These games were better than I remember. All three are stone cold classics. It's a damn shame what happened to this series with the Disneyfied characters and writing, the focus on mindless shooting gameplay over platforming and puzzles, the neutering of all challenge, and the cringy Marvelslop-tier humor.
>Cousin told me you can go to a secret level that was the game dev offices by pressing triangle at some random water fountain at 3am
>Think he's full of shit, but still want to try it, set Playstation clock 3am
>Go to the fountain
>It's real
There has been no other game that has quite replicated this for me. I should replay Going Commando again sometime.
damn. you almost had an opinion, but you had to say slop
Yet another mental midget claimed by a thought terminating cliche
>be me
>loved this series
>buy a PS3 to play ToD
Playing through that garbage was the end of my child-like wonder and bliss. The death of my innocence, in a way
very solid and consistent series on ps2. each game had its relative strengths while bringing something new to the table. each game had a decent length too, with lots of replay value.
>1
has the best looking environments, weapon balance, and exploration, but can feel a little too plodding at times.
>2
greatly improved the controls and combat. weapon effects are even more dramatic, adding to the shear spectacle of every fight. I did like the level up mechanics they added, but unfortunately the weapon balancing got thrown off a bit. the environments also got a bit scaled back, they aren't quite as eye-catching as in the original. although the OST is once again full of bangers.
>3
had the most entertaining cutscenes. I liked the new arena style missions and the combat was more refined, but the overall single player campaign felt somewhat reduced compared to the other two games. the multiplayer was great though. sank lots of time in the online when the game originally came out.
>1 has the best weapon balance
What? Like 80% of weapons are borderline fricking useless
>Wrench
All-purpose melee weapon and box breaking tool.
>Bomb Glove
Immediately useful at the start and on Novalis. Usefulness fades later, but the high ammo capacity makes it a good back-up weapon against any charging enemy, like the crabs on Orxon. Gold version is very powerful.
>Pyrocitor
Go-to crowd control weapon throughout the game. Not as useful for larger enemies
>Blaster
Can safely take down most enemies at medium range, especially flying ones. But chews up ammo fast, so not very efficient for crowd control compared to others.
>Glove of Doom
Perfect on Eudora for taking out crowds of mixed enemies safely. Just toss and sit back. Also useful against the large biting aliens on Nebula 34 and hiding enemies on Batalia.
>Suck Cannon
Entirely free weapon without ammo cost, since small enemies are the ammo. More of a niche weapon, but still useful on any level that has swarmers and large enemies near each other. Very useful on Nebula 34 to cheaply kill large enemies with all of those annoying all those swarmers.
>Taunter
Super niche, but also hilarious watching enemies like the Orxon crabs throw themselves into force fields. You can kill quite a few of them for free that way if you don't deactivate the fields immediately. Works well against Blaarg that shoot a ground wave to lure to you and then hyperstrike them. Also greatly increases the range of mines and can be used to instantly explode large crate stacks that would take a while to whittle down with a wrench.
>Devastator
All-purpose long range weapon to take down tanks and commandos. Useful against anything strong. One of the most frequently used weapons in the late game.
>Walloper
The perfect use case is against the bomb bots on Gaspar immediately after you buy it. Not used too frequently after that, although on the flip side its just a very fun weapon to play with, knocking the shit out of anything that can get close to.
>Suck Cannon
>Entirely free weapon without ammo cost, since small enemies are the ammo. More of a niche weapon, but still useful on any level that has swarmers and large enemies near each other. Very useful on Nebula 34 to cheaply kill large enemies with all of those annoying all those swarmers.
Also what you'll likely end up resorting to against Drek if you can't use the PDA or RYNO.
>Walloper (cont.)
For example, against the endlessly spawning swarmers on Hoven that give you a skill point. Can also be used to knock off puffer fish on Pokitaru during the boat ride, although mines or suck cannon may work better. Forgot to mention those annoying wish are probably the suck cannon's best use case.
>Visibomb
Second most powerful weapon after the RYNO, really no need to go on about how useful it is in terms of bombing ships and groups of powerful enemies in the late game. It's also great for scouting the entire and looking for secret areas on your first playthrough.
>Decoy Glove
Can give you a very brief respite when being overwhelmed, but there are almost always better options. Not super useful casually, although its a key weapon for many glitches and exploits.
>Drone Device
Probably the most forgettable weapon. It can briefly shield you from the machine gunners on the Gemlik base turrets on Oltanis. But it's efficiency is really poor. Still, might as well equip it in any tight situation, it might just barely save you.
