Was quite disappointed with this game =/ The North Carolina studio are slowly making better R&C games, but this still lags well behind the 'Future' series.
The controls and their feel, are off. Ratchet feels sluggish with his movement walking around, he just don't go as far, side jumping seems to cover hardly any distance. It might be the levels are too big between things but it is just such a chore until you get
. Which get taken away from you on challenge mode making every replay worse to start off with, and you seem to need to do 3-4 playthroughs to buy and level up everything. Also, L1 isn't jump when you have lock strafe turned on? Seems like a ridiculous oversight unless I am missing something.
Starting right away on hard (legend) difficulty was great, the game was challenging on my original and challenge run playthrough. Died multiple times forcing me to play differently and be more strategic. It is a little uneven in places but it is actually difficult! Which I love, any attempt at making R&C games in the past challenging has failed miserably, or been patched out (FFA).
The game looks pretty, but I think it looks too pretty, levels and enemies blend together and I think the artstyle has too much detail. I would personally like a more cartoony look somewhere between the PS2 games and ToD/Q4B. This is very much a personal opinion, the game does look great.
The final gun and armour seem overpriced, maybe even all Omega weapons in general. They are just a bit steap for what you can earn playing through. There seems no good level to replay or arena challenge worth replaying to grind bolts. It would have been nice to sell raratanium for bolts, I ended up with far too many after a 3 playthroughs but hadn't bought quite a few weapons. The App coming out helping you earn raratanium as a side is a useless feature for anyone already having played the game, it might be useful for people getting the game at Christmas or later but for fans who played the game 'day one' little to no value will be added to the experience, just seems like a test bed for future games/PS4. Hint: Release the app BEFORE the game, Sony.
The game has nice nods to the rest of the series but they are mostly side parts, the game also fails to make reference to Size Matters, though not a Insomniac game it should be included, much more fun than playing this game in its own right. Dan Johnson tribute was great though and all the audio for the references was a nice touch.
The plot lacks depth and meaning with plot points skimmed over and missing impact, kinda felt like a 'we tried'. Nice ending though. Skillpoints are lazy, almost half of them are just for Clanks sections of the game, which take up maybe 10% of the actual game.
The later levels are fun to play, loved the open world level and the 'pump station' level. The game is eventually fun to play but it just feels off. The game tries to feel big but it just feels empty, I would much rather replay a full R&C game or FFA/Q4B, which is a small game being a small game, not trying to be something it isn't.
I think if you have already played Q4B then the price for this game isn't worth it, £20 with Q4B is good but on its own it needs to be £15. The NC games are getting better but I dunno if they can make a great R&C game anytime soon.
