Ratchetrospective: Ratchet and Clank (Future): Quest for Booty

Ratchet and Clank (Future): Tools of Destruction came out in 2007, Ratchet a Clank: A crack in Time came out in 2009, to bridge the gap, a short game (it took me less than 3 hours) was released on the PSStore in the US and was available on disk as well in EU territories. It was merely there to set up some ideas, introduce a few elements and keep us going from that cliffhanger.

Ratchet and Talwyn used the Iris Supercomputer (somehow, given that it was low on power in the last game) to find that a pirate had once had the key to the zoni dimension. Captain Darkwater (so question, were pirates a thing before Slag? Because Tachyon created them and…) anyway they head to the planet Merdegraw to find them but (and I know this is a shock for you) Darkwater is dead (I mean, come on, there wouldn’t be another pirate Captain running around) Rusty Pete is there, drowning his sorrows from the last game and by the way, the crew don’t the crew recognise Ratchet, according to last game by their code he’s their new Captain? Anyway, that plot point is ignored. 

They’re captured and are about to blown out of a cannon when Rusty Pete, using Slag’s head to pose as him, tells them to send the pair to Hoolefar Island, where they’ll find what they’re looking for. Ratchet loses all his weapons when shot out of the cannon (but none of his gadgets)

Hoolefar Island has been ransacked and their power disabled. Since their Island is largely made of trillium-ore, which interferes with radio transmissions, and Talwyn can't make contact with Rusty Pete to find out what they're supposed to look for. The Island has a supply beacon to get around this if they can restore the power. Ratchet heads to each of the 5 turbines and turns them back on, hearing from Talwyn that the ransackers left only red feathers behind and that some of the villagers have been talking about ‘the curse of Darkwater.’ The supply beacon is missing a versa bolt. Luckily the Smuggler and his parrot just happen to have that exact item which they sell to you.

With the supply beacon active, the Mayor shows the town’s Obsidean Eye, a powerful telescope used to contact the Zoni but it’s missing a crystal called a Fulcrum star. He gives them some pages from Darkwater’s journal. Darkwater found the Zoni when making a trip to the Breegus Nebula and they gifted him a Fulcrum star. He’s worried about Slag but has taken steps to protect his treasure into the afterlife. Via a curse, his soul is forever bound to his body. And anyone who disturbs him shall disturb his entire crew.

They manage to get a signal to Rusty Pete, who arrives on a small barge. Any pirate worth their soul keeps a map to their buried treasure. Darkwater’s would likely be with his body in Morrow Caverns. Pete can take them there and guide them through, using Slag’s head on a stick which can now talk. They head to Morrow Caverns but Talwyn is separated from Ratchet. They head through the Caverns and Ratchet finds the map but it was a trick by Rusty Pete who sticks Slag’s head into Darkwater’s body, activating the curse and bringing back hordes of undead pirates

Slag and Darkwater are now possessing the same body and argue. Trying to invoke some comradery, Pete tells them to set course for Hoolefar Island for some pillaging, but before doing so drops Ratchet two of his weapons to say 'no hard feelings.' Ratchet fights his way through the undead pirates and heads back to Hoolefar. With Talwyn, you either rescue her or she comes back after the Hoolefar battle. He arrives just as the pirate attack begins, the mayor hands them 2 more weapons so he can help fight them off. Ratchet forces the pirates to retreat.

Needing someone to translate the map, written in decadroid (so they have their own language?) they find the Smuggler can, the map is to Darkwater cove. They head out there, with the Smuggler providing two more weapons, and they solve a few puzzles in order to unlock the treasure room, however Slag arrives and captures Talwyn, stranding Ratchet in the caves below. They take the Fulcrum Star.

Ratchet finds his way out of the caves and the Smuggler follows the pirate fleet, heading to Hoolefar. He fights against the pirates, and rescues Talwyn, again (possibly). Slag notes it’s ironic this time they’re trying to steal from him (despite the fact they did before on Ardolis) Slag is defeated and Rusty Pete tosses the Fulcrum Star to Ratchet as he dives into the sea to rescue Slag.

Ratchet and Talwyn head back to Hoolefar Island and insert the crystal into the obsideon eye. They see the Zoni with Clank he’s a tad dazed and they say the ‘Doctor’ will help to repair him. Doctor Nefarious to be precise. The signal is lost but they’ve acquired co-ordinates to the Breegus Nebula and Ratchet’s on the way.

This story is fine. It’s a good A-B story whilst being relatively self-contained within its own right. It’s nice to explore different areas of the same planet, something you don’t often see in a ratchet game because of how linear it is. It also serves for a nice pirate story with the swashbuckling, treasure hunting, the things you’d expect when pirates are involved. It’s also packed with witty dialogue and humour and the new characters, whilst few of them funny are also fine.

I have little else to say about it outside of the fact that some of it seems a bit on the cheap. Few of the cinematics of the game are fully animated like they usually are, really only the last bit with the Nefarious reveal, the other parts are chibi-animation or just pages from a book and whilst that’s fine, given the price. It’s not something I want to see regularly from a Ratchet game

Talwyn is also rather useless in this game, she won’t be back until Nexus, not sure as to why but it might just be that for whatever reason they weren’t able to bring back Tara Strong to voice her (she’s voiced by a new actress in Nexus)

Because this game is so short, it borrows most from Tools of Destruction, albeit this one sees the return of difficulty choices, here are a few other differences

Weapons start at lvl 3

The weapons are all identical to Tools of Destruction, but there are only a set amount of enemies you’re going to get through if you don’t die regularly, so weapons start at lvl 3 and upgrade twice throughout the game. You get the alpha cannon (the v5 alpha disruptor) directly without upgrading at all

Nano-tech limited to 20                                                                                                 

Again, there’s only a set number of enemies so it’s likely your nano-tech will max out during the playthrough.

Collectible Weapon Upgrades

The big raritanium upgrades from the first game are all available as the only collectibles of the game. But since there’s no backtracking in this game if you don’t get them at the right time (or run out of bombs at the wrong moments) you won’t get them at all.

Wrench Kinetic Tether

This is the main addition to the game and is frequently used for traps and puzzles. It can extend bridges, rotate or move platforms and that’s really it for the moment.

Wrench grab

You can also use the wrench to grab boulders to help you pass obstacles and also heliogrubs which help light up some of the game’s darker areas.

There are no new weapons in this game. You get 7 weapons from the last game, your generic shotgun and bomb glove, shock ravager, predator missiles, tornado launcher, nano-swarmers and the alpha cannon. Literally nothing has changed about these weapons.

As short games at reasonably low prices go, you can do a lot worse that Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty. The environments look good, the atmosphere is fantastic and the story is reasonable. Its shortness does have a problem: there is NO replay value to this game at all, no challenge mode or anything and you are left wanting more. Fortunately you get more, and we'll be looking at A Crack in Time on Tuesday

Rating 70/100

Memorable Quotes

"What? Can't a pirate who's never done a good thing in his life go blatantly out of his way to help the guy who killed his best friend and Cap'n?"

"This path is so dangerous - so forbidden - that only a recitation of the fabled "Song of the Dead" shall open the way!" "I'm a little teapot short and stout, here is me handle, her is me spout"

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Images/clips used in this review are from Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use