Popular Post Platinum_Vice Posted November 1, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted November 1, 2021 (edited) Welcome to this little corner of the internet! I’ve wanted to do this for a while now – the Trophy Checklists sphere is the hidden gem of PSN Profiles; it is welcoming, laidback and can provoke critical thought and discussion about this hobby of ours. That’s what I’d like to attempt to emulate and what I hope you will stop by to do with me from time to time. With any luck, I might not end up scribbling these musings in this corner like an institutionalised madman and might instead make some new friends, have my opinions challenged and learn something new. This is what you can expect from me: - A little blogging about games I have played/am playing with some opinions and a review with a rating. I like pretty pictures... look out for the pretty pictures. - Any ‘hot takes’ if there’s something that I think is glaringly obvious about a game that no one seems to be talking about. The loudest voices in gaming journalism often seem to sync up their opinions on various topics... it is possible that I offer antidotes to the groupthink. Please discuss these opinions with me. - Trophy talk: how do the trophies in any particular game compliment the experience? Do they add to my enjoyment and immersion? Do they guide me to utilise different playstyles? Do they provoke a greater understanding of the world/themes/characters/gameplay? Or are they detached from these factors and unnecessarily frustrating or bland? I'll be trying to explore gameplay, storytelling devices and themes... ... and talking about dreams... ...while making memes... The most frequent ways that games leave an impact with me involve pulling me into a unique atmosphere that I can’t stop thinking about and which brings me either solace or excitement, or leaving me with emotional attachment to a character and their struggles, so any critiques will therefore have a clear positive bias towards atmosphere and character development. Also, if there’s anything particularly incredible about a soundtrack, I’ll probably sing some praises about that too and maybe drop a link for you to listen to it yourself. I hope you’ll stick around! Reviews: Spoiler 2021 01: The Witness 02: Series: Jak and Daxter 03: Series: Ratchet and Clank 04: Series: Uncharted 2022 05: The Last of Us & The Last of Us: Part II 06: Series: Crash Bandicoot 07: Spyro: Reignited Trilogy 08: Series: Far Cry 09: Puzzle Post II: An Indie Omnibus (Braid, Inside & Rime) 10: Series: God of War 11: Hyper Light Drifter 12: Couch Co-Op Critique #1: LEGO Games (The Lord of the Rings & Harry Potter) 13: Telltale Games: Back to the Future, The Wolf Among Us, Tales from the Borderlands, Game of Thrones, Batman: The Telltale Series 14: Indie Omnibus II: Superhot, Grip: Combat Racing, Slain: Back from Hell, Super Time Force Ultra & N++ End of Year 1 Awards 2023 15: Arkane Studios Part 1: The Dishonored Trilogy 16: Series: Call of Duty 17: Puzzle Post III: Portal & Portal 2; Bridge Constructor Portal 18: Disco Elysium 19: CD Projekt Red:The Witcher III, Thronebreaker, Gwent [PS4] & Cyberpunk 2077 20: God of War: Ragnarök 21: Horizon: Zero Dawn & Horizon: Forbidden West 22: Inscryption 23: Puzzle Post IV / Indie Omnibus III: An Exploration of Time (Outer Wilds, Return of the Obra Dinn, The Sexy Brutale) 24: Grand Theft Auto V End of Year 2 Awards 2024 25: Red Dead Redemption I & 2; Red Dead Revolver 26: Bloodborne vs Elden Ring Pending 27: The Batman: Arkham trilogy 28: Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart 29: Solar Ash, Shadow of the Colossus and Mirror's Edge 30: Prey Couch Co-Op Critique II Indie Omnibus IV Puzzle Post V Scores from my reviewed games so far (updated after each review): Spoiler In alphabetical order: 10 Accessible to any gamer, emotionally resonant and an example of the artistic achievements of the gaming medium. - Grand Theft Auto V - Inscryption - The Last of Us - Portal 2 - Red Dead Redemption - Red Dead Redemption II - The Witcher III: Wild Hunt - The Witness 9.5 - Bloodborne - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II [2009] - Disco Elysium - God of War: Ragnarök - Hyper Light Drifter - Outer Wilds - Portal - Return of the Obra Dinn - Uncharted 4: A Thief's End 9 Top shelf. Very high quality, immersive atmosphere, very few overt flaws. - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [2007] - Crash Bandicoot: Warped - Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time - God of War [2005] - The Last of Us: Part II - N++ - Ratchet & Clank [2002] - Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales 8.5 - Braid - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [2019] - Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back - Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled - God of War III - God of War [2018] - Medal of Honor: Frontline - Ratchet & Clank 2: Going Commando - Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal 8 An all-around high quality game