Confession: the first Ratchet & Clank I finished was the 2016 reimagining. I had dabbled with a few games here and there, but that was the first time the series fully clicked for me enough to see one through to the end. A few years later, I played through Rift Apart on PS5 and absolutely loved it. I always wanted to play through older games in the series, and I’m happy to report that I can add the original Ratchet & Clank to my list of completed entries.
I decided to go with the PS3 HD version because 1) I owned it and didn’t own a copy of the PS2 original and 2) I like trophies (sorry). The remaster looks great (anti-aliasing goes a long way) and has pretty snappy load times, but there are definitely some issues with it. I experienced multiple visual, gameplay, and audio glitches throughout my playthrough, which I’m not sure were in the original game or introduced in the remaster. It wasn’t anything that kept me from finishing the game, but still jarring. There was some slowdown here and there throughout, but at the last boss the frame rate dipped into what felt like single digits. Again, it didn’t stop me from finishing the game, but was pretty disappointing for a 2012 port of a 2002 PS2 game on much more powerful hardware.
As for the game itself, Ratchet & Clank is a sprawling and ambitious 3D platformer. The game took me about 14 hours to finish, and based on the remaining items and collectables, I could see spending another 5-10 hours to 100%. There is a lot of game here, but thankfully R&C is (mostly) enjoyable throughout.
There is an inherent satisfaction to breaking things and collecting bolts here, mechanics that feel similar to some of the Lego games. The melee combat is excellent, but the guns are hit or miss. There are just too many guns in the game, some of which I bought and barely used. I appreciate having options, but the weapon wheel only has so many slots and some of those slots need to be filled with non-combat gadgets.
There’s a lot of variety here beyond the core gameplay, from the Pikmin-esque Clank stages to the unlocking minigame. The arcade-style flight combat bits were the highlight for me, a shame they were so brief.
Ratchet & Clank is intended to be a funny game, and in general I’d say the humor is better executed than in Jak & Daxter. Other comparisons to Naughty Dog’s 2001 platformer are inevitable and I’d say R&C has better combat, but I prefer the platforming more in J&D.
I generally enjoyed my time with R&C but there were definitely some frustrating elements. While I hesitate to label them “stealth,” the disguise sections are a lot of tedious trial and error that I didn’t love. Also, checkpoints in the game a few and far between, which leads to a lot of playing through the same bits over and over if you die.
Overall, I’m glad I took the time to play through Ratchet & Clank. I can only imagine how impressive the scope was back in 2002. There are definitely some rough elements but I generally enjoyed my time with it. Knowing that some of the high points are still to come makes me excited to continue my exploration of the series.
Screenshots and video captured by me from original hardware (PS3) via an HDMI splitter connected to an Elgato Game Capture HD60 S+.
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