Not my best time, but it only took me about 2 or 3 retries and I got this on my first win on this playthrough. The timing is tight but the "Speedy" skill point isn't so bad once you've learned the best route and learn to only jump when absolutely necessary.

I'm only a few hours into the game, and it's already shaping up to be one of my favorites in the series! Looks and plays beautifully on PC.

I recently asked why people preferred Ratchet Gladiator over the ps2 games, and a lot of people said it had to do with better replayability. I will often replay the games but very rarely will I immediately start and finish a challenge mode. There are so many RaC games that it’ll be years before I get back to one I’ve recently finished. Some of the criticisms like getting rid of the fluff and more boring clank sections are valid, but when it’s been 2 years, since I’ve played something like Daxx, the annoying main path is perfectly fine.

There’s obviously a lot of variables, but in a grand scheme of things, I wanna see often people replay any RaC game.

As a kid, I got really into the RaC games during their initial run and played 1, Going Commando/Locked and Loaded/2, Up Your Arsenal/3 and Deadlocked/Gladiator religiously.

However, like many at the time, I asked for an XBOX 360 rather than a PS3 due to getting swept up in the Halo hype at the time. As a result I missed out on playing any of the RaC games after the port of Size Matters on PS2 which I barely played as a kid tbh.

I have since strongly regretted investing in XBOX as PlayStation have had way better games and consoles in the years since. At least IMO. In the last couple years I have caught up with PlayStation and now own a PS3, PS4 and PS5.

What should I know going into the post-PS2 RaC games?

Last month I managed to scoop a PS2 to finally start getting back into old games I couldn't play as a kid one of those being the original Ratchet games. Took me some time to finally get enough motivation to start playing but I'm finally getting through it.

Honestly I'm really happy to finally play this game, is really fun and while I'm at the first hours of the game it has been quite a nice ride so far.

Edit: I just realized I took a screenshot instead of a photo, man I'm a dumbass lol

I met Mr. Taylor(Ratchet) at a comic expo in my city last weekend. He was one of the most down to earth people I’ve talked to. Tried to get him to reveal any info on a possible next game but he said he had no idea.

In December I’ll be getting this same copy signed by Armin Shimerman(Dr. Nefarious).

Ik this is probably going to get me flamed for my opinions but here's how i'd personally rate the games by their music:

1. Tools of Destruction- the pirate songs alone are masterpieces and it's the only game I stand still just to listen to the music in many places. It somehow blends atmosphere and catchiness perfectly to make it really enjoyable to listen to.

2. Up Your Arsenal: has some of my favourite individual songs such as Starship pheonix and Courtney gears. Though the reuse of previous songs is a bit of a let down in places.

3. Quest for booty: an entire game of pirate music is naturally going to be amazing but there's a lot less of it since the game is so short

4. Deadlocked: the different, more action focused style was done extremely well imo, and some of the late game ghost station tracks are really catchy even with the more rock music sound, which normally isn't my thing. It goes to show David's talent when he can take such a different sound and mood and pull it off so well.

5. Going commando: its very good but I just find a lot of the songs less memorable/catchy compared to the ones after.

6. 2002: the more funky direction is definitely nice but you can hear David was still finding his footing, the music is more primitive sounding and less impactful than the later games.

7. A crack in time: the pirate radio songs are some of the best in the series but all the other music is either non existent, just ambient noise, or barely memorable due to the change in composer. Much as I adore this game I still find it so upsetting that it was the first to change the composer and take out the music philosophy the previous games had.

Everything after a crack in time is so unmemorable imo that it's a massive step down from even that game which is in itself a big step down from David's work. I can't even remember any single song enough to rate any of them so just put them all equally at last place.

Ffa may just be the best one after acit purely due to the troll song, and tbh it speaks volumes that that's the only song I remember lol.

Haven't yet played the psp games so can't rate them.

I wish that David had stayed or at least that the replacements kept his music design philosophy. In every game David did, even the more cinematic tod/qfb and the more action movie style deadlocked the music was always a core part of the experience. Every level put the music front and centre as a huge contributor to an areas feel to the point that most levels can be instantly recognised by their main themes, or you can hear the music just by seeing the area.

Ever since he left the series has opted for entirely background music that's intended to 'fill in the gaps' in a sense with the main focus being entirely on gameplay. I prefer when the music was of equal importance and feel to the visuals and its just not the case anymore sadly.

