Ratchet: Deadlocked
November 1,2005 - It seems to happen more often than not that a franchise is so good at the start, hits its peak, then starts to fall behind. Case in point: Ratchet & Clank.  The Ratchet & Clank series started off with an extremely strong blend of action and platforming and as it continued to grow each year until it hit its peak with the third installment.  Up Your Arsenal, the third game in the series, so far is definitely the best of the batch and now that the fourth one, Ratchet: Deadlocked is finally out, it seems to be going to way of all the other platforming games just like it, downhill.  Ratchet: Deadlocked isn’t a bad game by any means, in fact, it’s literally a great game for that matter, but it just doesn’t seem to retain that charm and fresh style that Ratchet & Clank first had in 2002 and seemed to reproduce so perfectly with last year’s Up Your Arsenal.

This time you’re flying solo as the title hints at.  You don’t have your good buddy Clank to back you up but instead you’ll be controlling two AI robots–sort of–that will keep you company.  It’s a bold choice to ditch Clank, who, teamed up with Ratchet, made one of the best and most memorable duos of this console generation, but thankfully, Clank isn’t absent from the game even in the slightest.  In this game you’ve been kidnaped by an evil entrepreneur who runs a hit reality TV show that pits the universe’s best heroes in an American Gladiator-styled series of obstacle courses filled with tons of enemies, cool weaponry, and fast, stylish action.  Needless to say, it’s exactly what a Ratchet game should be like.

From a gameplay standpoint there’s not a whole lot that’s different here than in the previous games.  The most notable change is the lack of Clank and the introduction of the combat bots, the two robots that follow you around, give you some cover fire, and also help you get suited and booted to fight all of your enemies.  Clank, even though unplayable, will serve as a communications tool to tell you about upgrades, strategies, and will progress you through the story at times via radio.  You will also have all of the same abilities to upgrade weapons and whatnot throughout the game just as you did in the previous games.  The combat bots are without a doubt one of the better additions to the Ratchet series, and even though you have to sacrifice Clank being playable, it’s almost worth it anyway.  They’re smart, they’re strong, and they definitely know how to kick butt.  The AI in the combat bots is leagues beyond what you’d see in any other game like this, and even if they die, you can recharge them at any point.  It’s the most strategic element of the combat the series has ever seen, no doubt about it.

One major downfall in Ratchet: Deadlocked is the limitation of weapons--there are a mere ten this time around.  Even though you can upgrade them in various fashions, it is still somewhat of a detrimental  design decision to take such a huge aspect of the series and chop it down considerably. There should have been a greater focus on  the variety of your artillery.  The various upgrades to your weapons do help, though.  Depending on what upgrade you get or buy, you can change the speed, range, or even the entire attack property of the gun.

Introduced in last year’s Ratchet game, the multiplayer once again serves as a big push in Deadlocked.  With the whole obstacle course/reality TV show theme, it doesn’t feel as a side portion to the game this time and actually fits in quite well with the overall feel of the game.  If you have broadband it makes for an even better time when you take it online and go against several other people there.  This time there is a cooperative mode that is extremely well executed.  Though there aren’t many levels to play on, they incorporate cooperative play right into the single player campaign.  The rest of the multiplayer modes are still pretty reminiscent of Unreal Tournament 2004 just like last year, which, if you haven’t played either last year’s Ratchet or Unreal, you’ll definitely find that to be extremely good, you can never have enough of that style of gameplay.

On the technical side, Ratchet still looks and sounds as good as ever.  Though the technical side isn’t as impressive as it once was given the aging PS2's roof limit, it still is a suitable looking and sounding game in every sense.  The graphics are smooth and there aren’t any hiccups, even when the action gets really thick and intense.  The sound effects are actually the best part, the explosions, gun noises, and voice acting are just awesome and the soundtrack is also pretty good, even though it’s nothing memorable.  The character models are better than they were last year and so are the animations, but it’s tough to get excited about them when you know that this is about all it’ll be on the PS2 before we move on to next generation.  Either way, the technical side is still impressive and hardly worth faulting.

Overall, Ratchet Deadlocked is a great game that just fails to exceed its predecessors.  Right now if you were to to compare this game with the rest of the series, it would be easily recommendable, especially for its multiplayer. Still, given what an improvement Up Your Arsenal and even Going Commando were over the original, it would have been nice to see more out of Deadlocked.  If the trend continues, the next Ratchet will be even more disappointing than Deadlocked, so let’s hope Insomniac ditches the PS2 and heads on over the PS3 for the next Ratchet game so they can truly push the boundaries of the Ratchet & Clank franchise.

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