This review contains spoilers
It's funny to me that Insomniac thought this game would be an utter disaster. They were given a deadline for November of 2004 and weren't 100% confident that they wouldn't deliver on the same level as the previous Ratchet & Clank titles. They shipped this game on the designated deadline, crossed their fingers, and hoped they wouldn't be responsible for the franchise's demise and Insomniac games' bankruptcy. It turns out that not only was this game a success, but it is by and large considered the best Ratchet & Clank game even after years of graphically superior sequels. The game that Insomniac worried would jeopardize their careers turned out to be the peak of Ratchet & Clank. This was also the game that made me a massive fan of the franchise and the one that cemented itself as one of my childhood favorites. It really begs the question as to why the finished version of Up Your Arsenal (which is an even better and raunchier title than Going Commando and also caused controversy. Europe and Australia didn't even think of a comparable substitute and just went with "Ratchet & Clank 3") made the members of Insomniac sweat. I don't think it's due to the developers' lack of confidence, considering this wasn't the case for the two previous games. If this is the game Insomniac released on a wing and a prayer, how did it become everyone's favorite Ratchet & Clank game, myself included?
Personally, this is my favorite Ratchet & Clank game because this was the one that introduced me to the franchise. This was the first I played, and it solidified Ratchet & Clank as one of my favorite video game franchises as a kid. Over the years, I've gone back and forth, deciding between Going Commando or Up Your Arsenal as the supreme Ratchet & Clank title. One would think it wouldn't even be close, considering the stellar reputation Up Your Arsenal has over every other Ratchet & Clank game. There is something slightly different about Up Your Arsenal from the previous two titles. As I've stated ad nauseam, each Ratchet & Clank game is a progression of what was already established from the previous games. Going Commando was exactly this for the first Ratchet & Clank. Up Your Arsenal, however, deviates from the original formula ever so slightly. When considering the make-up of Up Your Arsenal, my assessment proves to have cracks in it. Up Your Arsenal improves on aspects of Going Commando, but it is slightly different from the first two games.
The third Ratchet & Clank adventure begins as the titular duo is playing a game of intergalactic chess and watching TV in Clank's apartment from the previous game. While watching the latest episode of Secret Agent Clank, they get a breaking news flash that Ratchet's home planet is being invaded by an alien race known as the Tyhrranoids. They jet back to the Solana Galaxy and help the Galactic Rangers expel the invading Tyhrranoid forces. You might notice that this tutorial level is longer and busier than the tutorial levels from the previous two games. This level isn't just to teach newcomers the basic components of Ratchet & Clank: it's to ease veteran players into the very combat-centric gameplay Up Your Arsenal presents. If the first game was a platformer with rough shooting elements, Going Commando is the fine-tuned mix of both, while Up Your Arsenal is a shooter with some refined platformer elements. For those few that do not sing the same high praises for Up Your Arsenal, the combat-centric gameplay is the biggest point of contention. It's not the combat itself; it's just as solid as it is in Going Commando, if not arguably better. The problem is with how the combat eclipses every other aspect of the gameplay. Up Your Arsenal is easily the least diverse game in terms of gameplay variety, and the combat tends to overstay its welcome.
In Going Commando, the levels became more hectic due to all the advances to combat like strafing and the Nanotech health system. The gladiator arenas were added to further accentuate the combat and provide alternative gameplay from the standard platforming and level exploring. Up Your Arsenal has all of that, but it feels like it's the focal point instead of a piece of variety to deviate from the main type of gameplay. Almost every level feels like a warzone, especially any level with the thyrannoids. In fact, most levels featuring the slimy, googly-eyed "puss-buckets" are literally warzones. One new gameplay features heavily implemented in this game is the ranger missions. These occur on five planets and involve Ratchet and the rangers storming the thyrannoids or defending them from taking over a planet. Some are completely optional, but some require doing every single sub-mission. There are about five to six different sub-missions per Ranger mission, and they all pretty much involve defeating swarms of different types of thyrannoids or activating defense systems by turning screws with your wrench. These missions aren't bad by any means, and they are a great source of extra bolts, but why did we need more combat-based missions in a game that is already heavily combat-focused? On some of these planets, you already blast through waves of thyrannoids to get to the ranger missions, where you blast even more thyrannoids. The repetition tends to make the combat very stale sometimes. At least the vocoded banter between your distressed robotic comrades during these missions is always entertaining.
