Ratchet and Clank have appeared in so many sequels
since their eponymous 2002 debut that they've become the Cheech and Chong of
videogames. One of gaming's great duos, once vital and relevant, is now on the
verge of becoming tedious and glib. And Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest
For Booty,
a downloadable postscript to their previous PlayStation 3 title, Tools Of
Destruction,
does little to change that perception.
In Tools' finale, robot Clank was kidnapped by a gang of
oddball robots named the Zoni. Quest For Booty ostensibly puts Ratchet,
the fuzzy creature who resembles a bipedal raccoon wearing a hairnet, on Clank's
trail. Anyone familiar with the series knows the drill by now. Robots will be
battled. Over-the-top weapons will be doled out. Platforms will be double-jumped.
Battles will increase in scale and scope until one final powerful "boss" is
defeated.
After three or four solid, unsurprising hours of
gameplay, it's clear that a better title for Quest would be Side-Quest. Ratchet, in the end, is
no closer to finding Clank than he was at the beginning of the game. According
to Quest's
final screen, gamers will have to wait until fall 2009 for the denouement.
Beyond the game: Ratchet's new wrench-centric
abilities, which let him magnetically tether onto nearby bridges and platforms and
tug them toward him.
Worth playing for: Insomniac's sense of
humor. Rusty Pete, the perpetually soused robotic pirate from Tools Of
Destruction,
returns, playing the role of unreliable narrator to hilarious effect. And one
wrong move during an interactive conversation with the island locals on will
get Ratchet labeled as a "crotchetizer salesman" for the remainder of the game.
Frustration sets in when: A series of semi-obscure puzzles
during Quest's latter
stages will have plenty of gamers Googling FAQs for assistance.
Final judgment: Slick almost to a fault,
Insomniac attempts to obscure the fact that Quest is merely more of the
same via a façade of bombastic battles that unfortunately wind up being more
tedious than exciting.