Ratchetrospective: Ratchet and Clank 3 (Up Your Arsenal)

We’ve had 2 great entries from this action platformer, can the third one keep up the standard, let’s take a look at Ratchet and Clank 3.

We open in Ratchet and Clank’s condo in Megapolis, they’re playing their equivalent of chess and Clank is winning, they find there’s another episode on of Secret Agent Clank, a series that features Ratchet as Clank's bumbling chauffeur, Jeeves. Ratchet changes the channel to find his home world of Veldin is under attack by an alien race known as the Tyhrranoids. They believe that a super-villain known as Doctor Nefarious is behind these attacks... for some reason, he's yet to make demands. The Galactic Rangers (and where were they in the first game?) are not faring well against them. Ratchet decides they’re heading home.

They head to Veldin and the Galactic Rangers give him 2 weapons to help him fight them off. They make it through to Ratchet’s old garage but the Tyhrranoids have a base in F-sector that the Rangers have been ordered to take out. Ratchet helps them and they receive a transmission from the Galactic President. He recognises Clank immediately, from the show and not from the Behind the Hero segment. They did save your Galaxy once before, remember.

Anyone, only one man has ever faced him and survived, the President has received a report about his whereabouts (how?). A trailer for an episode of Nature’s Mysteries about the Florana Tree Beast. Ratchet and Clank head to Florana and after fighting their way through the natives meet this being. After walking his ‘Path of Death’ they discover he is none other than Captain Qwark.

Ratchet defeats him and he now sees Ratchet as his new leader. He takes Qwark into their ship as they receive a call from Captain Sasha of the Starship Phoenix. They’re told to take Quark to the Phoenix. A massive star-cruiser with holo-deck training suits, armour vendors and importantly a VG-9000 game system that will come into play later. This all flusters Ratchet enough to propose to Sasha.

After dropping off Quark in a cage, they head to the bridge where Sasha is contacting the President, her father. Her transmission is interrupted by a message from Nefarious telling all Robots in the Galaxy to prepare for their 'liberation' from organic lifeforms.

Ratchet and Clank head to the Presidential Compound in Marcadia. They fight the invasion but are alerted to a second wave attacking the Compound from the other side. They assist in taking them out and meet the President in person, he tells Ratchet Sasha’s out of her league. Making me wonder where he was a couple of years ago. Anyway, the city’s defence grid is down and their repair man has disappeared. Ratchet is given a new gadget to help restore power. They find Big Al, who had been sent to fix the shield but had unintentionally shut it down to play his game. Clank asks to borrow it, as it may help restore Qwark’s memory.

They play the game. The game showcases Qwark in his earlier years facing against Captain Blackstar and his army of robotic pirate ghosts. He does this by… destroying a space eel? Anyway, Qwark regains his memory but Sasha tells Ratchet they’ve learned of a new gadget that could be useful, it’s a grand prize on Annihilation Nation, a show featuring deathcourses and arena matches.

Ratchet completes the gauntlet, earning a new gadget and another Qwark video comic. Sasha alerts him that Qwark has been put in charge of the fight against Nefarious. They return to the Phoenix as Qwark has gathered some familiar faces from past seasons. Skid, Helga and Big Al to help the fight. Ratchet is sent to infiltrate Nefarious’ base on Planet Aquatos. He knows about this... somehow

They head to Aquatos where Skid offers to help with a gadget. With Skid's help, they proceed to a secret weapon’s vendor offering MegaCorp merchandise, the vendor’s operator scares Skid off. Ratchet and Clank split up heading down different paths to Nefarious’ office.They find an encrypted Star Map that Al can decode, they discover that Nefarious is a big fan of Secret Agent Clank and meet the plumber, who’s after sewer crystals of a necklace for his wife (go figure) after Qwark congratulates himself for a great plan it’s time to assault Tyhrranosis, home planet of the Tyhrranoids (a planet that sounds and is spelt exactly like Tyhrranoid? Who'd have thought the Tyhrranoids would've come from there?) They free-fall in and take out the guns allowing them to send a vehicle so he can take out some of the heavy cannons. He fights the Momma Tyhrranoid and Qwark takes the credit. There's a ranger mission about wiping out the rest of the Tyhrannoids, yeah... wiping them off their home planets, rangers truly are the peace keepers of our time. 