The gladiator missions are back on a single arena, broadcasted throughout the galaxy on the hit show "Annihilation Nation." Like the gladiator matches from Going Commando, you'll face waves of different enemies (not thyrannoids for once) with some varying themes to some of the matches and an occasional boss battle. Some differences are that sometimes a turret that looks like a disco ball emerges from the lava pool in the middle of the arena, and the commentator sounds less like a monster-truck rally announcer and more like a snarky wiseass like Norm Macdonald on Weekend Update. There are also obstacle courses on Annihilation Nation where you dodge lasers, falling platforms, fire pits, and enemies to make it to the end of the course. If you liked the arena challenges from Going Commando, Annihilation Nation will satisfy your bloodthirst...is what I would be saying if this wasn't the case for the rest of Up Your Arsenal. The Annihilation Nation challenges are similar to the gladiator matches in Going Commando. Still, they aren't as impactful as they were in the previous game because the rest of the game is, in essence, a gladiator match. Having the foreground of a televised gladiator arena doesn't make a difference when the rest of the game feels exactly like a gladiator arena. Not to mention that this idea was already done in the previous game. The obstacle courses deviate from the combat a bit, but once you've done one of them, you've practically done them all. There are about 30 or so different Annihilation Nation matches. They are good for bolts, but trying to do all of them gets to be mind-numbing. I much appreciate the limited number of gladiator challenges in Going Commando.
The saving grace of combat is the weapons. As a collective, the weapons in Up Your Arsenal are definitely the best of the PS2 trilogy. There are so many weapons that Insomniac had to implement a second weapon wheel to fit most of them. They upgrade exactly like in Going Commando, but each weapon upgrades four times instead of only once, making each weapon adapt incrementally instead of just evolving once fairly early on in the game, not adapting to the difficulty curbs. I tended to keep more weapons around in Up Your Arsenal because the advanced weapon upgrading gave me more incentive to keep them around for much longer. This improved upgrading system also makes every weapon useful throughout the entire game giving the player leeway to maximize the two weapon wheels instead of just having to capitalize on a few late-game weapons like in Going Commando. The standard weapon types are back, with the N60 Storm being the blaster weapon, the Nitro Launcher is the close-range bomb weapon, the Shock Blaster is a shotgun-esque weapon like the Blitz Cannon, and the "sniper rifle" weapon is back in the form of the incredibly powerful Flux Rifle. Some weapons from the first game like the Suck Cannon and the Agents of Doom make a come-back and are treated to the weapon upgrading system to make them powerhouses. The RYNO in this game is so powerful that you can only buy it on NG+. Some of the weapons from Going Commando are for sale, and they are sold by none other than Slim Cognito, my favorite seedy pair of eyes. Yes, of course, the morpho-ray is back, and it turns your enemies into ducks, and with the upgrade system, the ducks shit fire that can take out a whole fleet of enemies in closed-off spaces. The original weapons in this game are all useful and such a blast to use. The Spitting Hydra will target up to six enemies and shock them with electricity, the Rift Inducer will suck enemies into a black hole, and the Infector will confuse enemies to make them fight for you (not the most useful weapon, but a weapon that spurts mucus at enemies is worth an honorable mention). The weapon system introduced in Going Commando is perfected here, and it's the biggest factor in making heavy combat consistently enjoyable.
There are plenty of levels in Up Your Arsenal that are a bit less combat-oriented, but none of these levels are quite as multifaceted as the ones from the previous two games. Instead of dropping Ratchet off at a new planet and having him choose a path, most of the levels in Up Your Arsenal are linear paths with only one objective. There are levels with more than one part, like Florana and Aquatos, but the journey to each part of the level is usually a straight path. The previous games had different paths that would lead you to different objectives, some with new gadgets, plot points, bosses, etc., but the linearity of Up Your Arsenal reserves some levels for only one of these things. Obani Draco is a straight path to a boss fight. Zeldrin Starport, not counting the spaceship you go to through this level, is a run to a gadget. Because many levels only have one objective, many tend to feel very brief. The only level reminiscent of a level from the previous two games is Daxx which has three different paths with a new gadget, plot points, and a boss fight. It's not my favorite level in the game. Still, it begs the question as to why Insomniac chose linearity when they were obviously capable of delivering a level with branching paths like the first two games. The most unique level in Up Your Arsenal is definitely the Starship Phoenix, the first Ratchet & Clank hub world. It has a cozy atmosphere and feels really lived in because of all the familiar characters roaming around. There is plenty to do on the Starship Phoenix, and the game constantly has you coming back at certain plot points.
