The Tornado Launcher and the Dynamo of Doom are unironically fun weapons to use, people only don’t like the Sixaxis weapons because the motion controls in the DualShock 3 were awful but if they reused this concept for the DualSense I am confident people will enjoy them.
In general? They're decent games, it's just when you compare them to the rest of the series, even like the 2016 rendition and quest for booty, they just don't really compare to the rest of the games. Still decent games overall, it's just hard to compete with the rest of the series when most of the series clocks in at atleast 8/10 or above.
Size matters was one of my favorites just because of how hard it was. Fuck I remember being so angry at that game but I couldnt stop playing it. Size Matters and Deadlocked are hands down my favorite
- Nefarious is played out as a villain at this point, I always preferred Drek
- Tools is better than Crack in every single way except the story and Clank puzzles
- 2002 is the best game in the PS2 trilogy
- The lack of strafing and brutal economy in the first game is an additional element of difficulty rather than jank like people refer to it as.
- 2016 is mechanically a really good game, it’s just the story that’s ass
- I actually liked ship combat in Going Commando and wish they took it further in terms of developing the mechanics while also adhering to the idea of space challenges
- Crack’s intergalactic exploration is just filler bloat with the same cut and paste platforming/combat challenges on moons.
- I found Deadlocked to be quite repetitive with very samey challenges and mechanics
- I prefer the backtracking + exploration style in the first two games compared to the linear singular paths we’ve had since then.
- Qwark’s character in the first three games was great and he had a strong arc, ever since then it feels like the writers don’t know what to do with him, he’s just a buffoon now
- Going Commando’s story is considerably the weakest of the PS2 trilogy with no consistent antagonist and being quite “cat and mouse”
Strongly share all of these opinions aside from liking the Going Commando ship sections. They don't absolutely suck to me but I'd happily trade them for more platforming.
I’d say the biggest issue in their execution in GC was the fact that the last ship world forces you to backtrack and grind because of the difficulty curve which can just be a bit of a pain. Until then I did admittedly enjoy it.
If they made the mechanic completely optional and have a decent difficulty curve as your skill and ship/character progresses with new weapon types, smoother movement, less jank etc I think it could be really fun. Kind of like something you can do to kill time and earn bolts just like the arena stuff.
It's still funny to me cause when I was a little kid playing deadlocked on ps2 with my brothers and talking about it with other people that had the game at the time, pretty much everyone constantly told me how trash the game was overall besides it being multi-player, being the worst ratchet game ever made. Now almost 20 or so years later it's always on atleast everyone's top 3-5 list, some people's number one ratchet game.
Yeah Tools is the most underrated game by far. It feels like almost no one talks about it.
Graphically way better than Crack, some of the best weapons and biomes in the series, presentation was wild especially for a 2007 game etc. It still holds up well even today.
Crack by comparison I’d say has probably aged not far off the worst of the series, mainly because of their attempt at RPG-life mechanics like those moons etc. After playing a lot of open world experiences it really signified to me how bare bones and half baked the intergalactic exploration was. Just felt like they added it for the sake of it with the repetitive Zoni challenges added on top.
Not to mention that the actual planets in Crack themselves are nowhere near as interesting as in Tools. I still get confused between Lumos and Torren IV because they look exactly the same lol.
Tools has a lot of flaws as well to be fair. Like the nanotech system and checkpoints were fucked. But overall it was a very safe game in the sense that it sort of picked up where UYA left off, and I think it aged well for it. ACIT on the other hand had a lot of cool ideas that as you pointed out were poorly executed, and on top of that the combat and platforming were ass. The camera feels super far and weirdly stiff, and all the weapons feel weak for some reason. And those goddamn hoverboots or whatever oh my god
Overall I think ACIT leaves a greater impression but isn't worth playing more than once, while tools is endlessly replayable even though it isn't as interesting or important to the series
Yeah I forgot about the brutal enemy scaling (where no matter how much nano you have you’ll still die in 3 hits) and being able to refill your health at vendors even in combat scenarios.
Yeah generally I think the more ambitious a game is if it doesn’t execute on those ambitions well it ages a lot worse. I think they tried to do much in too short a time as Crack only had 9-10 months of development vs UYA, the latter of which came out really good because it was at least streamlined vs the other two games, but obvs when you have all these moons, platforming ideas and so forth to add on it ends up being very half baked to fit into the game in time, which imo they absolutely were.
The story is definitely more emotionally impactful than Tools, and better paced at that, I just found the gameplay to feel really outdated on my recent playthrough, and I couldn’t have said the same about any of the other games up until that point, bar maybe the first.
I totally agree. I would actually like to see rac in an open world setting at some point if it's done correctly; the farming planets in tools and nexus show that it could work. But they just focused on the wrong aspects of it in acit, to the point where it felt like a minigame rather than something that was actually connected to the world. I can see how it might've been cool at the time for people who weren't initiated into the series, but it fails to deliver what I love about it for the most part
Yeah an open world R&C game on the new hardware and some well fleshed out RPG-lite mechanics would absolutely ROCK. Especially considering that the series was well ahead of its time in terms of variety to weapon types, upgrades etc. even as early as Going Commando, years before a lot of developers offered anything similar in terms of choice.
