...but the single-player also holds its own.
Ratchet is a lombax from planet Veldin, Clank is a small robot that resulted from a programming error in destructive security bots – the error includes his AI sentience.
PROS
The game is visually stunning. I know that although that\'s not really a guarantee of good game play, many gamers out there feel it is absolutely necessary, and I\'m saying now it\'s all there. Not only are the maps and frames great, the environment is filled with animated scenery that you can react to, and that react to you. Shoot at a distant vehicle, chances are fairly good that if you hit it, it would explode in a SCI-FIreball. The controls are simple and easy to use. The previous game was stuck in third person mode at all times, and the first didn\'t even have an option to strafe. This game provides 3 options: you can stick with the 3rd person mode, get good visibility and more familiar controls in lock-strafe mode, which is like an outside view of the third option, 1st person. I played in 3rd person but many may find the lock-strafe best, with the same turning and camera controls as most games, but with visibility of what\'s sneaking up behind you.
The plot is also quite interesting, bringing in Evil Genius (or quite possibly Evil Moron) Dr Nefarious, a villain that\'s truly... well, nefarious, although often times it seems the butler, Lawrence, is clued in than he is (as well as a source of entertainment). Dr Nefarious appears to have some kind of love-hate relationship with \'squishies\', organic life. Or perhaps I\'m just being nice, and it\'s really just a hate-hate relationship with anything with blood and no oil – like Ratchet.
Multiplayer. Oh wow. How long I could go on about this one! You can create your own profile, plug in the Ethernet and play online. Or you could play locally – in siege (destroy the other teams base and power core), capture the flag (obviously not disco-dancing) and Deathmatch (please don\'t say I have to explain this one). In multiplayer I practiced in Capture the Flag, but mostly in Siege (most threats you face is a teams AI defenses, not the players themselves). Originally I had two players join but only play the one. Then I found I could have the one player and still play in the same manner.
One of the biggest problems I faced in the previous single-player games was the quick-select. Of all the different weapon and gadget specialties, I could only choose eight. This game has the main circle of 8 still, but also (by holding down a button) you can access a second circle of another 8, totaling 16 weapons and gadgets in you quick-select. Like the previous game (unlike the first) the quick-select also pauses the action around you while you make a planned decision for what you will use.
As a bonus the menu now has a Missions tab, stating all the missions you have yet to complete, a briefing, and that planet the mission is completed on.
CONS
There are so few cons I can list them in bullet point form, but you may prefer detail.
I say the difficulty is just right, but more realistically, it ranges between cakewalk to war-hungry. And that\'s not setting the difficulty, that\'s you playing your strengths.
Gathering bolts – the currency of the game – gets tedious. Although you can earn a lot my just playing, if you want all the weapons you have to earn to get them.
Multiplayer only really has one flaw – split screen. The game attempts to retain the ration and just puts the 2-players in opposite corners of the screen, whereas halving the screen horizontally and zooming out from the players would allow for much better viability. On my (roughly) 20\'\' TV it was a real **** to watch with two players, I doubt that on the 48\'\' (and out-of-bounds) TV downstairs it would have been that much better.
The main game itself doesn\'t offer too much new, although all the weapons, again, have changed. It does introduce vehicles (Hovership and a car).