Developer: Insomniac Games
Publisher: Sony
Gameplay Stats: ~20 hours, 35/47 trophies
I bounced off this game when I originally played in 2017 but was told to give it another go by a friend telling me I'd love the sequel. I guess since I posted my trophy information up there, you probably figured that I enjoyed it. Which I did!
Graphics: It's hard to believe this game is 6 years old, it still looks beautiful. It's like playing a Pixar movie. The characters are excellent and the worlds are gorgeous to look at. All of the enemies look like they belong to the same planet/race which makes sense in the game's story so I think it's a plus. The different aliens are all pretty imaginative and some of the designs remind me a bit of Star Wars races. I think the overall style of the game is pretty cartoony which I like, but I know not everyone will.
Audio: The music in this game goes surprisingly hard. It sounds a bit like a John Williams score so it had my wife and I jonesing for a little Harry Potter/Jurassic Park. The sound effects are pretty standard, serviceable noises. There aren't many barks from the enemies which I really appreciate, they tend to get stale pretty quick. The voice acting is surprisingly good for a game that's all CG and came out a while ago. They picked really good people for all the characters. My understanding is that there is also a movie with a similar plot and the same actors, so maybe they found the voices in Hollywood instead of from the normal video game voice actors, not to short change video game voice actors.
Plot: This game is a pretty standard hero's tale as far as the story goes. I think it's special in this case because of the way it's presented, kinda similar to a Pixar movie again. The different characters really bring the story to life in a way that it doesn't on paper. I don't think it is groundbreaking and I doubt this game was lauded for its story, but it was a fun time from start to finish and that's what I look for most of the time.
Gameplay: This is the bread and butter, as is common in the games I choose. Ratchet and Clank is a mixture of a 3d platformer and a 3rd person shooter. Both of these genres are explored fairly well, but there aren't any sections that are overly hard. I died my fair share of times but I always felt like it was my fault, not the game being rude. I like that the game has level ups and upgrades for the weapons, it encouraged me to try out varied weapons and get to know them. There were a few that I disliked when I first tried them but after getting used to them they were excellent. On the 3d platforming side, there were plenty of hidden collectibles to encourage exploring and playing. I liked that they showed some restraint here, all the collectibles I found were meaningful to the experience.
Of note: I really think this game is more than the sum of its parts. Writing it up it doesn't seem that special, but playing it I felt differently. I'm not sure if it's because this game is several entries into the series or whether they found some magic, but it really feels like this game is tight.
Overall I would really recommend this game to anyone. I suspect it's pretty inexpensive on PS4 because of its age, so if you have access I'd recommend giving it a try.
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