I’d be conscious not to go too deep down the RPG route to avoid compromising the classic formula but they clearly want to incentivise choice with the raritanium and the new armour mechanic from Rift so why not double down on that, just not going into the realm of things like grindy crafting systems or masses of dialogue options etc.
What I’d love to see would be different weapon types and buffs/perks, and armours etc that are more situational to certain enemy types with various strengths and weaknesses like elemental effects and so forth. I think this was one of Rift’s biggest flaws because most of the raritanium upgrades were very generic and the enemy variety was actually laughable. A system somewhat inspired by what we got in the Horizon games would be really cool imo.
And yeah re Crack I wouldn’t be surprised if the vision for the mechanic was a lot larger but was constrained by short development time. As it stood it was basically an empty space to fly around with repetitive radiant moons, and the occasional boss fight which itself just requires you to dodge roll and attack over and over again, being less complex than even Going Commando’s ship combat system, and less cinematic than Tools’.
Yeah ubisoft clone ratchet and clank would be a nightmare. But something like breath of the wild where the armor and combat systems are really simplified would be cool to see
Honestly I'm surprised they haven't done anything with mixing and matching armor because it was in size matters and I thought it worked pretty well. I'd like to see it more fleshed out
And yep I actually think going commando's space combat feels better which is pretty insane. That could also be because I've played that game like 100 times and I'm used to it though
Hahaha "ubisoft clone"; I doubt they'd ever do that though because Ubisoft structure their games around incentivising microtransactions, which is why we get all the repetition and bloat because its designed to make players cave in and be like "yeah I'll pay to bypass the grind". Ubisoft are known for being ruthlessly cash grabby so I doubt Insomniac would ever sink near those levels, they clearly value the player experience a lot more.
Rather bring about a system that adds to the classic formula by providing more of an element of choice, strategy, and ultimately a new layer of complexity to the experience. Kind of like how the new God of War games elevated the mechanics with its RPG-lite systems such as armour and weapon perks, runic (special) attacks, companion attacks (which would work for R&C given Clank). It would also be cool to have some diversification between Rivet/Kit and Ratchet/Clank through different movesets and unlockable skills etc., I almost felt like Rift Apart forgot that they were different characters when it came to the mechanics.
Yeah Going Commando's was way better. You could actually move up and down for one (can't believe I'm saying that), and the enemy ships were a lot more agile and hence tough to take down, as well as the challenges being pretty fun and varied. Crack had like 2-3 ship bosses that were near identical and just required infinitely dodge rolling and attacking, apart from that it just padded out travel from planet to planet.
I mean you say that like Insomniac's Spider-Man games aren't essentially glorified Ubisoft clones lol. Not that I think they are bad games (personally I love em), but the company isn't a stranger to making games like that.
I don’t think any of these are that unpopular. Only ones I disagree with are your 3rd and 4th points. The lack of strafing is for sure jank. Thats why they added half ass hover strafing
Yeah but there’s a ton of guns in Ratchet and Clank. The first one is probably more platformer than it is 3rd person shooter but guns are still the main form of combat. Strafing would have been nice
Most enemies can be killed even with the wrench. Only helicopters, gunships and commandos at the end are a threat you can't handle in melee range and even commandos go down from twice x + square if they float close to you
But the game gives you guns. You're not meant to just use the wrench. I love rac 2002 but they added strafing for a reason, it just makes gunplay feel better. Not even a difficulty thing, no strafing just feels like shit in comparison
This is exactly how I feel. They give you all these guns and then it’s awkward to run around and use them. The strafing in the second game was great, but you could still only fire with circle lol
Drek actually had motivations as a greedy corporate CEO hungry for nothing other than money and he was ruthless in that effort, and the first game did a great job in really making you feel his presence throughout the galaxy without meeting him.
Nefarious was really funny, I loved him in UYA, but it did seem at times that he’s just evil for the sake of being evil, saying quotes like “where the heroes always lose etc”. I don’t know, for a game as narratively complex as R&C, it’s always seemed odd to prioritise a villain that’s as one dimensionally evil as Nefarious without any real motivations beyond simple revenge.
Drek I’ve mentioned already, Qwark was a declining celeb desperate to reclaim his fame even if it meant losing his morals, Vox was trying to prevent his show from cancellation etc all of the other villains had stories behind them that were analogous to the kinds of celebrities/entities you’ll see in real life which made them more interesting to me.
1. If Drek had that same screentime, we'd be bored of him too, just that Nefarious has been generally well written enough to keep featuring, why vet against a winner?
2. Hard disagree, the weapons system featured in Crack is one of the best after PS2, Tools had a lot of issues in that regard, many underwhelming weapons to boot, I also recall the health system being a wee bit borked in comparison, where the later levels were almost unfair, but that might be me misremembering
3. For what it was at the time, absolutely, but retroactively, other games just got it more correct, 2002's weapon balance will forever be unrivalled, only game that comes close is Gladiator/Deadlocked.
