Is Ratchet and Clank Still a Good Game?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 เม.ย. 2023
- In this early 2000's adventure, two unlikely heroes set off to save the entire galaxy from wild corporate greed. Come with me, and let's find out together if Ratchet and Clank is still a good game.
- เกม
Whilst it seems the most common opinion to dislike the R&C relationship in this one I personally really love it. And the reason for that is that it feels natural, who do you know who you met and was instantly friends with? And if their own stupid behaviour almost got you killed then you'd be more than entitled to be a bit pissed about it. Also to Start things off rocky and end up as friends is a real forged in fire moment and I think it really works.
I loved Ratchet’s personality in this game. Everybody always complains about his attitude and that you can’t strafe but I would choose this over Up Your Arsenal any day.
Really love the simplicity of the original ratchet and clank and same with jak and daxter. Just a colourful world with cool characters and a simple story thats fun to play. These games are my childhood 👌😄
In defense of the story, the journey from Ratchet's perspective is not about him trying to be a hero. He doesn't see himself as someone who can or should try to stop Drek. The setting is full of people who just want to look after themselves, and Ratchet is no exception. Ratchet's journey is about being worn down by Clank's insistence on doing the right thing and finally becoming a hero just in time for the climax. For most of the story, he's just along for the ride because he needs a robotic ignition system and Clank drives a hard bargain.
"what games used to be like"
ratchet 1 is best ratchet and craps all over the modern entries
Dude, Ratchet isn't some hero that is obliged to save the galaxy, he's just some guy with a robot friend that explores the various planets. He didn't "have to save billions of lives" neither did the plot need to go in that direction. What made the game so good was the "open world" exploration, many different weapons and fighting/shooting mechanics, all while listening to some bangers OSTs that will probably be on our memories for the rest of our lives. We played this when we were 10 or 12, there is no need for an overly-developed plot story against the bad guy neither is does it make the game "worse" because it doesn't have one. Ultimately, Ratchet and Clank was a game for kids and saying "it wasn't good because of the plot" is like saying that Super Mario is bad because "it doesn't develop the main villain plot". At the end of the day that isn't the point of the game.
But hey, on the plus side, your video brought up some forgotten memories of my childhood and made me want to replay the series, great video on that end 👌
To be clear, I do not think this game is bad. It has flaws, every game does. For me, the most major flaw is the plot direction but that won’t be the case for everyone and I’m not here to take that away.
In the end, I do absolutely recommend playing this game in 2023 because it is still enjoyable.
So there were a few things I noticed in the gameplay footage that lead to you having a more difficult time. This isn't meant to be critical of your gameplay, but more that I've played it so many times that I can't help but think about the small things.
At the Blarg Tactical Research Station (tm), the small enemies in great numbers get easily mowed down by the Pyrocitor, which you can purchase as early as Novalis, the first real level of the game, making the whole world easier.
The prize for winning the hoverboard race in Blackwater City was the Platinum Zoomerator, which allows you to do tricks to fill a boost gauge, which again makes the race on Kalebo III far easier as well.
Once you have the Thruster-Pack, you unlock strafing, though the game doesn't tell you about it at all. You double tap R1 to start floating, and then iirc you can hold either L2 or R2 to strafe while you move around. This makes most larger enemies easier to fight.
With the robot disguise, you only need it active when a robot guard is looking directly at you, the rest of the time you can run around normally and nothing happens.
I absolutely agree that the last phase of the Drek fight is painfully bad. The only real ways to make it "easier" are to get the nanotech upgrades at the end of Ratchet's path on Orxon, and to get more weapons to have a higher total amount of ammo. Also you can grind on the edge of the arena with your soap shoes.
...Also, while not gameplay related, you destroy the Blarg ships on pokitaru because they're actively in the middle of destroying the planet. This is one of those times you wanted to see more of where you directly ruin part of Drek's plan. We even know it worked because Pokitaru still exists later, unlike Novalis, which is for sure a dead planet.
