Ratchetrospective: Ratchet and Clank: Q-force (Full Frontal Assault)

The year is 2012, it’s Ratchet and Clank’s 10^th anniversary and to celebrate, a remastered trilogy is being released, but that’s just there to tide you over for the real Ratchet and Clank coming out that year. Promising a short game with some tower defence mechanics, an old face to return and the first game with competitive multiplayer since Gladiator (Size Matters notwithstanding). This is Ratchet and Clank: Q-force

We open on the Starship Phoenix II, which is like the Starship Phoenix only much sh*tter (much like the new Starship Phoenix). Qwark is depressed, he lost the election 3 months ago and is trying to reclaim the mantle of hero but there’s nothing to do. Clank distracts him briefly by claiming there are rogue cleaner bots in the docking bay.

When they return they get a secure transmission from a masked figure, specifically looking at Captain Qwark, who’s very excited about the situation. He has managed to deactivate 3 Planetary Defence Centres and has called Grungarian Marauders to attack the planets. Only the 3 of them are allowed on the Planet. This calls for the Q-force

The first facility is at the Korgon Refinery on planet Markazia. The trio manage to claim back the key node, reactivate the Defence Centre all whilst keeping the stations power generators online. The mysterious figure confronts them. Ratchet calls him out for hiding behind a mask, he takes it off and reveals himself to be… Stuart Zurgo, that fanboy guy from Ratchet and Clank 2 that I mentioned briefly despite his mission being optional.

They head back to the Phoenix where the Plumber is working on some repairs, their next stop is the Hidden City of Belkai on Planet Ebaro, the reactivate the base and head to the Grummelnet Plasma Harvester, they repeat the process there but receive a distress call from Markazia. The Plumber’s vehicle has broken down and he’s been stuck all morning. Ratchet realises he can’t have been on the Phoenix.

They head back to find the ship hacked. Zurgo contacts them, he’d used his disguise to find the key to Qwark’s Galactic Weather Grid, which made sure his presidential visits were sunny. Anyway, he’s used it on the planet Ebaro, plunging the world into a blizzard, oh and he makes the ship go trololololol for funzies. Also, also, he contacts the Galactic Defence Force under the guise of Captain Qwark, admitting to the crime.

They head down to Ebaro where the cold had lured Grungoths into the sector. They destroy a bunch of weather beacons and prepare a ‘reformatting’ device to shut down the defence centre. After doing so they manage to track Zurgo to another area of the planet, he has the temple wired with a bunch of explosives, which the Q-force eventually disarm.

He eventually confronts them wearing a giant mech suit, saying that he’s from the Solana Galaxy (this guy was born in Solana, raised in Bogon and currently lives in Polaris, he gets around is what I’m saying) he gets a call from his mother, saying his mac and cheese is getting cold. Ratchet and the duo destroy the mech suit, flinging Zurgo from it. He looks upon Qwark and says:

“What are you?”

Qwark responds in a way sums up his entire character

“I’m the guy who doesn’t live in his mother’s basement” then punches him unconscious.

As they take Zurgo to the authorities to clear Qwark’s name (just in case you think they forgot about it) they perform a whoa Q-force in which Qwark accidentally throws Zurgo off a bridge.

Unlike All4One, this plot didn’t have to continually justify its own existence. However, it’s sad to report that this is one is just so shallow. In terms of cut-scenes this story is only 8 minutes long and there’s very little plot progression other than just carrying out the missions.

The thing is Stuart Zurgo could’ve worked as a villain, someone who had been entirely disillusioned by Qwark over the years. And it’s not as if he isn’t threatening, he actually does score a victory, which I usually complain about with the poor villains. My biggest issue here is the whole idea of him wanting revenge on Qwark amounted to nothing. Qwark being framed did not amount to anything. Oh and he's really whiny, anyone would've gotten fed up with him in a longer game.

Captain Qwark has been a staple of the Ratchet series since the beginning. He started out as the dumb henchmen, went to all out villain, spent several years in the hero business, was briefly president and now comes back to hero again. This situation would’ve been a great springboard for character growth on his part. And don’t tell me not to expect character growth when A Crack in Time exists within the same universe. Not to mention it would've been nice for him to look back at his mistakes, given that this is supposed to be an anniversary special

Ratchet and Clank are just kinda there in this one. Although why they are there is frankly beyond me, but it’s a common thing to continually question why they stick with Qwark over the years.

Still, there’s no absolute problems with this story aside from wasted potential. 

Q-force plays more to the regular Ratchet and Clank formula, third person cameras, strafing and weapons that upgrade through use, there’s also split-screen co-op as players can play as Ratchet, Clank or Qwark. You all have hoverboots to fast travel around levels

Base Defences

You earn bolts through every level but you don’t spend it on ammunition or weapons, you spend it on defending your base using turrets, mines and barriers. It is worth noting, some of these are rendered useless with certain enemy types.

Weapon Pods

Weapon pods are distributed across the planet, you complete a mini-puzzle and get to choose which weapon you acquire. There are up to 8 of these scattered across the planet and usually at least one of them contains a heavy duty weapon.