When I started to play the first games, I had heard that the starting games were dark and edgy, and was interested in it. Considering some of my favorite franchises lean more into stuff like that (Less Edge though, but stuff like Warhammer 40k and Killzone are my bread and butter.)

And…I didn’t really get it? I played through, normal and challenge mode, and never really got a feeling of the edge and grittiness I’ve heard people online say about these old games. Now I wasn’t expecting something like the Grimdarkness of the 41st Millenium, but I was expecting at least something far darker.

And when I got to Deadlocked, I still didn’t really feel like it was that mature.

Going from the PS2 games to PS3 games didn’t feel that much of a jump for me until All 4 and Full Frontal Assault (By The Emperor is that art style bad.)

Am I missing something? Are these games really dark and stuff and I’m just missing it?

Like the title says I've owned the disc of all 4 one for years but after trying it and seeing how different it was I never got into it. After seeing the psp games on the ps5 store and finally picking up ffa I decided now was the time to finally lock in and complete it fully so that i can platinum the entire series.

Positives:

When looking at the game itself and nothing more there's a lot of positives. I like the puzzles when they appear and make good use of the vacuums, and I like how well it works with co-op play with a friend. The story is serviceable and I really enjoy the interactions between the characters, especially qwark and nefarious. It definitely keeps the signature ratchet humour feeling intact. Cutsenes are also very nice to watch.

I especially enjoyed how much cronk and zephyr were developed as characters and it makes their deaths in nexus a lot more meaningful, since they feel a lot more fleshed out after this game. I also find a few of the weapons quite fun especially the ryno. For game mechanics I found the jetpack fun and the new pipes to use the grindboots on are pretty creative and a unique twist that none of the other main games use besides ffa.

General negatives:

But on the other hand there's a lot of negatives. The obvious is the graphics. While the game looks pretty decent in terms of environments the character designs especially in cutscenes just don't, and look very low quality especially after acit. Also the blurring when you go on grindrails is actually ridiculous and makes it nearly impossible to see at times.

The gameplay is also very repetitive, ik its supposed to be a co-op game but there's only so many things that you can do and the removal of so many core mechanics from the main games hurts it a lot. The voicelines can also get grating after a while. But overall it's worth a playthrough by itself if you love the series.

Completion:

But the biggest issue i have comes down to completing this thing. It's by far the most tedious, frustrating and boring game in the series to complete. Starting with the trophies they are mostly fine but some of them start to show a big issue that the skill points have moreso which is the way it tracks progress and the forced replays when you mess up. A lot of skill points/trophies require you to play large chunks of the game without dying or messing up the objective at all and a single mistake means restarting up to 30 or more minutes of play for no reason, since there's often checkpoints right after the skill point section giving you 1 try to get it right. This is just frustrating and tedious, nothing more.

Some of the worst offenders are the Polar seas icicles, not getting hit by Grove beetles in deadgrove, and not being seen by the Sentries in NEST. All of these result in constant replays of the same 20+ minutes just for 1 attempt, and every time all the cutscenes play again and are unskippable, making getting the skill points in this game the worst of the entire series for me so far.

But that's not even the worst bit. I would love to ask whoever decided all 4 characters should have individual stats and progress what the design intention was because its actually ridiculous. Every character has its own weapon progress, hero bolt set, and skill points for game completion, meaning unless you have friends you have to play the entire game bare minimum 4 times just to get everything. What's more, there's not enough bolts in the game to get every weapon upgrade in 1 run so you end up having to grind for a bit at the end of every characters playthrough just to max out all the weapon upgrades.

The 1 million bolt trophy just amplifies this since it takes quite some time to get that too, I've played through the final 2 areas so many times I don't wanna touch this game for a LONG time after this. I feel like the gane would be a fun different style entry if the completion requirements were toned down because as it is they just ruin everything for me.

Tldr:

Its a decent entry as long as you accept that its different and lacks some substance, and are mostly interested in the characters instead of gameplay. But do not recommend completion otherwise you will end up hating everything about it by the time you're done.

I often see people ranking Deadlocked above the other games and I want to ask why ? Whilst I would've replayed it countless times almost 2 decades ago, I've only replayed it once recently playing co-op with my brother. In regards to the ps2 games, I've never felt the desire to play it more than rac 2/3.

I think I've addressed the majority of things in the game below, but holistically I feel like I'm missing something that everyone else sees.

What it does well.