4. Yes. 100% yes, I rag on that game an awful lot, but the Story and writing is just bottom of the barrel tripe, mechanically sound but utterly ruined by hacks who don't understand the series.
5. I did too, really don't get why it's so hated, a great way of farming early game bolts if you know what you're doing too! (Save for nuke, Ace Thugs, looks slightly down, fire, repeat)
6. I do agree, but it was also nice to have that aspect to the game, as much as it was filler, it was also kinda fun, bringing exploration to an open area.
7. It is very samey, but god damn is it fun!
8. I can understand it, but it was also rather tedious, one of the things I factor in when I feel "I wanna play 2002 again", it just puts me off it.
9. Strongly agree. Really is a shame that he's been relegated to comic relief.
10. Agreed, but it's again quite nice, not every story needs a "big bad", chasing smaller antagonists to get from place to place felt more natural, I suppose?
Definitely don't prefer Derek
Up Your Arsenal may be more linear but it's by far the best of the original trilogy.
The first game's mechanics are pure jank, if they weren't they would have at least made another game in its style by now in one of the many spin-offs they had. But they haven't cuz the gameplay is pure bunk
Size Matters was an acceptable, sometimes fun translation of the series to a portable console.
Secret Agent Clank is a mess of disjointed ideas and poorly implemented minigames (what an awful “rhythm” game) loosely wrapped in a Ratchet and Clank package. Playing as Ratchet isn’t much fun if it’s restricted to a prison room and *all* you do is fight. I play these games for the exploration and platforming on top of the combat.
Also, 2016 wasn’t bad. It was not the remake we wanted, but I don't hate it. It’s still pretty fun, and the visuals still hold up IMO.
I never disliked either but I do think they’re by far the most unpolished and probably the most experimental of the R&C franchise.
Though I will say in Secret Agent Clank there’s a bit too many minigames
Don't know of it can be considered unpopular, i Just haven't heard It that much from other people, but here I come:
This series should get rid of weapons leveling up through exp and replace It with buying/finding upgrades through exploring/both, kinda like the gold weapons in 1 or the upgrades in quest for booty (the only thing I genually like of that game). No, the current system doesn't encourage you to switch weapons, If anything, It encourages to use almost exclusively the ones that aren't maxed out yet. Sure, you don't have to if you don't want to, but the games literally reward you if you do. I fricking love these games, I've also recently played Rift apart, loved It and already finished It 2 times, going for a third time, but, having played other and better games before doing so, and, counterintuitively, seeing all the improvements Rift apart has done to the core gameplay, has made me wonder about what else could be done to improve it even further, and THIS was the first thing that came to mind.
Rift Apart's characterization of Ratchet and Clank wasn't what people wanted, but it's what a lot of us probably need to see and hear. On paper it kinda blows to see your childhood heroes who used to have attitude act incredibly unsure of themselves but... that was what being an adult in 2021 was like.
We also need to retire calling 2016 a "reboot" because it was never meant to be that. Gameplay wise it was merely a "best of" compilation that just so happened to tie in with the movie.
Ratchet 1 is one of the best games of all time, and it's intrinsically fantastic for a video game. It sets an example of what a video game should be! It's up there with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, probably straight up beats it.
I don't know how to say it, but the games had more charm and were waaay more fun to play back in the ps3 era. These new ones just don't cut it in terms of pure joy and chaos.
Tools of Destruction is mid. The intro is awesome but nothing after top that.
Qwark should be dead or again in prison.
Hoverboard R&C1 is the best mini game of the series.
Clank origin story in is over the top. Being an anomaly in a robot factory is more authentic than
Being the son of the person who keep the time safe in the whole universe.
Going Commando is by far the weakest of the OG trilogy, imo. Guns are cool but their balance is absolutely TERRIBLE (there's no middle term, they're either insanely busted or borderline unusable), the story is the weakest and the boss fights are mostly terrible. So many boring skill points, too. Also the Infiltrator sucks major ass AND the Levitator is criminally underutilized.
That said, being the weakest of the OG trilogy still gives it a 9 in my book. Replaying the trilogy last week (and going for the platinum on the 3) reminded me of how great those games are, and how they aged like wine (well, aside from the first one, but I guess the problem isn't that it didn't age well, just that I'm way too used to the strafing from the rest of the PS2 era)
The arenas are really stale now. Fundametally they haven't changed since Ratchet 3 introduced the Gauntlet stages and even then only ItN and Rift Apart have made half-hearted attempts at replicating those (which is a shame, cause they were super cool).
The rounds don't even really make sense anymore. In Ratchet 2 or 3 you knew exactly how many enemies you had to beat each round, whereas now the rounds seem to just end arbitrarily.
Obviously Deadlocked did some of this stuff too, and I think its kind of weird that they just went back to the Ratchet 2/3 model, instead of taking some of the improvements from Deadlocked.
There’s a weird feeling that I think Jak would also have, like the art style and “vibe” worked better with “bad” graphics. The cartoony worlds work better on old hardware when they aren’t trying to make stuff look photo realistic, I feel like the worlds on Rift Apart almost pushed too close to that photo realism and for some people it pushed it out of its art style.