Back on the Phoenix as Ratchet prepares to tell his tale, Doctor Nefarious projects a hologram into the ship, calling them pathetic. Al traces the signal to Planet Daxx and finds a transmission from a show called Super-villain weekly which suggests that Doctor Nefarious is working on a super-weapon. After collecting a pair of new gadgets from Helga (after completing an induction course, naturally). Al tells them to infiltrate 2 computer terminals on the planet. The first shows them a music video for Courntey Gears (never guess who this is a parody of) which implies she’s in league with Doctor Nefarious. They can speak to her again if they win the grand prize on Annihilation Nation

On the other terminal they discover a file about a bi-obliterator. A super-weapon with no answers as to what it is. All they know is a transport was heading to the Obani Moon system. They contact the Phoenix with this info but Skid is the one to answer it. He heads to the Obani Moons to join them. They explore 2 moons but find the third, Obani Draco is surrounded by an omega-class disintegration field, fortunately Skid has the tools to shut it down. They’re contacted by the Galactic Rangers, Blackwater City is under attack and the Rangers are, as per usual, not holding out. Ratchet and head Clank there and help retake the city, earning a new gadget.

They return to the Annihilation Nation and win the grand prize, a Qwark vid-comic. Courtney takes a liking to Clank, saying she’d do anything for a part in one of his films. Clank tells her that can be arranged if she provides information about Nefarious' location.

Ratchet and Clank head to Holistar studios to film but Ratchet accidentally ejects Clank and is fired. After completing filming on the episode, Courtney takes Clank to Nefarious. He asks Clank to join him but Clank refuses. Ratchet, waiting at Clank’s trailer, is ambushed by Tyhrranoids, he defeats the ambush and meets up with Clank, who alerts them that Doctor Nefarious is aboard his own Star Cruiser, the Leviathan, but we quickly see that something is wrong.

They contact Skid who tells them Courtney Gears has stopped by, he is quickly captured but he has downed the shield. Ratchet and ‘Clank’ head to Obani Draco and see Skid turned into a robot in the bi-oblitorator testing lab. They defeat Courtney Gears and receive a report from Sasha that they’ve tracked the Leviathan to the Zeldrin Starport. Qwark is already on his way there.

They use Qwark’s shuttle to infiltrate the ship but…

May he rest in peace

Nefarious activates the self-destruct on his ship and teleports away. Qwark sees something important and tells them he’ll meet him back at the Shuttle. With only seconds left, ‘Clank’ disengages the shuttle and Qwark is thought lost. They have a funeral with a very awkward speech from Ratchet. Al hands Ratchet the fourth chapter of the Qwark vid-comic series.

In Chapter 2 an organic mad scientist Doctor Nefarious unleashes his creatures, the Ameoboids upon Blackwater City. Qwark defeats them and grabs onto Nefarious’ rocket as he escapes. In chapter 3 Qwark infiltrates Nefarious’ lab on the Planet Magmos. Nefarious knows he’s coming and sets an ambush. Qwark defeats the ambush and confronts Nefarious. Nefarious was a victim to high school bullying at Qwark’s hands. Qwark tosses him into the lava, hoping him gone for good but as he leaves a robotic hand rises.

In Chapter 4, Qwark is relaxing in Metropolis after his defeat of Nefarious but his R+R is interrupted by Helga, who sends him on a fitness course. At that same moment, Robotic Nefarious sends his swarms of robotic wasp-things... well, I suppose they could be bees

Anyway, he sends the bees after Qwark before eventually taking him on himself. Nefarious is defeated but alive, promising to return and bring Metropolis to its knees. The end of the comic is cut off and replaced with a happy ending narrated by Qwark

Ratchet takes that ending to mean that Metropolis is his likely next target. They head there as Nefarious activates the bi-oblitorator. Ratchet seeks shelter behind a building as everyone else, including the Tyhrranoids are turned into robots. Ratchet avoids this by hiding behind a post. Stay indoors and you'll be fine! They confront Nefarious and Ratchet sees that they have Clank prisoner. The ‘Clank’ he’s been with has been an evil duplicate, Nefarious calls him Klunk. They fight, with Klunk in his giant form and Ratchet wins and rescues Clank.