I think the reason why ratchet and clank is such a good game series is because you’re the hero but no one treats you like a hero like for example in the first game instead of going to save the day you go bring it to hire authorities and then after high authorities fail you’re meant to pick up the slack
Absolutely. Gameplay is a little dated but the story and jokes hold up well, still a pleasure to play though every now and then!
i can’t describe the excitement in my bones when i found this channel doing retrospective type videos of my childhood. Keep up the good work, these videos are top tier and deserve way more attention
What i love about this game the most is the strategic weapon use, after spending enough time with them its like seeing the matrix. There are loads of opportunities for creative and strategic weapon use in this game, whereas its sequels just have a bunch of functionally similar run-and-gun weapons. That can be explosive and exciting, but every ratchet sequel is just strafing left to right, jumping and holding down the fire button.
Im absolutely loving your retrospectives on my childhood. Cant wait for your video on the best Ratchet game, Deadlocked
Hell yeah. A fellow Ratchet Deadlocked enjoyer.
I love the difficulty spike in the final boss, I would not have it any other way
On the subject of Ratchet and Clank not being friends for the majority of the game, I can never tell if I like it or not. On the one hand, it does feel like it goes on way too long, and it would have been a lot more effective if Ratchet had stayed mad at Clank for a few levels and then they mended their friendship. On the other hand, I do kind of like the way Ratchet flip flops between being a total jerk to Clank, to then being pretty friendly with him. It's odd, and it doesn't seem to make sense, but it's weirdly realistic in my opinion. It reminds me of being a kid in grade school and there were always classmates that you thought were kind of assholes and you'd get into arguments and fights with them, but you still also willingly spent time with them and could have fun together.
Skipping over Oltanis for "not being plot relevant" is the dumbest thing I've heard in a long time.
Hard agree on the Qwark space dogfight though. It's a mediocre boss fight, but the dialogue from Qwark is pretty nice because it's exactly what you'd expect from him.
Yeah the hoverboard races are more fun when you have the zoomerator and do tricks, you just end up always having boost and can skip some arrow pads, the second race has a shortcut section as well that you unlock.
I constantly watch retrospectives of R&C, and have prob watched 80% of them on TH-cam. This is some of the best content I have seen on the subject. Solid sense of humor and overall great retrospective and story overview. Looking forward to future content.
Final boss fight woulda been easier if you got the health upgrades....
Surely one of my favorite games of all time that i would love to play many times but your retrospective is true and i really like the way you deliver it , a lot of things didn't make sense but i think even someone that would try it in 2023 would appreciate it , especially the music , you don't find that kind of type of games with that music that you can recognize a stage by listening to its music nowadays even from the franchise itself ... i 'm really waiting for your next video !! keep up the great work
Nice video, you're very consistent with this. Ratchet 1 can be a little hard to come back to, but I find there's value in it. It's the only Ratchet game that's more platformer than shooter, which gives it a very unique feeling. I once heard it described as platformer where the powerups are guns, and that's a cool angle, even if it means the combat is a little awkward. I can't say I've personally had trouble with some of the things you did, like the frogs in Blarg station, but the game's weird enough that I can believe it, especially if you’re more used to the later games.
I think your criticism of the story is fair enough, but I wanted to give my thoughts on it. Just looking at the literal goings on, yeah not a lot of substance happens, but that's part of the vibe they're going for. You’re not a hero straightforwardly fighting a bad guy, you’re just some dude with a wrench in a huge galaxy that gives absolutely no fucks about anything except money. Many times, you go to a planet to get one specific item without making a dent in the larger scheme, not because you don’t care about stopping it, but because it's literally the only lead you have right now. You're wandering from planet to planet, running stupid errands and paying huge sums of money, all so that you can cobble together a set of gadgets and weapons in the vague hope that you’ll be able to combine it all into a way of actually stopping the big plan. It's a very scrappy, underdog structure that I really enjoy. Admittedly, Selfish Prick Ratchet sticking around for far too long makes it hard to appreciate that angle. It really does come across as him just dicking around for no reason, but then again you as the player aren't really supposed to agree with Selfish Prick Ratchet. Still should've toned him down, though, he's just unpleasant to be around. I'm glad they ditched that element in the sequels.
