The venerable Ratchet and Clank series of action platformers has been an important part of Sony’s stable of exclusive games for a number of years. Known for great story, fast-paced action, tricky platforming and, more than anything else, a huge array of crazy, and crazy awesome weaponry Ratchet and Clank have, time and again, saved the universe by shooting or blowing up a sizable portion of it. Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time is Ratchet and Clank’s second full outing on the PS3 (with a shorter bridging game available on PSN) and this might be their biggest most expansive adventure yet. But is it their best? Read on to find out!
Gameplay
A Crack in Time finishes out the Ratchet and Clank Future trilogy for the PS3 that also includes 2007’s Tools of Destruction and the PSN downloadable short game, Quest for Booty. The story follows both Ratchet and Clank through different adventures as Ratchet tries to find Clank and Clank tries to come to terms with being the Senior Caretaker of the Great Clock, which is built at the very center of the Universe (give or take a couple of meters…).
Exploding things remains an important element of A Crack in Time
A Crack in Time adds a number of really great new elements to the Ratchet & Clank series, Ratchet gets some new hover boots which allow him to move around much more quickly, make some crazy jumps and launch himself from special pads but at the cost of controllability. Fortunately activating and deactivating the hover boots is as simple as pressing the direction pad so you can easily have the best of both worlds. Gamers will also get the chance to pilot Ratchet’s ship through many different sectors of space that you will need to explore in your search for Clank. Each sector has one or two main planets that act as main story missions and a number of small moons that act as side missions for Ratchet to complete. There are also other space bound side missions available and enemy satellites and fighters to fight in most sectors.
Clank also gets some new tricks, mainly as his new position of Senior Caretaker of the Great Clock. These new tricks are all temporal based powers and come courtesy of the Chronoscepter, Clank’s new staff of office. The Chronoscepter allows Clank to throw time-bombs, which temporarily slow time in a spherical area creating some interesting new twists to both platforming and combat, fortunately the Chronoscepter is a solid staff and can also be used to wallop enemies. Clank can also use special recording pads to create ghosts of himself to help get through puzzles.
Armed with the Chronoscepter, Clank becomes a force to be reckoned with.
The new additions to gameplay are very fun and really add a lot to the series. Beyond these new features, Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time sticks to the traditional action/platforming formula that has worked so well for years now. The switch between Ratchet’s spaceflight based action and ground based missions and Clank’s missions in the Great Clock also make for a constantly changing game which keeps things fresh. Returning to the series is the huge armoury of available weapons with some very interesting new additions as well as some old favourites and some old gadgets like the swingshot are also back.
As with most games of this type, collectibles are of major importance and in A Crack in Time you will be on the look out for Golden Bolts, Constructo weapon mods, RYNO schematics and Zoni, the Zoni were introduced in the other Ratchet & Clank Future games and in this one they act as upgrade currency for your ship. As a mive mind creature, the more Zoni you collect, the smarter they get and the better they can make your ship. And of course we cannot forget the Ratchet & Clank staple, the bolts that are used as the game’s currency, which can be spent on new weapons and armour upgrades.
Graphics and Audio
The Ratchet and Clank series has never been the type of game that has tried for photorealism and has always stuck with a great cartoony look that has always worked well with the series goofy sense of humour. A Crack in Time is no different. While it certainly doesn’t push the PS3’s capabilities in any great way it does look very good, with great character animations, fantastic lighting and explosive explosions. All of the weapon ‘fire’ looks fantastic as well.
The famous hero Captain Quark is back to ’help’ Ratchet in his search for Clank.
The audio is also of very high quality. The voice acting is great with serious voices for serious characters, like General Azimuth and outrageous voices for the more flamboyant characters, like Dr. Nefarious and Capt. Quark. A Crack in Time also brings radio stations to the Ratchet and Clank series. Who wants to cruise around the galaxy in a powerful fighter ship without some great tunes to crank? While there are only a few radio stations and the music isn’t licensed, it is of quite high quality and on more then one occasion I found myself getting quite into the rock station. There are also ‘commercials’ that play on these stations and they are, as would be expected, quite funny.
Value
As with the other Ratchet & Clank Future titles, with A Crack in Time, Insomniac games decided to forgo multiplayer or co-op options for the game. This was probably for the best as these types of games don’t typically translate well into multiplayer and A Crack in Time really doesn’t need a multiplayer component to give gamers their money’s worth. This game is really big, with tons to do, especially for a platformer action game. You can also return to any previously played levels to search for items you may have missed or been unequipped to collect earlier. Each sector of space also contains many side missions that are story line optional. There are also tournaments that can be entered in the combat arena that will test your evasive skills and how well you’ve mastered your weapons.
Conclusions
For fans of the series or for anyone who enjoys a good action platformer, Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time is an absolute must own.
I can remember many Christmas mornings from my childhood spent excitedly flipping through the pages of a new book. This was unusual because as a young child, books and clothes were the only gifts I would dread receiving. However, the Christmas morning books that excited me so much were something special. Granted, they weren’t literary classics, but back then,... 
Shane
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