RATCHET & CLANK: ALL 4 ONE sees Insomniac introduce co-op play to their successful series. Sure, some of the previous nine Ratchet & Clank titles featured multiplayer elements, but All 4 One allows you experience the whole game with friends. Is it something you’d rather do alone, though? Find out in our review.
It’s almost ten years since Ratchet & Clank made their debut on the PlayStation 2, with Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One the tenth game in a Sony exclusive series that’s sold over 25 million copies worldwide. Insomniac could’ve stuck to their familiar formula and produced another single-player game, but this time the American studio has added a new dimension in co-op play.
In a bold new move, All 4 One also sees you play as Ratchet, Clank, the buffoonish Captain Qwark, or the diabolical Doctor Nefarious as the four team up. Yes, Nefarious is teaming up with his arch enemies this time around but it’s nothing to do with a change of heart. Indeed, it’s because his latest evil plan to assassinate the now President Qwark that he is forced to join with our heroes, as they’re all snatched up by a mysterious machine and taken to another world.
The same but different
What follows will be both familiar and new to fans of the series. The familiar is the mix of platforming and combat which, for the most part, is varied and well paced. What’s different is sharing this with other players via a drop in, drop out model over the PlayStation Network – a Network Pass is provided with all new copies of All 4 One, second hand buyers will need to purchase it separately. Puzzles are designed for co-op play with the need for at least two players to perform certain tasks to move forward. These include your basic pushing buttons at the same time to using two or more characters to direct laser beams in a certain way.
Two areas of co-op play appear in Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One more often than others. The first is in the combat: when players use the same weapon against the same enemy, the power is multiplied in order to encourage teamwork over going commando. The second is thanks to a new gadget, the Vac-U, which allows players to suck up other characters and fire them across bottomless pits which would otherwise be too big to traverse. The Vac-U does add to the feeling of playing as a team, even if poor aim sometimes means you risk being fired into abyss rather than across it. Downed players can also be revived using this new gadget.
It’s not all working together however, as there’s a competitive element to All 4 One when it comes to collecting bolts – the longstanding Ratchet & Clank currency, – with the player who collects the most named the winner at the end of each level. Bolts also allow you to buy and upgrade both familiar and new weapons, all of which add their own element of fun to the game. Buying and upgrading each characters’ weapons, as well as collecting their unlockable items means even if you’ve finished the story of All 4 One, there are reasons to go back and play through individual sections again.
Iffy offline
While All 4 One is arguably more enjoyable playing with others locally or online, there’s also the option of playing solo with an A.I. companion who, more often than not, ends up being Clank. Your companion will generally do what you want them to in when it comes to combat and puzzles, but they can also provide frustration. Too often they’ll jump off a cliff or get stuck on the scenery, making the experience that little bit less enjoyable for those who play Ratchet & Clank offline.
Unfortunately, there’s something that takes even more away from All 4 One than the occasionally dodgy A.I., and that’s the bugs. These appeared more than a handful of times, especially in the latter half of the game. There were times where a computer controlled companion got so stuck they couldn’t move, and others when the level couldn’t move forward because a disposed of enemy just stayed on screen soaking up your gunfire. When this happened the only fix was restarting the level from scratch, frustrating when you’ve been playing for 20-30 minutes. In the 12-14 hours it took to play through the campaign, at least two hours consisted of replaying levels due to bugs. A frustrating element of what otherwise is a slick game.
Look at the colours, children!
And slick looks is something All 4 One is blessed with, as 2011’s offering is the prettiest in the Ratchet & Clank series so far. Whether you’re fighting through futuristic city streets, forests, skies or labs, All 4 One looks great. In an era where many high profile games seem to feature only greens and browns, All 4 One’s use of colour and diverse environments is really refreshing. Insomniac has put a lot of effort into making sure each section of the game is varied and different and you can really tell.
The musical score of Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One also helps add feeling to each level: a traditional, bouncy sea shanty adds to the experience of the water based levels, while a somewhat creepy tune adds to the dark forest. As with the environments themselves, the music adds variety to the game. But with the effort that’s gone into this aspect of sound, the in-game dialogue is sometimes disappointing. In cutscenes, the dialogue of Ratchet, Clank, Qwark and Nefarious all add neat touches to their characters while more often than not providing humour suited to their Pixar-esque looks. In game however, their dialogue gets repetitive, and while it’s obviously there to add to the co-op experience, Qwark asking if he has to file the bolts he collects under his taxes for the fifth time in a level gets tiresome. The story also leaves something to be desired.
Fortunately, Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One isn’t a game that relies heavily on its in-game characters or dialogue for fun; it’s designed for four people to enjoy together at once. It’s the familiar, successful Ratchet & Clank formula but with a new, well implemented twist that lets you bring your friends along for the ride too. It isn’t perfect: lack of communication or lag can cause annoyance, while A.I. when playing solo can be frustrating – but not as much as the occasional game killing bug. For the most part, however, Insomniac has successfully brought something exciting and new to Ratchet & Clank, while sticking roughly to a well known formula. Not bad for a series that’s ten years old in 2012.
Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One adds a brand new spark to series, with enjoyable co-op play while maintaining what makes Insomniac’s platforming shooter fun to play. While it isn’t perfect, the co-op element could bring in more fans to the already popular PlayStation exclusive.
Ratchet & Clank: All For One, by Insomniac Games and Sony, is available now for the PlayStation 3.
Comments (0)