Ratchet: Deadlocked
Action platforming without the platforming.
Published: November 2, 2005
Since the PlayStation 2 finally felt American soil, Insomniac and Naughty Dog have worked in tandem to help build Sony’s stable of bankable franchise hits. They paired up and developed a hell of a game engine, and the result has been two of the best platforming series Sony’s been lucky enough to tout.
Since the Jak and Daxter and Ratchet & Clank (wow, that’s a lot of ands) series have debuted, the two developers have more or less released their games in lock-step, faithfully bolting on more gameplay variety and delivering healthy doses of personality along the way.
What started as platforming’s version of Twins with Jak getting all the cool character designs and Ratchet looking like something conjured up after a drunkenly tossing darts at a dartboard to pick his parts (Oversized hands? Huge ears? Funky Tail?) slowly began to shift as the gameplay overrode the more retarded character designs. Well, that and Clank’s just all-around awesome.
As Jak moved more towards being xtreme and ‘tudified, Ratchet stick with humor and rock-solid platforming mechanics, even as the game shifted more towards combat. The RPG elements that allowed Ratchet to level up both his health and his weapons just by killing stuff by using said weapons was downright inspired, and it gave the design team another outlet to show off just how imaginative they were. Y’know, outside the whole Ratchet design thing.
Through it all, an unwavering sense of humor helped punctuate what would otherwise be rather dire situations, and the brevity became the hallmark of the series. Perhaps that’s why, with the overall tone becoming just a bit darker (being kidnapped while searching for missing superheroes, having a exploding collar and being made to compete in a Running Man-esque scenario to win freedom tends to do that), the series still manages to stay light – and it’s still a blast to play.
Most of this comes from the fact that the gameplay is more or less unchanged from the main series. Whereas Jak X tried to hard to separate itself from the main gameplay, Deadlocked relishes putting you in the thick of fights and letting RPG freaks level up to their heart’s content. All this action is aided by some genuinely hilarious commentary from a newcasting team that’s covering the events for the Vox Network, which beams this futuristic gladiatorial combat out to the universe.
Along the way, the game will occasionally stop to throw in a cutscene here and there, helping flesh out what a creep Gleeman Vox, the head of Vox Broadcasting and the orchestrator of Ratchet and Company’s fates (Clank and pudgy inventor Al are along for the ride), actually is, as well as introducing Ratchet’s next big mini-boss, but for the most part, it’s just flying from planet to planet (with the same loading screen/triple-pass shot of the rocket flying through space) and blowing stuff up real good.
And hooboy, what fun blowing stuff up still is. The game piggybacks off the existing RPG system for upgrading weapons by allowing you to attach two levels of augmentations to things. These can do everything from shock nearby enemies with every hit to freeze, melt or poison them on the low end, and boost accuracy, damage and ammo at the weapons’ core. It’s actually a nicely rewarding system for just shooting stuff all the time, and it complements the other area where the game mixes things up nicely: that of the combat bots.
As entrants (albeit involuntary) to DreadZone, Ratchet and his crew are given a pair of Combat Bots that help fend off attackers. These can be upgraded to provide more firepower and take more damage, but they’re more than just weapons. Aside from having some hilarious lines (I’ve never had a robot ask me if I’ve read Chaucer before), they banter back and forth between fights and genuinely help out during them. They can be sent out to turn cranks, hack terminals, lob out EMP bombs to disrupt shields, deploy a grind rail to cross chasms and so on. They’re also immortal, and can be revived after going down with a press of the d-pad (the same way you issue the other orders).
Each planet in the DreadZone competition offers a handful of challenges ranging from capturing nodes to, uh, blowing stuff up to racing to piloting vehicles to, yes, blow stuff up. Starting out, the objectives are menial, but towards the end, they get rather lengthy, and once you finish off the required stuff, you can do extra challenges for most bolts (still used to buy weapons and mods) and points (which unlock the next planet and move you up the ranks).
The series has increasingly moved towards providing an online or multiplayer aspect as much as the single-player offering, and Deadlocked delivers in spades. Through co-op (complete with offensive and defensive bonuses to both players if they click the left and right analog sticks on both controllers at the same time) and right down to online matches that continue Up Your Arsenel’s team-based and deathmatch modes, the game is literally as much fun online as it is off, possibly moreso due to the way the gameplay is structured now.