With the idea known that Nefarious is planning identical attacks across the Galaxy, the populous is worried. Ratchet remembers that Qwark was looking for something on the Star Cruiser and they go and check out the crash site on the Planet Zeldrin. There they discover an escape pod from the Star Cruiser. They find a recording of a transmission to the Supernova Taxi Service. It’s Captain Qwark in a dress which he pulled out of his ass I guess.

Not wanting to dampen hope in the others they choose not to tell them this information. But they do find the disk Qwark was looking for. Before they leave Zeldrin they get a transmission from the Galactic Rangers inviting them to a ‘party’ on Aridia, knowing that the Tyhrranoids have invaded again, they head out and claim back the outpost (X12 this time) they return to the Phoenix and give Al the disk to decrypt. His studies of Skid imply that it may be possible to reverse the process and make him human again. He found a 5^th, unpublished Qwark Vid Comic, which Ratchet and Clank play.

In the real ending to chapter 4, Qwark is knocked out by Laurence, Nefarious’ robot butler, and locked in a cell, he manages to escape, despite Nefarious’ best efforts but he spends a considerable time holed up in the Thran Asteroid Belt, terrified of Nefarious’ potential revenge. When Nefarious didn’t resurface, Qwark assumed he was gone and returned back to his celebrity life. Skid is disillusioned, thinking Qwark is ‘bogus.’

Ratchet believes that Qwark’s back in his hideout right now and even theorises he and Nefarious might even be working together given their past encounters with him (there is no way they’d ever ever work together from what we’ve seen, but leave it a few games) they head to the Thran asteroid, with Skrunch the monkey, one of Qwarks friends from Florana, in tow. They discover Qwark and ask why he left. Qwark says he realised he almost died and this isn’t a worthy cause for him to die over. Clank leaves him some parting advice about how this is shot at redemption and becoming the hero he always wanted to be.

They receive a transmission from Sasha, the Phoenix is under attack by Nefarious, clearly worried about what’s on the disk (he had forces on Zeldrin, so it’s not improbable that he found out about the data disk) they head straight there and defeat the invasion. Al has cracked the disk, it contains a complete copy of Nefarious’ battle plan (Nefarious had this for… reasons) and, what do you know? He’s going to attack planet after planet leaving nothing but robots in his wake (such a subtle plan that absolutely needed to be recording onto a data disk). Sasha reveals that Veldin is his next target after it finishes recharging on the Planet Koros. 

Ratchet and Clank head there and find an ion cannon that may be capable of destroying the bi-obliterator. Clank takes control of the cannon and destroys the weapon, but it’s not over. Al had just discovered that Nefarious has a second bi-obliterator that’s even more dangerous. It’s at Nefarious’ Master Control Centre on the planet Mylon. Ratchet defeats the robot army guarding it but Nefarious begins to launch it. Ratchet destroys the launch console. Nefarious calls for Laurance to annihilate him but he’s unavailable so he attacks them himself. With some help from the suddenly not completely useless Galactic Rangers they knock Nefarious down but he’s not out yet.

He calls Laurence and the bi-oblitorator transforms into a giant mecha-robot (because it wouldn't be Ratchet and Clank without them fighting a giant mech-robot). Qwark flies in providing support (very little support) as Ratchet uses a nearby hovership to destroy it (clearly, it did not have the same recharging armour its predecessor had). Nefarious orders Laurence to teleport them away but since he doesn’t give a destination, the reactor detonation of the robot sends them flying away.

All the characters from previous games are watching the premier of the latest episode of Secret Agent Clank, where Clank finally defeats his arch-nemesis. Ratchet and Sasha share a kiss. 

