Developer: High Impact Games

Publisher: SCEA

Release Date: June 17, 2008

System: PSP

ESRB Rating: E-10+

Official Web site

0:00 I've liked pretty much every Ratchet and Clank game so far, including the the other one on the PSP. Still, I hope this one deviates from the formula a little bit.

0:01 Tiny robot Clank stands on the street in a tuxedo and sunglasses, reading a newspaper. He occasionally looks up, like he's expecting trouble. I press start and the scene changes to a static menu with a picture of Clank. So what was the point of that newspaper scene?

0:02 A ship flies through the bluish-blackness of space, no doubt to hide the loading time. The Boltaire Museum is the destination, on a purple-ringed planet. Cut to the roof of a building; Clank lowers himself down through a skylight on a tether. An automatic glass cutter makes a circular entrance to the museum proper. Clank spies furry, orange Ratchet in a brown robe. The Lombax gets caught by a laser grid and apprehended by the guards. "Greetings, Agent Clank; were you able to protect the Eye of Infinity?" asks a robot on the ship's viewscreen. No such luck. Cut to a news report that shows Ratchet being taken away in a paddy wagon. He's raving to the cameras in a crazy voice about how he's hidden the Eye of Infinity where no one will find it. A retinal match shows it's actually Ratchet, but Clank doesn't believe it. I don't either...

0:05 Clank jumps out of the ship and is off to look for clues to the Eye's whereabouts. Running around with the analog stick, I stumble into a search beam, sending robotic dogs out to bite at me. A few punches bring 'em down.

0:08 The controls are decent but not great so far ... I don't like how the camera needs constant taps of R and L to stay behind Clank. I also don't like Clank's lack of a double jump. I do like his fluid punch/kick combos when I jam on the attack button.

0:11 I run into some rather large guard bots with flashlights. They pursue me when I wander into the flashlight beam, but I run away a bit and they quickly lose interest. Stupid guard bots. Apparently, I would've gotten a bonus for being stealthier.

0:12 My first death comes in a large hallway with more guard bots. The robot from the ship whispers in my ear, telling me to pose on empty pedestals to impersonate a statue. I try jumping on, but no luck ... I just slip off again. When the guards spot me this time, they bring me down quickly in a hail of gunfire. Sigh.

0:13 So apparently I was supposed to tap the triangle button to jump on the pedestals, instead of the jump button. Because THAT makes sense... I still get spotted after carelessly jumping off the pedestal early, but I jump up a little ledge and the guards can't find me anymore. They are REALLY easy to fool here...

0:15 I sidle along a little ledge and reach a pedestal with a new weapon: the Tie-arang (read: bow tie + boomerang). I die trying to use it to take down a big ol' Security Tank in the next room. Looks like it's back to the stealthy pedestals again for me.

0:18 I take out the two Tanks this time, but only after taking a lot of damage from their laser-guided weaponry. I'm fighting with the camera as much as the enemies, here...

0:19 New weapon alert: an ink-spewing "Black-Out Pen" that can cover up the museum's laser-alert systems. Who knew it was that easy to circumvent lasers? Not me!

0:21 Sneaking up behind enemies and tapping square starts a "stealth takedown" mini-game, where I have to tap the four buttons shown on screen in order. This activates a canned animation where Clank takes out the Tank with some awesome karate moves. Fun to watch, but not especially satisfying from a gameplay standpoint.

0:23 I like the design of this next room, where I have to sneak around some police bots to get to the copious laser emitters, so I can black them out and move on through. I utterly fail my first try, though.

0:25 So the police bots didn't seem to notice when I took out lasers in the last room, but they do notice when I take out the hovering security cameras in this room. Selective attention at its best.

0:26 I'm in a bit of a quandary now, because there's a hover-camera right in front of the door I want to go through, and destroying it seems to activate the indestructible police bots nearby, trapping me in the room at the same time. Time to think outside the box, Clank.

0:30 Ugh ... now I can't even get back to the room with the hover-cameras ... I keep dying in that stupid room with the lasers. Either I need more skill or the game needs more checkpoints. Probably the former.

0:32 Now that I'm dying a lot, I'm getting frustrated at needing to wait for the police bots to kill me after I get spotted. Even if I just stand there, it takes 10 seconds or so to actually die. If I have no hope, why won't the game just restart?

0:33 Success! Seems the Black-Out Pen doesn't just work on lasers, but also hover-cameras. Quite a versatile gadget, that.

0:35 A phone booth hides an "Agency Vendor." I can't afford the Holo-Knuckles or the Clank-Fu Kick, both of which I feel are better without further explanation.

0:36 In a large, open atrium now. To get by some moving hover-cameras, Clank holds up two green leaves and does his best imitation of a potted plant. Hilarious.

0:37 I get caught by a camera and beat a hasty retreat in a desperate attempt to stay alive. On the way, I stumble upon a weapon for Ratchet that I hadn't seen on the way in. Does this mean I'll get to play as Ratchet at some point?

0:39 After getting spotted YET AGAIN, I take out my frustrations on the nearest police bot. To my surprise, he explodes after a good dozen punches to the gut. Here I just assumed they were indestructible, because they seemed to avoid my earlier punches. Well this changes everything! Suddenly I'm not entirely helpless just because I dipped a pinky toe into a security light.

0:42 The discoveries just keep coming ... apparently it's not just the large Security Tanks that are susceptible to the stealth takedown. I can take out the flashlight police bots this way, too. This game just got a lot more accessible, I'll tell you what.

0:44 I release some tethers on a statue, making a nice convenient ramp up to the second floor. I haven't been spotted once this life. I think I'm getting the hang of this.

0:46 A new agency suitcase drop grants me ... Jet Boots! Now I have a double jump AND hover abilities. Oh, game ... all is forgiven. Let's never fight again.

0:47 In the home stretch now ... a cut scene shows a loooong corridor with lots of moving lasers and guards. But I don't have to run and punch through it like normal ... instead, a rhythm game starts. I have to tap the correct buttons in time as they scroll from the side, then watch as Clank does some super-cool spy moves to get by the lasers/guards. Looks like it'd be more fun to just run through, but at least the music and interface are good.

0:50 The rhythms get pretty tough after a few minutes ... is the game keeping up with my obvious rhythm-game skill?

0:52 Clank finds a fortune cookie that has a clue as to where we should go next. The lucky numbers are "4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42." Looks like the writer for this game is a "Lost" fan.

0:53 After some loading, cut to Ratchet in pinstripes. He's in "Galactic Ultra-High Security Lockdown." A fat sheriff wakes him up and warns him that a lot of the criminals in here "have a score to settle with you." Ratchet asks for protection, but the sheriff figures "a big hero such as yourself" doesn't need any help. Hoo boy.

0:55 Another abrupt cut scene shows the sheriff delivering a cake from Clank. It has the gun from the museum: Dual Lacerators! NOICE! I pick up a Shard Gun and a Walloper that just happen to be on the floor of the big open area in the middle of the cell block where I'll be fighting all those disgruntled criminals.

0:58 The first round of slow, rolling enemies is pretty easy to knock away with my large wrench. The second round introduces guns to the opposing forces. I'm now using the d-pad to strafe and the shoulder buttons to turn and aim my firing. This setup works pretty well, actually.

1:00 The Walloper does a nice dashing punch that gets me through the large, spike-shooting enemies of rounds five and six. Still three more to go!

Would I play this game for more than an hour? Yes.


Why? Seems like a good mix of stealth and action. And, er, rhythm games.

This column is based on a retail copy of the game rented from GameFly.



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