Ratchet & Clank Up Your Arsenal

DISCLAIMER: The following is a copy-pasted review from my Backloggd account, transferred as-is so that this blog has some entries available

When starting Up Your Arsenal, it was mainly under the stature of pessimistic curiosity. I can only speak for myself, but ever since around 2017 or 2018, I’ve seen this game’s position as one of the best slowly deteriorate, as more and more people express disappointment with this one and consider it as their least favorite of the Insomniac-developed PS2 titles. And, admittedly, it wasn’t doing much to shake that pessimism off, being frontloaded onto hard-hitting enemies already with a meager pile of “good enough” weaponry and questionable upgrade changes, as well as Obvious Multiplayer Reuse territory on a shameless level of content drought that Mass Effect 3 would match years on. I also couldn’t help but notice there were way more Big Bolt collectibles out in the open done by either simply walking towards them, or waiting until the very next gadget on the next planet, contrasting R&C02 and Going Commando utilizing more out-the-box thinking and several planet progression than easy nabs - it’s even more odd considering the planning process was somewhat different in UYA compared to before. Hell, this isn’t even mentioning the lack of importance placed onto these sorts of things now, instead a majority being given to you with no whistles after satisfying the objectives or completing the alternate, optional path, or the downsized enemy roster/type inherently making encounter design feel somewhat homogenous. Also not helping is how, unlike Sly 3 and Jak 3 where they opted to meld the first two game’s different ideology into one package, UYA instead seems to do that sequester process I applauded GC from avoiding, and worse, doing it in a way that’s the worst of those approaches. Compound this with a stark and puzzling de-emphasis on gadget use outside the usual Swingshot (now combined with the Dynamo from the last game to form the Hypershot) and electronic minigame, this time in the form of the Hacker, and it was a pretty rough starting impression. It was also becoming easier to observe how Off the package felt for some of the runtime, becoming the most blatant case of Insomniac’s Crunch Culture during this era, and unfortunately spanning to this day.

The entire pacing is missing that tightly knit structure from before. I wouldn’t dare say that the first two titles (as well as the next game, Deadlocked) had especially biting and extravagant satire and social commentary, but they did a fine job of connecting the dots and giving weight to the narrative and why you’re doing what you’re doing. Here, despite the crux of Dr. Nefarious’ plan hinging on a galactic scale op, I can’t help but feel like I was just going through the motions for no rhyme or reason. By the time I unlocked the Annihilation Nation mission to meet up Courtney Gears, I was shocked to learn I was already halfway done with the game, missing any sort of indication regarding act transfers. Oh, and on that note, the humor is woefully excluding all the bites from before, falling into the same weakness Shrek 2 dabbled on occasion where it posits basic Pop Culture References as the punchline, and nothing else. Everything about Gears was a constant drone, belaboring gags relating to Britney Spears so basic and trite, you’ve likely thought up all of them by the time I finish this sentence - to say nothing about the events that have happened a good while after this was released, such as the conservatorship case and several social fallouts, by the way! Yet again, the dynamic felt out of order during this window, timing and delivery stilted in a way that hadn’t happened before. It boggles my mind that not only was this the entry to include a writer with proper credibility, Brad Santos, into the mix, but this is usually lauded as the funniest game of the trilogy not just by the gaming populace, but by Brian Hastings himself! It doesn’t even bother integrating that sort of commerce appeal like before, especially with the overall economy in Solana being so bolt-happy, you can trip over a lamppost and be handed about a thousand easily! There’s attempts to recapture some glory moments from prior entries’ planets in certain montages, yet it ends up feeling undercooked and precarious compared to those original bits! Just what am I missing here that had devotees become attached to no problem?!

I’ll be blunt: while I didn’t think I’d hate UYA, I thought this would suffer the same state I have unto the likes of Super Castlevania IV and the first Gravity Rush, titles I’m woefully apathetic and disappointed on, and any attempt to understand where and how they attain their popularity/acclaim is met with utter bewilderment and diction that comes off more as gibberish than as eloquence. Thankfully, by the time I reached Tyhhranosis and Daxx, I saw a few glimmers of hope. Then Obani Gemini hit, and that turned into a brighter spark. David Bergeaud’s music started to worm into my ears harder than they ever had before too, I was grooving along to the beat as I mowed down the baddies. By the time I finished up Holostar Studios, all the gears had finally slotted into place, and I began having a Good Ass Time.