Most of the other gameplay modes from the previous games are totally gone. There are no ship battles, no racing, not even any grind boot levels. Nevertheless, Up Your Arsenal tries to diversify the experience besides blasting away at enemies. There is more Clank than in the previous game, but each of his parts has turned into an escort mission with Skrunch the Monkey. Thank god Skrunch doesn't have a health bar. Giant Clank only makes one return with a boss battle. The infiltrator puzzles are back again in an entirely new form with the bluntly named Hacker. The infiltrator puzzles have been shifted into full-fledged mini-games that can get pretty tense sometimes. I'd appreciate these much more if they didn't have so many waves to them, prolonging the length to an unnecessary degree. Crystal hunting makes a comeback in the complex sewer system of Aquatos. Each crystal you collect can be sold for bolts by the recurring series plumber who is apparently giving these crystals to his wife for an anniversary present. How...sweet of him? Unlike the open wastelands in Going Commando, the sewers are a dizzying, claustrophobic maze. With the gravity boots, it almost feels like navigating an MC Escher painting. With the music accompanying this place, it feels like Ratchet is on a surreal sewer odyssey. The only thing is that I never felt the need to collect more than a couple of crystals because, unlike in Going Commando, there are no monetary fees that inhibit your progress in the story and the weapons are all reasonably priced. That, and if you stay here for too long, you'll be hearing ameboid noises in your sleep.
The most important and unique alternate method of gameplay is easily the Qwark vid-comics. Every so often, you'll unlock a vid-comic to play on the TV in the entertainment room in the Starship Phoenix. You finally get to play as the spandex-wearing buffoon in goofy 2D platformer segments where you jump around punching and shooting enemies with a surprisingly diverse set of weapons for each level (I suppose it's not all that surprising considering this is a Ratchet & Clank game, but this is just a silly mini-game). You also collect arbitrary "qwark tokens," and if you collect all 100 of them per level, you get a platinum bolt. Every Qwark vid-comic level is fun and the most refreshing alternate mode of gameplay Up Your Arsenal offers. The vid-comics also arguably have the best presentation in the game. I love the artwork in the beginning and ending cutscenes of every vid-comic so much that I wish there was a Qwark comic series with this art style. Each vid-comic also gives us insight into the questionably accurate misadventures of Captain Qwark, hilariously narrated by him and a narrator who is rolling his eyes at the ridiculous scripts. The vid-comics give Qwark so much more of a presence in the game where he just seemed like a secondary villain in the previous two games, even at the end of Going Commando when the reveal happens, which might put the greatest strength of Up Your Arsenal into perspective.
The refined weapon upgrading system and all of the guns you can use are certainly a highlight of this game, but it is not the reason why Up Your Arsenal is as lauded as it is. Up Your Arsenal's writing surpasses the previous two games by a gigantic margin. I enjoy the early dynamic between Ratchet and Clank in the first game, and I like the mystery of Going Commando, but Up Your Arsenal is funny, narratively focused, and the first truly character-driven Ratchet & Clank story. After the tutorial mission, it's revealed that the thyrranoids are being manned by an evil robotic supervillain known as Dr. Nefarious, who wants to exterminate all organic lifeforms by turning them into robots. According to the president of the Solana Galaxy, only one man has ever stopped Dr. Nefarious before, and he's living in the jungle. To everyone's surprise, the mysterious being is Captain Qwark, who has gone off the grid since his last embarrassing failure. Once he regains his memory, he forms the Q-Force on the Starship Phoenix to stop Dr. Nefarious's schemes. If there were any vague parallels between Captain Qwark and William Shatner/Captain Kirk before, then the developers are certainly exhibiting them here. You might recognize some members of the Q-Force from the first game. Helga, the German authoritarian fitness robot; Skidd, the famous hoverboarder; and Al, the tech-nerd with an unfortunate lisp. You might also not recognize them from the first game because they were blips on the radar, nameless NPCs encountered only once. The direction Up Your Arsenal takes in fleshing out a few characters and making their presence better known in the story is much better than encountering nameless NPCs to further the plot.