Honestly platforming in the series has always been decent at best, the real enjoyment of these games heavily relies on how fun and/or unique the weapons are paired with other twists in gameplay; that being level variety and structure, unique gadgets and sections with completely different mechanics.
It's an idea so straightforward to iterate on that all Insomniac has to do is improve the presentation and polish/refine existing gameplay while adding several new gimmicks and mechanics.
Watching this video i assumed you had tons of subscribers. Well done. Keep up the great work.
Would have loved to see you talk more about the weapons, especially the golden ones, which were just the coolest thing to me as a child. Maybe cover some of the sequels? I think 2 and 3 were quite improved.
I’m glad you enjoyed it! as of now, I’m undecided how far into this series I plan to go. Eventually, I would love to cover all of them but there are so many other great titles out there deserving some love too so it’s hard to decide
@@extrapyxel Totally understandable. Regardless, I really enjoyed your commentary, wit, editing, and the nostalgia inherent in reviewing this kind of content too. I'll be looking forward to more of your videos!
The original has never been topped. I’ll admit that the second game is my favourite, but it’s much too easy and Ratchets missing his edge, not to mention his original voice.
I went back to both Jak & Ratchet trilogies by way of a PS3 emulator earlier this year, having not played them since my teens. It was amazing how many jokes went over my head back then. I found a new appreciation for the lack of upgrade system in weapons, because I felt I could use whatever weapon was best for the job, rather than feeling forced to use the weapon that needed upgraded in the later games
About the subtitles : they're available in all cutscenes.
The ones you mention which don't have subtitles are pre-rendered cinematics, they are basically just video files, instead of the cutscenes who are playing in real time.
Love your rac vids keep it up pal
I like your videos. They're a nice trip down to memory lane. Could you one day do beyond good and evil?
I will certainly add it to the list!
I largely agree with the opinion that the game's plot is something of a "galactic meandering" without all that much direct conflict between the main protagonists and the main antagonists. Somehow though, I can't help but kind of enjoy that, at least on some level. I very much dislike how Drek's planet is basically just finished by the end of the game, and it gives the feeling that everything was for nothing and we really didn't save anybody. I'd have liked there to be a more obvious showing that Ratchet and Clank's actions across the galaxy DID actually stop Drek from destroying the planets. At the same time though, I kind of like the feeling of wandering around this huge, expansive, strange galaxy, not really knowing where we're going or what we're doing, but finding adventure each time we land somewhere new. It definitely falls into the negative trope of "the plot carries the main character along instead of the character driving the plot" but something about that does feel kind of relatable in a way. The galaxy is so big and so diverse, and we know the bad guy is out there, always being reminded of his presence through infobots and whatnot, but it's hard to actually come face to face with him.
great vid, didn’t even agree with the majority of your opinions but respect the honesty and raised some good points, subbed :)
replaying this game in 2023 makes me realize how much of a dick ratchet was compared to how he is in the newer R&Cs 😂
Fun start of Ratchet and Clank.
You do get the ability to do trick on the hoverboard which help you get more boost to work with, it's still hard but much more manageable if you do them. I will also say in regards to the final boss, it's honestly something I usually very much enjoy and most of the projectiles aren't usually that bad when you have the drones and tesla claw which handles everything going on pretty well so you can just use the rocket launcher on drek. I do agree the plot could be better since ratchet really was a pain up until after the quark fight, but otherwise the game is pretty enjoyable. I do hope you return to look at the second game at least since there was a pretty decent shift to how it played (unlike jak & daxter with it more changing the story) and the third game which brought it all together.
