The Ratchet & Clank Trilogy - PSVita

Also known as: The Ratchet & Clank Trilogy

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The Ratchet & Clank Trilogy (PSVita)
Requires: PS Vita Memory Card
Also for: PS3
Viewed: 3D Third-person, over the shoulder Genre:
Compilation
Media: Cartridge Arcade origin:No
Developer: Insomniac Soft. Co.: SCEE
Publishers: SCEE (GB)
Released: 4 Jul 2014 (GB)
Ratings: PEGI 7+

Summary

Sony has brought three of its best PS2 platformers to the PS Vita!

Ratchet & Clank

On a typically average day, the young Ratchet is fiddling around with his space ship and dreaming of excitement and adventure when, suddenly, in the distance, he notices a ship crashland. Upon investigation, he discovers Clank - a reject from a nearby robot factory - who tells him about an evil Chairman Drek and his unruly solution to his home planet's pollution problem. These plans involve building a new world using the best bits from all the other planets he can get his hands on. Oh dear!

And so begins the adventure of Ratchet and Clank, as they saddle up and blast off on a quest to save the planets and foil the evil Chairman's plans. Standing in their way is Drek's army of robots and warriors, but fret ye not because the daring duo have at their disposal a plethora of weapons and gadgets to aid their cause.

Ratchet & Clank 2

Having thwarted the world-dominating plans of the evil Chairman Drek in the first game, Ratchet & Clank soon find that the resulting peaceful lifestyle is not about to last very long, and they're almost immediately kidnapped and taken far away to the Bogon Galaxy. Here they're met by the amusingly-titled Abercrombie Fitzwidget, who convinces them - through a combination of real estate, cool weapons and other assorted bribes - to investigate the whereabouts of a promising new experimental product from Megacorp.

What follows is an amusing adventure to save another galaxy, set across 20 all-new planets, themselves populated by a diverse set of characters. As well as the usual mix of platforming and shooting, the game also includes a host of new gameplay elements, such as upgradeable weapons and armour, a more dynamic economic system, as well as various new modes like gladiatorial arenas, space combat and what are known as 'Spherical Worlds'. Delving into RPG territory a little, the game also includes a character growth system that allows you to earn more hit points by defeating enemies, accumulating up to 80 by the end of the game. Likewise, however, enemies also grow in strength and, in later levels, can take up to 120 hit points of damage.

Ratchet & Clank 3

After word spreads of Ratchet and Clank's recent conquest in Locked and Loaded, the twosome is called together by the Galactic President to bring peace to the universe when robotic super-villain Nefarious threatens to wipe out all organic life in the galaxy.

It's an average plot, but Ratchet and Clank 3 is far from standard. On the contrary, the third game in the series not only takes the best from its older brothers, it brings with it a whole bunch of new elements, the most prolific of which is the single-player game comes in the form of weapons. Some 15 new and upgradeable weapons and gadgets have been made available for the third instalment, each useful in one way or another.

More interestingly, Ratchet 3's new worlds are made even more diverse thanks to the option to control not just Ratchet, but Clank and the formerly retired super-hero stereotype Captain Quark as well. New vehicles such as the Turbo Slider and Hovership borrow elements from the Jak and Daxter series, pitting players in any number of races or vehicular combat missions.

That's the single-player game, and there's plenty of it. But what makes Ratchet 3 really special is the introduction of an online game capable of accommodating eight players via broadband. The online game largely comprises of two teams struggling to take territory from one another in order to ultimately destroy their opponents' base. But with no team eager to give up the ghost, the use of weapons and the commandeering of vehicles to achieve your goals is an absolute necessity.