It's difficult to pinpoint what the funniest moment of Up Your Arsenal is. A few highlights for me are the Q-Force's master plans being crudely drawn in crayon by Captain Qwark, failing the Thyra-guise sections to make Ratchet spew some absolute nonsense, or Clunk, the evil version of Clank with red eyes. It's really funny to hear Clank say and do insidious things. If I had to give a crowning achievement to one character that heightens the humor of this game, it would definitely be the main antagonist, Dr. Nefarious. There's a reason why Insomniac decided to keep him around as a mainstay series villain. He's a riot whenever he's on screen. His flamboyant mannerisms, his excitable nature, and his pension for yelling so loudly that he short-circuits and an old soap opera plays out of his head are incredibly entertaining. The dynamic between him and his robot butler Laurence is like Mr. Burns and Smithers, but if Smithers was incredibly passive-aggressive.
Dr. Nefarious might be entertaining, but is he a villain of substance? The satirical elements found in the previous two games were completely lost on me here. I was about to write off Up Your Arsenal as being a shallow superhero story that uses humor as a crutch, but I realized that I was searching in the wrong place. Up Your Arsenal isn't a satire on the foibles of capitalism but on the absurd veil of celebrity culture. I mentioned before that Clank had become a silver screen superstar in time between Going Commando and this game through his hit TV show Secret Agent Clank, so everyone treats Clank with giddy praise like they would a real celebrity. Ratchet, on the other hand, plays a lowly butler on the show, and everyone clowns on him even though he's the real hero. Dr. Nefarious is such a huge fan of Clank's work that Clank finds it "rather disturbing" (a line in this game that always gets me). Dr. Nefarious goes to the length to hire Clank and Courtney Gears, a pop star with obvious parallels to a real-life star, as associates in his diabolical plans because of their status. Dr. Nefarious might also be a stab at the way celebrity culture negatively influences one's own perception of himself. It's revealed in a Qwark vid-comic that Dr. Nefarious used to be human, a small, ugly geek with a head shaped like a cucumber. Quark used to be his school bully and accidentally killed him trying to stop one of his schemes, or so he thought. Physically remodeled as a robot, Dr. Nefarious is a tall, imposing force with his intellect intact. He is finally confident in himself but still obviously holds a vendetta against organic lifeforms because he perceives his organic form as weak. Perhaps this is because of so much robot influence this galaxy has?
I don't think there is any bigger parallel to the vapid absurdity of celebrity culture than Captain Qwark. It's been explored with his character in the previous games, but the theme is put on full display here. He's the embodiment of the phrase "never meet your heroes." Once he's given a chance to be a hero leading the Q-Force, he takes it to relish in fake glory like an actor in a heroic role. He cowers away, lets Ratchet & Clank do the real work, and shamelessly takes the credit for it. When he's on an actual mission with Ratchet and Clank, he fakes his own death to go into hiding when he realizes that being a real hero requires you to take serious risks. He redeems himself at the end when he helps you beat the Biobliderator, completing his character arc (but he couldn't have helped me during the Nefarious fight? I could've needed it, considering it's by far the hardest fight in the series.) The funny thing is that everyone in the galaxy, including Nefarious, actually brands him as a formidable force for good. The William Shatner/Star Trek parallels could be made here because every massive Star Trek fan was probably crestfallen when they learned that he was just a pompous douchebag with an ego the size of his TV spaceship. This reminds me more of the film Galaxy Quest, a film that satirizes the fandom of the show and the actors on it. Captain Qwark is that film's parody of Captain Kirk/William Shatner, an arrogant assclown who is given way too much credit by his fans and a surprisingly real foe who allows him to be what people adore him for. Captain Qwark is essentially an actor who can't play his own role when given a real-life opportunity.
I realize that it sounds like I'm heavily criticizing Up Your Arsenal and that it's a huge step-down in quality from the first two games, or at least a step-down from Going Commando. Keep in mind that this is still my favorite Ratchet & Clank game, and the fact that it bears a great sense of nostalgia in me has nothing to do with it. I like the combat imperative of Up Your Arsenal, and while each level is linear, none are boring or tedious. My only honest criticism is that the emphasis on combat is so heavy that it becomes repetitive, especially since the previous two games had so much more variety. The combat and level linearity are just popular points of criticism from people who feel like Up Your Arsenal is disappointing or underwhelming in comparison. Comparing Going Commando to Up Your Arsenal ultimately boils down to what you prefer, platforming with multifaceted levels or blowing shit to smithereens with a smattering of creative weapons. Personally, I enjoy both, but the strengths of Up Your Arsenal cannot be ignored. If Insomniac made Up Your Arsenal exactly like Going Commando, it would've faltered due to banking off another game's identity like many sequels. If that kept the developers up at night, they shouldn't have worried. They did a fantastic job.
