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Better PS2 Trilogy: R&C or Jak?

ManaByte

Gold Member
It's tough, but I honestly must go with Jak. Ratchet and Clank is a brilliant platformer series, but in the end the Jak games serve up more variety in the gameplay and polish it off with the best character animation in any console videogame ever.
 

acklame

Member
I loved Jak 2 and probably will like Jak 3 as well, but I hated J&D 1. R&C on the other hand, all three are awesome. Therefore R&C = win.
 

Railer

Member
Both are great series , but if i have to choose i would go with Ratchet & Clank.
They've just been more fun for me. I really liked Jak & Daxter (the first game) but i didnt like it where they went with it in Jak II.
It was good , but i even thought R&C was better then Jak II.
 

Rlan

Member
R&C2's story was laaaaame. I finished the game twice, but still the story was really off putting. It also just felt like it stopped far too quickly, like there should have been double the levels.

Is R&C3 any better in this department?
 

AniHawk

Member
Rlan said:
R&C2's story was laaaaame. I finished the game twice, but still the story was really off putting. It also just felt like it stopped far too quickly, like there should have been double the levels.

Is R&C3 any better in this department?

It's worse. The entire game is worse (er... well, not entire game- but it's shorter and more linear. Controls and other things are tightened up- plus there's OL multi, and that really helps). The storytelling is pretty bad though. Angela doesn't even get mentioned in UYA and yet Insomniac tries to create a new love interest for Ratchet and it's really half-assed. Qwark is great though, and the enemies are my favorite of the trilogy.
 
I couldn't stand Jak II. It's probably just me, but I found it to be a pathetic attempt to lure older audience.
I choose Ratchet & Clank.
 

impirius

Member
I have yet to play Jak 3, but I've enjoyed the R&C games much more than their counterparts in the Jak series, so R&C it is!
 

psycho_snake

I went to WAGs boutique and all I got was a sniff
Jak II ws the best platformer I had ever played since SM64. Ratchet and Clank is a very good game too, but at the end, jak II was better
 

AniHawk

Member
psycho_snake said:
Jak II ws the best platformer I had ever played since SM64. Ratchet and Clank is a very good game too, but at the end, jak II was better

*Checks calendar*

Oh. So it is Opposite Day.
 

impirius

Member
AniHawk said:
*Checks calendar*

Oh. So it is Opposite Day.
But if you're saying it's Opposite Day, it can't be... unless you usually tell the truth, in which case you're lying, so you actually mean it's not Opposite Day, which means... it is?

:(
 

Amir0x

Banned
I'm going with R&C, only because after playing R&C:UYA there really is no competition anymore. Despite AniHawks dislike of it, I love every second of it and believe it's an improvement in every conceivable way.
 

belgurdo

Banned
adelgary said:
I never played any game from either series... bad art.

Shite cutesy anime games with no gameplay because all the budget was spent on the art staff are just down the hall, sir.
 

ChryZ

Member
I haven't played the last parts of both franchise yet, but with Jak2 and R&C2 I was under the impression, Naughty Dog tried too hard with their technology-pushing, while Insomniac tackled a better balance in the mix of tech and polish, even though the differences are marginal to me and did not kept me from enjoying both games.
 

Ar_

Member
J&D vs R&C:

Neither impressed me initially.

Bought J&D platinum, played to around 75%; most of the time it was good but not the best platforming fun I could have, punctuated with streaks of boredom when I had to search for some hidden power cell.

Played only the demo of R&C, found the two included levels to be amazingly gimmick and boring (fill water tank, empty water tank, fill water tank, do some other trivial stuff), never bought the full game.

Winner: Maximo!

Second choice: J&D, until I eventually play more of R&C and find out it improves a lot.

Jak II vs R&C2:

Loved Jak 2, offering high quality platforming and shooting and a couple interesting tools all seamlessy integrated, very good (and sometimes interactive) level design, complex missions, few but good bosses.

R&C2 was "only" good. Flat level design, little and unispired platforming, irrilevant melee combat, no complex missions. Maybe more but more simplistic bosses.
More gameplay styles but poorly integrated, like a collection of novel but poor minigames, aside the cool racing.
More gimick and boring sequences, which I loathed in the demo of the first game: fill water tank, freeze water tank, unfreeze water tank, empty water tank... x 10; playing it is about as fun as reading the description.

