The original ratchet and clank is a bit of a mixed bag. The game does a great job of creating planets that you want to explore full of secrets. Witty characters occupying these planets most cutscenes a delight to watch with its tongue and cheek anti-capitalist dialogue. The games music also compliments the game perfectly and a few tracks are genuine bops.
It's unfortunate then that the only place ratchet really falters is in its gameplay as a jank auto lock-on system or aiming in first person not being able to move leads to a lot of unnecessary frustration in many encounters. The weapon roster is also not great with a few standouts that are really enjoyable to use. In fact I found that ratchets wrench was actually better than most of the weapons which I don't think was intentional. Another Issue I found inconvenient is having to equip gadgets that could easily have been context sensitive inputs. This constant need to switch breaks the pace of the game. The game has other gameplay styles in certain sections that provide a change of pace but are not standout beyond that.
Overall the first ratchet shows its age in its gameplay but shines in almost every other aspect. A good start with plenty of room for improvement