Tuesday, 2 June 2015

Ratchet Gladiator Review

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/yFBH3kYcGUs/hqdefault.jpg 
“Would you lose your lunch if you had to sit through another reality dating show? Is your “Blargs Gone Wild” scratched from overuse? Then it’s time to turn that dial, to something a little more...Dangerous. Time for some real action. IT’S TIME TO BLOW S&!% UP!” Gleeman Vox

Story
Ratchet, Clank and Al get kidnapped by minions of Gleeman Vox and now have to compete in his reality show to survive.
That’s pretty much it. It’s propably the simplest of the R&C plots. No twist, no grand reveals, just another adventure for our favourite mechanic and his celebrity robot friend. Vox is also one of the smallest scale villains in terms of serious threat. Yes, he was still a madman that needed to be stopped, but he focused on his sales and media than say; destroying the galaxy for selfish needs.
Before I started this review, I lookd on TV tropes and it said that this is a “Darker” game and while the game is more focus on the shooting this time, the story isn’t that dark. Ratchet and Clank always had that black, slapstick comedy like that commercial where we see all those scientists get injured or kill.

Gameplay
Before you begin playing, I recommended picking a control scheme you are comfortable with as you don’t have Clank playing with you this time and the default controls might feel awkward at first. Also I never played the multiplayer with any one so don’t expect any comments on that. Although I will that the levels are clearly design for multiplayer as well.
The levels are divided in into missions. Each can be either: kill all the enemies, get to the exit or capture some points. There also some bonus missions that you can do to get points and go further in the game like race against the clock, do a mission with a handicap, get a certain amount of points and many others.
You can get about ten guns like dual pistols, a mine-launcher, a frail or one of the better nuke weapons, but you can also get omega mods like acid, brainwashing, mini-bombs and the traditional morph. This time is the last three and pigs, and every time you level up a gun, you get an alpha mod which can increase your ammo count or area of effect.  With this, you can customise your guns any way you want like a grenade launcher that turns enemies into farm animals. Of course some mods don’t work with every weapon.
And finally; the vehicles.  There are four in this game: The hoverbike has a machine gun and goes fast. The landstalker is a tank on spider legs. The Puma is a jeep but can’t jump. And the hovership is difficult to steer. At least the levels you use them in play to their advantages.

Presentation
Not much has changed since the last game. Just a different design for the menus and HUD as usual. Ratchet got some battle armour this time and while I don’t it, I don’t like the helmet. The levels all have a different look to them like one is a robot grave yard and after that is a swamp. We even go to Orxon from the first game again and it’s a lot less green which might be a good thing.
Enemies also have distinct look to them and while some of them have some changes, it still the same enemy. It’s if a swarmer has a three spikes or a tail, etc it’s still a swarmer.

Verdict
If you loved those arena levels in R&C’s 2 and 3, then you’re going to enjoy this. Plus vehicles.
8/10

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