Appetite for
destruction

by ERIK LEIJON

In a world where monstrously hyped next-gen games are expected to wash our cars and cure infectious diseases, there might not be room for a game like the cumbersomely titled Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (PS3/SCEA, Insomniac). It would be a shame to avoid the action platformer—built around a furry mechanic and his goody bag of weapons and gizmos—simply on the grounds that it plays a lot like its previous incarnations. Tools of Destruction is the best Ratchet and Clank yet and a solid action game altogether.

It could be said that Ratchet and Clank—as far as protagonist odd couples go—aren’t particularly interesting. Then again, Banjo and Kazooie were a couple of googly-eyed Chuck E. Cheese castoffs and connoisseurs of the platform genre still exalt that game’s brilliance a decade later. Point being, Tools of Destruction comes exactly as advertised—a traditionally constructed game that prides itself on tight level design and a constant barrage of action. Ironically enough, it’s quite refreshing.

What separates this new Ratchet game from its predecessors is the massive scope and depth of each level. The first metropolis best exemplifies this, as Ratchet must make his way from one end of the city to the other. From the rooftops, the entire city is completely visible, and brimming with non-player characters and other signs of life. The planets are designed to start at the bottom and ascend to the finish—most of the cities are suspended in mid-air, Cloud City-style—so typically, Ratchet can look down and see the progress he’s made in real time.

The levels cannot be fully explored in a non-linear sense, since our heroes must follow a set path. It keeps the pace swift and there’s never any backtracking. The visuals are understandably very cartoonish, and the colour palette gives every planet a unique disposition. I did frequent a glitch where crates would hover mysteriously in the air.

The character designs, much like the gameplay, borrow heavily from the Sonic Adventure series. The mechanized foes are all fairly unremarkable from an aesthetic perspective, although the tougher enemies provide a challenge as only certain weapons can defeat them. There are loads of different gadgets that are easily selectable using the triangle button, and most tend to have their singular applications.

There might be too many weapons, because a few will fall into disuse once you upgrade your lightning ravager and predator launcher to their maximum levels. At the very least, every weapon is worth checking out a few times. There are also bonus Sixaxis and on-rails space shooter levels, although neither constitute anything more than sidebars. The fixed-camera grinding sections (which are pure Sonic) of the levels best demonstrate the game’s graphical prowess.

Tools of Destruction is a reliable and largely consistent platform game, and a hardcore player would have fun blowing through it in a single sleep-deprived weekend. It shouldn’t matter that it doesn’t have the legs to be anything memorable beyond this calendar year, because it’s a fun game in the immediate. Considering the new wave of next-gen games on the horizon, developer Insomniac Games will have to truly bring Ratchet and Clank into the future—otherwise creative stagnation might be their tool of destruction.

Whoops!

A clarification concerning the recent Ubisoft Campus/McGill union. Turns out it’s not a full program but merely a series of digital media audio courses for existing Schulich School of Music and Computer Science students. Ubisoft Campus did originally announce that it was a one-year certificate program in their press release, although there are no plans for a degree in video game audio.