that I’d recommend to a fan of that genre, but there are notable imperfections. - Dishonored: Definitive Edition - Gwent: The Witcher Card Game - Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy - Jak II: Renegade - Super Time Force Ultra - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - Uncharted: Lost Legacy - The Wolf Among Us 7.5 - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III - Call of Duty: World at War - Cyberpunk 2077 - Dishonored 2 - Elden Ring - Far Cry: Blood Dragon - God of War II - Horizon: Forbidden West 7 A good game. Mostly enjoyable. - Bridge Constructor Portal - Crash Bandicoot - Far Cry 5 - Horizon: Zero Dawn - Inside - Jak 3 - Jak X: Combat Racing - Ratchet: Deadlocked - Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon - Uncharted: Drake's Fortune - Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception 6.5 - Dishonored: Death of the Outsider - Far Cry 3 - God of War: Ascension - God of War: Ghost of Sparta - LEGO: The Lord of the Rings - Rime - Slain: Back from Hell - Superhot 6 Some positives are worth experiencing if this is on sale, but there's nothing here to evolve or develop the gaming industry. - Grip: Combat Racing - Red Dead Revolver - Spyro the Dragon - Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage 5.5 - God of War: Chains of Olympus - LEGO: Harry Potter Years 1-4 - LEGO: Harry Potter Years 5-7 5 The bare-minimal standard for a game to have been worth my emotional and time investments. Perfectly in the middle of a scale between “must play - 10/10" and “barely functional - 0/10.” - Back to the Future: The Game - Far Cry 4 - Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time 4.5 - Call of Duty 3 - The Sexy Brutale 4 There’s some glaring faults here that detract from enjoying this for more than brief periods here and there. - Far Cry: New Dawn - Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus - Ratchet & Clank [2016] 3.5 - 0 I regret this purchase due to either very poor game design or execution or because of a failure to connect with the themes at a foundational level. - Batman: The Telltale Series - Call of Duty: Black Ops I - Call of Duty: Black Ops II - Far Cry: Classic - Far Cry: Primal - Game of Thrones - Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction - Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty - Tales from the Borderlands My Community Badges: Spoiler 2021 Didn't Half-Ass It Trophies Against Cancer _______________________________________ 2022 Ultra Rare Cleanup Bingo Bonanza Platinum Difficulty Challenge Trophies for Mental Health II Community Puzzle: The Case of the Missing Couple (I hosted this one!) Trophies Against Cancer _______________________________________ 2023 Ultra Rare Clean-Up Kaleidoscope Challenge Bingo Bonanza Platinum Difficulty Challenge Trophies for Mental Health III Trophies to Fight Cancer Edited March 11 by Platinum_Vice 24 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
visighost Posted November 1, 2021 Share Posted November 1, 2021 Good luck with Dash Eternal. It's tough... but nothing like the hardcore or boss rush modes... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Platinum_Vice Posted November 1, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 1, 2021 (edited) 01 THE WITNESS Platinum #3, 10/10 Hot takes: The Witness rivals Portal 2 as the best puzzle game of all time. The Witness is my pick of 2016 to be Game of the Year, beating out Rocket League, XCOM 2, Stardew Valley, Doom, Overwatch and even (barely) Hyper Light Drifter and Uncharted 4. What is great about this game: This game is top tier. Despite representing the puzzler’s genre, despite a lack of a narrative, and despite a grand total of 0 characters, The Witness manages to entrance and mesmerise. The premise is simple: you are presented with a panel that contains a puzzle resembling a grid. The puzzle requires you to trace one unbroken line from a fixed starting position to a fixed ending point. ...just like this. Then do that 500 more times with a variety of additional obstacles and rules that you have to learn without any explicit instructions. Except that the game literally teaches you everything you need to know without any written instructions at all. The only limitations here are your mental horsepower and an ability to think laterally. ...But if the game just has you solving line puzzles on panels 500 times over, why is that so great? And why is it necessary to do it in three dimensions in a game instead of just solving them in a book? Because there’s so much more to it: external factors affect the panels making them more than just the two-dimensional grids in the above image. Puzzles in The Witness require movement in three dimensions instead of two dimensions. I’ve never played a game that has been so meticulously constructed down to the smallest corners because every angle, colour and sound means something, and once you finally come to the earth-shattering realisation that you’ve been looking at trees instead of a forest for the whole time (you dolt)... it changes you. I’ve never experienced a better *mind-blown* moment in gaming than during my playthrough of The Witness. Never. And it does this without characters or a narrative. What other game can boast such an achievement? As a gamer who covets relatable characters being challenged within themselves and in assisting them as they overcome external obstacles, I concede that The Witness would be unnecessarily shackled by such additions. The underlying theme and motif of the game is ‘perspective.’ The player is the one overcoming obstacles and being challenged, and you don’t need to experience that through the lens of a character. It is your own perspective that you will be taught to shift. And what else about this game is so great? Well, I like the stillness, sterility and therefore serenity of this island without any moving animals, ambience or music (sidenote: I never thought this could be possible. It challenges what I know to be true as far as what a game is and what a game requires). What else? Well, how about the map in the centre of the island that is disguised as something else until you revisit it for the umpteenth time with a fresh perspective; finally open-minded enough to see its true nature. How about the beautiful and colourful aesthetic? This art style will hold up for decades. I found the vibrant orange, pink and red trees (3 separate locations) visually stunning in particular. How about that bit in the beginning where you’re about 20 minutes and 10 puzzles deep and the game throws you this: ...with multiple new symbols on it and you’re forced to say: “well, I guess I can’t solve this one yet" and you have to go away and keep exploring before coming back later... just one of the many ways the player takes on instructions by *doing* rather than by a more overt written or spoken tutorial (just like how stories must ‘show, not tell,’ the best games make the player ‘do, not show or tell'). How about the difficulty of the puzzles? They are challenging but the core of the game is achievable for a majority of players getting by with only a handful of hints. For me, there was one puzzle that I gave up on, for which I am grateful, because that tells me that the game was never fully overcome. Regardless of how many times I climbed the mountain or mined into its depths, I can never say that I conquered the game because of that one puzzle and I love that. I’d hate that in pretty much any other game (that wouldn’t be okay with me in Portal 2, for example), but I can’t help thinking about my pretentious old English teacher who would have said “but it’s meant to be like that” in an overly-calm voice with the mysterious undertones of wisdom. The puzzle in question took place in a rusty old ship. There was a puzzle hidden away in there that requires an inspired and cynical ear to pick out the key to solving it (which I didn't identify) and it would then require meticulous and patient attempts to figure out the starting time for two separate auditory loops by brute force (which I would have struggled with for too long anyway) while juggling multiple other puzzle rules as well. That puzzle was MENSA-level difficult and unfortunately I bowed out. (Actually, I take that back after proofreading and recalling more of my failings: I had to look up three unsolved obelisk puzzles too (and I remember feeling guilty when the answers made me think ‘damn, I should have just tried again tomorrow with fresh eyes'). This game is definitely a challenge.) Some things I didn’t like so much: - The voice acting for the dictaphones and the post-Challenge cutscenes are somehow even more pretentious than I am. - The requirement to hold down the trigger for an hour or so for one puzzle while listening to a lecture was too self-indulgent, yet for some reason entirely-necessary to 100% the game. - The Treehouse and Swamp areas went on a little too long and felt like I was working my way through a maths textbook due to being loaded with so many panels back-to-back. - There are “discarded puzzles" hidden around the island with little orange triangles in them. Some make sounds like deep underground machinery/switches when you solve them, but they don’t actually do anything... oversight? bug? red herring? or a feature removed in development? No one actually knows. For a game so meticulously designed down to the smallest of details beyond any other game I’ve experienced, this one is particularly irritating. Trophy talk: The trophies corral a hunter into completing the lion's share of the game, but incredibly, it refrains from spoiling the “a-ha" moment that I’ve alluded to by only asking the player to complete The Challenge. Abstaining from implementing trophies for the black obelisks or honeycomb puzzles maintains the purity of ‘that’ moment that you either have experienced, or should want to experience. As a result, I give The Witness one of the highest praises that I can as a Trophy Hunter: I wanted to (and did) keep playing long after obtaining the platinum. If this is