I think the premise is great and there is real tension from the exploding collars. The writing and cut-scenes were good and Dallas and Juanita are some of the best minor characters. I think Vox is easily a top 4 villains/antagonists in the entire series after ps2/ps3 nefarious, Azimuth, and Drex. I like the heavy return to capitalism, corporate greed, and the motifs surrounding ace hardlights fall from grace and heroism and ratchet both. I feel like elements of this could've been incorporated into rivet especially because clank served as ratchets moral compass, and both characters didn't have someone like clank.

I think the bot duos were good and how they're incorporated into the missions is super unique in the series. I think the weapons, whilst a smaller selection, were really strong and I know many are fan favorites. The weapon mods were also pretty cool and a precursor to the much better raritanium upgrades. I think the planets whilst a shorter list to explore, set each other apart.

Critiques.

Despite all these things, I still think Rac 2/3 are better. The game feels shorter and has less content. As I've mentioned, fewer weapons/planets, no purchasable armor and it only being cosmetic. There's also no gold bolts, unique pick ups like armor magnetiser,/bolt grabber, charge boots or unique side content. I feel like this is such a core part of Ratchet & Clank and a big reason to go back to past planets and check every corner.

Another criticism that's frequently mentioned here in games after the ps2, is the lack of branching paths. Ratchet Gladiator is extremely linear and for the most part it's going from point A to B. The extra missions are mostly just exploring the planet in reverse. or paths already taken. The 2 vehicle options are OK. I love hub worlds, like the starship phoenix, which is why the dreadzone was such a disappointment. You either go left to clank, right to Al, or use the shuttle. They hint at so many heroes competing at the same time and yet we only see a few at the finale cut-scene. Why is there no cafeteria, training area, or lounge section. Anything to make it feel like less of an afterthought.

Regarding the 4 exterminators,I felt the game dropped the ball after shellshock. They give dedicated cutscenes, expositions, build-up/hype, a whole planet, several missions and multiple phases/encounters throughout the planet. They raised the bar for what makes a cool boss fight and then they decide to never do it again, making the rest of the exterminators feel like whatever.

There's also no puzzles, unique side content like space missions, actual racing, or something like the ranger missions. The movement to me also felt slow, theres no clank or charge boosts, which is probably due to the linearity of the planets and the limited platforming.

Overall, its a good game and definitely top 5, but Rac 2, 3, ToD, and ACIT are better games to me.

Hey everyone! This is my first time posting here.

I used to have a PS2 years ago, but unfortunately I don't have it anymore. Seeing Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando again really makes me wish I still had one, especially because I've been wanting to get more into the Ratchet & Clank series. I'd love to go back and experience some of these older games again. There's just something about seeing the original PS2 cases that brings back memories of that era.

For those of you who grew up playing Ratchet & Clank on the PS2, what are your memories of Going Commando? And do you think it still holds up today?

Also, what would you recommend for playing the older games nowadays if you no longer own a PS2?

I haven't played video games in years, so please bear with me if I sound like a newbie.

Grew up playing R&C but forgot about it after we sold our PS2. I recently decided to have a little fun, so I got a used PS3 and a copy of the R&C 1-3 anniversary game to play for fun.

All was going well. I beat the first game and was close to beating R&C GC. I had been going from planet to planet collecting bolts so I could afford the RYNO 2.0 and beat the giant monster at MegaCorp HQ. That's literally all I had left to beat the game.

Then the game randomly froze on me, and I haven't been able to revive it. When I restart the game and load Save Slot 1, it loads Ratchet flying to the last planet I was on (Aranos) before the freeze, and then as soon as he deplanes, it freezes again. Lighting is slightly dimmed, like it didn’t finish loading or something. Music keeps playing but I can't move him, do anything, or even use the Select/Start buttons on the controller. I just end up turning the machine off again.

I stupidly only had one save slot (didn't realize this is something that could happen). I created a new save file and started the game from scratch — no freezing or other issues.

After consulting the rest of the internet, I have tried:
- cleaning the physical disc (no scratches or obvious flaws)
- restoring the file system
- rebuilding the database

After each attempt, rebooting the game ended the same way — with Ratchet frozen on Aranos.

Please tell me there is some magical way to fix this and resume play with all of my weapons and bolts (860k...) otherwise I’ve just wasted 60 hours of my life and am stubborn enough to do it again. Pls help.

