Ratchet & Clank: A Long Review Part 3

Welcome to part 3, where we save the environment and visit something that isn't really a planet. Oh well.

Clank from All 4 One. I can't actually find any artwork from this game, sue  me.

PLANET 5: EUDORA

Remember kids, give a hoot, don't cause forest fires.

 We land on the lush planet of Eudora, or it was lush until Drek's cronies came along and started chopping down all the trees. Oh well, nothing we can do about that. Let's check out the shop! It has a new weapon for sale, the Glove of Doom. It costs 7500 bolts, which I really don't have right now.

Pretty much as soon as we land on the planet we're greeted by our first melee enemy that isn't small and annoying. They're big blue robots with axes, and like most enemies, are easy to take out with the blaster. There's also yellow robots with saw blades for hands, which are basically our little annoying enemies for this level, but they completely rule out using the wrench to take them out, as when you go near them they spin their blades around and hurt you.

Unlike previous levels, there's only one path to go. It looks like there's actually a few at first, but they're all dead ends. The main path is accessed by turning a bolt crank and raising a bridge. But as soon as I cross the bridge, I find what looks like a split path. I wall jump up to it, and turn a bolt crank, revealing... a couple crates and some health. Ugh.

Back to the main path, I come to a big area with some saw blade robots in it. For some reason, the saw blade bots release bolts that are worth more. They're colored gold, but aren't Gold Bolts, if you know what I'm saying. After taking care of those guys, I come across another new enemy, a different type of Blarg soldier. They behave exactly like the robots on Novalis, and fire several energy balls at you.

I jump up into the next section, beat up a couple enemies, and stop to take in the sights of Eudora. One thing I like about the planet is that there are robots flying about, and some of them have neat, almost insectoid designs to them. Of course, I decide to blow them up. Blowing up enough of them nets me a skill point, the other collectable of the game. These get rewarded to you by doing certain things, some of them almost impossible. They do nothing, so there's no point in collecting them.

Enough of that tangent. The next area is a nice wooded area with a couple trees in it. There's ring like platforms surrounding the trees, and they carry crates, so I jump up and smash them. Jumping down onto the ground level, I beat up a couple axe robots and Blarg soldiers. There's a little alcove with some hidden crates in it, but they're being guarded by some Blarg, so be careful.

After turning another bolt crank, I glide over to the main logging area, which has a new enemy in it, a big, red version of the axe robots. They're even easier to take out, because even if they see you, they will stand still and taunt you, leaving them open for Blaster heat. What wimps.

After dealing with a few red guys, I glide to another area, where I see... an enemy walking into a tree stump. Wow, them Blargs sure be smart! After killing everything, I walk into a facility and see a shiny new item being guarded by some red axe robots. I take them out effortlessly and claim the item as a reward for my total lack of work. It turns out that the weapon is the Suck Cannon, and yes, it does blow things too.

Capable of suck and blow functions!

The Suck Cannon is an odd weapon. It doesn't require ammo, but it can suck up small enemies and shoot them back out as explosive projectiles. Also, if you think the whole "Suck Cannon" thing is a bit rude, wait until you see the other games.

After acquiring the Suck Cannon, I make my way back to the start of the level, but die trying to make a long jump. Sigh. Luckily, it just transports me back to the beginning, which is where I was trying to go anyway. Also I lied when I said this level didn't have any alternate pathways, but let's go stop at the shop first.

So I go to the shop, and buy the Glove of Doom, which I'll get to in a minute. It turns out there's a door I was too blind to see, and it requires the Trespasser to open it. After that bit of nonsense, I find myself in a canyon like area, and nearly fall into a pit. Luckily I don't, and find a nearby bolt crank, which summons some Tesla Coils to swing from.

