Good Time-Bending Fun With 'Ratchet & Clank'

Nov. 30, 2009 — -- In "Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time," the latest installment in the popular series, Ratchet, the lovable fox-like Lombax, must save his best friend, Clank, a small hyper-intelligent robot, from the evil Dr. Nefarious, a pretty daft robot.

This is not exactly Shakespeare, folks, but that's a good thing. Enter the silly, sly and addictively entertaining omniverse of "Ratchet & Clank" where dabbling button-mashers and hardcore gamers somehow find a common ground in the engaging story, mind-bending puzzles and hyper-tense combat.

In a note of full disclosure: "Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time" is the first Ratchet game I've ever played and I entered into the task with a good deal of skepticism. I knew previous iterations had been well received, but I imagined strapping on hoover boots and throwing disco balls at cartoonishly ugly enemies "too silly."

Luckily, after playing for a short time I realized that once you're in Ratchet's world, nothing is too silly, and from the dancing aliens to the goober secondary characters Ratchet and Clank encounter, it's fairly charming and entertaining with admittedly low-brow humor.

Without giving too much away, the gameplay and plot of "A Crack in Time" is not much of a departure from previous installments except that Ratchet and Clank are completely separate in this game and players will alternate between the two for extended periods.

But there are no shortage of sidekicks and allies for Ratchet as he fights to find and rescue Clank -- and a few other characters along the way. Without taking itself too seriously, the game has some profound dramatic moments between the characters and reveals more about some long-term plot lines.

The story evolves nicely if the gamer plays straight through, but if you're the exploring type, expect large breaks in the plot advancement while roaming various moons.

Weapon and armor upgrades are paced nicely with the story so that combat evolves from world to world as enemies grow stronger. Puzzles also have a nice learning curve, starting very simply and leading to sometimes overly complex time manipulation later in the game.

The time manipulation is a welcome addition as both a tool and an integral part of the overall plot. While also a major plot device, time manipulation is also used constantly by Clank on a much smaller scale both in combat and to solve puzzles.