This review contains spoilers
A return to form, and then some!
Let's start with the visuals. Holy SHIT this game is beautiful, I've never seen anything like it. When people say it feels like playing a Pixar movie, they aren't lying. You can see the individual hairs on the characters fur, you can see scratches and imperfections in the metal, you can see the grain in the wood, etc. and I played it on Performance RT mode as well.
Speaking of which, the graphical settings are SO much better than 2016. You can switch between a 4K 30fps mode, a 4K 40fps mode, and two 60fps modes with and without ray-tracing. Plus, you can turn off motion blur, so you can avoid throwing up when shit starts to hit the fan in the more intense encounters.
In terms of the narrative, I think it's great for what the franchise is. Obviously you're not getting anything super ambitious or that takes any significant risks, but the presentation is great and doesn't patronize the player like 2016 does. Instead of a G-Rated kiddie adventure, we get more of a PG-Rated family safe adventure that teaches some decent life lessons and delivers on the fun, flashy, sci-fi action side of things. It was neat to see the alternate dimension counterparts of memorable characters and how they compare/contrast to the originals. Speaking of which, Rivet was a pretty great addition to the franchise! I hope we get to see more of her and Kit as the franchise goes on. We don't get to see her origin like we did with Ratchet, but the narrative gives us some dialogue-delivered backstory that fills in the gaps and fleshes out her character. She has a nice arc with Kit that is like a condensed version of the arc Ratchet and Clank have in the first game, which I thought was neat. The new Emperor Nefarious was really cool, he felt a lot more intimidating than the Doctor, and his manic rage at the end when he realized no one wanted to follow him was well executed.
People critique the enemy variety, but in my opinion, the variety was pretty good. You got Troopers, Goons, Pirates, and various indigenous creatures that you fight against, and each "team" has multiple variants that shake up combat.
Speaking of combat, I've seen many people say that this is "Pixar Doom" and they're not wrong there either. It had arena-based encounters with agile movement and platforming elements paired with an arsenal that you switch through constantly during battle. Each weapon aside from the Pixelizer had something to offer, and by the end I used most of them pretty evenly. The ability to hot swap between four weapons using the directional arrows was pretty cool, though most of the time I just used the weapon wheel.
As far as the planets go, there aren't many, though you do make return trips to some of them, and when you do, the environment changes in various ways. Also, environments were just straight up gorgeous. Props to the environment artists on this one because I loved just looking at them and taking them in. They felt so full of life compared to many other games. The NPC density is pretty high and many have unique dialogue, and some even converse with the player. I never noticed any pop-in, and the loading screens were seamless.
In terms of the OST, while it doesn't come close to the absolute bangers that David Bergeaud composed for the series up until his final foray with Tools of Destruction, it is reminiscent of A Crack in Time and still has some great tunes! LEAGUES better than the uninspired 2016 OST.
Finally, one last thing is the interaction with the controller haptics. Feeling resistance is so cool, and when certain weapons "kick", it gives the game that much more weight. That combined with environmental haptics like the ground you're walking on and even being able to feel the rumble of bass from a nearby nightclub made this experience downright amazing!
Only reason why I'm taking off half a star is because I wished they would take more risks with the story instead of playing it as safe as they do these days. Here's to hoping this is the beginning of a new trilogy!
Let's start with the visuals. Holy SHIT this game is beautiful, I've never seen anything like it. When people say it feels like playing a Pixar movie, they aren't lying. You can see the individual hairs on the characters fur, you can see scratches and imperfections in the metal, you can see the grain in the wood, etc. and I played it on Performance RT mode as well.
Speaking of which, the graphical settings are SO much better than 2016. You can switch between a 4K 30fps mode, a 4K 40fps mode, and two 60fps modes with and without ray-tracing. Plus, you can turn off motion blur, so you can avoid throwing up when shit starts to hit the fan in the more intense encounters.
In terms of the narrative, I think it's great for what the franchise is. Obviously you're not getting anything super ambitious or that takes any significant risks, but the presentation is great and doesn't patronize the player like 2016 does. Instead of a G-Rated kiddie adventure, we get more of a PG-Rated family safe adventure that teaches some decent life lessons and delivers on the fun, flashy, sci-fi action side of things. It was neat to see the alternate dimension counterparts of memorable characters and how they compare/contrast to the originals. Speaking of which, Rivet was a pretty great addition to the franchise! I hope we get to see more of her and Kit as the franchise goes on. We don't get to see her origin like we did with Ratchet, but the narrative gives us some dialogue-delivered backstory that fills in the gaps and fleshes out her character. She has a nice arc with Kit that is like a condensed version of the arc Ratchet and Clank have in the first game, which I thought was neat. The new Emperor Nefarious was really cool, he felt a lot more intimidating than the Doctor, and his manic rage at the end when he realized no one wanted to follow him was well executed.
People critique the enemy variety, but in my opinion, the variety was pretty good. You got Troopers, Goons, Pirates, and various indigenous creatures that you fight against, and each "team" has multiple variants that shake up combat.
Speaking of combat, I've seen many people say that this is "Pixar Doom" and they're not wrong there either. It had arena-based encounters with agile movement and platforming elements paired with an arsenal that you switch through constantly during battle. Each weapon aside from the Pixelizer had something to offer, and by the end I used most of them pretty evenly. The ability to hot swap between four weapons using the directional arrows was pretty cool, though most of the time I just used the weapon wheel.
As far as the planets go, there aren't many, though you do make return trips to some of them, and when you do, the environment changes in various ways. Also, environments were just straight up gorgeous. Props to the environment artists on this one because I loved just looking at them and taking them in. They felt so full of life compared to many other games. The NPC density is pretty high and many have unique dialogue, and some even converse with the player. I never noticed any pop-in, and the loading screens were seamless.
In terms of the OST, while it doesn't come close to the absolute bangers that David Bergeaud composed for the series up until his final foray with Tools of Destruction, it is reminiscent of A Crack in Time and still has some great tunes! LEAGUES better than the uninspired 2016 OST.
Finally, one last thing is the interaction with the controller haptics. Feeling resistance is so cool, and when certain weapons "kick", it gives the game that much more weight. That combined with environmental haptics like the ground you're walking on and even being able to feel the rumble of bass from a nearby nightclub made this experience downright amazing!
Only reason why I'm taking off half a star is because I wished they would take more risks with the story instead of playing it as safe as they do these days. Here's to hoping this is the beginning of a new trilogy!