After swinging like a space Tarzan, I land and find ANOTHER bolt crank, which lowers some moving piston platforms for me to jump across. After almost falling to my death 3 times, I find YET ANOTHER bolt crank, but this time it summons some green Tesla Coils, which I use to grapple across a large pit. What do I find over on the other side of the pit? A Trespasser lock, of course!

This is the first Trespasser segment to have a wall in it, which blocks your laser from certain areas, and you have to find a way around it. The Trespasser opens up to a room with Drek's lieutenant in it. Are you ready for a boss fight? Cuz I know I is!

So Ratchet and Clank walk up to him, he gets all menacing, and... Ratchet makes a scary face and Clank does some kung-fu moves, which make the lieutenant run off and drop an Infobot. Lame. Anyway, this Infobot is showing a commercial for the Blarg Tactical Reasearch Facility, which shows a bunch of cool gadgets, like the grind boots. Ratchet says that it would be cool to go there, but Clank doesn't agree and says they should keep looking for Qwark. However, Ratchet theorizes that the workers at the station would know where Drek is, and that it would be nice if they told Qwark where Drek is when they find him. So it's off to  Nebula G34, but first we have to get back to the ship.

PLANET 6: NEBULA G34

It's not actually a planet. I have lied to you all.

 As soon as we land in the station we are greeted with a faceful of space and other space-like objects. The shop here is selling a Taunter, but I still don't have enough money for it so, we'll have to pass for now. It is being sold relatively cheap, for only 2500 bolts. That's 5000 less that the Glove of Doom.

There's a floating orange ball next to a electric gate. Whack it and the gate will lower granting us access to the first path. As I walk down the path, which is really more of a tunnel, I get ambushed by some mutant frog things, so I think it's time to use the Glove of Doom!

Basically shoots little suicide droids.

The Glove of Doom sucks. It only carries ten ammo,, and when used it spawns 4 incredibly stupid kamikaze robots to attack enemies. It's possibly the worst weapon so far, and is nowhere near worth 7500 bolts.

The mutant frog things function as this levels fodder enemies, but we soon run into a new Blarg enemy. This one shoots a wave of orange goop that you have to jump over. Nothin the Blaster can't handle, of course. After breaking through another gate, I come across another split path. One way requires the Trespasser, so to get it over with, I go that way and immediately get ambushed by frogs and die. It starts me back at the beginning of the level, but I have enough money to buy the Taunter now!

Honk honk! Squeak squeak! Actually annoying!

I find it amazing that this weapon is better than the Glove of Doom. It causes ranged enemies to come up to you, making them vulnerable to your wrench attacks. It's kind of a neat little gimmick item.

I head back into the room I died in, now ready for the frogs, and break all of the many crates in it. Now it's time to head to the next path, and the next room is made up of nothing but thin platforms and machines that spray poisonous gas, and require good timing to jump over. Luckily, there's two health crates at the top, restoring my diminished health.

As I enter the next room, I feel a sense of dread approaching. For this room has a dilemma that is quite evil. There is a gate, and to open it you must break both orbs, but breaking an orb awakens a four legged bug monster known as the Alien Snapper. There are two in the room, so prepare your Blaster and fire when they awaken! I kill the foul beasts, and enter the next hallway, nearly dead, and fighting for my life with the wretched toads, but alas, I do not make it and have to start all over again. Ugh.

I fight my way through the toads with the Pyrociter, and nearly make it too, but I fall to my death in the thin platform room. Siiiiigh.

I just rush through this time, and it works much better, as I reach another shop, which I use to buy some Blaster ammo. This room is a large, round room with cages surrounding it, and of course, two Alien Snappers pop out and try to kill me, with the help of the frogs. They succeed, but luckily, I just respawn right back to where I was! Finally some good news.

After dying once more, I suceed in killing everything in the room and jump up to a higher floor of it, and find another Gold Bolt in one of the cages, guarded by some frogs! Lucky me. I lower the gate and find myself in a circular room separated into four sections by laser gates. Using the Blaster's advanced ranged abilities, I take care of the enemies on the platforms with out even being hurt. After making it to the fourth section, I enter another circular room, this one shrouded in a green mist. What do I find here? Well...

