Explosive Heaven

Ah, Ratchet and Clank. Our dynamic two on the PS2. Personally I prefer them over Jak and Daxter, but anyway, back to the game.

Before Deadlocked

To everyone who is new to the series, here is how it started out...
Ratchet is one of the Lombax species. He lives on planet Veldin. He witnesses a spaceship crash and finds a robot he names "Clank". They fought side by side to defeat the evil chairman Drek, who was going around and taking chunks of other planets to make his own planet.

In Ratchet and Clank Going Commando, the two are back and are up against the "Proto Pet" - a bio-engineered animal from a company called MegaCorp was thought up and was intended to be a pet, but during the process of making the Proto Pet, CEO of MegaCorp tampered with the controls and made the pet a menacing beast! Worse yet, they multiply by the second and soon the whole planet would be over populated by fuzzy ankle-biters!

In Ratchet and Clank Up Your Arsenal, you are faced against Dr. Nefarious and his butler, Lawrence. They strive to destroy all organic live forms with a floating orb called the Bi-Obliterator so that robots may take control. Along the way you meet Sasha of the Starship Phoenix. You will need to beat Dr. Nefarious and his Bi-Obliterator!

Vary Your Difficulty

Ratchet: Deadlocked finally gives you difficulty levels which is definitely an improvement. I played the whole game through on the "Contestant" difficulty within 8 hours! There are five difficulties. Couch Potato, Contestant, Gladiator, Hero, and some sort of "Secret" difficulty that is simply labeled as "?????". Every time you re-start your saved game, you can select the difficulty, so if you feel lazy you can turn it down, or if you're up for a challenge you can turn it up. Whatever floats your boat.

After You Beat The Game

I guess the game would have lasted longer if I would have chosen a harder difficulty. I had something to look forward to because if you've ever played any of the previous R&C's, you would know that there is plenty of extras that become available once you beat the game and enter "Challenge Mode". Indeed, at the end of the game you get the standard extras that you would get in the previous games like the sketchbooks, a bolt multiplier, and mega weapons that you can buy the vendors found regularly.

Weapons, Weapons, Weapons

A little bit about the weapons. Weapons are what make the Ratchet and Clank world go round. In Ratchet: Deadlocked, the more you use your weapon, the more "Nanomites" (which will be discussed later.) it will absorb. The more "Nanomites” it absorbs, the deadlier it will get. In Ratchet: Deadlocked, you can upgrade you weapon as far as "V10". It doesn't stop there, people. If you have a weapon upgraded to "V10" and if you're in challenge mode, you can purchase a mega-destructive version of that weapon, which can be upgraded as far as (but no farther than) "V99"! There is a surprisingly small selection of weapons in this game however - Only ten I believe.

Insomniac compensates for that by including two "Battle Bots" to zoom around with you where ever you go and help blast things up for you. To control what these bots do, there is a small menu in the bottom left of your screen that corresponds with the D-Pad on your controller. This menu lets you make your bots send out EMP blasts to bring down the shields of shielded enemies, turn nodes (screws in the ground) for you, create grind rails for you to grind on, create shields around the other bot while they may be doing any of these options listed, make them repair themselves if them are taken down by an enemy, or they can send out a powerful attack against the enemy you're looking at if they've takes enough damage. Your bots can be upgraded at any time during the game with different paint schemes, cooler attacks, and different head designs.

About The Story

The game's story is different from any of it's predecessors. You are flying the Starship Phoenix when you are invaded by a group of thugs from the shadow sector of the galaxy. They take you to the "DreadZone" headquarters. DreadZone is a killing sport for fame and enjoyment broadcast across the shadow sector and beyond. It takes place on different planets and in the DreadZone battle dome led by Gleamon Vox. When you reach there, you are sent through an easy qualifying battle. After which you are told about your "DreadZone Collar" which sends electricity through Ratchet's body if you ever venture into any forbidden area. This really doesn't any major role in the game at all. You will be sent to you Containment Area. You will not be fighting in this area. You can check your rank here, upgrade your bots with Al (from Ratchet and Clank 1), fly to the DreadZone battle dome, or fly to different planets to compete in different challenges. Competing in challenges on different planets and in the DreadZone battle dome will earn you Dread Points. The more Dread Points you have, the higher you will advance in the rankings table. DreadZone has it's regular contestants but the major killers are the Exterminators. There are four Exterminators: #4 - Shellshock, #3 - Reactor, #2 - The Evicorator, and #1 - Ace Hardlight. Quite frankly I think Ace Hardlight is a little annoying, but that's just me.

Nanotech

Like I said earlier, you can upgrade your weapons to more powerful versions. You can also upgrade your maximum "Nanotech" - the unit of health in R&C - by killing enemies. Enemies release "Nanomites" - very small portions of one unit of "Nanotech". - and your armor suit and weapon (if used in the killing) absorbs the "Nanomites". Over time these "Nanomites" accumulate and eventually upgrade your maximum "Nanotech" or weapon.

Your 'Rides'

Deadlocked includes some nice vehicles too.

The Landstalker is a spider-like land tank with multi-target mortar launchers and basic blasters. It is a very powerful but sluggish vehicle.

The Hoverbike is a very fast vehicle, and has great braking. it doesn't nearly as much fire power as the Landstalker does, though.

The Puma is the "Quad Bike" of Ratchet: Deadlocked. It has good speed, but is hard to control. It has a Mortar which fires a bomb, and also has basic blasters.

The Hovership is a easy to control and has a great deal of fire power. It has a multi-target missile system and basic blasters. It's my personal favorite.

Graphics

The game keeps the same graphical integrity that all of the earlier games did. Amazing robot and armor designs. All the buildings in the game are geometrical which gives a very clean feel and not messy. The faces are crafted nicely, but some I think are a bit odd, like Gleamon Vox's metal nose and Ace Hardlight's hair. The Evicorator is the "Slice-and-Dice" Exterminator and has some impressive blade armor.

Camera Operation

If you are a fan of the adventure-shooter games, you will know that the lock-strafe mode is the best setting as far as "Camera-ing" your game. Ratchet: Deadlocked is now set in the lock-strafe setting and I have to say it is one of the best things that has happened to the game compared to the previous games.

Pumping The Speakers

The game's audio is definitely not to be overlooked. The previous Ratchet and Clank titles have had nice and full orchestral arrangements, but Deadlocked takes more of a rocking approach to their score, which is refreshing. All the voice overs are spot-on, but then again, they always were. The Sound effects are regular- nothing about them has changed since the last game, really.

Soup Up You Guns

While you play the game, you can purchase mods to apply to your weapons to increase their power. Take for example the "Napalm" mod which spews firey pools of lava around it's effect radius. Or the classic "Shock" mod that sends out electric bolts to any enemies in the area of it's effect.

The Game is truly Insomniac's greatest masterpiece from start to finish!