ported or re-released with a new trophy list I’ll buy it Day 1. If not, I still see myself returning to the island for a second time over the next five or so years just to start it again. My only wish is that I could do it all for the first time again. I enjoyed this game so much that when I finished it and prodded around online, I saw many players struggling with puzzles but only wanting hints because they too felt so rewarded by making their own progress. The lack of a singular guide doing just that was what inspired me to write my first video game guide ever. As the third platinum that I ever obtained and the one that I credit with sparking my desire to begin my journey as a Trophy Hunter, there’s no other game that I would have wanted to review to begin my own Trophy Checklist. Let me know your own thoughts... Edited December 26, 2021 by GonzoWARgasm 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted November 1, 2021 Share Posted November 1, 2021 Sweeeeeeeeeet, about damned time you had your own checklist going mate! I shall christen it in the only way I can - by doing this!: 5 minutes ago, GonzoWARgasm said: Hot takes: The Witness rivals Portal 2 as the best puzzle game of all time. Ah, the correctest of "hot takes" - let no one eve convince you this take is hot - it's as cold as a coldcumber! ?? 7 minutes ago, GonzoWARgasm said: Except that the game literally teaches you everything you need to know without any written instructions at all. The only limitations here are your mental horsepower and an ability to think laterally. I agree, and I choose to assume you mean not just about how to solve the game, but just generally about life... and I still consider this statement to be factually correct ? I agree on virtually every positive point you make! On this: 11 minutes ago, GonzoWARgasm said: Some things I didn’t like so much: - The voice acting on the dictaphones and the post-Challenge cutscenes are somehow even more pretentious than I am. ...Luckily, they are only about 1/3rd as pretentious as I am, so no issue from me ? 12 minutes ago, GonzoWARgasm said: Trophy talk: The trophies corral a hunter into completing the lion's share of the game, but incredibly, it refrains from spoiling the “a-ha" moment that I’ve alluded to by only asking the player to complete The Challenge. Abstaining from implementing trophies for the black obelisks or honeycomb puzzles maintains the purity of ‘that’ moment that you either have experienced, or should want to experience. As a result, I give The Witness one of the highest praises that I can as a Trophy Hunter: I wanted to (and did) keep playing long after obtaining the platinum. That's actually a great point - in the age of trophies, the bar for what games I will keep going with post-platinum has been raised quite a bit, but The Witness did for sure! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Dubz Posted November 1, 2021 Share Posted November 1, 2021 (edited) You had me sold at the title of this post ? I have enjoyed your initial layout here so far, so I think I'll tag along for the ride!! HLD is another one in my insurmountable backlog of stuff, so good luck getting that Eternal Dash trophy!! Only made one solid attempt at it myself and got maybe halfway to the mark but fell short. It's been a long minute since I played it anyway, but the game was sweet and I'm sure I'll get back to it someday. Cheers Gonzo, looking forward to following along with your progress here! Edit: after checking out your review of The Witness, it really gives me fond memories of Myst from waaaaaay back in the day, if anyone is an old man like me and remembers that one! Edited November 1, 2021 by Joe Dubz 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grotz99 Posted November 1, 2021 Share Posted November 1, 2021 29 minutes ago, GonzoWARgasm said: . Great review and the guide looks awesome. It's been 2 years since I've played The Witness and I stopped without getting the Challenge trophy like a damn fool. At this point I feel like I would need to play the game again to get use to the puzzles before attempting that trophy or maybe look at your guide and others to shock my memory into how to solve some of those puzzles. It's definitely up there for puzzle based games. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Platinum_Vice Posted November 1, 2021 Author Share Posted November 1, 2021 1 minute ago, DrBloodmoney said: Sweeeeeeeeeet, about damned time you had your own checklist going mate! If everyone else here jumped off a bridge, would I do it too? Yeah maybe, that sounds fun as hell! 2 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said: Ah, the correctest of "hot takes" - let no one eve convince you this take is hot - it's as cold as a coldcumber! I dunno... spoiler alert: Spoiler I'll give Portal 2 a 10/10 when I get around to it too... unless you meant that Portal 2 is indeed worthy of rivalling The Witness, in which case... I challenge you to review Portal 2! 