I absolutely love A Crack in Time. I've beat it maybe 25+ times. It has my favorite R&C story, I like the tone of the game, and for me it has the best Clank gameplay that the series has ever seen. I also LOVE the space exploration. Exploring the moons and doing side quests in the visually beautiful space sectors was just awesome. And doing that with the House of Synth space radio station on gives me a really nice experience. I hope space exploration returns in the next Ratchet & Clank game.

I just lost 30 hours of progress on getting the plat on the ps3 release of RaC. now I gotta get through it all again just so I can get back to where I was. (Was on Quartu second visit with 30/40 gold bolts and like 20 sp done.)

Today i realised that Dr nefarious has appeared/been referenced in literally every non mobile game since he came out, which is honestly fascinating to me.

He's the main villain in UYA (first appearance), ACIT and rift apart, as well as the 2016 reboot, and a playable character in all 4 one. These are all his main appearances.

But for all the other games: he appears post credits in deadlocked/quest for booty for a Lawrence joke, he is a skin in FFA, there's a statue and info on him in the museum in nexus, and in tod qwark mentions that his wallet was missing over the arena loudspeaker. Even in the psp games there are cameos of him in dreamtime in size matters and in a replica klunk made in secret agent clank.

Also I wasn't aware of this either but qwark has been in LITERALLY every game in the series in some way whereas the plumber, whose character is entirely built off of appearing constantly, is missing from quest for booty. I wish they had included him in there somehow because having it be the only break of the tradition is disappointing

r&c (2002) -been here since the start, actual goat

Going commando-u prefer combat over story

Up your arsenal- you love both aspects of the previous games and I love u

ToD- enjoy storys and being left on a cliff hanger

QfB- Ur here to see where the omniwrench is and that's it

ACiT-u love side missions and upgrades

FFA- just play bloons5

All 4 one- I either have siblings or Ur tryna prove the fact u have friends (we all know u don't)

Nexus-u like short stories and try to be different

R&C (2016) either your culturally dry or Ur an og and want to see the remastered version

Rift apart- either u got it pre installed and played it for 10 mins or Ur here to complete the series

*HM

Deadlocked- you enjoy all the missions without clank and u love PVP

Size matters-the only good thing about this game is the of ratchet model (you know it's true)

Secret agent clank- u don't exist

Title. This game is one that I have mixed feelings, it has lots of good things but also so many problems. Also I played the game in the hardest difficulty for the most part. The only time I lowered the difficulty was at the very end where I had to grind raritanium from the Zurkies boss rush. After I got all my weapons maxed out I went back to Renegade Legend difficulty.

Negatives:

- This game has lots of small problems that add up. The game has lots of bugs and glitches and it is significant enough to affect my view of the game. I have made other posts about this game and it applies even after finishing it. Tight spaces are impossible to manage accidental or not. If you are between two crates you are probably going to have to restart the level in the pause menu. I would expect that after 5 years there would be patches to fix the bugs and glitches but I guess not. Another example is attacking the Viscercon prison. There is a segment where you have to throw your hammer as green buttons to unlock them, this is not the first time it happens because right before in Savali you have to do the same thing as Ratchet. But in the prison you are playing as Rivet, and when you rescue Clank he gets attached to your back. But when you have to press the green buttons with your hammer, Clank specifically says that Ratchet needs to hit the buttons. Its clear that Insomniac used the audio of Ratchet hitting the green buttons and reused it here but did not account for the fact that you are playing as Rivet. This game has many instances where the devs took shortcuts when developing. This is not to insult devs because the video game industry is horrible but it is something to be critical about. For example, when you see a raritanium deposit of 3 crates. You can hit one crate and get all three raritanium. Meaning hitting the other two deposits yields no resources.

