Up Your Arsenal is another good sequel. Although it's not as ambitious as the previous game Going Commando, what it does well hasn't changed from the previous games, the gameplay is still frenetic and fun. It has some changes I like, and some I don't.
What I've noticed is that there's a shift in focus that started in Going Commando but has reached its culmination here. Which is that it's finally dropped all pretense of being a platformer, and has cemented itself firmly as being a fast paced run and gun shooter. I don't actually have an issue with this in theory, because I never thought Ratchet and Clank had outstanding platforming to begin with. The problem with this change for me is the simplification of the level design, and how that affects the feel of the worlds and player choice. The previous games had worlds with branching paths for the player to choose from. One path could be a puzzle section and another could be a combat section, and there was a lot of fun in exploring the worlds from different angles. They felt organic, and always rewarded with a new gadget or story progression event. The levels in Up Your Arsenal are mostly straight lines to the end. They're finished so quickly that there's hardly any time to appreciate the ambience of the world, and the few split paths they do have usually only lead to titanium bolts, a cosmetic unlocking item. The mission list is functionally useless in this game.
It also has less variety compared to previous games. There's no grind rail sections, hoverbike races, or space ship battles. Instead there's Galactic Ranger missions where you fight enemy hordes, fine at first but there's just too many of them and it's always the same thing. The writing is funnier, but it lost a lot of its edge and corporate satire, and feels more like a typical Saturday morning cartoon.
As far as improvements, there's a second weapon wheel which cuts down on constant menu opening. The weapons got an upgrade up to 8 levels which keeps them useful. There's less Giant Clank levels, which I detested. The bosses are better, they're back to being about as good as the first game's bosses again. I did enjoy the story more than Going Commando's weird evil furby thing, but that's mainly because I loved Dr. Nefarious and his apathetic butler as characters, and not because the story is complex or has any sort of character development like the first game. It added a mini hub, and it's nice that it let me buy armor upgrades without having to remember which level the armor vendor was thrown into.
Even if it's not quite as varied or innovative as the previous games, Up Your Arsenal is still a fun game, and a solid entry worth playing.
What I've noticed is that there's a shift in focus that started in Going Commando but has reached its culmination here. Which is that it's finally dropped all pretense of being a platformer, and has cemented itself firmly as being a fast paced run and gun shooter. I don't actually have an issue with this in theory, because I never thought Ratchet and Clank had outstanding platforming to begin with. The problem with this change for me is the simplification of the level design, and how that affects the feel of the worlds and player choice. The previous games had worlds with branching paths for the player to choose from. One path could be a puzzle section and another could be a combat section, and there was a lot of fun in exploring the worlds from different angles. They felt organic, and always rewarded with a new gadget or story progression event. The levels in Up Your Arsenal are mostly straight lines to the end. They're finished so quickly that there's hardly any time to appreciate the ambience of the world, and the few split paths they do have usually only lead to titanium bolts, a cosmetic unlocking item. The mission list is functionally useless in this game.
It also has less variety compared to previous games. There's no grind rail sections, hoverbike races, or space ship battles. Instead there's Galactic Ranger missions where you fight enemy hordes, fine at first but there's just too many of them and it's always the same thing. The writing is funnier, but it lost a lot of its edge and corporate satire, and feels more like a typical Saturday morning cartoon.
As far as improvements, there's a second weapon wheel which cuts down on constant menu opening. The weapons got an upgrade up to 8 levels which keeps them useful. There's less Giant Clank levels, which I detested. The bosses are better, they're back to being about as good as the first game's bosses again. I did enjoy the story more than Going Commando's weird evil furby thing, but that's mainly because I loved Dr. Nefarious and his apathetic butler as characters, and not because the story is complex or has any sort of character development like the first game. It added a mini hub, and it's nice that it let me buy armor upgrades without having to remember which level the armor vendor was thrown into.
Even if it's not quite as varied or innovative as the previous games, Up Your Arsenal is still a fun game, and a solid entry worth playing.