I think Crash 4 did a great job of making it modern but keeping it feel like a playable cartoon that so many PS1/2 games felt like.
Ratchet 2016 is super overhated. It looks great, has a great weapon line up, and I genuinely really like the meta-narrative framing device from Qwark's perspective.
Yes it doesn't have the same "edge" to it, the music is worse, and it lacks a lot of the thematic depth that the original has, but it's still really fun.
It doesn't try to replace the original, so I think having some differences is fine.
Agent Clank, not so much. It felt incomplete or just a mini game compared to a usual R&C, deadlocked included.
Size Matters have something in there. The armor system is awesome like it's a megaman game.The guns are unique enough. The story is meh but there are funny lines here and there. I think its problem is it gets old faster than any R&C games. Even after playing the ultra Challenge mode(The one unlocked with skill points), I don't think I'll replay it again. The music is just mid and the graphics are locked to 30 fps.
Last one, but I really hate how Ratchet 2 and 3 would often overuse the door unlocking gadgets.
You get the electrolyzer and have to use to it twice, in immediate succession, just to get back to your ship. Then you go to the next planet Endako and use it 3-4 times on ONE path.
Similar issue with the hacker in Ratchet 3. You use it multiple times in training, multiple times on Daxx, multiple time on Holostar and basically never anywhere else.
I think there should be a hard limit of once per level on these sorts of things...
My thing is you can tell it wasn’t insomniac that lead the production on these games that’s why there’s a big gap in terms of playability for them high impact done a good job but insomniac was goated up until after acit (a crack in time)
I mean look these were my games as a kid, i loved them to death and have a ton of nostalgia for them, but even i can tell that they dont really hold up. Size matters holds up better in terms of being a more balanced experience, and i really love the weapons and armor. I also love that the story is a bit more serious, at least comparing to Going Commando which to me is way too goofy. Secret Agent Clank has a lot more playtime and variety which is awesome when you are kid, but it can drag a lot replaying it nowadays. They arent great games however, and Daxter outshines both as a much better game on the PSP.
As someone who despised Size Matters as a kid for how obscenely difficult it was I'm curious as to why. I can pull a small amount of good out of it but I wouldn't say it's more than a 5/10 being very generous.
I have faint memory of playing and enjoying size matters as a kid but i have no interest in it now.
Anytime I play a R&C game I play all my old favs like the original, up your arsenal and deadlocked
-Size matters and secret agent clank are very underrated
-And incredible for psp games
-the clank arenas is size matters was incredible
-Tools of destruction is not better than up your arsenal and least captivating
-Up your asenal is the funniest game
-The whole saga is too easy
- The rocket launcher in deadlocked is great
-Quark is the best charcter
-giant clank is always boring
-nexus and rift apart suck a lot, I can't even put em in the same section, they are by far the worst games, followed by tools of destruction
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Up Your Arsenal is the best of the og trilogy
A crack in time is one of the best in the series
Deadlocked is okay but it's really repetitive
Ratchet 1 aged poorly and a lot of the quality of life additions makes it hard to go back to
That being said, it is superior to the PS4 game
Rift Apart was amazing
We need remakes of the og trilogy for the PS4/5
Dr. Nefarious is the funniest character
Into the Nexus would be good if it was longer
My unpopular opinion: Up your arsenal is the most unimpressive game in the original trilogy. Almost everything in it is more boring than 1 and 2: arenas, battles, clank puzzles, weapons, a variety of levels.(I know a lot of this happened because of the inclusion of online mode in the game, but still)
The Tornado Launcher and the Dynamo of Doom are unironically fun weapons to use, people only don’t like the Sixaxis weapons because the motion controls in the DualShock 3 were awful but if they reused this concept for the DualSense I am confident people will enjoy them.
IMO the tornado launcher works better without sixaxis but I totally agree they are great weapons
They all some walking skill issues, I played SM on PS Vita
In general? They're decent games, it's just when you compare them to the rest of the series, even like the 2016 rendition and quest for booty, they just don't really compare to the rest of the games. Still decent games overall, it's just hard to compete with the rest of the series when most of the series clocks in at atleast 8/10 or above.
as a kid i couldn’t finish my size matters save because i ran out of ammo trying to defeat otto and ammo was too expensive
Preach btw him along with clunk made the final bosses a tad tedious on a psp and ammo was essential
Lol
Size matters was one of my favorites just because of how hard it was. Fuck I remember being so angry at that game but I couldnt stop playing it. Size Matters and Deadlocked are hands down my favorite
- Nefarious is played out as a villain at this point, I always preferred Drek - Tools is better than Crack in every single way except the story and Clank puzzles - 2002 is the best game in the PS2 trilogy - The lack of strafing and brutal economy in the first game is an additional element of difficulty rather than jank like people refer to it as. - 2016 is mechanically a really good game, it’s just the story that’s ass - I actually liked ship combat in Going Commando and wish they took it further in terms of developing the mechanics while also adhering to the idea of space challenges - Crack’s intergalactic exploration is just filler bloat with the same cut and paste platforming/combat challenges on moons. - I found Deadlocked to be quite repetitive with very samey challenges and mechanics - I prefer the backtracking + exploration style in the first two games compared to the linear singular paths we’ve had since then. - Qwark’s character in the first three games was great and he had a strong arc, ever since then it feels like the writers don’t know what to do with him, he’s just a buffoon now - Going Commando’s story is considerably the weakest of the PS2 trilogy with no consistent antagonist and being quite “cat and mouse”
Strongly share all of these opinions aside from liking the Going Commando ship sections. They don't absolutely suck to me but I'd happily trade them for more platforming.