>Tesla Claw
The most versatile late game weapon. Combination of great crowd control plus the ability to quickly kill all but the most powerful enemies at mid range. The gold version wrecks everything almost instantly.
>Morph-O-Ray
Entirely free crowd control weapon. Gold version is very powerful and just fun to dick around with.
>RYNO
The standard, haha-it's-so-OP gun. Kills the final boss and anything weaker without much effort. Only not recommended against swarmers because the low cost efficiency against them. The only real drawback is that its ammo never spawns from crates, so you will always have to buy it.
So there, as you can see every single weapon has at least one use case, while also not being TOO versatile. The most powerful weapons that are more versatile, like the visibomb and Tesla claw don't come in until much later in the game.
forgot to mention the walloper is also great for cheaply destroying metal crates. im sure I forgot other unique weapon use cases, the list was not at all meant be exhaustive.
meant to reply to
in
Shit I forgot the
>Mine Glove
Not surprising, because it's not super useful, except right away against the exterminators on Rilgar. Also really shines against the hiding enemies on Batalia. Very satisfying to just drop a mine on their bush and move away. Can be helpful against crash on orxon too when combined with taunter.
*crabs not crash
>glove of doom
also very powerful on Gaspar and Hoven against the shooting enemies which take cover and camp in one spot. Particularly at the end of Hoven, where they are all waiting for you inside a building, and in the secret volcano area of Gaspar.
>Pyrocitor
besides crowd control, it's perfect for safely taking out those floating mines that home in on you on Hoven and Quark's HQ
Nta but he's right, those are kinda gimmicky. The situations are made for them and it's still easier to just use the blaster or devastator. The enemies are either too easy or those weapons are too overpowered because they're always the path of least resistance. I defaulted to them and I was playing brain-dead for the whole game.
The game is simple enough that, sure you can beat it all with just your three favorite weapons, but doing that gets stale very quickly. It makes for dull and inefficient gameplay to blow through 90% of a level with just the blaster and devastator. The extra options are there to enrich the game and account for individual preferences, not just to make things even easier. There are some gimmicky weapons, but they're far from a majority. Although each has utility at some point, these 6 weapons
>Taunter
>Walloper
>Decoy
>Drone
>Mine
>Morph
felt a bit contrived, but the other 10 weapons are solid options and can give you good milage throughout the game. Having roughly two thirds high use and one third niche use is not a bad balance given how many weapons there are.
Throwing the wrench is awesome.
Ratchet Deadlocked was pretty based too. You just gotta keep in mind that it wasn’t meant to be a platformer like the other games.
Ratchet was a fun, cartoony looking platformer but it had a genuine sense of edge with its writing, action, and satirical themes that really stood-out from other platformers at the time that were either cookie-cutter kid's stuff or tried way too hard to outdo its edginess like Shadow the Hedgehog or Jak.
It had more in-common with Futurama, Demolition Man, RoboCop, and even Halo to some extent than it did with any kids movies or games. Shame the franchise had its identity robbed from it after Deadlocked and now doesn't have anything to truly stand out.
Ratchet even sounds like Fry. Holy shit
Cry more.
Kek I miss these games so much not only were they edgy they were genuinely funny.
Can you quickly conquer Qwark's killer cannonade of confounded contraptions?
>released in 2004
>Bill Clinton is still president
>2004
>Bill Clinton is still president
still president in the game. there were a ton of clinton parodies in 90s cartoons, but seeing this one nearly 4 years after he had left office felt a bit odd.
I enjoyed this series (I think I might have only played the first two) at the time but they didn't stick with me. Fun games and I didn't regret paying for them at the time.
I don't think Ratchet as a character truly died until the reboot and then in Rift Apart despite it not being in the reboot continuity he still feels way too fricking safe. There's no snark, there's no real edge to him, he's not playing straight man to a funny world, he's just Mr. Hero man.
>"It's like a Pixar movie!"
We will never escape the curse of that one sentence.
TJ Fixman did so much damage to R&C because he wanted his lore-filled Pixar games instead of just having two guys in space get in and out of trouble.
I was interested in Ratchet even during the future trilogy but I thought they were leaving the lombax plotline behind at the end of Crack in Time but no they're STILL on that shit AND they're re-using Nefarious. Can I get a Drek or Vox style villain please?
I would imagine the level of smug would be practically life-affirming being part of the original dev team knowing you wrote and made products probably on a shit salary with limited time and resources that are so much better than what so-called professionals and millions of dollars can create