Most of the same modes from the last game are here, though some are lightly tweaked; Deathmatch, King of the Hill, Capture the Flag and Conquest (which remixes Siege Mode) are fairly standard offerings, but the balance and maps are wonderfully designed, and thanks to a broadband-only approach, feel smoother overall.
Since the Jak and Daxter and Ratchet & Clank (wow, that’s a lot of ands) series have debuted, the two developers have more or less released their games in lock-step, faithfully bolting on more gameplay variety and delivering healthy doses of personality along the way.
What started as platforming’s version of Twins with Jak getting all the cool character designs and Ratchet looking like something conjured up after a drunkenly tossing darts at a dartboard to pick his parts (Oversized hands? Huge ears? Funky Tail?) slowly began to shift as the gameplay overrode the more retarded character designs. Well, that and Clank’s just all-around awesome.
As Jak moved more towards being xtreme and ‘tudified, Ratchet stick with humor and rock-solid platforming mechanics, even as the game shifted more towards combat. The RPG elements that allowed Ratchet to level up both his health and his weapons just by killing stuff by using said weapons was downright inspired, and it gave the design team another outlet to show off just how imaginative they were. Y’know, outside the whole Ratchet design thing.
Through it all, an unwavering sense of humor helped punctuate what would otherwise be rather dire situations, and the brevity became the hallmark of the series. Perhaps that’s why, with the overall tone becoming just a bit darker (being kidnapped while searching for missing superheroes, having a exploding collar and being made to compete in a Running Man-esque scenario to win freedom tends to do that), the series still manages to stay light – and it’s still a blast to play.
Most of this comes from the fact that the gameplay is more or less unchanged from the main series. Whereas Jak X tried to hard to separate itself from the main gameplay, Deadlocked relishes putting you in the thick of fights and letting RPG freaks level up to their heart’s content. All this action is aided by some genuinely hilarious commentary from a newcasting team that’s covering the events for the Vox Network, which beams this futuristic gladiatorial combat out to the universe.
Along the way, the game will occasionally stop to throw in a cutscene here and there, helping flesh out what a creep Gleeman Vox, the head of Vox Broadcasting and the orchestrator of Ratchet and Company’s fates (Clank and pudgy inventor Al are along for the ride), actually is, as well as introducing Ratchet’s next big mini-boss, but for the most part, it’s just flying from planet to planet (with the same loading screen/triple-pass shot of the rocket flying through space) and blowing stuff up real good.
And hooboy, what fun blowing stuff up still is. The game piggybacks off the existing RPG system for upgrading weapons by allowing you to attach two levels of augmentations to things. These can do everything from shock nearby enemies with every hit to freeze, melt or poison them on the low end, and boost accuracy, damage and ammo at the weapons’ core. It’s actually a nicely rewarding system for just shooting stuff all the time, and it complements the other area where the game mixes things up nicely: that of the combat bots.
As entrants (albeit involuntary) to DreadZone, Ratchet and his crew are given a pair of Combat Bots that help fend off attackers. These can be upgraded to provide more firepower and take more damage, but they’re more than just weapons. Aside from having some hilarious lines (I’ve never had a robot ask me if I’ve read Chaucer before), they banter back and forth between fights and genuinely help out during them. They can be sent out to turn cranks, hack terminals, lob out EMP bombs to disrupt shields, deploy a grind rail to cross chasms and so on. They’re also immortal, and can be revived after going down with a press of the d-pad (the same way you issue the other orders).
Each planet in the DreadZone competition offers a handful of challenges ranging from capturing nodes to, uh, blowing stuff up to racing to piloting vehicles to, yes, blow stuff up. Starting out, the objectives are menial, but towards the end, they get rather lengthy, and once you finish off the required stuff, you can do extra challenges for most bolts (still used to buy weapons and mods) and points (which unlock the next planet and move you up the ranks).
The series has increasingly moved towards providing an online or multiplayer aspect as much as the single-player offering, and Deadlocked delivers in spades. Through co-op (complete with offensive and defensive bonuses to both players if they click the left and right analog sticks on both controllers at the same time) and right down to online matches that continue Up Your Arsenel’s team-based and deathmatch modes, the game is literally as much fun online as it is off, possibly moreso due to the way the gameplay is structured now.
Most of the same modes from the last game are here, though some are lightly tweaked; Deathmatch, King of the Hill, Capture the Flag and Conquest (which remixes Siege Mode) are fairly standard offerings, but the balance and maps are wonderfully designed, and thanks to a broadband-only approach, feel smoother overall.
