Retro Review – Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty

<p><em>Ratchet &amp&semi; Clank&colon; Quest for Booty<&sol;em> is typically regarded as one of the worst in the Ratchet &amp&semi; Clank series&comma; and it&&num;8217&semi;s clear why after playing it over the Holiday season&period; It is only set in one world with little story to be be had&comma; the level design can be frustrating&comma; and the lack of weapons &lpar;and anything new&rpar; make this short 3-hour entry worth skipping in the series&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Ratchet &amp&semi; Clank&colon; Quest for Booty<&sol;em> is the connection between <em>Tools of Destruction<&sol;em> and <em>A Crack in Time<&sol;em> as Ratchet tries to find a way to figure out where his best friend Clank is after he was taken away by unknown beings&period; Rather than the funny banter between Ratchet &amp&semi; Clank&comma; this game is mainly told through directives by the most bland female protagonist&comma; Talwyn Apogee&comma; and a monologue by the comedy relief&comma; Rusty Pete&period; The best thing about this game is Rusty Pete and Captain Slag&period; Unlike most of the games&comma; the writing is forgettable and you can&&num;8217&semi;t remember it as the scene ends&period; There are a few chuckles here and there&comma; but it isn&&num;8217&semi;t laugh out loud funny&period; Despite the name of the game&comma; Ratchet barely talks in this game&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s as if the voice actor was out of town and they had to write the story around this&period; Apogee and Rusty Pete have more lines than him&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s odd&comma; and because of this&comma; it wasn&&num;8217&semi;t an engaging story&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The levels are derivative and awkwardly designed for a platformer&period; One of the main gameplay gimmicks from <em>Ratchet &amp&semi; Clank&colon; Quest for Booty<&sol;em> is the use of light&period; For most of the game&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll be stuck in caves&comma; which have next to no light&period; You have to pick up heliogrubs&comma; creatures that emit light&comma; to guide the way&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ve fallen off a cliff so many times from the lack of lighting&comma; even with the heliogrub&comma; that it can get annoying fast&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Another major part of the game is the kinetic tether&period; As you awkwardly press R2 and square&comma; Ratchet can create a whip that can tether magnetic objects&period; Platforms and catapults can be pulled back with the kinetic tether&comma; and the gameplay can get interesting as you move the platforms across a plain in order to jump from one place to another&period; The implementation of the kinetic tether&comma; however&comma; is not great&period; When you try to use it&comma; you need to see a symbol appear above the object that you&&num;8217&semi;re moving&comma; and when you press R2 and square&comma; it takes too long to recognize the input&period; The platforming can get frustrating&period; For example&comma; at multiple times&comma; I tried to jump down to one ledge&comma; but it wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t recognize that I was trying to go down rather than jump off&period; Many&comma; many deaths of our poor lombax were caused by this&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;132694" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-132694" style&equals;"width&colon; 616px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-132694 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;12&sol;22231903&sol;ratchet-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"616" height&equals;"347" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-132694" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Ratchet &amp&semi; Clank&colon; Quest For Booty<&sol;em>&comma; Sony Interactive Entertainment&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Most of Ratchet&&num;8217&semi;s arsenal as well is underpowered&period; For the electric whip that was available&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;d have to use the entire ammo of the weapon to take out just one enemy&period; There aren&&num;8217&semi;t a lot of weapons to choose from either with only two or three weapons actually being effective&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In addition&comma; this is a short game with a playtime of 3-4 hours&comma; and there aren&&num;8217&semi;t any collectibles to speak of&period; There is no challenge mode either&comma; which typically increases the amount of bolts you get by including an increasing multiplier and stronger enemies&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There are a few positives&comma; however&period; The game presents a few interesting puzzles here and there that the series is known for&comma; and the environments are still great to look at&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s still impressive to see a fleet of pirate ships moving across the sea&comma; or witness the attention to detail with how the world looks and feels&period; I love to see the creatures of this world flying around the island&period; The voice work also is top notch and they deliver the lines perfectly every time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-youtube layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"500" height&equals;"375" data-videoid&equals;"Wuql7jRIn6Y" title&equals;"Ratchet &amp&semi; Clank® Future&colon; Quest for Booty Launch Trailer"><a placeholder href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;watch&quest;v&equals;Wuql7jRIn6Y"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;ytimg&period;com&sol;vi&sol;Wuql7jRIn6Y&sol;hqdefault&period;jpg" layout&equals;"fill" object-fit&equals;"cover" alt&equals;"Ratchet &amp&semi; Clank® Future&colon; Quest for Booty Launch Trailer"><&sol;a><&sol;amp-youtube><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There isn&&num;8217&semi;t much to plunder from <em>Ratchet &amp&semi; Clank&colon; Quest for Booty<&sol;em> as there are not a lot of weapons to choose from&comma; bad implementation of the game&&num;8217&semi;s mechanics&comma; and a lacking script&period; However&comma; this world is still marvelous to visit as it keeps the intriguing planet to explore&comma; and it has a few interesting bits of game design throughout with the kinetic tether&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;