See I knew I had to be missing something with the hoverboard. And your points on Drek are fair. I do feel that he just has too much health though. Even if his attacks are easily dealt with, the amount of health he has makes the process tedious, in my opinion.
What I like most about this version is that the music is way better than in the 2016 reboot; some weapons in the 2016 were fun to use, but that's pretty much it.
Let's see, Quark was more active in his role and more motivated to save his reputation in the reboot more than in the original, Drek was much more serious and intimidating as a villain in the original, he used a lot of dark humor which complimented his character. In the reboot, Drek was just a joke, and the devs even made him more sympathetic; the original Drek was a cruel, corporate Machiavellian that took great pleasure in his greed; in the reboot, it doesn't really explain how Derk's homeworld got polluted, in the original, Drek flat-out admits that he did it all.
I have to ask, were you playing this on the original PlayStation 2 disc, or on the PlayStation 3 high definition remaster? I just replayed the original on PS2 and I was confused by how difficult you found that first boss on the Blarg Station. I was able to beat the giant bug boss thing using only the wrench. It was moderately challenging but nothing crazy.
The mine through or may have been useless in older games but it was probably the most powerful weapon you could get in up your arsenal
I remember playing the first game I got stuck on blackwater I couldn't beat the hoverboard race and going through the sewers with the water riseing up I didn't understand the heli-jump.
The first boss is a perfect spot to use the succ cannon, at least to get rid of the small ones.
Also, another reason why there wasn't such a big focus on the story is because of the game's focus on just blowing shit up among other reasons. This *was* the first game after all.
I'd say it made it more fun than the remake in that regard.
I dont know if its just me, but imo something that i feel people dont aprecciate this game is that it is the first third person shooter that doesnt control like ass these days (looking at you GTA 3). Despite the lack of strafing the controls were miles ahead any other game in the genre, kind of similar to how RE4 was miles ahead with the new camera and shooting system, the first RaC game doesmt force a clunky autoaim that makes the game feel more like if every level or mission was on rails.
Totally agree on that!
Im telling you man, I recently played the original Re4 with the ProjectHD Mod for the first time and i had a total blast doing it!
The controls took a little time to get used to but once you got the hang of it you're really in for a fun time.
A complete and well thought out game with awesome and memorable dialogue and charme. Quite a masterpiece with its groundbreaking over the shoulder gameplay.
It was the most fun i had in gaming in years..!
Now just a few days ago I got around to playing the original Ratchet & Clank on PCSX2 after seeing a Retrospective video about it here on TH-cam and despite a few slowdowns and lags here and there, it was worth every minute playing through this game back from the days as a young kid.
As you mentioned, it really gave me a similar feeling of that kind of game experience with Re4, as it is also a very well and fully developed game, with a GREAT soundtrack and awesome writing and humor!
The gameplay and controls were amazing for the time and still hold up when you're playing through it today.
While playing it I already knew R&C 2 was going to be next and currently I am battling through Up Your Arsenal with Ratchet Deadlocked already in the Library.
Long story, older videogames just have that quality and charme and passion that really makes them fun to come back to even after all these years..
Do you maybe have any recommendations for me what would be fun to play after that? :D
@@MCoconut97 If you liked the Ratchet And Clank series i recommend you play the rest of the games too, and why not the PS1 Spyro trilogy, which was made by the same developers and there are few minor details that reminds you to RaC (the open linear design, Agent 9 gameplay, skill points, etc.).
If you are a fan of third person shooters with a mix of platforming i also recommend Jak 2 and 3.
@@sebastianaliandkulche I've never really tried Spyro, is it similar to the original Jak & Dexter in gameplay style?
Would be interesting to see Insomniac's previous work.
Jak II and III I was thinking about too probably haha, these i enjoyed too as a kid, but i think I've never really finished them back then.
With R&C you mean the whole series past PS2?
@@MCoconut97 Yes and yes 👍
soooooooooooooooooooooooooo much nostalgia in rac1 it was my entire childhood
2:19 hey now! I enjoy that weapon!
