Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

Hello everyone this is my "trial review". I will be reviewing Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction for the Playstation 3.

Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction is the fifth in the Ratchet and Clank series, not counting the outsourced (not Insomniac Games made) Playstation Portable games. I have been a fan of the Ratchet and Clank series for quite some time. I was introduced to the series by a teacher of mine, oddly enough, who actually showed me good games for the Playstation 2.

The past Ratchet and Clank games have always been story driven with the usual bad guy vs. good guy story line, nothing special there, but the story was always very entertaining and had its plethora of reoccurring characters which always added to the charm of the story. Tools of Destruction, however, takes it to the next level.

Yes, that sounded kind of corny, but it fits. In this story, Ratchet is faced with learning the truth of his species (Lombax) and actually has some real emotional conflicts in this game, unlike the past games. The games before this have all had a very strong style, except for Ratchet: Deadlocked which did not do so well. This game returns to the colorful worlds and very humorous enemies. That and the insane weapons as usual (like the Groovitron which makes all nearby enemies break into dance) makes for a fantastic single player campaign.

While the past two Ratchet and Clank games have had a very large multiplayer component, this game returns to only having a strong single player campaign (like Ratchet and Clank and Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando) and does a very excellent job and providing a strong story and a variety of game play styles that keep the game going at a good pace. The only problem that I had was some of the load times and camera angles did not seem to make the game experience flow smoothly. Insomniac Games has always made pretty good looking games, but this game turns it up to eleven.

Insomniac Games often said they were trying to make this game look like people were playing a Pixar movie. They accomplish this nearly 100% however, there are the occasional not-so-great looking components. When a player falls into the muck or water they just sink through it, there are no water ripple effects. James the Galactic Defender (an unlock with skill points) does not look the best either, as well with some of the close-up looks at some of the textures. But these are minor set backs to the tremendous look of the levels, enemies and characters in general.

Insomniac Games is know for their "triple A" titles, and this one does not disappoint. To rate various forms of entertainment I will be using the most basic system I can think of to keep things simple and fair. Any form of entertainment can get the following "grades"

A- Best of the best
B- Pretty good, but could use some work
C- It was decent but not the best
D- Not that good at all.
F- Fail

This game receives and A based on the following:

General Game Grade: A
Game play: B
Story: A
Graphics: B
Sound/Music/Voice Acting: A
Replay Value: A
Entertainment in General: A

Well, I hope you enjoyed my first review and look forward to at least once a week on various forms of entertainment, thanks for reading!

~Jake