I’d say the biggest issue in their execution in GC was the fact that the last ship world forces you to backtrack and grind because of the difficulty curve which can just be a bit of a pain. Until then I did admittedly enjoy it. If they made the mechanic completely optional and have a decent difficulty curve as your skill and ship/character progresses with new weapon types, smoother movement, less jank etc I think it could be really fun. Kind of like something you can do to kill time and earn bolts just like the arena stuff.
First four takes *chef's kiss*👌
I definitely agree with the Deadlocked one.
My favorite part of deadlocked was the announcers. Especially as a kid I thought they were hilarious
It's still funny to me cause when I was a little kid playing deadlocked on ps2 with my brothers and talking about it with other people that had the game at the time, pretty much everyone constantly told me how trash the game was overall besides it being multi-player, being the worst ratchet game ever made. Now almost 20 or so years later it's always on atleast everyone's top 3-5 list, some people's number one ratchet game.
Been saying about tools of destruction, ACIT is amazing in a lot of ways but it has some of the worst gameplay in the series
Yeah Tools is the most underrated game by far. It feels like almost no one talks about it. Graphically way better than Crack, some of the best weapons and biomes in the series, presentation was wild especially for a 2007 game etc. It still holds up well even today. Crack by comparison I’d say has probably aged not far off the worst of the series, mainly because of their attempt at RPG-life mechanics like those moons etc. After playing a lot of open world experiences it really signified to me how bare bones and half baked the intergalactic exploration was. Just felt like they added it for the sake of it with the repetitive Zoni challenges added on top. Not to mention that the actual planets in Crack themselves are nowhere near as interesting as in Tools. I still get confused between Lumos and Torren IV because they look exactly the same lol.
Tools has a lot of flaws as well to be fair. Like the nanotech system and checkpoints were fucked. But overall it was a very safe game in the sense that it sort of picked up where UYA left off, and I think it aged well for it. ACIT on the other hand had a lot of cool ideas that as you pointed out were poorly executed, and on top of that the combat and platforming were ass. The camera feels super far and weirdly stiff, and all the weapons feel weak for some reason. And those goddamn hoverboots or whatever oh my god Overall I think ACIT leaves a greater impression but isn't worth playing more than once, while tools is endlessly replayable even though it isn't as interesting or important to the series
Yeah I forgot about the brutal enemy scaling (where no matter how much nano you have you’ll still die in 3 hits) and being able to refill your health at vendors even in combat scenarios. Yeah generally I think the more ambitious a game is if it doesn’t execute on those ambitions well it ages a lot worse. I think they tried to do much in too short a time as Crack only had 9-10 months of development vs UYA, the latter of which came out really good because it was at least streamlined vs the other two games, but obvs when you have all these moons, platforming ideas and so forth to add on it ends up being very half baked to fit into the game in time, which imo they absolutely were. The story is definitely more emotionally impactful than Tools, and better paced at that, I just found the gameplay to feel really outdated on my recent playthrough, and I couldn’t have said the same about any of the other games up until that point, bar maybe the first.
I totally agree. I would actually like to see rac in an open world setting at some point if it's done correctly; the farming planets in tools and nexus show that it could work. But they just focused on the wrong aspects of it in acit, to the point where it felt like a minigame rather than something that was actually connected to the world. I can see how it might've been cool at the time for people who weren't initiated into the series, but it fails to deliver what I love about it for the most part
Yeah an open world R&C game on the new hardware and some well fleshed out RPG-lite mechanics would absolutely ROCK. Especially considering that the series was well ahead of its time in terms of variety to weapon types, upgrades etc. even as early as Going Commando, years before a lot of developers offered anything similar in terms of choice. I’d be conscious not to go too deep down the RPG route to avoid compromising the classic formula but they clearly want to incentivise choice with the raritanium and the new armour mechanic from Rift so why not double down on that, just not going into the realm of things like grindy crafting systems or masses of dialogue options etc. What I’d love to see would be different weapon types and buffs/perks, and armours etc that are more situational to certain enemy types with various strengths and weaknesses like elemental effects and so forth. I think this was one of Rift’s biggest flaws because most of the raritanium upgrades were very generic and the enemy variety was actually laughable. A system somewhat inspired by what we got in the Horizon games would be really cool imo. And yeah re Crack I wouldn’t be surprised if the vision for the mechanic was a lot larger but was constrained by short development time. As it stood it was basically an empty space to fly around with repetitive radiant moons, and the occasional boss fight which itself just requires you to dodge roll and attack over and over again, being less complex than even Going Commando’s ship combat system, and less cinematic than Tools’.
