Ratchet and Clank: HD Collection

Josey Wales

I've had the Ratchet and Clank trilogy in my backlog for about a year now and took it out of the shrink wrap the other day. I never played them back in the days of the PS2. However, I am a big fan of the series having played all the PS3 games. I actually think A Crack in Time is one of the best games of the generation. Such a shame that Q-Force is such departure from the formula, and in the wrong direction in my opinion.

Anyway, back to the first Ratchet game. I'm a couple of hours into it and it has held up pretty well. It certainly plays just like the first few PS3 games. The usual Insomniac humour is correct and present, along with the weapon wheel. I looked up some threads from 2003 on this game to see what the consensus was. I laughed when I saw Retro say it was no Jak & Daxter. I tried to play that game earlier this week with the HD collection but it gave me motion sickness. What little I played though I didn't think was as good as Ratchet.

On the downside I do find the controls not as responsive as they should be, particularly for jumping sections. That could also be to do with the poor camera. I've died a few times because the camera hasn't panned correctly to allow me to see enemies. Also the lack of strafing is very annoying. I wonder if the developers of the HD collection considered patching it in.

Angron

I actually got this collection this week too. Still as fun as I remember The humour of the R&C games were a big part of what made the series great for me, so it's nice to relive it with the older games again.

COYVB

Absolutely wonderful series. Shame its gotten so poor really

Josey Wales

COYVB wrote: »

Absolutely wonderful series. Shame its gotten so poor really

I think only the last game, Q-Force, was poor. The previous one, All4One, was pretty good. Especially when played in co-op. I only completed it last week and had a good time with it.

I've never played the PSP games.

danthefan

I got All4One with PlayStation Plus, is it worth a single player play through? How does the coop work, can you play online with just anyone or what?

Josey Wales

danthefan wrote: »

I got All4One with PlayStation Plus, is it worth a single player play through? How does the coop work, can you play online with just anyone or what?

If you are a fan if the series then it is definitely worth playing. One change I didn't like was that you buy upgrades to your weapons. They don't just level up anymore.

The online co-op works well. You can go into a lobby and choose to host a game or join another in progress. You can just join random people or invite friends.

If you see me online (PSN - The40Watt) send me an invite and I'm might play some co-op.

K.O.Kiki

Do they still have FPS mode?

That was one of the most fun things in R&C 3 for me.

Josey Wales

I very surprised at the difficulty of the first Ratchet game. I never really had a problem with dying in the other games but there are some fairly tough sections in this game. Plus it seems like the developers never heard of the concept of checkpointing back when they developed this game. Some levels start you right back at the beginning when you die with all the enemies respawned too but not the powerups. So if you've used up ammo on one life and die you will have to fight the same enemies again but with less ammo.

Josey Wales

I got to the very end of the game but I can't beat the final boss. I was fighting him last night and he just takes a ridiculous amount of damage. At one stage I was fighting him for nearly 30 mins and had him down to basically no energy when I died thanks to the terrible camera obscuring an enemy. I had spent all but 6 of my bolts on buying ammunition during the fight. That means I will have to go and grind out more bolts for hours to have any chance if I try the fight again, which I won't.

Its a shame that I put so many hours into the game only for them to throw such a frustrating final boss at you.

LiamKK1982

If you like R&C please give the Sly Cooper & Jak & Daxter trilogies a go.

Josey Wales

LiamKK1982 wrote: »

If you like R&C please give the Sly Cooper & Jak & Daxter trilogies a go.

I tried Jak & Daxter a couple of weeks ago but the camera gives me motion sickness. I've played through about half of the first Sly game that was free on PS+, it was pretty good.

COYVB

J&D disappointed me big time. I missed them first time around, so picked up the HD pack and it was poor