The dangerous duo of Ratchet and Clank are back - and this time, they’re starring in their third adventure together, Up Your Arsenal. Featuring a solid single player campaign, a massive stockpile of new weapons, and a multiplayer mode that is a blast to play with friends, the barrage of fun never lets up for even a moment. And with elements of first-person shooters and platformers seamlessly integrated into its gameplay, Up Your Arsenal is a contender for one of the best games of 2004.
"...Up Your Arsenal is a contender for one of the best games of 2004."
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The story starts out pleasantly enough. With nothing new to terrorize the universe anymore, our cuddly - I mean, deadly - team has taken to acting to pass the time. Our heroes are now part of the cast of a spy show, starring Clank. Yes, that’s right - the tables have been turned. Now it’s Agent Clank, and his lowly butler boy Ratchet as Jeeves. One day, however, as they are watching an episode of Secret Agent Clank, Clank’s absolute favorite show (because it is his show), they receive a call informing them that the universe is once again in danger. And so the tables have been turned again, and Clank is once more reduced to being a sidekick robot strapped to his partner’s back.
Up Your Arsenal places you right into the action from the start. Players will find that the game is easy to get into, and that its controls are smooth and intuitive. They will be presented with numerous diverse worlds to explore and conquer, all with different objectives and scenarios. The various enemies are interesting and sometimes pretty wacky with their own weird mannerisms, letting you exercise a multitude of strategies against them.
The great thing about Ratchet and Clank is that it fuses all of the good aspects of both platforming games as well as first-person shooters. Insomniac has found ways to incorporate both types of gameplay into many of the levels Up Your Arsenal presents. A basic example would be dodging. While controlling either Ratchet or Clank, you are able to jump up into the air and flip sideways. This is a good way to avoid enemy bullets aimed at you while firing your own shells at the opposition. And why is this unique, you ask? Well, are you able to do what I just said previously in a normal FPS?
Up Your Arsenal was always enjoyable to play (with the exception of the first part of Obani Gemini, which got a little boring after a while). There was never a time when the game felt tedious. I mean, sure, you die, but it’s not like you die repeatedly. In fact, seeing Ratchet (or Clank) topple over and fall to the ground made me want to get back up and kick the behinds of the bad-guys even more. Yes, Insomniac Games has completed its mission: I sometimes stayed up into the wee hours of the night just to play Ratchet.
"The great thing about Ratchet and Clank is that it fuses all of the good aspects of both platforming games as well as first-person shooters."
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There are a few puzzles, or mini-missions, in Up Your Arsenal, but the majority of them are pretty simple. These include using the Hacker to gain access to restricted areas, reflecting laser beams with the Refractor to open doors, and Clank’s monkey missions (as I like to call them; a little more on this later). I also found the times when Ratchet had to use his Tyhrraguise (which transforms him into an authentic Tyhrranoid) entertaining as well. In those parts, the game had you press certain buttons at the correct time to produce a believable conversation with another Tyhrranoid. I certainly found all of these scenes which deviate from the main game once in a while to be fresh and interesting experiences.
Captain Qwark is a popular man. So, to capitalize on his success while he’s still hot, the developers at Insomniac have decided to include a retro series called The Adventures of Captain Qwark. These mini-games, called vid-comics in Up Your Arsenal, are simply missions where you get to play as Captain Qwark - in 2D. It would have been nice if the challenges were just optional though - while many people (like myself) will enjoy the change of pace through the vid-comics occasionally, others may find them just a little bit frustrating.
There has always been a character that was overshadowed by a certain someone, and that character is Clank. Insomniac has included exclusive missions featuring the robot, resulting in some camera time for Clank as well as some interesting gameplay for us. Some of these missions pair you up with Captain Qwark’s monkey, and you have to use your banana gun to lure the animal where you want it to go. My personal favorite Clank mission, however, was the one when he’s on a movie set and he turns into a huge Godzilla-sized robot of destruction, and is battling another monster as big as he is. Coincidence? I think not.
As I mentioned before, Up Your Arsenal has a wide variety of cool, sleek, and just plain strange weapons to help you blast your enemies to a pulp. This large array of guns include the Shock Blaster, the Flux Rifle, the Rift Inducer, the Spitting Hydra, and the super-weird, but very satisfying Quack-O-Ray, which transforms your enemies into ducks. Of course, there are many more weapons that you can find and collect, and you can even upgrade each and every one of them to make them much stronger, letting you wield weapons of mass destruction to wipe out all that stands in your way.
"Up Your Arsenal was always enjoyable to play..."
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The audio and visual aspects of Up Your Arsenal are excellent. The voice acting is great, especially the voice of Captain Qwark, which always retains that quirky majestic-but-cheesy edge to it. Applause for the soundtrack as well, with a few notables being the theme in the Starship Pheonix and (I’m a bit embarassed to say it) that smash hit by Up Your Arsenal’s Courtney Gears. The graphics are clean and flowing, and loading times aren’t too bad either. Props to the designers who worked on these areas.
The multiplayer aspect of the game is well-designed. The modes are pretty much the same as in other games - Capture the Flag, Deathmatch, and Siege Mode. All of you gaming junkies out there probably already know what they are, but I’ll explain the last one, Siege Mode, anyway. Well, as always, the objective is to destroy your opponent’s base. However, during the road to conquest, there are smaller bases with things called nodes in them, which you should capture to secure certain advantages that can benefit you and your teammates. Besides being handy respawning points if you should happen to die, you can also get different weapons there, as well as vehicles such as the Turboslider or Hovership. The latter is particularly good for blasting opposing nodes, and can be a very useful tool if put in the right hands (like, of course, mine). To top it all off, there is a good number of stages to play in, as well as an online mode in which up to eight players can duke it out.
While it is a great game, Up Your Arsenal actually may pass as being pretty short. Simply finishing the game will take about a little more than 10 hours. However, if you take the time to replay levels, finish all of the optional missions, and try to get every single weapon, the playing time can easily rack up to be 15-20 hours, or maybe even more. Just another challenge for the obsessive overachiever who has too much time on his hands.
I was thoroughly impressed with Up Your Arsenal, and with it, Insomniac has proved that the Ratchet and Clank games are still going strong. I’m looking forward to the next installment of this very entertaining series.
