Moving into big, bad shooter territory, Deadlocked is for the most part a success
Ratchet is quickly separated from Clank as the game introduces the plot - Ratchet is captured by the evil Gleeman Vox to compete in a tournament where the main goal is to survive - and kill everything. The plot was rather unoriginal and not too compelling - I’d seen the idea before in The Running Man, and I didn’t care about any of the characters enough to care what happened to them. This is partly because of the game’s decidedly comical nature - even during combat, jokes are made to keep the mood light. The jokes aren’t too funny themselves, however - unless ‘potty humor’ is attractive to you (one of the often repeated cracks is said roughly as follows: “I’ve always wondered how Ratchet goes to the bathroom in that suit!”). However, I expected nothing less from a franchise who’s predecessors had subtitles such as Going Commando and Up Your Arsenal. Because of this decision to not take itself seriously, though, I had a hard time taking any of the game’s opponents seriously - or the heroic Ratchet, for that matter. Every time an enemy did something evil or Ratchet spit out some justice blabber my mood didn’t alter. It’s a shame that the game tries to be two genres in one - it hardly succeeds when attempting either. For the most part, the story was simply a means of understanding what was going on in this wacko ‘tournament’. It did work there, but I hard to sort through the garbage to find it.
Actually taking control of Ratchet, you’ll find you have the option to play the game in a number of ways - first person, third person or the standard, which is basically the same as third person. This is the first sign that Ratchet is no longer the old lombax he once was - or rather, his game isn’t. The option of playing the entire game in first person view tells you something - the little guy is really trying to be a shooter. And that’s precisely what makes Ratchet Deadlocked so appealing. Dogged are the majority of his old platforming efforts - kept and refined is the beautiful shooting. Deadlocked is successful at capturing that shooter feel - this doesn’t feel like Ratchet & Clank. It feels a lot like Jak 2, more than anything. And that’s a big plus for the little guy.
But don’t bother wielding those little buggers in first person - Deadlocked is much better enjoyed in it’s standard view. Hopping around and shooting enemies Matrix style is most enjoyable when you can see the entirety of the action - the game doesn’t do a great job of putting you in the boots of Ratchet when in first person. As a matter of fact, the game in first person begins to feel like the PS1 and N64 games of yore - swarms of dumb enemies coming at you in waves while you try to turn a screw in the ground is extremely similar to a vast amount of oldies. However, Deadlocked somehow manages to lose the familiar been here, done that feeling in third person - maybe because we haven’t really played this simple, stupid set-up in third person before. It’s not much of an issue, however - it’s a great time, which is really all that’s important.
Yes, shooting swarm after swarm can get repetitive - so yes, this game is extremely repetitive. However, by throwing in different goals to go along with your mindless shooting - for example, turning screws in the ground (or securing ‘nodes’), or driving around in a hovercraft of sorts trying to zoom through all the targets - the game manages to keep itself feeling fresh… for the first four or so planets. Deadlocked itself is extremely short - you could run through the thing in a quick four hours if you don’t complete the thing 100% - but it still comes off feeling like it was one planet too many. There are only so many objective types the game throws at you before it starts throwing you the same ones over again - and at that point you notice the game’s nag for being repetitive. Except you don’t really care, because you’re blowing **** up, and having a fantastic time doing it.
Deadlocked’s planets are all distinct in appearance - some are probably deserts, while others are toxic heaps of soaked metal. All share one trait, however, and it’s the lack of an open feeling. No level feels like an entire area - it feels simply like a level. You’re restricted as to where you go, and I suppose it makes sense - you are playing a game within a game, after all - but separating the different challenges into entire planets would have you hoping for a little more leeway with where you go. The game could have benefited from some wide open gaps for you to drive vehicles around in and pick up spare ammo and health, maybe every now and then coming across a small swarm of enemies you could take out. It could have benefited from the simple option of being able to man a vehicle whenever you wanted - as it stands, you only get to bolt around on hovercraft or fly a spaceship when the game tells you to, and the situations the game puts you in when you do these objectives are often uninspiring. The vehicles could also use some tune ups - the ones that move at reasonable speeds are generally a tad too slippery (though not as much as Jak 3’s buggies). It’d also be nice if the craft’s primary lasers were stronger - more than 20 shots to take out a pathetic zombie robot is just stupid. Even in the form it’s in, it could have been so much more.
But Deadlocked hits the nail on the head with it’s enjoyable shooting. That isn’t to say platforming is totally deserted, however - there’s still a fair share of literally hopping from platform to platform and swinging across massive gaps with the odd ‘swingshot’ tool, if it’s called that. There’s also a cool ability to grind things - find a rail and you can slide across it on your feet. You don’t have to keep your balance, and you’re restricted to using your dual vipers weapons (like hand-machine guns) when doing it, but it can be quite a bit of fun, and is extremely similar to the grinding found in Sonic Adventure 2. And really, that’s what Deadlocked does - it borrows from other platformers and even it’s own predecessors to form this new game that gets the best of all worlds and precisely the correct amounts, save of course for the previously mentioned vehicles.
One of the greater additions to the game is Clank’s replacements - two robots with their own personalities. These two robots crusade with you throughout the short single player mode, and act much like a squad. You can order these guys to fire weird bomb things that disable protective shields of the enemy and to shield you yourself, and a few other things. They also technically have infinite health, and when they go down with the simple press of a button you can bring them back to functioning life. These two easily halt your wish that Clank was with you, and even give you hope that in future Ratchet games they’ll make a return.
But the game isn’t just a solo experience - it’s also an extremely entertaining multiplayer experience, and offers the enormously entertaining co-op mode where you tackle the single player missions with a buddy, who can control clank or other various ‘skins’ that represent various characters in the Ratchet series (and even surprise, unlockable skins featuring characters from other series). The solo missions are even slightly switched up to suit the two players - it makes the experience different enough to make the game worth playing through again in co-op mode. Lacking from co-op, however, are the two previously mentioned lovable robot sidekicks, but buddy can act just like them if you wish and do what commands they’d normally do, so nothing really is lost except for brief amounts of the game’s humor. Also present is an online mode where you can tackle other online players alone or in your own clan (which the game itself allows you to create) in various modes such as Deathmatch, Capture the Flag and King of the Hill. I myself haven’t had the ability to try this mode, but understand that it is there for your enjoyment (though only if you have a broadband connection - sorry dial-uppers).
Ratchet Deadlocked is the best game in the Ratchet & Clank franchise, thanks mainly to the main focus on shooting the crap out of stuff. The game is a bit too short, however, and oddly enough feels like it could scrap a planet or too even with it’s sit-down length. That’s only because of a lack of objective types, however - but with what you have, you can still have quite a bit of fun. Without the online play is lacks much long-term appeal - unless replaying the solo missions over and over sounds appealing to you. The game may not last you a whole lot of time, but it’s still not a game to pass up, even if you hated the Ratchet & Clank trilogy preceding this title like I did. With a couple of tweaks the game could have been great, but as it stands it’s good, short fun and a perfect weekend waster.