If you ever wanted a video game to look, feel and sound like a Pixar movie, you need to play Ratchet & Clank: a charming space-faring adventure that pays homage to great family storytelling and the golden age of gaming's character action games, all while pushing into the future with a gorgeous and technologically astounding presentation.
If the name sounds familiar, it's because the new game has been timed to release ahead of the upcoming Ratchet & Clank animated film, which in turn was inspired by the iconic game series of the same name that began in 2002.
![Ratchet the Lombax runs away from a horde of robotic enemies.](/web/20160422161205im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/o/b/p/n/7/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gobneo.png/1461210442439.jpg)
Yet while the series churned out 13 games in the space of around 12 years — ricocheting between various game platforms, genres and developers —this newly rebooted entry goes back to basics (and back to original developer Insomniac Games) and is easily the greatest the series has ever seen.
Retelling the story of the original release, the game sees Ratchet — a scrappy mechanic who aspires to heroism — and Clank — a murderbot with a manufacturing fault that made him tiny and good-hearted — jet across the galaxy in search of planets to save, treasure to collect and enemies to blast into oblivion with a huge arsenal of fun weapons.
![The colour, scale and animation of the game's surrounds will have casual observers believing this is an animated movie.](/web/20160422161205im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/o/b/p/n/9/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gobneo.png/1461210442439.jpg)
The gameplay is a refined and expanded take on the 3D adventure template that exploded in the early 2000s. Ratchet runs, jumps, double-jumps, swings his wrench and fires projectiles to navigate the animated dioramas that make up the game's worlds. It's refreshing to go back to the purity of this kind of setup — currently not seen much outside of indie and Lego games — in a climate where the biggest and best-looking blockbusters are cramming in as much complexity and bloat as they can manage.
Modern twists to the gameplay include some addictive hooks, like the levelling-up system that expands each weapon's capabilities the more you use it. While otherwise I would have stuck to one or two weapons the entire game, the desire to find out how each gets bigger and badder kept them all in rotation.
The weapons were always a marquee feature of the games and it's no different here, with old favourites like Mr Zurkon — which launches a smack-talking automaton to fight alongside you — joining new fare like the Pixelizer shotgun — which, well you can probably guess what that does.
Whether you're using the stock blaster, grenades, or one of the more grandiose contraptions, combat with the various alien and robot foes stays fun thanks to the expanding arsenal and the fact you need to keep moving and blasting crates to keep your ammo stores up. Destroying enemies results in a satisfying explosion of currency which you can use to buy new guns.
![From the story cut-scenes to the climactic battles, <i>Ratchet and Clank</i> is well written, well acted and looks and ...](/web/20160422161205im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/o/b/p/n/8/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gobneo.png/1461210442439.jpg)
Along the way the fighting and exploration is broken up by several gimmicks and mini-games, clear love-letters to the original games and others like it. Anyone nostalgic for PS2 and Gamecube adventures — the likes of Jak & Daxter, Spyro or Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy — will appreciate these.
But the most appealing aspect of the whole package, at least at first glance, is the amazing production values poured into Ratchet & Clank. Not only does it look like a high-quality CG family film — even in the middle of battle where the frame-rate stays rock solid — it sounds like one as well. The characters and the story being told are legitimately funny, in that some-of-the-jokes-only-work-for-adults Pixar way.
Rather than being a sequel or a reboot to its past entires, the new Ratchet & Clank feels like Insomniac took all the experience and lessons they've had over the past 14 years and made the game they really wish they'd made back in 2002, all the while using every bit of the technology provided by the PlayStation 4.
If you played the original game you'll recognise some story beats and characters, but they've all been fleshed out and refined to the point that this feels like one the most original and refreshing takes on the old-school character action game in a long time. Modern gamers expecting online features or an open, endless design may be disappointed, but as an argument for high-quality, focused, single-player video games, Ratchet & Clank is an explosive success.
Ratchet & Clank is out now on PlayStation 4.