Not exactly that motherly.

Our first boss, the Alien Queen, a bigger version of the Alien Snapper! She's a pretty easy boss, if you know what to do. She chases you, and then snaps at you, leaving her open for attack. After a bit of damage she'll call on an army of frogs to attack you, and after even more damage she'll call two Alien Snappers to take you on.

I ran out of Blaster ammo during the fight, leaving me vulnerable to the frogs, but I switched to the Pyrociter and found it was much more effective on her than the blaster, however, when she called out the Snappers I died due to poor aiming on my part, so I had to traverse my way through the previous two rooms again to fight her.

After I've killed her, we come across a lone worker being terrorized by some frogs. I kill the frogs and he hops down from his hiding spot. He shows Ratchet his new invention, the Grindboots, and says that he'll sell them to Ratchet for a price of 2000 bolts. Huh, nobody's asked us to pay for anything in awhile.

I buy the Grindboots for that ridiculous cost, and the guy takes a ship out of there. A gate opens up, showing us a new rail to use our Grindboots on. While on a rail you can jump, swing your wrench, and tilt left and right. For right now we don't have to do any of those things, and we just take a casual ride through a big tube and look at the wonders of space. After the ride we end up back at the starting point, with two choices of pathways.

I choose the path that requires the Trespasser, and we get to control Clank for the first time! Clank has a simple punch attack and can hover with the Helipack. I ride an elevator down, and now we're suddenly on the outside of the space station! Clank can go into space because he is a robot.

Not much interesting in this part for a bit. I walk across precarious green walkways, fight some frogs and jump a lot, but then things start to get cool. I come across a room where the only exit is guarded by a Snapper, an enemy Clank can't possibly take out on his own, so what do we do? Well, behind a wall in the area are four Gadge-Bots, which Clank can control at will. He can make them follow him, he can make them wait, he can make them enter certain areas, and most importantly, he can make them attack.

So I make the little robots attack the Snapper, and it turns out that there's some frogs behind him, waiting to ambush the little guys. One of them got destroyed in the fight, so I just headed back to where I found them and got him back. There is another laser gate blocking some strange new item, but no orbs to be found. Instead, there's a small door that the robots have to enter to make the gate lower.

The new item is the Hydrodisplacer, which has no use on this space station, so lord knows why it's there. Now, I could head to Ratchet, but I'll explore for awhile and see what's around. It turns out, not much, so I'll just head back to Ratchet.

Back with Ratchet, we have one more pathway to go, and since neither of the other two paths had an Infobot in it, I'm assuming this last path will have it. To get to the next area we need ride a shuttle to an abandoned Blarg warship. One wonders how it came to be abandoned, but oh well.

Actually, it turns out that it isn't abandoned, as there are still some Blarg soldiers on board. You lied to me game. Anyway, the entire ship is slanted, giving this whole thing a very odd feel to it. As I enter the last room I am ambushed by THREE SNAPPERS OH GOD and die. Euggghhh.

I make it back to the room and snipe the three Snappers with my Blaster. I go up to a big, red, shiny button, and it gives me a prompt to push it. It could be the History Eraser button Ratchet , don't push it! But alas, I have to. The button causes the ship to self destruct, so i have to get out of there fast! It also opened a door with an Infobot in it, so we should collect that too. I run past all the Snappers that have suddenly appeared on board the ship, and just get to the exit.

The Infobot shows a news report in Blackwater City, stating that Captain Qwark will be there to hand out prizes at the hoverboard championship. Remember that? It also states that the planet is suffering from an Ameboid infestation. Ratchet says they should totes go there and win that hoverboard championship.

Tune in next time when we visit planet Rilgar and compete against the best and finally meet Captain Qwark!

Ratchet from All 4 One. Again, sue me.