It seems Nefarious and Laurence have been thrust onto an asteroid, not in range of any destination to teleport to. They float away where I’m sure they’ll neeeever bother anyone again.

Honestly, the story is the best thing about this game. Whilst it has its flaws, it has far fewer random paths related to the plot and there are no convenient screens or infobots. And fewer instances of enemies attacking you for no reason

Having a hub level like the Phoenix was an excellent idea to keep the story moving at a decent pace. Having somewhere to go back to whilst also making progression.

Whilst there’s a bit of Ratchet getting over himself over Clank’s success it’s not heavily mentioned because the arc of this story belongs to Captain Qwark. Qwark is many things a hero shouldn’t be. Egotistical, whiny, cowardly, overzealous even cruel, greedy and lacking in morality and not to mention kinda stupid. But whilst not ignoring those traits entirely, this game does give us the possibility that Qwark could be a hero.

He defeats an invading Pirate army, he defeats Nefarious’ amoeboids, he defeats Nefarious, twice (even if by underhand means the first time) and he helped defeat Nefarious a third time. And for all his bumbling idiocy, his plans actually worked. I mean the only reason invading Nefarious’ ship went so badly is that Clank had been replaced. With better intel and no inside source, it could’ve worked too.

This story also starts with a portrayal of Clank I am not fond of. He’s kind of swept up in his own success and is rather ignorant of Ratchet’s feelings. I suppose his capture and the consequences that came from that rather shifted his perspective on the matter and made him more considerate. But we’re looking at implications here

The Galactic Rangers have a kinda sorta arc to them. They have some sort of programming defect that makes them cowardly, which is partially why they’re having trouble with the Tyhrranoids so often. But when the Phoenix is under attack they fight to the last man, not a single line of dialogue is uttered through the segment and whilst they do not proceed past the hangar if they even manage to survive that far, it’s impressive that their valour has allowed them to defend the base. Topping off that of course is their appearance in the final battle where the defect is more or less closed off and they’re far more powerful as a result, combating a swarm of Nefarious’ forces and honestly they’d be fine on their own against them. They provided help to Ratchet at the point he really needed it, a much better thank you for all the times he did the same than mere gadgets. I like the Galactic Rangers and I’m kinda disappointed the only other time they show up again is in the tie-in comic.

One thing that bothers me is that they barely acknowledge the events of the first game. Ratchet appeared on an episode of behind the hero, he was attending parades, press conferences and such and people act like they’ve never heard of him. Meanwhile Qwark, who sold the Galaxy out for his own greed last time he was in Solana, has his past transgressions ignored.

Nefarious and Lawrence are my favourite villains of the Ratchet series. They’re intimidating, they have a few victories along the way (something you could hardly argue for Drek or the Thug leader) and most importantly, they’re freaking hilarious. With Lawrence serving as the straight man to Nefarious’ very exaggerated portrayal. Armin Sherman does a fantastic job as Nefarious and will do again in later games. Their banter makes this game shine above others in its storytelling quality

The game has a bit of a nostalgic feel to it, we’re back to a lot of old ground from the Ratchet franchise, there aren’t that many new side-characters in this one but we have the Q-force, a group of familiar faces from the franchise. Al provides technical support, Helga provides physical and gadget training and Skidd… is the red shirt of the group. They all have some witty dialogue on Phoenix bridge if you care to listen.

Another issue: if he plans to turn the universe into robots, why does he need the Tyhrranoids? Was it deliberate ploy to wipe out the Galactic Rangers? It’s not a plot hole exactly but it's ill explained.

I'll note straight off. This game does not have grind-rail segments, it also does not have any races, and neither will any subsequent game I review. There’s no space combat, but it’s replaced by something else I’ll mention momentarily

Full ammo option at Vendors

It may not seem like much but it’s a massive time saver

Weapons upgrade to level 5

Whilst the upgrade system in Ratchet 2 was great, here’s where they refined, gradually increasing the power and capabilities of the weapon and delivering a big upgrade for lvl 5. This encompasses some of the mods you’d buy for Platinum bolts in the last game

Nanotech to level 100

I don’t have much to say about this, no Nanotech boosts, just plain old fashioned upgrading, you can upgrade to 200 in challenge mode and there's a nano-pack on Zeldrin that'll hold an extra 30 for emergencies.

