So I tried to pick this back up recently and had the same issues I had before. It's painfully unforgiving. I used JoyToKey, configured for my Xbox360 controller, so it wasn't the controls that made it hard. I even gave this another stab, but felt the same jab of unforgiving gameplay.
It's similar to FTL in it's "you get one chance, and you died, so start from the beginning" mentality, which is horribly frustrating. If I didn't save scum my way through FTL, I would have never seen more than the first phase of the last boss.
Things I liked:
* the power ups were unique and interesting
* keys/bombs/money/health are limited, so you have to spend carefully on possibly good items
* you can jump into the game really quick and just go
Things I didn't like:
* not knowing what the heck an item did. I spent at least as much time on the wiki as I did playing the game
* the graphics of the game are honestly a bit gross
* you can very quickly go from doing amazing to completely dead
After dying repeatedly, even with awesome upgrades, it was time to just mark the game as "will not finish".
An example of one playthrough
* level 1 - got double tears shooting,some bombs, beat boss
* level 2- added tears power, got more money, and bombs, beat boss
* level 3 - got very powerful tears, tons of money, even more bombs, beat boss
* level 4 - got dead cat (you are reduced to 1 heart, but get 9 lives), got stuck behind required room with 6 enemies that do a full heart for damage at range -- lost all 9 lives and died
* flips table
One of my last playthroughs:
* level 1 - split tears, beat boss
* level 2 - faster tears, more powerful, beat boss
* level 3 - beat boss, fought demon, even more powerful tears
* level 4 - slaughtered every room, accidentally found envy boss, died as he humped me into a wall because I wasn't fast enough
Would I recommend this game? I'm not sure. I'm glad I played it, I might talk about it with friends if they bring it up, but overall it was honestly extremely frustrating.
Will I try it again later on? Maybe, but probably not. It really sucks to end on a losing note, but when I have such a crazy long backlog of games, it's really not worth wasting my time on something this frustrating. I think I'll stop while my table is still right-side up.
Monday, March 18, 2013
Friday, March 1, 2013
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
Of the many Ratchet & Clank games I've played, this is the second I've beaten.
The controls are like any other third person shooter. Move with left thumbstick, move the camera with the right. Shoot with R1, and hold L2 to strafe. Very intuitive, very easy.
The story gives you some more background into why the Lombax are missing. Not that the story is too deep.
The gameplay is like any other R&C game. Shoot stuff to get bolts, power up your weapons through use, and buy ammo/weapons with bolts. This is the first time I saw the new system of upgrading your weapons with crystals, which was a nice touch. I'm sure this came about in an earlier game, but this is the first I experienced it. Using crystals, you can power up your weapon in a variety of ways - more bolts from kills, more crystals from kills, more ammo, more damage, or something specific to the gun (faster shooting, acid explosions, etc.)
The graphics are good. The keep it a cartoony, so it has the R&C feel to it.
The voice acting is good, and the sound effects are quite nice. I just finished getting myself up to a 3.1 sound system, so I enjoyed the explosions a lot.
Things I need to gripe about:
They use the six-axis in a few unique ways, most of which were not enjoyable to me.
1) In a hacking mini-game, you use it to move a ball around a grid to connect circuits. I'd rather just use the left thumbstick
2) To control a specific weapon's destruction path, which makes controlling your character, your view, and it's path extremely difficult. It's unique, but not really enjoyable. This was the only weapon not at max level by the end of the game.
3) In very short mini-games where you are controlling Ratchet as he skydives down to a planet. Typically I just end up spinning it in a circle, as that avoids most enemies/missiles headed my way.
4) It also plays a small part in a pirate dancing game. This was the only tolerable one.
The checkpoints are abysmal. There were numerous times where a 10-20 minute stretch of the game was extended by 40-50 minutes because I kept falling off a ledge and having to repeat an entire sequence of rail-riding mini-games, or platform jumping nausea.
Falling off ledges and getting thrown back to the last checkpoint is very anti-climactic. I would rather die from getting shot or swarmed by mobs than falling off a ledge. And yes, there are lots of places to easily fall to your death.
Things that were fun:
Leveling up weapons, and blowing up enemies with more and more powerful weapons. That's tons of fun.
Keeping your weapons levels and your bolts on death is also great. This was the only good part of the checkpoint system. I found a great spot early in the game where I could kill a huge group of enemies, then jump off a cliff - keeping my earned bolts, crystals, and weapon levels. I used this exploit to power level 2-3 weapons very early on in the game. Pew pew pew, jump off cliff, repeat.
To borrow from Austin's blog:
What I expected: a simple third person shooter with neat weapons that I could finish in a few days.
What I got: a simple third person shooter with neat weapons, made longer by a horrible checkpoint spacing.
Would I recommend the game? Yes, because despite it's flaws, it was a really fun game.
How could it have been better? Make the six-axis controls optional and fix the spacing of the checkpoints.
The controls are like any other third person shooter. Move with left thumbstick, move the camera with the right. Shoot with R1, and hold L2 to strafe. Very intuitive, very easy.
The story gives you some more background into why the Lombax are missing. Not that the story is too deep.
The gameplay is like any other R&C game. Shoot stuff to get bolts, power up your weapons through use, and buy ammo/weapons with bolts. This is the first time I saw the new system of upgrading your weapons with crystals, which was a nice touch. I'm sure this came about in an earlier game, but this is the first I experienced it. Using crystals, you can power up your weapon in a variety of ways - more bolts from kills, more crystals from kills, more ammo, more damage, or something specific to the gun (faster shooting, acid explosions, etc.)
The graphics are good. The keep it a cartoony, so it has the R&C feel to it.
The voice acting is good, and the sound effects are quite nice. I just finished getting myself up to a 3.1 sound system, so I enjoyed the explosions a lot.
Things I need to gripe about:
They use the six-axis in a few unique ways, most of which were not enjoyable to me.
1) In a hacking mini-game, you use it to move a ball around a grid to connect circuits. I'd rather just use the left thumbstick
2) To control a specific weapon's destruction path, which makes controlling your character, your view, and it's path extremely difficult. It's unique, but not really enjoyable. This was the only weapon not at max level by the end of the game.
3) In very short mini-games where you are controlling Ratchet as he skydives down to a planet. Typically I just end up spinning it in a circle, as that avoids most enemies/missiles headed my way.
4) It also plays a small part in a pirate dancing game. This was the only tolerable one.
The checkpoints are abysmal. There were numerous times where a 10-20 minute stretch of the game was extended by 40-50 minutes because I kept falling off a ledge and having to repeat an entire sequence of rail-riding mini-games, or platform jumping nausea.
Falling off ledges and getting thrown back to the last checkpoint is very anti-climactic. I would rather die from getting shot or swarmed by mobs than falling off a ledge. And yes, there are lots of places to easily fall to your death.
Things that were fun:
Leveling up weapons, and blowing up enemies with more and more powerful weapons. That's tons of fun.
Keeping your weapons levels and your bolts on death is also great. This was the only good part of the checkpoint system. I found a great spot early in the game where I could kill a huge group of enemies, then jump off a cliff - keeping my earned bolts, crystals, and weapon levels. I used this exploit to power level 2-3 weapons very early on in the game. Pew pew pew, jump off cliff, repeat.
To borrow from Austin's blog:
What I expected: a simple third person shooter with neat weapons that I could finish in a few days.
What I got: a simple third person shooter with neat weapons, made longer by a horrible checkpoint spacing.
Would I recommend the game? Yes, because despite it's flaws, it was a really fun game.
How could it have been better? Make the six-axis controls optional and fix the spacing of the checkpoints.
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