I think what makes ratchet and clank a good game franchise in the early 2000s was that every game was very similar except they just fix the problems they had with the previous one because I played a lot of ratchet and clank up your arsenal and I can see a lot of similarities but a lot of things that they changed to make better like they nailed the gameplay loop because the game PA loop looks almost identical in this version and up your arsenal
You're supposed to do tricks with the zoomerator, makes the second hoverboard race completely trivial
*hears the words “cosmically Inept assembly line” then proceeds to laugh in ACIT spoilers.*
The Pyrociter makes every boss battle so simple.
R.Y.N.O. makes every boss battle simple.
The one thing I would objectively disagree with is the bit about Drek "moving way to fast" in the final phase. The blue ring around the edge is grind rail that allows you to kite him and use the blaster (and or other weapons) ans successfully dodge him. I think it could have been signaled better to the player that you can do that, however, I do also think it is also relatively obvious.
A fair point. I must not have used the footage, but I did use the grind rail a few times. Mostly it didn’t help me much, but it’s worth noting as an option
@@extrapyxel I mean yeah in your defense it isn't insanely viable unless you are expecting it and preemptively b-line to it. For games like this and the Jak series I have two decades worth of muscle memory.
Love the channel and love the series! Keep it up
Aye…. This was really well made 👍
I just bought ratchet and clank going commando and up your arsenal I beat up your arsenal three times I had going commando but it never worked because I bought it from a friend Who didn’t treat their games properly and I recently bought going commando to play and I’m planning to collect all of the old Russian clank games I want to get the PS3 collection game and the two games that were released for the PS3 but it really sucks that they’re $60 each
I love the hover boarding so much and it makes me sad to here you diss it like that : (
(do you not know that in the second race you can do tricks to gain speed boost?)
During my play through I did not but thanks to everyone being so helpful here I have learned! It would’ve been nice to know at that time though
Honestly the largest part that you missed is all the speedrunning tricks. Seriously once you think you're getting bored of this game you can look up a speedrun guide learn at least most of the tricks because there are only a few hard ones and see how much fun you'll have
Will you be doing Going Commando or Up Your Arsenal?
I do plan to at least do the trilogy, but beyond that the series might get out on hold to give some other titles some love
We need more platformer shooter games
What mic do you use?
I’m using a Blue Snowball Ice
Use the mind thrower and the taunter. You're welcome
Can you help me make a analysis video or just make a tutorial of these types of videos?
ratchet 1 definitely feels dated but its fun for what it is. i still play going commando over any of them lol. have it on PS5 via streaming and PCSX2
I love these games
You ain’t really helping yourself either, you can get and HP upgrade on Orxon, first one will give u 6 hits before u go down and last upgrade will give u 8 hits before u die, which would’ve helped for the last boss
Sly Cooper next? PLEASE!
I can’t promise exactly when, but Sly is coming I promise!
I didn’t like the remake for the first game why would they make the main antagonist the final boss when he was first introduced in the 3rd game
This is still The only R&C Game I’ve ever played lol
"never got much use out of the suck cannon" also you "man this blarg station is the worst level with all these overwhelming small enemies" hmmm if only you had a weapon that instantly disposed of large groups of small enemies. bonus: you can suck up the plague and shoot them at the boss.
Hey fair enough. Can’t go back and change things now though
Subbing for more rac content
Hello my fellow mine glove hater
*deep breath*
What is the point of the mine glove, it has kinda bad damage, horrendous range, ridiculously overpriced, you need another overpriced weapon for it to be even somewhat ok, and it doesnt work well on the planet you unlock it on.
Anyway, how's your day been?
Good video by the way
Its amusing to see a Zoomoid get filtered by one of the most kino platformers of the 2000s.
Yes
Parkor!
LETSFUCKINGGOOOOO
Its not so much corporate greed as it is lack of soul but yah drek is not very nice
Get gud
Yes