6 minutes ago, Joe Dubz said: You had me sold at the title of this post ? I have enjoyed your initial layout here so far, so I think I'll tag along for the ride!! HLD is another one in my insurmountable backlog of stuff, so good luck getting that Eternal Dash trophy!! Only made one solid attempt at it myself and got maybe halfway to the mark but fell short. It's been a long minute since I played it anyway, but the game was sweet and I'm sure I'll get back to it someday. Cheers Gonzo, looking forward to following along with your progress here! Edit: after checking out your review of The Witness, it really gives me fond memories of Myst from waaaaaay back in the day, if anyone is an old man like me and remembers that one! Thanks Joe. I'll try to make the ride worth it. Oh yes, HLD. "Hiding Long Dacklog" I believe. ? The Dash Eternal is CRAZY (as you know), so naturally... it must be done! I have Myst ready to go on a jerry-rigged PS1 Classic (I installed Bleemsync on it) so that I can play games such as Myst and Riven, because they should have shipped with the classic console instead of some of the other... garbage. One day I'll get around to ACTUALLY playing it. It seems right up my alley. 7 minutes ago, Grotz99 said: Great review and the guide looks awesome. It's been 2 years since I've played The Witness and I stopped without getting the Challenge trophy like a damn fool. At this point I feel like I would need to play the game again to get use to the puzzles before attempting that trophy or maybe look at your guide and others to shock my memory into how to solve some of those puzzles. It's definitely up there for puzzle based games. Thanks Grotz. I'd recommend just starting again. The game so masterfully teaches you how to get through it, plus The Challenge is no slouch and requires genuine knowledge of the mechanics (as you know), plus it's just such a lovely journey through a beautiful game. Give it another crack mate and just get immersed back in there ? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaManSmevz Posted November 1, 2021 Share Posted November 1, 2021 YAAASS!! Color me excited. I'm so happy to see that you're starting a checklist, and what a way to kick it off. Excellent review, and your pictures are indeed pretty. Both you and the good Doctor will surely hear about it when I finally complete The Witness, as I'll no doubt be dying to talk about it with vets of the game. Just got the town laser left, then the really intimidating stuff? So far the Jungle was the hardest for me, the tones and animal noises threw me for a loop. I mean how do you describe pitch?? All the areas you mentioned are gorgeous, but I think The Bunker wowed me the most, up to this point at least. It just drowns you in color, but still allows enough subtlety for, say, different shades to appear when seen through glass. Anyway. In other Gonzo news, I see Enslaved on there! That's in my PS3 backlog too, I'm excited to see your thoughts on it when you get to it. Also, hell yes to Mark of the Ninja and Bully! Nab those if you see em on sale man, those games are so damn fun. I feel like Roman right now. MAI CAZZIN IS HEEERE!! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Platinum_Vice Posted November 1, 2021 Author Share Posted November 1, 2021 1 minute ago, YaManSmevz said: YAAASS!! Color me excited. I'm so happy to see that you're starting a checklist, and what a way to kick it off. Excellent review, and your pictures are indeed pretty. Both you and the good Doctor will surely hear about it when I finally complete The Witness, as I'll no doubt be dying to talk about it with vets of the game. Just got the town laser left, then the really intimidating stuff So far the Jungle was the hardest for me, the tones and animal noises threw me for a loop. I mean how do you describe pitch?? All the areas you mentioned are gorgeous, but I think The Bunker wowed me the most, up to this point at least. It just drowns you in color, but still allows enough subtlety for, say, different shades to appear when seen through glass. Anyway. In other Gonzo news, I see Enslaved on there! That's in my PS3 backlog too, I'm excited to see your thoughts on it when you get to it. Also, hell yes to Mark of the Ninja and Bully! Nab those if you see em on sale man, those games are so damn fun. I feel like Roman right now. MAI CAZZIN IS HEEERE!! Let's go bowling. Mmm the bunker is good. I think you'll enjoy the town then. A lot of people struggle with the pitch puzzles, don't best yourself up about it. Oh, I am indeed awaiting your own review mate!! I am trying to keep my expectations in check with Enslaved! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjkclarke Posted November 1, 2021 Share Posted November 1, 2021 I'd like to echo everyone else's sentiments that it's awesome that you've started one of these yourself - I don't know why I took so long in dropping a comment, I dropped a follow on the thread pretty eagerly, within the first five minutes or so it was up ?.... This'll be awesome I think. Great review of The Witness too, not that I needed anymore convincing to play that in future. 