Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One

When I told people I was reviewing a new Ratchet and Clank game, and that its big new feature was online and offline co-operative play, several of my friends were surprised. “Didn’t R&C already have co-op? It seems like the sort of game that would”. I even briefly doubted my own memory and went to check the back of the old games boxes, but no, they definitely didn’t have co-op.

Obviously Insomniac Games got exactly the same sort of comments, so this new platforming blaster is all about the co-op. You can play with up to four people, mixing up on-couch buddies with online players. The storyline throws traditional heroes Ratchet and Clank together with intergalactic dimwit Captain Qwark, and unhappily making up the foursome is Dr Nefarious. For those unfamiliar with the series, Dr Nefarious is ordinarily Ratchet and Clanks’ nemesis, but here is forced by circumstances to work with them for the duration of the game.

The game looks and sounds as fantastic as Ratchet and Clank has always done, with brightly coloured alien worlds lighting up the screen. It’s a real treat to play something so colourful when so many games these days go for “gritty realism” (read: lots of brown). The engine is pretty impressive, with four players, loads of enemies, lasers, bombs, blasters and bolts all swirling about the screen without missing a beat. The Ratchet and Clank sense of humour is well represented here, with plenty of jokey dialogue (mostly at Captain Qwark’s expense) and one or two genuinely funny moments of physical comedy too.

The game still has a wonderful collection of crazy weapons, from vacuum cleaners to electric whips to a weapon that turns enemies into a harmless pig. (People who played the previous game A Crack In Time will be disappointed to note that the disco dancing weapon of mass destruction, the Groovitron, is sadly absent.) The game introduces a new mechanic where if two or more players are firing at the same enemy with the same weapon, the effect is greatly enhanced. Some guns do loads more damage when two or more people use them, and some expand the area of effect onto surrounding enemies. It works well, and encourages you to play as a team, using the same weapons. Later on, there are also (relatively simple) puzzles that require two people to solve, which works well when playing with friends.

And this leads to a problem. The previous Ratchet and Clank games were, as mentioned earlier, purely single-player, and they did that brilliantly. Playing All 4 One on your own is simply not as much fun. When you play on your own, you have Clank riding around on your back (as he did in all the previous games) and he pops out whenever you need a co-operative friend. Unfortunately, he pops out, and does exactly what needs to be done instantly, sometimes before you’ve even figured it out. It’s a bit of a shame as I played probably 80% of the game on my own. However, I played a couple of levels in offline co-op mode, and a few levels in online co-op mode with random players, and it instantly made the game a far, far more enjoyable experience. Battling for bolts while helping out the other players at the same time made the game a much more fulfilling experience.

The game is also far more linear than before, and the hidden golden bolts that have been a stalwart of the series are now very much dumbed down. In A Crack In Time, you would frequently see a gold bolt, just off to one side of the screen, but you’d have no idea how to get to it. It would often take an obscure route to locate it, but now, if you see a golden bolt you can collect it. They’re most often just off the front of the screen meaning you have to walk towards the camera a bit to get them. There are also no sections where you go off and just play alone as Clank like in some of the other games. Obviously because that would leave the three other players sitting there twiddling their thumbs. It’s a shame, though, and people who particularly enjoyed these elements in the old games will find it disappointing.


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