———
Attribution: https://erockreviews.blogspot.com
Personally, this is my favorite Ratchet & Clank game because this was the one that introduced me to the franchise. This was the first I played, and it solidified Ratchet & Clank as one of my favorite video game franchises as a kid. Over the years, I've gone back and forth, deciding between Going Commando or Up Your Arsenal as the supreme Ratchet & Clank title. One would think it wouldn't even be close, considering the stellar reputation Up Your Arsenal has over every other Ratchet & Clank game. There is something slightly different about Up Your Arsenal from the previous two titles. As I've stated ad nauseam, each Ratchet & Clank game is a progression of what was already established from the previous games. Going Commando was exactly this for the first Ratchet & Clank. Up Your Arsenal, however, deviates from the original formula ever so slightly. When considering the make-up of Up Your Arsenal, my assessment proves to have cracks in it. Up Your Arsenal improves on aspects of Going Commando, but it is slightly different from the first two games.
The third Ratchet & Clank adventure begins as the titular duo is playing a game of intergalactic chess and watching TV in Clank's apartment from the previous game. While watching the latest episode of Secret Agent Clank, they get a breaking news flash that Ratchet's home planet is being invaded by an alien race known as the Tyhrranoids. They jet back to the Solana Galaxy and help the Galactic Rangers expel the invading Tyhrranoid forces. You might notice that this tutorial level is longer and busier than the tutorial levels from the previous two games. This level isn't just to teach newcomers the basic components of Ratchet & Clank: it's to ease veteran players into the very combat-centric gameplay Up Your Arsenal presents. If the first game was a platformer with rough shooting elements, Going Commando is the fine-tuned mix of both, while Up Your Arsenal is a shooter with some refined platformer elements. For those few that do not sing the same high praises for Up Your Arsenal, the combat-centric gameplay is the biggest point of contention. It's not the combat itself; it's just as solid as it is in Going Commando, if not arguably better. The problem is with how the combat eclipses every other aspect of the gameplay. Up Your Arsenal is easily the least diverse game in terms of gameplay variety, and the combat tends to overstay its welcome.
In Going Commando, the levels became more hectic due to all the advances to combat like strafing and the Nanotech health system. The gladiator arenas were added to further accentuate the combat and provide alternative gameplay from the standard platforming and level exploring. Up Your Arsenal has all of that, but it feels like it's the focal point instead of a piece of variety to deviate from the main type of gameplay. Almost every level feels like a warzone, especially any level with the thyrannoids. In fact, most levels featuring the slimy, googly-eyed "puss-buckets" are literally warzones. One new gameplay features heavily implemented in this game is the ranger missions. These occur on five planets and involve Ratchet and the rangers storming the thyrannoids or defending them from taking over a planet. Some are completely optional, but some require doing every single sub-mission. There are about five to six different sub-missions per Ranger mission, and they all pretty much involve defeating swarms of different types of thyrannoids or activating defense systems by turning screws with your wrench. These missions aren't bad by any means, and they are a great source of extra bolts, but why did we need more combat-based missions in a game that is already heavily combat-focused? On some of these planets, you already blast through waves of thyrannoids to get to the ranger missions, where you blast even more thyrannoids. The repetition tends to make the combat very stale sometimes. At least the vocoded banter between your distressed robotic comrades during these missions is always entertaining.