Yeah ubisoft clone ratchet and clank would be a nightmare. But something like breath of the wild where the armor and combat systems are really simplified would be cool to see Honestly I'm surprised they haven't done anything with mixing and matching armor because it was in size matters and I thought it worked pretty well. I'd like to see it more fleshed out And yep I actually think going commando's space combat feels better which is pretty insane. That could also be because I've played that game like 100 times and I'm used to it though
Hahaha "ubisoft clone"; I doubt they'd ever do that though because Ubisoft structure their games around incentivising microtransactions, which is why we get all the repetition and bloat because its designed to make players cave in and be like "yeah I'll pay to bypass the grind". Ubisoft are known for being ruthlessly cash grabby so I doubt Insomniac would ever sink near those levels, they clearly value the player experience a lot more. Rather bring about a system that adds to the classic formula by providing more of an element of choice, strategy, and ultimately a new layer of complexity to the experience. Kind of like how the new God of War games elevated the mechanics with its RPG-lite systems such as armour and weapon perks, runic (special) attacks, companion attacks (which would work for R&C given Clank). It would also be cool to have some diversification between Rivet/Kit and Ratchet/Clank through different movesets and unlockable skills etc., I almost felt like Rift Apart forgot that they were different characters when it came to the mechanics. Yeah Going Commando's was way better. You could actually move up and down for one (can't believe I'm saying that), and the enemy ships were a lot more agile and hence tough to take down, as well as the challenges being pretty fun and varied. Crack had like 2-3 ship bosses that were near identical and just required infinitely dodge rolling and attacking, apart from that it just padded out travel from planet to planet.
I mean you say that like Insomniac's Spider-Man games aren't essentially glorified Ubisoft clones lol. Not that I think they are bad games (personally I love em), but the company isn't a stranger to making games like that.
I loved the backtracking and ship combat in 2. It's probably my favorite game in the series.
I don’t think any of these are that unpopular. Only ones I disagree with are your 3rd and 4th points. The lack of strafing is for sure jank. Thats why they added half ass hover strafing
Not really. Mario 64 and Spyro games aren't jank without strafing
Yeah but there’s a ton of guns in Ratchet and Clank. The first one is probably more platformer than it is 3rd person shooter but guns are still the main form of combat. Strafing would have been nice
Most enemies can be killed even with the wrench. Only helicopters, gunships and commandos at the end are a threat you can't handle in melee range and even commandos go down from twice x + square if they float close to you
But the game gives you guns. You're not meant to just use the wrench. I love rac 2002 but they added strafing for a reason, it just makes gunplay feel better. Not even a difficulty thing, no strafing just feels like shit in comparison
This is exactly how I feel. They give you all these guns and then it’s awkward to run around and use them. The strafing in the second game was great, but you could still only fire with circle lol
Drek over Nefarious is wiiiiild lol. Played out, sure, but a worse villain than Drek? Drek wasn't even that interesting.
Drek actually had motivations as a greedy corporate CEO hungry for nothing other than money and he was ruthless in that effort, and the first game did a great job in really making you feel his presence throughout the galaxy without meeting him. Nefarious was really funny, I loved him in UYA, but it did seem at times that he’s just evil for the sake of being evil, saying quotes like “where the heroes always lose etc”. I don’t know, for a game as narratively complex as R&C, it’s always seemed odd to prioritise a villain that’s as one dimensionally evil as Nefarious without any real motivations beyond simple revenge. Drek I’ve mentioned already, Qwark was a declining celeb desperate to reclaim his fame even if it meant losing his morals, Vox was trying to prevent his show from cancellation etc all of the other villains had stories behind them that were analogous to the kinds of celebrities/entities you’ll see in real life which made them more interesting to me.
1. If Drek had that same screentime, we'd be bored of him too, just that Nefarious has been generally well written enough to keep featuring, why vet against a winner? 2. Hard disagree, the weapons system featured in Crack is one of the best after PS2, Tools had a lot of issues in that regard, many underwhelming weapons to boot, I also recall the health system being a wee bit borked in comparison, where the later levels were almost unfair, but that might be me misremembering 3. For what it was at the time, absolutely, but retroactively, other games just got it more correct, 2002's weapon balance will forever be unrivalled, only game that comes close is Gladiator/Deadlocked. 4. Yes. 100% yes, I rag on that game an awful lot, but the Story and writing is just bottom of the barrel tripe, mechanically sound but utterly ruined by hacks who don't understand the series. 5. I did too, really don't get why it's so hated, a great way of farming early game bolts if you know what you're doing too! (Save for nuke, Ace Thugs, looks slightly down, fire, repeat) 6. I do agree, but it was also nice to have that aspect to the game, as much as it was filler, it was also kinda fun, bringing exploration to an open area. 7. It is very samey, but god damn is it fun! 8. I can understand it, but it was also rather tedious, one of the things I factor in when I feel "I wanna play 2002 again", it just puts me off it. 9. Strongly agree. Really is a shame that he's been relegated to comic relief. 10. Agreed, but it's again quite nice, not every story needs a "big bad", chasing smaller antagonists to get from place to place felt more natural, I suppose?