Where R&C2 outclassed Jak was on guns, powerups, addons variety.
I'm no fan of collecting toys and extras, so it didn't do too much for me. Played 8.5 hours on a rental and havent bought or finished it yet.

Jak II wins for me (but Maximo 2 is close up there!), still R&C2 is very good, thought not exactly my ideal game.

Jak III vs R&C3:

1.5 hours on R&C3, looks much better than the prequels.
Platforming seems more promising, more complex and fun battles. Dragged down considerably from the lack of challenge. Still, I might end really liking ths one.

Jak III: havent seen it yet.

Winner: undetermined.

Best series so far: MAXIMO!
 

Wellington

BAAAALLLINNN'
First, let me just say thanks for holding down the fort Anihawk, the check is in the mail.

This topic is pretty much what my damned house is like. I'm a huge R&C fan, my brother is a huge Jak fan. The guy bought Jak 3 last night and played it over Halo 2, while I just looked on in disgust. All joking aside heh, I will say that Naughty Dog has an incredible handle on the PS2 and it's capabilities. Jak 3 is far and away the best looking game on the PS2 (so far released).

I loved the first Jak. Probably more so than the first Ratchet game. I love the style of the game, loved the setting, loved the variety, loved the... collecting. Ratchet & Clank felt more like it was having an identity crisis the whole way through. The level designs were absolutely brilliant, but the enemies and action were mixed. The second games though... I hated Jak 2. It was such a bitter disappointment, and such a drastic departure from something that I thought worked so well. It'd be like Mario Kart suddenly playing like Ridge Racer. The sprawling city scape and the back and forth fetch quests killed it for me. No, I didn't think it was too hard, just too boring. R&C2 on the other hand developed the identity of the R&C series, mixed in a ton of additional gameplay, and had those open areas where the player could choose how much they wanted to play. Combine that with the new level system for Ratchet and his weapons and you can see why it was a winner.

R&C3 improves on it, but I don't want to get into detail just yet, not until I finish at least. Haven't played Jak 3, but it looks better than 2 from what I have seen.
 

iapetus

Scary Euro Man
bobbyconover said:
R&C by an absolute landslide. It also tops the Crash, Spyro, and Sly Cooper series, in my opinion!

Hmm. Not sure about that - if you ignore Enter the Dragonfly, the Spyro series might just edge it for me as a better platformer.
 

Suikoguy

I whinny my fervor lowly, for his length is not as great as those of the Hylian war stallions
Ratchet and Clank 3 sealed the deal, my favorite game of the year
 
Metal Arms does the "platform game with guns" thing much better than either of them. The first Jak & Daxter was pretty good though. Jak2 was better than R&C1 and 2, even with the crappy hub city.
 

Ranger X

Member
I have to go for Jak. Rachet is not far behind though and maybe RC3 can change something.
I prefer the story style and the characters of the Jak series a little more and i also find that the "gun vs platforming" is implemented better in Jak series. (or more my style maybe)
 

AeroGod

Member
I havnt played Jak 3 yet but if its just as good as Jak 2 then is say the Jak series is better, Even though R&C2 is like the best PS2 game ever, R&C 3 is too much of a dissapointment even though its still a pretty good game. Aside from the multiplayer, Insomniac really fuxxored the game up and it definatly feels "rushed". I love the plasma whip and Dr. Nefarious is an awesome villian, but they dropped the ball in too many other areas.
 

kaching

"GAF's biggest wanker"
Aside from the multiplayer, Insomniac really fuxxored the game up and it definatly feels "rushed". I love the plasma whip and Dr. Nefarious is an awesome villian, but they dropped the ball in too many other areas.
Wholeheartedly disagree with the "rushed", "fuxxored the game up" and "dropped the ball" comments. I know what things your complaining about based on your comments in the UYA impressions thread, but they don't qualify for such strong disregard to be heaped upon the game.
 

AeroGod

Member
kaching said:
Wholeheartedly disagree with the "rushed", "fuxxored the game up" and "dropped the ball" comments. I know what things your complaining about based on your comments in the UYA impressions thread, but they don't qualify for such strong disregard to be heaped upon the game.

If they would have just taken what they had in Going Commando and added the new weapons, multiplayer, and the capture and control type missions with rangers it would have been the advancement in the series I was looking for. Its not, and for that reason its a dissapointment. Its still a good game, there are some really likable parts, but in the end its missing many things.

