LttP -- Ratchet and Clank 1&2 --THE perfect mix of variety, length, and difficulty

Fantasmo

Member
My gf got me Ratchet & Clank 2 for Christmas and I just can't put it down (much like the first one).

In both games, you can storm through, grabbing only essential weapons and items and play a mean set of levels and have a great time doing it and it'll be a nice challenge. A bit difficult if you skip things but unlimited lives and continue points make it easily possible.

The greatest part is that it truly rewards the people who spend more time with the game, instead of the truly skilled. I always hated how lots of games make you do some impossible shit to get one slightly more powerful weapon. In these games, if you can actually accomplish the task, you don't need the weapon and thus any benefits it brings are immediately null!

R&C doesn't do this. The more time you spend, the easier it is, and the more easily you can blow crap up and get some really cool, fun weapons to do it with. And in part 2, blasting baddies and collecting bolts even gives me more health! It's rarely frustrating, and always forgiving. Bliss!

Plus there are so many fun weapons upgrades and cheats that are unlocked (skill points is such a fun idea) that you can stop playing the main game to do these side missions. Not ONLY that, but I've never played a platformer with such stupid, fun mini games. Hell, last night alone I played the slot machines, drilled for Raritarium (ala Star Control 2), searched a massive desert while fighting Cacodemons, fought in 2 Battle Arenas, raced around in a hovercraft like Wipeout, speeded through space ala Star Wars, grinded a few rails (Tony Hawk), and tons of other cool side missions. There's at least 20-30 hours of gameplay in these games. R&C is the GTA:SA of the platform world and I'm having so much fun doing it.

I can't wait to eventually get to R&C3. Until then, I'm having a blast soaking up all R&C2 has to offer!
 
I wish I could agree.

I played a solid hour of R&C 2 the other day and turned it off when I realized that I just wasn't having any fun. I don't like the space combat portions at all either.


Maybe I'm just weird, but I lost interest in both around 25% in.

Technically amazing tho. They were able to pull of progressive scan, which was a surprise at the time.
 
Having 100% beaten the first two games, and close to 100% UYA (just need to get the third version of the Ryno) and get that additional Captain Quark health upgrade on mission 4, I think Going Commando was the best of the lot. UYA has been really fun so far, but the removal of the space combat (why are ship upgrades with different wings, noses and colors even available?) and many other vehicles didn't help matters. I haven't tried multiplayer yet. Are there bots?

Also, where exactly is the health upgrade in the fourth captain quark mini-game? The level where you fight Dr. Nefarious at the end. I've searched all over, and can't find it.
 
TheTurtleTitan said:
I'm playing through the game as well, but I'd like to know why too.

It really doesn't make sense. heh. I mean the only flight missions you do, you do with that annoying Hovercraft. I think the craft controls from Going Commando were near perfect though. It felt like a pseudo-Star Fox imo.
 
Beaten (and then some) all three, and I also consider Going Commando the best thus far. I too greatly missed the spaceship stuff in UYA- the customizing, the dogfights, etc. The hovercraft and dune buggy driving didn't make up for its absence. Up Your Arsenal just felt too streamlined.... The shooty-shooty parts were solid and engaging, but overall, the game's sense of charm and variety suffered.

I also found myself missing the massive, sprawling levels of the earlier games. The UYA worlds all seemed to end before I realized it, which resulted in none of them really making an impression. And damnit, they left out the grind rail minigame. On the upside, the Quark minigame rocked.
 
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