- As for gameplay, I enjoy the core gameplay of Ratchet and Clank I mean why would I play this game but its not perfect. The main gimmick of this game is that there are two playable characters in Ratchet and Rivet which sounds cool, except both characters play literally exactly the same. What is the point of playing different characters when there is not difference between them? They have the same abilities and weapons so the only difference is the color and gender of the furry you are playing. Why not give them different weapons, it allows the characters to be played differently? Rivet's hammer functions the same as Ratchet's Wrench, why not make it so that Rivet's hammer hits harder but is slower? The maps in this game is limited to one character, if you are in Sargasso you are only playing as Rivet and will never play as Ratchet. Why not let the player play as either character but because they have different melee weapons they can explore different areas of the map because its locked. And to open those areas you need the right weapon key, Ratchet's Wrench to open screws and Rivet's hammer to open the windmill wheel. On the topic of weapons, I found many of the weapons to be redundant. I understand that the weapons are there to add variety but many of them are similar. Ms. Fungal is similar to the Apocalypse Glove which is similar to Bomb Voyage. The same for the Executor and Void Reactor, Blast Pistol and Blackhole Vortex etc. Now yes these weapons have their differences but the majority of their function is still similar. Executor and Void Reactor are your shotguns, the Blast Pistol and Blackhole Vortex are your machine guns. This could have easily been solved if Ratchet and Rivet had exclusive weapons. This would allows all the guns to be used because they could overlap with each other because they are limited to the character that you are playing. Also the RYNO I found to be lame in this game.

- Something especially annoyed me was how Clank affects gameplay. In other RnC games, playing Ratchet without Clank is playing with an arm tied behind your back. You do not have a super jump and you cannot glide which in a platformer is a big deal. This gameplay difference does a really good job to show how Ratchet and Clank are a duo and that they are better together than by themselves. In this game, there is not difference when you are playing your protagonist with or without Clank. There is no superjump in the game so that is ignored, but gliding is still available to the character without Clank because they just use gravity boots. And when talking about the robot partner, Kit is a useless character in gameplay. Kit is supposed to be the counterpart to Clank but is only relevant in the story and nothing in gameplay.

- Story is kind of lame. I am not going to be too critical on the story, it is not bad but it is a pretty safe, boring story. Ratchet and Clank have to stop Dr. Nefarious from conquering the dimension, yes this does change to Emperor Nefarious but the vibe of the story is still exactly the same. But what I am going to be very critical off are the characters. I find the characters to be lame. I made a post earlier asking about how RnC became sanitized and there I talked about Ratchet's characterization so I will not harp on it here. But he seems quite generic and not enough time is spent on the idea of him using the Dimensionator to bring back the lombaxes. Rivet is character if wasted potential. I like the premise of Rivet, a lombax raised in a world taken over by Nefarious so she is prejudiced against robots and she also lost her right arm to one. She could have been an edgy Ratchet of sorts but she is a character similar to Ratchet. The story of her being prejudiced against robots isn't well explored and she gets over her distaste towards Clank very quickly that its very shallow and I do not like it.

Positives:

- I like the core gameplay. This is obvious because why else would I play the game but I have to give credit where its due and the core gameplay loop of this game is very fun. You have an assortment of weapons and its fun mowing down enemies. While I was critical of the redundancy of weapons, that doesn't mean the weapons aren't fun. I did enjoy having an army of Fungals and Doombots following me around. My favorite weapon was probably Shatterblast.

- I liked the worlds in this game. I enjoyed most of the worlds in this game. They had unique identities and I can distinguish them at a glance. My favorite was Savali and I especially loved it when the zombies took over. But the other levels had good level design.

- I liked the booster boots. I mentioned I liked Savali and one reason for that was because of the boosters. I liked zooming around.

Overall I do not hate this game. I know looking at this post it seems like I think this game is horrible with how long my negative section is compared to the positive but I do not think this is a bad game. It is a game with several flaw. Overall I would give Rift Apart a 6/10, not a bad game but not great. Slightly above average.

- The light hearted tone.

I hope the game has a darker tone. I do not want it to be super dark, but it needs to have some dark, serious, and sad moments. Might as well add on that I hope the game's story wont be made for new comers to the series.

- The return of weapons that always return.

I hope the weapons that seem to always return in the Ratchet and Clank games just wont. (cough Combuster cough) Obviously not every weapon needs to be brand new, but the weapons that have been in like 4 or 5 Ratchet and Clank games shouldnt return, in my opinion.

- The modern soundtrack

I really hope that the next game's soundtrack will sound more like the soundtracks used in the PS2 era of Ratchet and Clank. It just fits better, in my opinion.

- The return of Dr. Nefarious as a main villain

I think it's time to retire Dr. Nefarious as one of the main villains. I don't mind if he returns in some way, but he's already been a main villain in Up Your Arsenal, A Crack in Time, R&C 2016, and Rift Apart, and I hope that doesnt happen again. Giving others the villain spotlight would be great.

This is all that comes to mind right now. What does everyone else not want to see return in the next Ratchet & Clank game?