachronistic. The music adds to the ambience without getting overwhelming, as do the sound effects.
It doesn’t take too long to power through all of the planets and tournaments, especially on the easier difficulty levels. When you beat the game, you have the option to restart the game in “Challenge Mode”. This allows you to go through the game a second time with all of the weapons and bolts you have already acquired. Additionally, you have a bolt multiplier that will give you up to twenty times the number of bolts earned as you progress through the game. The number on the bolt multiplier increases the longer you go without taking a hit. This increase in bolts allows you to purchase the super-pricey weapons; every weapon that you have leveled up to the max now has a super mega version available for purchase from the vendor. These weapons are well over a million bolts, but you will reach this quickly if you are reasonably skilled at not taking damage.
There is also a multiplayer mode, but this appears to be the single player campaign in a split-screen mode. It was quite difficult to maneuver Ratchet (or rather Ratchets) this way, especially with the original FPS control scheme.
Although it would seem that such a feat was just about impossible, Ratchet: Deadlocked seems to be just like all the other Ratchet games, while simultaneously being like nothing like them at all. They’ve taken out the puzzle elements, and most of the humor that made the series so endearing. What’s left is pretty much just a whole lot of shooting, and this can potentially alienate a huge portion of Ratchet fans. If you’re not hugely disappointed by all the changes I’ve listed, then I encourage you to rent the game. If you’re still psyched for another Ratchet adventure, then Ratchet: Deadlocked will not disappoint you.
