Quest for Value
Insomniac's newest download-only Ratchet & Clank game aims to find treasure, but is the journey worth it?
Published: August 15, 2008
I love the Ratchet & Clank series -- I love it so much I even liked Ratchet: Deadlocked, a game that dropped much of the platforming for more weapons-based action. So why, then, did I have such a hard time warming up to Quest for Booty, which swings the pendulum back toward the platforming side of the equation even more than Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, Quest for Booty's prequel, even did? The humor is there, with more than a few lines that gave me some genuine chuckles. The control is as tight as it's ever been. The game even adds some new elements and falls back on older ones to deliver platforming in new ways.
By all rights, I should have been pleased with what developer Insomniac Games whipped up for a measly $15 -- even if the game wasn't made by the full Ratchet team. But maybe it was an issue of polish, something Insomniac normally has down to a science. I don't want to short-change the Ratchet & Clank series by any means, but I'll admit that they aren't especially complex: melding platforming and shooting elements (later with RPG-type leveling up and experience) isn't a deep concept, but it's in the execution, where little bits of animation and nuances of control and level design elevated the game far above just the whole of its parts. It's something that Insomniac does better than almost any developer out there, and they do it at a remarkable pace -- a new next-gen game every year.
Maybe that's why they finally stumbled. Quest for Booty wasn't a full team's worth of effort over the course of a few years, it was a smallish group of clearly talented individuals that use the base engine and resources from the previous game to build something that was incredibly light (I beat it, maxing out all the weapons along the way, mind you, in just under three hours) in about six months.
Normally, I wouldn't mind this. After all, the Ratchet games in their initial run aren't monster-length anyway. If you pay four times the price of Quest for Booty, you tend to get at least four times the story and levels. But, see, here's the difference: that first run-through is almost like training. You play through a Ratchet game the first time to get the story and learn your basic weapons. You'll play through it again (if you were like me, you did it immediately after finishing up Tools of Destruction) to earn the hidden Skill Points, to max out your weapons and then upgrade them again with new, more powerful versions, and to hunt for Titanium Bolts.
Quest for Booty has [/i]none[/i] of those things. No Skill Points. No Trophies. No hidden bolts. No advanced weapons. In fact, if you can find the odd little weapon modifier in your first run through the game, you'll have seen everything there is to see in those three or so hours. Weapons start out at level three and quickly max out to their tricked out "final" version at level 5 -- though unlike the previous games, you're not told it even turned into a more powerful version except on the quick select menu pulled up by holding Triangle. Granted, these are all weapons from Tools of Destruction (no new ones, kids, sorry), but it's entirely possible that some people wooed by the $15 price may not have played the last Ratchet game -- though shame on them for not doing so.
It's a decidedly un-Ratchet feeling to go through the short experience and come out the other side feeling underwhelmed. It's not that there weren't some additions that were made to the formula -- ones that will no doubt appear later in the series. Stuff like being able hurl Ratchet's wrench out and tug or move things with an electric tether made for some interesting jump puzzles (and, in one of the game's most brilliant bits, the ability to scoot around a portable "safe" platform while walking vertically around a big wind turbine, dodging laser beams and steam jets) were terrific. A few other touches were added too, such as the ability to use the wrench to pick up things like lava rocks and little glow-in-the-dark critters to scare away bat-like enemies in the darkened caves under the island that Ratchet finds himself on, and there are couple of light but entertaining challenges you'll do later in the game to piece together a shadow using movable plates and a set light source or mix drinks based on clues.
By all rights, I should have been pleased with what developer Insomniac Games whipped up for a measly $15 -- even if the game wasn't made by the full Ratchet team. But maybe it was an issue of polish, something Insomniac normally has down to a science. I don't want to short-change the Ratchet & Clank series by any means, but I'll admit that they aren't especially complex: melding platforming and shooting elements (later with RPG-type leveling up and experience) isn't a deep concept, but it's in the execution, where little bits of animation and nuances of control and level design elevated the game far above just the whole of its parts. It's something that Insomniac does better than almost any developer out there, and they do it at a remarkable pace -- a new next-gen game every year.
Maybe that's why they finally stumbled. Quest for Booty wasn't a full team's worth of effort over the course of a few years, it was a smallish group of clearly talented individuals that use the base engine and resources from the previous game to build something that was incredibly light (I beat it, maxing out all the weapons along the way, mind you, in just under three hours) in about six months.
Normally, I wouldn't mind this. After all, the Ratchet games in their initial run aren't monster-length anyway. If you pay four times the price of Quest for Booty, you tend to get at least four times the story and levels. But, see, here's the difference: that first run-through is almost like training. You play through a Ratchet game the first time to get the story and learn your basic weapons. You'll play through it again (if you were like me, you did it immediately after finishing up Tools of Destruction) to earn the hidden Skill Points, to max out your weapons and then upgrade them again with new, more powerful versions, and to hunt for Titanium Bolts.
Quest for Booty has [/i]none[/i] of those things. No Skill Points. No Trophies. No hidden bolts. No advanced weapons. In fact, if you can find the odd little weapon modifier in your first run through the game, you'll have seen everything there is to see in those three or so hours. Weapons start out at level three and quickly max out to their tricked out "final" version at level 5 -- though unlike the previous games, you're not told it even turned into a more powerful version except on the quick select menu pulled up by holding Triangle. Granted, these are all weapons from Tools of Destruction (no new ones, kids, sorry), but it's entirely possible that some people wooed by the $15 price may not have played the last Ratchet game -- though shame on them for not doing so.
It's a decidedly un-Ratchet feeling to go through the short experience and come out the other side feeling underwhelmed. It's not that there weren't some additions that were made to the formula -- ones that will no doubt appear later in the series. Stuff like being able hurl Ratchet's wrench out and tug or move things with an electric tether made for some interesting jump puzzles (and, in one of the game's most brilliant bits, the ability to scoot around a portable "safe" platform while walking vertically around a big wind turbine, dodging laser beams and steam jets) were terrific. A few other touches were added too, such as the ability to use the wrench to pick up things like lava rocks and little glow-in-the-dark critters to scare away bat-like enemies in the darkened caves under the island that Ratchet finds himself on, and there are couple of light but entertaining challenges you'll do later in the game to piece together a shadow using movable plates and a set light source or mix drinks based on clues.
