Sony's been making my brain hurt a little lately. After a few years of DLC conditioning at the hands of Microsoft my gray matter got used to the idea that a downloadable title was something that shipped in a bite-sized chunk and was something that wouldn't warrant a disc-based release. Turns out my brain -- and Microsoft -- were dead wrong.

Despite the presence of select full-fledged PSP and PS3 retail titles on the PlayStation store, Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty marks the first real retail-quality title to be available exclusively online. So how do things hold up? Does it maintain all of the glory and grandeur of the original R&C: Future, or is it simply a stripped down follow up meant to milk the pocketbooks of the R&C faithful? Hit the jump to find out;

The question posed in the introductory portion of this review is really the one everybody wants answered, so let's get that out of the way first. Yes, Quest For Booty is identical in terms of graphics, gameplay, and production quality to it's disc-based predecessor. The animations are gorgeous, the voice direction is perfect -- everything captures the vibe of the series dead on without leaving anything out. If someone told me Quest for Booty was just an extra 4 hours of Future that I had somehow missed, I wouldn't bat an eyelash.

And there's a lot of Future I did miss. You see -- despite it's top-notch polish, Ratchet & Clank was a game that I couldn't see through to the end. Like a lot of what's on the market nowadays, it was a long haul. 20 hours or so is more time than I have to commit to a game unless it's something really magical, and as much as R&C Future captured the spirit of the original it just wasn't the sort of thing I was able to sell myself to. That's why Quest for Booty is so brilliant. It offers up a complete Ratchet & Clank experience in a 3-4 hour package. I've been a big proponent of shorter games and episodic games, and Quest for Booty really proves my point about how functional this method of delivery can be.

Quest for Booty's story picks up exactly where Tools of Destruction left off. Having not finished ToD I was still able to jump into the narrative without any problem. Quest for Booty is a standalone story that uses the end of ToD as a starting point, and sees poor Clank captured by some space pirate baddies while Ratchet and his new lady friend go off to rescue him. Sure, it's pretty standard damselbot-in-distress type stuff, but as usual the team at Insomniac have nailed the humor that wraps around this relatively thin plot mechanic in a way that will keep you smirking throughout. Most of the laughs come from some good old fashioned pirate-themed humor (albeit spouted by space robot pirates).

The basic play mechanics as mentioned before are identical to what you've seen in Tools of Destruction. Despite this, gameplay is a lot tighter this time around. When you only have 4 hours of game planned, you want to make every minute count. That means no mini-games, side quests, or arena moments. In taking away these tacked on elements, Insomniac has done a great job of streamlining the Ratchet & Clank experience and bringing it back to its roots. That means a healthy mix of platforming and gunplay -- a definite plus for the series.

The platforming elements really set the benchmark for any titles that follow in it's wake. Insomniac has somehow found that perfect balance between fun and simplicity. It's never really all that challenging, but the different uses of your wrench for fast-n-easy puzzle solving keep things fun the whole way through. It might be hard to imagine someone saying this about a Ratchet & Clank game, but I couldn't wait for the combat bits to end so we could get back to more jumping, wrenching and magbooting. After the initial fight on the pirate ship you'll s

pend 20 or so minutes repairing windmills on an island and I can honestly say this is the most fun I've had platforming in years. In terms of platforming, it even trumps Mario Galaxy. Anyone who's followed platforming into the 3D world and doesn't play

Quest for Booty should be drug out into the street and shot.

The gunplay on the other hand has its moments of joyous exhilaration tempered with moments of controller-throwing frustration.  While the majority of combat moments go as smoothly as one might expect, there are a few that really mar the experience.  One scene has you defending a beach from waves invading pirates, it's length and challenge easily requiring multiple attempts and a far greater time investment than should be required.  It's not unlike being a lone German defending the beaches of Normandy from a full Allied assault.  And while the attacks come in waves, the checkpoints do not.  Tossing in even a midway battle checkpoint would have alleviated the suffering, but no such luck.

Still, when the combat isn't anger-inducing it's just as sweet as you've come to expect from the R&C franchise.  Keeping the gadgets out of the gameplay this time around and the weapons minimized to only the effective rather than the comically showy keeps the experience simple but effective.  Everything from random enemies to boss battles plays out exactly as you'd want it to.

Few actual complaints can really be lodged about Quest For Booty.  Yes there is one brutal combat experience.  Yes I would have loved even more platforming.  And yes, there are some levels where the brightness becomes a bit of an issue.  But these slight foibles aside, <i>Quest For Booty</i> could easily be the best Ratchet & Clank experience you've had in years.  Of course all of this goodness has to come at a price. Is it retail quality? Absolutely. But it's also 2.3 gigs. To put that into perspective Gran Turismo 5 Prologue was only 1.9 gigs, and that was a $40 title. It may not seem like a lot of space now, but if this sets a trend you may be filling up the original HDD on your PS3 mighty quick.

Despite the small concerns that some may have, there's no doubt in my mind that Quest for Booty is one of the best experiences to be had in the downloadable marketplace this year. Here's to hoping the next entry in the series is just as tight.

Comments (2)

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

Add Comment