Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One

By Reardon Jones

There are very few series that can maintain a high level of interest and quality over the years. Ratchet and Clank has been that series for Sony.

The latest offering: Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One, enters the world of Co-Op as we find our Heroes (and Captain Qwark) being led into a trap set by the evil Dr Nefarious.

The award winning development team at Insomniac Games allow fans of the multimillion unit selling franchise to control the little characters as they join forces to fight their rival enemies.

The basic premise sees Dr. Nefarious' latest evil plan go terribly wrong and he along with Ratchet, Clank and Qwark are caught in the midst of a catastrophic dilemma. Despite their rough past, the four must team up for their biggest challenge yet.

All 4 One provides gamers with a new twist on the Ratchet and Clank experience. Designed to be played with four players, the puzzles and devices encountered during the journey often require a combination of teamwork and skill.

The Co-Op mode is best designed for side-by-side gaming. We had the most fun blowing up stuff with the crazy weapons on offer in a room full of mates. However online mode and single player mode are also available and enjoyable.

The old loveable elements of the series are still evident. For instance, smashing boxes. We devoted half the game just smashing boxes and collecting gold bolts. 

Despite working as a team you are also competing against your allies for bolts and critters (Using the vacuum device you can now suck up critters to save for later missions and side puzzles).

The side puzzles require teamwork to complete maze puzzles that allow critters to run from one end to the other. If you fail the poor little buggers fall to a splat. Completing puzzles gives a pretty cool prize in the form of a piece of the new Rhino weapon.

The weapons are mostly similar to previous games in the series, with some minor variations. The biggest difference is that when combined with your allies, you can focus your attacks to take out enemies faster.

When using a combination of weapons one player can hold enemies in place while the others go to town on them. With each major combo kill comes a pretty awesome slow motion explosion.

We did find having four separate people shooting in the one area pretty full on at times. Sometimes it was hard to keep track of who was shooting at what, it just looked like stuff was flying all over the place.

Upon completion of each level statistics are provided for each player. With the amount of bolts, critters collected and enemies defeated being the measure for whom is not pulling their weight.

The trademark humour is woven throughout the script intermittedly as the screen is filled with vibrant cinematic visuals. The game looks fantastic in high definition.

What made the previous titles so engaging and enjoyable were the solo modes and the story. Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One is lacking in both of these important areas.

This game has opened up the franchise to the co-op gaming world. While we can't say we are over the moon with this co-op decision, it has created another avenue for this classic series.

We do hope the developers at Insomniac games head back to single player format in the future and pit the heroes against another worthy foe.

Game: Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One
System: Playstation 3
Developer/Co-Developer: Insomniac Games
Publisher: Sony

Rating: 70%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)