Freefall segments

At several points in the game, Ratchet will have to make a HALO jump, avoiding missiles being shot at them from below. It’s a fun short new segment that makes a good introduction to a level and isn’t overused.

Hovership

What is overused in this game is the Hovership. Usually in Help the Ranger missions it can be used to detonate bombs, defeat enemy strongholds and provide air support. It’s a great mechanic, it’s just that in Metropolis 3/5 challenges are Hovership based. Only 1 of them is on foot-combat. It’s also used as a mechanism for beating the final boss, which in my opinion was kinda easy, especially after Nefarious being such a tough battle.

Turboslider

Land vehicles for exploratory purposes are useful in big areas, the problem is there aren’t all that many in this game, and even the ones they choose aren’t that big and on Daxx you can complete an optional mission for the charge boots, which serve more or less the same purpose.

Assisted Combat

This is the first game where you can be assisted in certain combat segments. The Galactic Rangers serve a nice purpose and completing some of the challenges can help you earn bolts, even if they’re optional. The rangers are usually competent in staying alive except for on the Starship Phoenix, where they’re completely useless

Secondary Quick Select Ring

You now have more weapons you can select without having to pause the whole game, it’s a plus in my book.

VR weapon testing

This is the first and only game with a try before you buy system with weapons. You can test all gadgetron weapons on the Phoenix using their VR Deck. It’s a nice mechanic

Death courses

Arena challenges test your combat, death courses challenge your platforming skills, there are 8 of these in total at Annihilation Nation

Quark Video Comics

These are fixed angle platform shooters; you see Quark from a side on as you control him so aiming is a tad tricky but it otherwise works pretty well. There are even some collectables to make you come back if you can’t get them the first time

Titanium Bolts

Titanium bolts are this game’s equivalent of Gold/Platinum bolts. Unlike those games, these are used to purchase new skins.

Collectable Trophies

There are character trophies scattered across levels, you can also earn trophies for fully upgrading your weapons, maxing out your nanotech, helping the rangers, completing all Annihilation Nation events, earning all the titanium bolts and collecting the game’s 30 skill points. Doing all of those unlocks the Insomniac museum.

Clank Gameplay

You have your gadgebots like the other 3 games, except they now explode when they defeat an enemy, thank god for respawn points. Anyway, you also have a BGAMD, a device which throws bananas, Skrunch the Monkey will go and fetch them wherever they are, activating devices and distracting security drones. There are a lot more one hit kills in this game.

Weapon Cycling

Instead of having to double tap triangle to cycle back to your previous weapon, you can cycle between your last 3 weapons with just a single tap. This is a nice system to get you to your weapons quickly.

Jackpot Crate

Crates that will double the amount of bolts you earn for a limited time

Inferno Mode

A mode which makes you invulnerable and gives your wrench one hit kills. It’s not entirely surprising this didn’t catch on. Although it was a relief against the gattling turret in the arena

Camera modes
You can use one of 3 camera modes in this. First person mode, lock-stafe mode or third person mode. I tended to stick to third person mode myself, as it keeps the classic control system whereas there are some changes for the others

This game was very recycled in its weapons. You have the generic blaster, bomb launcher, shotgun, sniper rifle and rocket launcher. You have 2 returning weapons from the original game, the Agents of Doom (which upgrade to be more like the Synthenoids) and the Suck Cannon (which upgrades to hold more ammo. And we have 5 returning weapons from Ratchet and Clank 2 courtesy of Slim Cogneto (you get these for free if you purchased them in 2) the Mini-Turret Launcher, the Lava Gun (which now upgrades to launch liquid nitrogen), the Shield Charger, the Bouncer and the Plasma Coil.