The gladiator missions are back on a single arena, broadcasted throughout the galaxy on the hit show "Annihilation Nation." Like the gladiator matches from Going Commando, you'll face waves of different enemies (not thyrannoids for once) with some varying themes to some of the matches and an occasional boss battle. Some differences are that sometimes a turret that looks like a disco ball emerges from the lava pool in the middle of the arena, and the commentator sounds less like a monster-truck rally announcer and more like a snarky wiseass like Norm Macdonald on Weekend Update. There are also obstacle courses on Annihilation Nation where you dodge lasers, falling platforms, fire pits, and enemies to make it to the end of the course. If you liked the arena challenges from Going Commando, Annihilation Nation will satisfy your bloodthirst...is what I would be saying if this wasn't the case for the rest of Up Your Arsenal. The Annihilation Nation challenges are similar to the gladiator matches in Going Commando. Still, they aren't as impactful as they were in the previous game because the rest of the game is, in essence, a gladiator match. Having the foreground of a televised gladiator arena doesn't make a difference when the rest of the game feels exactly like a gladiator arena. Not to mention that this idea was already done in the previous game. The obstacle courses deviate from the combat a bit, but once you've done one of them, you've practically done them all. There are about 30 or so different Annihilation Nation matches. They are good for bolts, but trying to do all of them gets to be mind-numbing. I much appreciate the limited number of gladiator challenges in Going Commando.
The saving grace of combat is the weapons. As a collective, the weapons in Up Your Arsenal are definitely the best of the PS2 trilogy. There are so many weapons that Insomniac had to implement a second weapon wheel to fit most of them. They upgrade exactly like in Going Commando, but each weapon upgrades four times instead of only once, making each weapon adapt incrementally instead of just evolving once fairly early on in the game, not adapting to the difficulty curbs. I tended to keep more weapons around in Up Your Arsenal because the advanced weapon upgrading gave me more incentive to keep them around for much longer. This improved upgrading system also makes every weapon useful throughout the entire game giving the player leeway to maximize the two weapon wheels instead of just having to capitalize on a few late-game weapons like in Going Commando. The standard weapon types are back, with the N60 Storm being the blaster weapon, the Nitro Launcher is the close-range bomb weapon, the Shock Blaster is a shotgun-esque weapon like the Blitz Cannon, and the "sniper rifle" weapon is back in the form of the incredibly powerful Flux Rifle. Some weapons from the first game like the Suck Cannon and the Agents of Doom make a come-back and are treated to the weapon upgrading system to make them powerhouses. The RYNO in this game is so powerful that you can only buy it on NG+. Some of the weapons from Going Commando are for sale, and they are sold by none other than Slim Cognito, my favorite seedy pair of eyes. Yes, of course, the morpho-ray is back, and it turns your enemies into ducks, and with the upgrade system, the ducks shit fire that can take out a whole fleet of enemies in closed-off spaces. The original weapons in this game are all useful and such a blast to use. The Spitting Hydra will target up to six enemies and shock them with electricity, the Rift Inducer will suck enemies into a black hole, and the Infector will confuse enemies to make them fight for you (not the most useful weapon, but a weapon that spurts mucus at enemies is worth an honorable mention). The weapon system introduced in Going Commando is perfected here, and it's the biggest factor in making heavy combat consistently enjoyable.
There are plenty of levels in Up Your Arsenal that are a bit less combat-oriented, but none of these levels are quite as multifaceted as the ones from the previous two games. Instead of dropping Ratchet off at a new planet and having him choose a path, most of the levels in Up Your Arsenal are linear paths with only one objective. There are levels with more than one part, like Florana and Aquatos, but the journey to each part of the level is usually a straight path. The previous games had different paths that would lead you to different objectives, some with new gadgets, plot points, bosses, etc., but the linearity of Up Your Arsenal reserves some levels for only one of these things. Obani Draco is a straight path to a boss fight. Zeldrin Starport, not counting the spaceship you go to through this level, is a run to a gadget. Because many levels only have one objective, many tend to feel very brief. The only level reminiscent of a level from the previous two games is Daxx which has three different paths with a new gadget, plot points, and a boss fight. It's not my favorite level in the game. Still, it begs the question as to why Insomniac chose linearity when they were obviously capable of delivering a level with branching paths like the first two games. The most unique level in Up Your Arsenal is definitely the Starship Phoenix, the first Ratchet & Clank hub world. It has a cozy atmosphere and feels really lived in because of all the familiar characters roaming around. There is plenty to do on the Starship Phoenix, and the game constantly has you coming back at certain plot points.