Teleport

This addition was initially only a multiplayer thing but it proved popular enough that an update placed into the main game. You can teleport to the base from anywhere you like at the press of a button. In my opinion it’s unnecessary as all the key nodes and weapons pods, which are the usual triggers of base attacks, have their own teleporters anyway. They also give you ample warning so you could just hoverboot and you’d usually be there in time.

Cross-play support

This was a feature that Sony was pushing to get people interested in their PSVita system. The idea is uploading your save to the cloud, where you could download it onto your Vita to play from there or vice-versa. Kind redundant since the Vita version came out 6 months later. (And for the record, the Vita version, whilst playable, was ultimately not very good)

Weapon Upgrades

Weapons are back to earning experience as you use them (the Warmonger seemed obscenely hard to upgrade for some reason) they upgrade 4 times but the weapons reach an alpha mode where the features start to change at lvl 3 instead of lvl 5, this is because the last 2 weapon upgrades were a patch update.

Medals

Health doesn’t upgrade through experience in this game but in each planet you can earn medals for completing the level, having all generators intact and for doing it within a time limit, earning enough of these medals earns you a Q-force promotion which gives you access to faster hoverboots, regenerative health and more weapon pods whilst also giving you an extra piece of armour which increases your health.

DLC

This was purely for multiplayer skins folks, nothing to worry about. But the money from that helped develop some new maps which were given out for free

Q-force largely recycles weapons from previous games, you get the generic blaster, flamethrower, rocket launcher and grenade launcher, all from All4One, the Sonic Eruptor (now without the timing mechanic) the Buzz Blades, Mr Zurkon, the Groovitron glove and the Doppelbanger (albeit with turrets installed at the first level) return. There are only 2 weapons of note

Cryo-shot/Alpha Cry-shot

This weapon fires ice blasts at enemies that eventually freezes them, in its upgraded form frozen enemies turn into missile shots when they shatter. It’s a great weapon to use against the turret enemies which can be taken out in a single shot.

Thundersmack/Alpha Cryo-shot

Based on the All 4 One weapon but with a complete redesign, this weapon throws out a tower from which the storm emerges, zapping nearby enemies with lightning. It’s ok but it’s ammo capacity is very limited.

I’m skipping over most of these, there are pyro-turrets, blaster turrets, missile turrets, shields and plasma mines which pretty much are the generic ones, here are the rest of them

Chrono-mine

This weapon uses zoni technology to slow an enemy down. Useful early one when limited defences are available but is quickly surpassed by better ones

Groovitron Mine

It’s what it says on the tin, especially useful against the tank enemies if you don’t have a groovitron of your own

Morph Mine

The closest thing this game has to a morphing weapon, enemies that step on these mines are turned into bunnies. It’s a nice idea but it doesn’t help if you want to level up any weapons

Electro-shock barrier

These barriers shock enemies that make contact with it. Whilst it’s useless against enemies with ranged weapons it’s the only type that does any damage to the big tanks. Use this one with caution.

Cryo-cannon

Essentially does the same thing as the Cryo-shot, freezes an enemy, I personally prefer the missile turrets as a high power solution.

Despite the shallow story and many recycled bits from All4One (including enemy types) the game is fun enough to play. However, it’s very formulaic and I’m glad it wasn’t any longer than it was. The balancing of the game isn’t great either. Whilst they did try to address it with a patch, they ended up making the Plasma Harvester level obscenely difficult whilst making the snowstorm level of Ebaro not easy overall but some of the early attacks were, there aren’t even any ships making an attack. 

Zurgo is a frustrating boss battle if I’m honest. It feels very much designed for 2 players, having one disarm the bombs whilst the other goes for the shield or just wailing on him to try and make that health crawl down. It’s not impossible, especially if you’ve unlocked health regeneration by this point but it is lengthy with many times where it could send you back. 

I’m not especially keen on the idea of the bolt count resetting after leaving every level either. The multiplayer is probably the best the series has ever had to offer, with phases to capture nodes, put up defences and prepare enemy hordes with the final phase being an all-out attack. It’s exciting and it’s good they kept bringing out free maps

• The voice of the computer system for the Starship Phoenix II is done by Mikey Kelley, the original voice for Ratchet
•  If you use a groovitron on Zurgo, he does Gangnam Style

Although Q-force wasn’t everything we’d want from a 10^th anniversary game, it tried something new which added to the main formula rather than requiring to change it, it’s just too repetitive to make it feel like it could’ve sustained a larger game not helped by its relatively shallow plot.

Rating 65/100

Memorable Quotes

"I wonder who could've called them" "Was it me?"
"This is Coppernicus L Qwark, I'm using my Galactic Weather Grid to throw the Galaxy into chaos because I am a pompous, narcissistic blowhard"

We will return one last time as we look at the Epilogue to the Future series in Ratchet and Clank: (Into the) Nexus

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Images/clips used in this review are from Ratchet and Clank: Q-force/Full Frontal Assault and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use.