Which leaves us with 8 weapons, one of which is the RY3NO which I’m cheating to cover because it’s not available on the first play through. You can get a discount on this weapon if you completed Kalebo III in the first game

Plasma Whip/Quantum Whip

A fire whip that can be thrown at enemies, good for smaller enemies and enemies early in the game. Another walloper done right

Infector/Infecto-bomb

Fires a nano-virus which infects an enemy, making them attacking and infect other nearby enemies. Using it on later levels makes this a cinch to upgrade (but you only gain experience the first time you infect an enemy) the infecto-bomb explodes into multiple enemies

Spitting Hydra/Tempest

This weapon allows you target multiple enemies in a single shot. The further it upgrades the more enemies you can target per shot. It’s a great weapon for crowd control and holds a lot of power. Kinda a pity it’s such an early weapon as its power becomes overmatched later on

Holo-shield glove

This launches a shield that can protect you from enemy fire. It’s kinda redundant when you have the shield charger. I’m not a huge fan of it because it can cut out at the wrong moment and get you hit. It has a few nice features as it upgrades though including a vampiric health drain and eventually it also throws a bit of the blast back

Disk Blade Gun/Multi-Disc Gun

A variation of the chopper on the last game, it starts as a single disk which explodes on contact, as it upgrades it richochets off enemies and eventually divides on contact creating up to 16 disks per shot. It’s actually a great weapon, considerably more powerful against larger enemies than the chopper

Rift Inducer/Rift Ripper

Opens a portal to suck enemies through, can be combined into larger portals if you fire more than one. Upgrades to fire electricity. Yeah… I don’t really get that upgrade much. But man does it work, if you’re without razor disks and rockets, this is a must have weapon the moment the 4-eyed Tyhrranoids show up

Quack-o-ray

You get the idea of these by now, this one turns enemies to ducks, it upgrades so those ducks lay explosive eggs and finally a flying red duck becomes your personal bodyguard missile.

RY3NO/Rynocerator

Yes, even the RYNO has upgrades in this game. Starting as a multi-barreled missile launcher although with a much quicker rate of fire, it’s first upgrade converts the missiles to more laser-like effects which causes enemies hit by them to disappear. The final upgrade turns the weapon into a large field disintegrator. Be aware on bigger enemies aren’t necessarily defeated in a single shot without some careful aiming. It’s probably my favourite RYNO of the bunch. The remaining RYNOs all follow a similar pattern, but we’ll get to that when we get to Tools of Destruction

The YETI award winner from this series is the missile launcher which shoot missiles up into the air and give no indication on their landing making them very difficult to avoid (best dealt with at range wherever possible

Ratchet and Clank 3 is the first of the Ratchet series to have multi-player. Bear in mind in the PlayStation 2 did not have wireless connection, and it took a device to connect it to a land-line. As such I never really did much online multi-player at home, occasionally did split-screen but very rarely. It feels like there are a few corners cut to save money for this. The first is the weapon selection, there are fewer weapons than the last game, and even fewer of note beyond being copies of previous games.

The second thing is the music. Zeldrin, Annihilation Nation Arena, Blackwater City, Metropolis and I’m sure there are others and they all use copies or remixes of tracks from the last 2 games. Whilst for Blackwater City and Metropolis, cities that appeared in previous games, it makes sense to use the same music as a theme, I’m less sure of it in places like Zeldrin and Mylon.

Oh and the hacker puzzles can last way too long

Ratchet and Clank 3 is considered by many as one of the best in the series and it’s not difficult to see why. The story is great, and it has the nostalgic value of bringing back a few old favourite characters.

Rating 88/100

Memorable Quotes
"Sorry to disturb your 'work' sir, but you may want to know that your 'impenetrable' secret base on Aquatos has been penetrated"
"It's on my to-do list, right after folding your undergarments"
"Well, 'super' is such a strong word, for that matter 'weapon' may be a tad overdoing it, we do however have a lovely view of the ocean at sunset"
"Just kidding, this is my holographic voice-mail, leave your name and a brief message"

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Images/clips used in this review are from Ratchet and Clank 3 (Up Your Arsenal), Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and Amazon's Attack and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use