Most of the other gameplay modes from the previous games are totally gone. There are no ship battles, no racing, not even any grind boot levels. Nevertheless, Up Your Arsenal tries to diversify the experience besides blasting away at enemies. There is more Clank than in the previous game, but each of his parts has turned into an escort mission with Skrunch the Monkey. Thank god Skrunch doesn't have a health bar. Giant Clank only makes one return with a boss battle. The infiltrator puzzles are back again in an entirely new form with the bluntly named Hacker. The infiltrator puzzles have been shifted into full-fledged mini-games that can get pretty tense sometimes. I'd appreciate these much more if they didn't have so many waves to them, prolonging the length to an unnecessary degree. Crystal hunting makes a comeback in the complex sewer system of Aquatos. Each crystal you collect can be sold for bolts by the recurring series plumber who is apparently giving these crystals to his wife for an anniversary present. How...sweet of him? Unlike the open wastelands in Going Commando, the sewers are a dizzying, claustrophobic maze. With the gravity boots, it almost feels like navigating an MC Escher painting. With the music accompanying this place, it feels like Ratchet is on a surreal sewer odyssey. The only thing is that I never felt the need to collect more than a couple of crystals because, unlike in Going Commando, there are no monetary fees that inhibit your progress in the story and the weapons are all reasonably priced. That, and if you stay here for too long, you'll be hearing ameboid noises in your sleep.
The most important and unique alternate method of gameplay is easily the Qwark vid-comics. Every so often, you'll unlock a vid-comic to play on the TV in the entertainment room in the Starship Phoenix. You finally get to play as the spandex-wearing buffoon in goofy 2D platformer segments where you jump around punching and shooting enemies with a surprisingly diverse set of weapons for each level (I suppose it's not all that surprising considering this is a Ratchet & Clank game, but this is just a silly mini-game). You also collect arbitrary "qwark tokens," and if you collect all 100 of them per level, you get a platinum bolt. Every Qwark vid-comic level is fun and the most refreshing alternate mode of gameplay Up Your Arsenal offers. The vid-comics also arguably have the best presentation in the game. I love the artwork in the beginning and ending cutscenes of every vid-comic so much that I wish there was a Qwark comic series with this art style. Each vid-comic also gives us insight into the questionably accurate misadventures of Captain Qwark, hilariously narrated by him and a narrator who is rolling his eyes at the ridiculous scripts. The vid-comics give Qwark so much more of a presence in the game where he just seemed like a secondary villain in the previous two games, even at the end of Going Commando when the reveal happens, which might put the greatest strength of Up Your Arsenal into perspective.
The refined weapon upgrading system and all of the guns you can use are certainly a highlight of this game, but it is not the reason why Up Your Arsenal is as lauded as it is. Up Your Arsenal's writing surpasses the previous two games by a gigantic margin. I enjoy the early dynamic between Ratchet and Clank in the first game, and I like the mystery of Going Commando, but Up Your Arsenal is funny, narratively focused, and the first truly character-driven Ratchet & Clank story. After the tutorial mission, it's revealed that the thyrranoids are being manned by an evil robotic supervillain known as Dr. Nefarious, who wants to exterminate all organic lifeforms by turning them into robots. According to the president of the Solana Galaxy, only one man has ever stopped Dr. Nefarious before, and he's living in the jungle. To everyone's surprise, the mysterious being is Captain Qwark, who has gone off the grid since his last embarrassing failure. Once he regains his memory, he forms the Q-Force on the Starship Phoenix to stop Dr. Nefarious's schemes. If there were any vague parallels between Captain Qwark and William Shatner/Captain Kirk before, then the developers are certainly exhibiting them here. You might recognize some members of the Q-Force from the first game. Helga, the German authoritarian fitness robot; Skidd, the famous hoverboarder; and Al, the tech-nerd with an unfortunate lisp. You might also not recognize them from the first game because they were blips on the radar, nameless NPCs encountered only once. The direction Up Your Arsenal takes in fleshing out a few characters and making their presence better known in the story is much better than encountering nameless NPCs to further the plot.
It's difficult to pinpoint what the funniest moment of Up Your Arsenal is. A few highlights for me are the Q-Force's master plans being crudely drawn in crayon by Captain Qwark, failing the Thyra-guise sections to make Ratchet spew some absolute nonsense, or Clunk, the evil version of Clank with red eyes. It's really funny to hear Clank say and do insidious things. If I had to give a crowning achievement to one character that heightens the humor of this game, it would definitely be the main antagonist, Dr. Nefarious. There's a reason why Insomniac decided to keep him around as a mainstay series villain. He's a riot whenever he's on screen. His flamboyant mannerisms, his excitable nature, and his pension for yelling so loudly that he short-circuits and an old soap opera plays out of his head are incredibly entertaining. The dynamic between him and his robot butler Laurence is like Mr. Burns and Smithers, but if Smithers was incredibly passive-aggressive.