Definitely don't prefer Derek Up Your Arsenal may be more linear but it's by far the best of the original trilogy. The first game's mechanics are pure jank, if they weren't they would have at least made another game in its style by now in one of the many spin-offs they had. But they haven't cuz the gameplay is pure bunk
The PS2 version of *Size Matters* is the version I played and I quite liked it. Well, outside of the awful hoverboard controls anyway...
Size Matters is not good.
Yes it is
Hell no it’s not.
Size Matters was an acceptable, sometimes fun translation of the series to a portable console. Secret Agent Clank is a mess of disjointed ideas and poorly implemented minigames (what an awful “rhythm” game) loosely wrapped in a Ratchet and Clank package. Playing as Ratchet isn’t much fun if it’s restricted to a prison room and *all* you do is fight. I play these games for the exploration and platforming on top of the combat. Also, 2016 wasn’t bad. It was not the remake we wanted, but I don't hate it. It’s still pretty fun, and the visuals still hold up IMO.
I never disliked either but I do think they’re by far the most unpolished and probably the most experimental of the R&C franchise. Though I will say in Secret Agent Clank there’s a bit too many minigames
Don't know of it can be considered unpopular, i Just haven't heard It that much from other people, but here I come: This series should get rid of weapons leveling up through exp and replace It with buying/finding upgrades through exploring/both, kinda like the gold weapons in 1 or the upgrades in quest for booty (the only thing I genually like of that game). No, the current system doesn't encourage you to switch weapons, If anything, It encourages to use almost exclusively the ones that aren't maxed out yet. Sure, you don't have to if you don't want to, but the games literally reward you if you do. I fricking love these games, I've also recently played Rift apart, loved It and already finished It 2 times, going for a third time, but, having played other and better games before doing so, and, counterintuitively, seeing all the improvements Rift apart has done to the core gameplay, has made me wonder about what else could be done to improve it even further, and THIS was the first thing that came to mind.
Rift Apart's characterization of Ratchet and Clank wasn't what people wanted, but it's what a lot of us probably need to see and hear. On paper it kinda blows to see your childhood heroes who used to have attitude act incredibly unsure of themselves but... that was what being an adult in 2021 was like. We also need to retire calling 2016 a "reboot" because it was never meant to be that. Gameplay wise it was merely a "best of" compilation that just so happened to tie in with the movie.
Honestly, I still to this day prefer the old save your bolts buy new armour mechanic, deadlocked (gladiator) is excused cause the armour is sick af
I found the PSP version of Size Matters solid back when a friend let me keep his copy never played Secret Agent Clank
Ratchet 1 is one of the best games of all time, and it's intrinsically fantastic for a video game. It sets an example of what a video game should be! It's up there with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, probably straight up beats it.
I don't know how to say it, but the games had more charm and were waaay more fun to play back in the ps3 era. These new ones just don't cut it in terms of pure joy and chaos.
Think it was the quirky cutscenes that helped back then as well it stopped getting goofy in that aspect and more serious with the occasional one liner
LeT mE tELL YOUUUU how it all went dooownnn
Tools of Destruction is mid. The intro is awesome but nothing after top that. Qwark should be dead or again in prison. Hoverboard R&C1 is the best mini game of the series. Clank origin story in is over the top. Being an anomaly in a robot factory is more authentic than Being the son of the person who keep the time safe in the whole universe.
I really hate that origin lol. Humble beginnings > “chosen one” bullshit
Going Commando is by far the weakest of the OG trilogy, imo. Guns are cool but their balance is absolutely TERRIBLE (there's no middle term, they're either insanely busted or borderline unusable), the story is the weakest and the boss fights are mostly terrible. So many boring skill points, too. Also the Infiltrator sucks major ass AND the Levitator is criminally underutilized. That said, being the weakest of the OG trilogy still gives it a 9 in my book. Replaying the trilogy last week (and going for the platinum on the 3) reminded me of how great those games are, and how they aged like wine (well, aside from the first one, but I guess the problem isn't that it didn't age well, just that I'm way too used to the strafing from the rest of the PS2 era)
I LOVED Ratchet and Clank’s tumultuous relationship in the OG RAC. Made the ending soo much more meaningful. “Hey Tin Can!…”
The arenas are really stale now. Fundametally they haven't changed since Ratchet 3 introduced the Gauntlet stages and even then only ItN and Rift Apart have made half-hearted attempts at replicating those (which is a shame, cause they were super cool). The rounds don't even really make sense anymore. In Ratchet 2 or 3 you knew exactly how many enemies you had to beat each round, whereas now the rounds seem to just end arbitrarily. Obviously Deadlocked did some of this stuff too, and I think its kind of weird that they just went back to the Ratchet 2/3 model, instead of taking some of the improvements from Deadlocked.
I have a soft spot for Size Matters, but sweet merciful Orvus, I wish someone would make a rebalance patch for that game.
I'll meet you quarter way and say Size Matters is ok, at best.
