With friends to enhance the experience, All 4 One makes for another great entry in the series.
The game's signature action platforming formula is kept in tact in All 4 One, but this time cooperative play is more involved. While the idea of co-op isn't new for the series (Ratchet: Deadlocked), certain aspects of the game's design definitely revolve more around this mechanic. Playing the game on single player is decent, but nowhere near as fun. Adding at least one other human buddy to join in the fray makes all the difference. All of the game's action is viewed from a more far away view and with a fixed camera moving at certain points, whether to home in on the action or zoom out for certain platforming sections. It is because of this new perspective that you no longer have manual control over your targeting when shooting. The right analog stick allows you to switch weapons, so instead you now lock-on to enemies. Auto targeting is a bit finicky at points, but nothing really problematic. Many of the game's enemies also require you to unleash a hefty amount of ammo on them, which can feel rather tedious when playing by yourself. However, the game's cooperative element help add to the action, making killing enemies more satisfying and fast-paced since you can defeat them much quicker. Plus, the added use of co-op can add some strategy into defeating your opponents the best way possible. The action can get a bit too chaotic with more than two people (though not as chaotic as a game like New Super Mario Bros. Wii), but it certainly helps to enhance the experience. All 4 One features an excellent amount of variety within each stage to mix up the shooting action. You get to solve clever puzzles (which are more fun to solve in co-op), high flying platforming, rail grinding, turret sections, areas where you get to use a jet pack, formidable bosses to square off against, and more.
The weapons are once again a big highlight in All 4 One. While the weapon selection isn't as vast as previous games and it is sad to see certain weapons like the Groove-a-Tron not make the cut, the weapons you do obtain are still incredibly satisfying in their own way and some are excellently implemented into the puzzles (at some points you are given the opportunity to enter a puzzle room to gain one of the parts for the famous R.Y.N.O.). Unfortunately, a rather disappointing feature is the way you level up your weaponry. As you explore levels, you will come across dozens and dozens of crates that contain bolts, which act as the game's currency, allowing you to not only buy weapons, but also upgrade them. You can only upgrade these weapons three times; once for an increase in ammo capacity, once for the strength of the weapon, and finally to create a super upgrade. One of the cool features of the series is that as you continue to use a weapon it would upgrade. This restriction kind of detracts from the game's replay value.
Like previous R&C games on the PS3, All 4 One looks beautiful. The incredibly large futuristic environments are colorful, excellently detailed and very well designed. The game's character models also look and animate very well, and even with all the chaos that happens on screen at once, the framerate rarely drops. The voice acting is once again top notch and the music is often very catchy and memorable, though some pieces of dialogue tend to repeat a little to often.
To sum things up:
PROS:
-Co-op enhances the excellent R&C formula
-Beautiful and large environments
-Funny and likable characters
-Plenty of variety
CONS:
-A little boring to play by yourself
-Nerfed upgrade system
-Repeat dialogue
Ratchet and Clank is an ambitious, but also excellent, addition to the long running franchise. While the game can be tweaked in some areas, it definitely makes for great, chaotic cooperative fun.