Compared to the first half’s arsenal feed of adequate yet underwhelming fire (with some exceptions, like Agents Of Doom being the most reliable Buddy-type gadget, Plasma Whip’s melee kit, and Flux Rifle’s destructive sniping properties), the weapons obtainable from Tyhrranosis on are nothing but bangers, from Annihilator’s speedy and pinpoint rockets coupled with an upgrade giving it similar Bouncer properties, to Rift Ripper practically guaranteeing one-shots with additive shot mechanics on any type of enemy, to the Disc Blade being this game’s semi-equivalent to the Chopper from before, and finally the Holoshield Glove’s portable cover allowing use for all of these weapons in a pinch, and firefights once again became a blast of experimentation and creativity. It’s even hard to feel down over the fixation on these - plus five returning powerhouses from GC, including an overhauled Lava Gun upgrade - over earlier weapons unlike the prior two titles, or how this really stresses the use of strafing than just bumbling around in circles and jumps, cause they’re just so much fun to create and wreak havoc with. The gadgetry, after some sloppy pacing, also became more incorporated, with the technological aspect of it, the Hacker, easily being my favorite of the iteration by having the twitchy controls of the Trespasser, while also being Actually Fun like the Infiltrator, the Hypershot combo at least meant that platforming can be done in tandem with shooting again, and the few gravboot sections here are more creatively done than what was shown off in GC (though this one makes sense as its a direct continuation of those granular intricacies). Hell, even the Galactic Ranger spiels in Kerwan and Aridia actually ended up being pretty cool, since the integration and scale of them this time around, what with the Hoverships and Turboslider being added in, made them feel like proper side activities instead of Blatant Content Makeup like before.

During this point, the writing was starting to grow on me as well, mainly because they were all focusing on the few comedy bits I was actually laughing instead of rolling my eyes over. All the Secret Agent Clank stuff is a delight, which is stunning considering this too could’ve suffered from Shrek’s fate, but having the optic be more about the obscene merchandising and celebrity status Clank spontaneously nets, complete with a joke reversal of Nefarious not realizing how much of it was staged and phony, feels like a nice circle loop from what the little guy’s faced in the first game. Speaking of, when it came to Dr. Nefarious and Lawrence’s antics, any talk about ‘best comedy’ began making sense, because the performances delivered by Armin Shimerman and Michael Bell were far and away the highlights of this entire script, easily matching the energy and charisma that had exuded from the screen prior. Not to mention Qwark himself, somewhat fulfilling the arc of being a spineless sellout desperate for attention, to being a symbol of heroism the people very much needed - it’s just a shame it took nearly an entire half for this to like, actually materialize and be A Theme alongside the extremely loose thread of organics & synthetics, but better late than never I suppose… and I’ve seen worse instances of Things Happening: The Story regardless. Hell, I also have to respect the fact that they have a Bill Clinton parody, yet held back on every single obvious joke they could make it with him until near the end, thereby making his presence not nearly as obnoxious like Courntey Gears ended up being. It’s weird to play a Ratchet game where it starts off at its worst, and slowly goes uphill to the end. Just, er, wish there was an actual ending this time, you can once again smell the Production Mishap Stink if their ending stinger is an “everyone goes to the movie and has a good time!” moment.

While it’s a shame that the game’s potential is so staggered, it was relieving to finish this up with a positive outlook instead of a damaged one. I can see how this ended up becoming a favorite for the shoot-first type of fans, though personally I’d still rank it well below 02’s compact nature and GC’s high-octane adventure feel. Once again, Ratchet & Clank unfortunately received the short end when it came to favorability amongst his First-Party PS2 Mascot peers, but unlike the first game being a very close competition, here I don’t think it stood a fair chance under these conditions. Though Sly 3 and Jak 3 also should’ve had more time in the oven to cook, as well as having similar hurdles during their development (more so the latter), the compromises made when it came to what they set out to do wasn’t nearly as severe as to what happened with UYA - in fact, during certain levels, I’ve had memory relapses of what I remembered in Deadlocked, to the point I wouldn’t be surprised if the people at Insomniac also felt like they could’ve done more than what was established here, so I’m curious to see if that title will end up being my favorite of the PS2 titles after all this time has passed.