They threw out the flying missions. Why? They wrent that bad and they added another layer to the game. Why? Instead of improving them they threw it out and with it a part of the game. There was potential there. Alot of it. They dropped the ball.

The clank missions are terrible. They are downgraded 100% from Going Commando. They go ahead and create Agent Clank, and then they dont even really use it like they could have. There are onlye like 2 Clank levels. Instead of improving them they got downgraded. They took out the cool robot control aspect instead of improving it. You can still get the little guys, but its only like 3 of them and its only twice. Why even bother? Nope, we get the stupid bananna gun and the monkey. The strong robot, bridge robot, or anything else they could have taken the time to think up are gone, and make the Clank levels that much more uninteresting.

We get 1 level where we play as giant clank. Stupid. There was alot of potential to turn them into something but they totally blew it over and just threw in 1 little boss fight as to not get rid of it completely.

Weapon mods are gone, they are integrated into the leveling up process. A lame way to take out the customability of them. They could have added alot to the weapon mod system, but they took it out.

Okay. So what do we have here? Instead of improving on multiple aspect of Going Commando they removed them completely for UYA. The game is shorter and its a bit easier. All evidence points to a rushed product. Or they threw together the quickest single player they could think of without it being a total shitstorm and only really gave a shit about the multiplayer(which is very well done).

They dropped the ball on the series. Where is the improvement? R&C2 was leaps and bounds above in R&C1. They arnt even in the same league. UYA could barely classify as a level and weapon expansion pack to Going Commando.
 

AeroGod

Member
Wyzdom said:
Spacecraft levels where shitty in RC games. THANK YOU INSOMNIAC for removing it this time.

No they werent and they could have been improved too, but they didnt take the time.
 

AeroGod

Member
Unison said:
What about the 2d scrolling levels in R&C3? Are there a lot of them? Are they good?

There are 5 of them. They are like flashback things where you play as Qwark. 5 minutes each. They are pretty cool.
 

Belfast

Member
I think Jak is the better TRILOGY. Its more cohesive in its attempts to bridge the gaps between each game. However, taken individually, the R&C games are better than the Jak games. Its a subtle distinction, sure, but I'm sticking with it.
 

kaching

"GAF's biggest wanker"
> They threw out the flying missions. Why?

But there are flying missions in the game...just with a different type of craft.

> The clank missions are terrible. They are downgraded 100% from Going Commando.

I don't really think the Clank missions in GC were really an upgrade. More involved, yes, but not really improving the formula. The monkey is no better or worse than the specialized robots they had in GC. Same idea, different special task.

> They go ahead and create Agent Clank, and then they dont even really use it like they could have. There are onlye like 2 Clank levels. Instead of improving them they got downgraded.

> We get 1 level where we play as giant clank. Stupid.

Agent Clank serves its purpose as a plot device and as a bit of humor. And Clank's use in general has been as a supporting character. I don't think Insomniac ever intended for his role to continue to grow to be as equal as that of Ratchet as a standalone character.

> They could have added alot to the weapon mod system, but they took it out.

I won't argue that this one is a bit of a loss.

> Instead of improving on multiple aspect of Going Commando they removed them completely for UYA.

And added others. It's not like they simply regressed from GC. They built on some of its stronger elements, added new elements and generally streamlined\trimmed in a number of areas.

> All evidence points to a rushed product. Or they threw together the quickest single player they could think of without it being a total shitstorm and only really gave a shit about the multiplayer(which is very well done).

I'm sorry but I just don't get this feel from the SP game. The UYA storyline and characterizations are the best they've done for the series so far and are better integrated into the entire game, offering more ambient storytelling than the earlier games which relied more heavily on simply establishing story in cutscenes. Level design is as good as either of the earlier games, just generally broken up into smaller chunks. Many of the levels feature more creative themes than either of the previous games and offer notable improvements in visual effects. The SP generally offers a variety of elements that simply aren't offered in the MP and haven't been offered in the series previously - weapons, powerups, minigames, etc. I can't see how doing any of that is conducive to rushing out a "quicky" SP mode, in favor of putting the majority of effort into the MP.
 
Well I think that you have to respect Jak and Daxter a bit more because Ratchet and Clank is basically a game built around what Jak and Daxter builds. Naughty Dog develops all of the technology and then Insomniac simply puts Ratchet and Clank on top of it. A lot of the credit Ratchet and Clank might get falls on the foundations that Jak and Daxter and Naughty Dog put down.
 
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