Dr. Nefarious might be entertaining, but is he a villain of substance? The satirical elements found in the previous two games were completely lost on me here. I was about to write off Up Your Arsenal as being a shallow superhero story that uses humor as a crutch, but I realized that I was searching in the wrong place. Up Your Arsenal isn't a satire on the foibles of capitalism but on the absurd veil of celebrity culture. I mentioned before that Clank had become a silver screen superstar in time between Going Commando and this game through his hit TV show Secret Agent Clank, so everyone treats Clank with giddy praise like they would a real celebrity. Ratchet, on the other hand, plays a lowly butler on the show, and everyone clowns on him even though he's the real hero. Dr. Nefarious is such a huge fan of Clank's work that Clank finds it "rather disturbing" (a line in this game that always gets me). Dr. Nefarious goes to the length to hire Clank and Courtney Gears, a pop star with obvious parallels to a real-life star, as associates in his diabolical plans because of their status. Dr. Nefarious might also be a stab at the way celebrity culture negatively influences one's own perception of himself. It's revealed in a Qwark vid-comic that Dr. Nefarious used to be human, a small, ugly geek with a head shaped like a cucumber. Quark used to be his school bully and accidentally killed him trying to stop one of his schemes, or so he thought. Physically remodeled as a robot, Dr. Nefarious is a tall, imposing force with his intellect intact. He is finally confident in himself but still obviously holds a vendetta against organic lifeforms because he perceives his organic form as weak. Perhaps this is because of so much robot influence this galaxy has?
I don't think there is any bigger parallel to the vapid absurdity of celebrity culture than Captain Qwark. It's been explored with his character in the previous games, but the theme is put on full display here. He's the embodiment of the phrase "never meet your heroes." Once he's given a chance to be a hero leading the Q-Force, he takes it to relish in fake glory like an actor in a heroic role. He cowers away, lets Ratchet & Clank do the real work, and shamelessly takes the credit for it. When he's on an actual mission with Ratchet and Clank, he fakes his own death to go into hiding when he realizes that being a real hero requires you to take serious risks. He redeems himself at the end when he helps you beat the Biobliderator, completing his character arc (but he couldn't have helped me during the Nefarious fight? I could've needed it, considering it's by far the hardest fight in the series.) The funny thing is that everyone in the galaxy, including Nefarious, actually brands him as a formidable force for good. The William Shatner/Star Trek parallels could be made here because every massive Star Trek fan was probably crestfallen when they learned that he was just a pompous douchebag with an ego the size of his TV spaceship. This reminds me more of the film Galaxy Quest, a film that satirizes the fandom of the show and the actors on it. Captain Qwark is that film's parody of Captain Kirk/William Shatner, an arrogant assclown who is given way too much credit by his fans and a surprisingly real foe who allows him to be what people adore him for. Captain Qwark is essentially an actor who can't play his own role when given a real-life opportunity.
I realize that it sounds like I'm heavily criticizing Up Your Arsenal and that it's a huge step-down in quality from the first two games, or at least a step-down from Going Commando. Keep in mind that this is still my favorite Ratchet & Clank game, and the fact that it bears a great sense of nostalgia in me has nothing to do with it. I like the combat imperative of Up Your Arsenal, and while each level is linear, none are boring or tedious. My only honest criticism is that the emphasis on combat is so heavy that it becomes repetitive, especially since the previous two games had so much more variety. The combat and level linearity are just popular points of criticism from people who feel like Up Your Arsenal is disappointing or underwhelming in comparison. Comparing Going Commando to Up Your Arsenal ultimately boils down to what you prefer, platforming with multifaceted levels or blowing shit to smithereens with a smattering of creative weapons. Personally, I enjoy both, but the strengths of Up Your Arsenal cannot be ignored. If Insomniac made Up Your Arsenal exactly like Going Commando, it would've faltered due to banking off another game's identity like many sequels. If that kept the developers up at night, they shouldn't have worried. They did a fantastic job.
———
Attribution: https://erockreviews.blogspot.com