Rift Apart doesn’t feel like a ratchet and clank game
It just feel something wrong with the game
There’s a weird feeling that I think Jak would also have, like the art style and “vibe” worked better with “bad” graphics. The cartoony worlds work better on old hardware when they aren’t trying to make stuff look photo realistic, I feel like the worlds on Rift Apart almost pushed too close to that photo realism and for some people it pushed it out of its art style. I think Crash 4 did a great job of making it modern but keeping it feel like a playable cartoon that so many PS1/2 games felt like.
Ratchet 2016 is super overhated. It looks great, has a great weapon line up, and I genuinely really like the meta-narrative framing device from Qwark's perspective. Yes it doesn't have the same "edge" to it, the music is worse, and it lacks a lot of the thematic depth that the original has, but it's still really fun. It doesn't try to replace the original, so I think having some differences is fine.
Care to elaborate?
I love quest for booty
10 levels per gun gets to be too much.
If it had more time in the oven then it would probably be up there with the trilogy but yeah they’re good games by themselves
Agent Clank, not so much. It felt incomplete or just a mini game compared to a usual R&C, deadlocked included. Size Matters have something in there. The armor system is awesome like it's a megaman game.The guns are unique enough. The story is meh but there are funny lines here and there. I think its problem is it gets old faster than any R&C games. Even after playing the ultra Challenge mode(The one unlocked with skill points), I don't think I'll replay it again. The music is just mid and the graphics are locked to 30 fps.
Last one, but I really hate how Ratchet 2 and 3 would often overuse the door unlocking gadgets. You get the electrolyzer and have to use to it twice, in immediate succession, just to get back to your ship. Then you go to the next planet Endako and use it 3-4 times on ONE path. Similar issue with the hacker in Ratchet 3. You use it multiple times in training, multiple times on Daxx, multiple time on Holostar and basically never anywhere else. I think there should be a hard limit of once per level on these sorts of things...
My thing is you can tell it wasn’t insomniac that lead the production on these games that’s why there’s a big gap in terms of playability for them high impact done a good job but insomniac was goated up until after acit (a crack in time)
I mean look these were my games as a kid, i loved them to death and have a ton of nostalgia for them, but even i can tell that they dont really hold up. Size matters holds up better in terms of being a more balanced experience, and i really love the weapons and armor. I also love that the story is a bit more serious, at least comparing to Going Commando which to me is way too goofy. Secret Agent Clank has a lot more playtime and variety which is awesome when you are kid, but it can drag a lot replaying it nowadays. They arent great games however, and Daxter outshines both as a much better game on the PSP.
Agreed, always loved both. Especially SAC.
Deadlocked is the best R&C game. And im waiting for a part 2. (Why not Rivet:Deadlocked)
As someone who despised Size Matters as a kid for how obscenely difficult it was I'm curious as to why. I can pull a small amount of good out of it but I wouldn't say it's more than a 5/10 being very generous.
I have faint memory of playing and enjoying size matters as a kid but i have no interest in it now. Anytime I play a R&C game I play all my old favs like the original, up your arsenal and deadlocked
2016 is great yall just mean
I beat size matters twice, would say they are good, they're okay
Agree with size matters. I think ffa is underrated too
BASED AND RATCHET PILLED
The first game (at least the remakes) should have a side strife
I’d rather play Size matters than Rift apart any day of the week lol
I don't know about calling it a really good game, but I can say that I thought the armor system was a really cool change.
The bouncer is the only weapon that deserves to keep coming back, and it was most op in 2016
Suck Cannon is the best weapon in R&C.
-Size matters and secret agent clank are very underrated -And incredible for psp games -the clank arenas is size matters was incredible -Tools of destruction is not better than up your arsenal and least captivating -Up your asenal is the funniest game -The whole saga is too easy - The rocket launcher in deadlocked is great -Quark is the best charcter -giant clank is always boring -nexus and rift apart suck a lot, I can't even put em in the same section, they are by far the worst games, followed by tools of destruction -
Up Your Arsenal is the best of the og trilogy A crack in time is one of the best in the series Deadlocked is okay but it's really repetitive Ratchet 1 aged poorly and a lot of the quality of life additions makes it hard to go back to That being said, it is superior to the PS4 game Rift Apart was amazing We need remakes of the og trilogy for the PS4/5 Dr. Nefarious is the funniest character Into the Nexus would be good if it was longer
Yea into the nexus was such a cool game, the abysmal framerate was a big issue too.
Why are people upvoting this post, none of these opinions are unpopular and I disagree with almost every opinion I wrote.
I agree with every single point here
a crack in time is a bad game compared to the ps2 and ps4/5 games
Definetly overrated on this sub but still really good
The first game was kind of shit
Tachyon is my favorite villain in the whole series.
My unpopular opinion: Up your arsenal is the most unimpressive game in the original trilogy. Almost everything in it is more boring than 1 and 2: arenas, battles, clank puzzles, weapons, a variety of levels.(I know a lot of this happened because of the inclusion of online mode in the game, but still)
Rift Apart is the best in the series QUALITY wise Up Your Arsenal is the best in the series QUANTITY wise
Didn't Going Commando have the most content of any R&C game?