I’ve never played a Ratchet game before. No, never, but I kinda know what they're all about, but I was all the more interested to see this next offering from Insomniac Games all the same. Now, I gather this is the fourth game in as many years, but I wasn’t really aware they were selling so well to warrant making so many in such a short period of time.
Anyhoo... On with the story; Ratchet, our trusty hero, on his way back from saving the galaxy (again) when a report comes in claiming that the greatest heroes all seem to be disappearing without trace. How can this be? Then, as a huge shock, Ratchet gets teleported to the roughest part of the solar system. Yup, he only went and got himself caught as well... Gleeman Vox did it, and he's our main villain. He’s a kind of "Killian" from the Running Man movie, who owns a nasty television conglomerate that is televising the highest rated TV show ever - "DreadZone". Heroes and hardmen alike are thrown in to battle zones and must fight their way out, live on TV. And now so do you!
Gladiator plays like one big death-match at first. There is you, in an arena and you must clear the waves of enemies to progress to the next area and so on and so forth. But it feels very stale and almost lifeless. I never got that feeling that I wanted to continue and progress. But I did all the same and was glad that I stuck with it. A short while on, you’re given two droids to help you on your way, and while they'll happily help dispatch the waves of (slightly generic) robot hordes, they also have other uses, and this is when the game starts to open up and (I can only assume) return to its more platform-orientated roots.
The levels start to get more of an identity, and instead of being lumped into bland, "futuristic" arenas, we now start to see open landscapes, cliff faces and the like. With this change of environment, we also get things to do apart from mindless blasting. Your new robot helpers can be used to do tasks like destroy an energy generator, while you take care of the enemies or vice versa. They are really easy to control too, as simple stabs on the D-Pad send them an instruction, so it’s nice and quick as well as being very intuitive. The gameplay is also broken up with extra missions you can take on to gain cash which bring a welcome relief to the platform and blasting formula. Here you can ride in huge mech-like-tanks as well as 3D flying shoot ‘em up sections.
The weapons in the game play a big part, as they do in earlier Ratchet & Clank games. Each weapon can be upgraded and they can gain experience points with more use, thus leading to better features and stats. It’s a great idea as it means you'll always be switching weapons if only to try and upgrade it to the next stage. Although there are only about 10 weapons on offer here, the game has a great feature of being able to mix weapon types to essentially create your own type of gun. Additional features to the usual types of gun (IE machine gun, plasma etc) include being able to freeze enemies, or even turn them into farmyard inhabitants!
The visuals here are pretty good, and obviously stay in line with style from the previous games. They certainly ain’t pushing the PS2, but they run nice and smoothly, so there is little slowdown and other such hindrances. The music and sounds are nothing really to write home about, but the voice actors for the cut scenes do an excellent job of bringing the characters to life, and many of the scenes are genuinely funny and full of wit. The game isn’t huge, and weighs in at about 10 hours long. Although, I felt this was probably long enough, as it would have become a chore at if it had lasted any longer.
Extra features to prise more value out of the package include a 2-player co-op mode (with around 10 levels to take on), and a challenge mode with a ton of obscure missions to do - both worthy additions. There is also an online mode for you to try, and I’m not being funny, but each time I tried it, there was no one around to join me, so I could test that bit out, so be warned if this is one of your reasons for buying the game.
To close, I enjoyed Gladiators, but it wasn’t an instantly gripping game. But I have a feeling that surely now Insomniac Games have run its course with Ratchet? And I’m sure it’s a fitting end (if it is - PLEASE don’t release a bloody Ratchet Kart....) to the series.
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