16 minutes ago, YaManSmevz said: I see Enslaved on there! That's in my PS3 backlog too, I'm excited to see your thoughts on it when you get to it. Also, hell yes to Mark of the Ninja and Bully! Nab those if you see em on sale man, those games are so damn fun. 7 minutes ago, GonzoWARgasm said: I am trying to keep my expectations in check with Enslaved! Bully is a yes from me as well, get that played if you haven't already. I know I'm just one person - but I'll vouch for Enslaved that it's awesome - Monkey is a really interesting character, that Andy Serkis brings to life in such a unique way that only he can really. I'm also looking forward to hearing your eventual thoughts on that one - might give me the kick up the arse I need to get around to reviewing it myself ?..... Oh and find a way to do the DLC because when I looked last I couldn't find it in the store...... Sad times... Onwards and upwards and all that! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted November 1, 2021 Share Posted November 1, 2021 (edited) Gonzo- of course, this being the first day of your brand spanking new checklist (and really, what is a checklist thread, if not a receptacle into which everyone can recommend so many good games that you literally couldn’t ever get to them all? ?), here’s part 2 of my christening - this: 3 hours ago, GonzoWARgasm said: The Witness rivals Portal 2 as the best puzzle game of all time confirms you are a Portal fan (and therefore, a correct human!) It also obligates me to inform you that the game I am currently playing - Quantum Conundrum, is both great, and one of the most Portal-like Portal-likes that has ever likened itself to Portal - and given how much I like Portal and Portal-likes, I really, really like this Portal-like! Well worth a look if a PS3 is still in your possession! Edited November 1, 2021 by DrBloodmoney 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Platinum_Vice Posted November 1, 2021 Author Share Posted November 1, 2021 1 hour ago, rjkclarke said: I'd like to echo everyone else's sentiments that it's awesome that you've started one of these yourself - I don't know why I took so long in dropping a comment, I dropped a follow on the thread pretty eagerly, within the first five minutes or so it was up .... This'll be awesome I think. Great review of The Witness too, not that I needed anymore convincing to play that in future. Bully is a yes from me as well, get that played if you haven't already. I know I'm just one person - but I'll vouch for Enslaved that it's awesome - Monkey is a really interesting character, that Andy Serkis brings to life in such a unique way that only he can really. I'm also looking forward to hearing your eventual thoughts on that one - might give me the kick up the arse I need to get around to reviewing it myself ..... Oh and find a way to do the DLC because when I looked last I couldn't find it in the store...... Sad times... Onwards and upwards and all that! Thanks bro I like Andy Serkis and didn't know he was in this. 4 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said: Gonzo- of course, this being the first day of your brand spanking new checklist (and really, what is a checklist thread, if not a receptacle into which everyone can recommend so many good games that you literally couldn’t ever get to them all? ), here’s part 2 of my christening - this: confirms you are a Portal fan (and therefore, a correct human!) It also obligates me to inform you that the game I am currently playing - Quantum Conundrum, is both great, and one of the most Portal-like Portal-likes that has ever likened itself to Portal - and given how much I like Portal and Portal-likes, I really, really like this Portal-like! Well worth a look if a PS3 is still in your possession! Hey hey hey hey! Backlogs get smaller, not bigger. You just had to go and mess it all up with you fancy shmancy recommendations of games that do actually look like they'd be a good time, didn't you? Sheesh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted November 1, 2021 Share Posted November 1, 2021 11 minutes ago, GonzoWARgasm said: Hey hey hey hey! Backlogs get smaller, not bigger. You just had to go and mess it all up with you fancy shmancy recommendations of games that do actually look like they'd be a good time, didn't you? Sheesh. Don't be crazy - it's meant to be: ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlutoRico Posted November 1, 2021 Share Posted November 1, 2021 (edited) Nice checklist, will be nice to follow up your progress. Will personally be waiting on The Witcher III and Thronebreaker reviews if you ever decide to get around and review them. Congratulations on that Gwent platinum, I missed out on it before the closure and it remains one of my biggest gaming regrets. Also are you still working on Badland ? Are you aiming for the plat ? It's a game I want to do in the future so it would be good to have your thoughts on it ? Good luck ? Edited November 1, 2021 by PlutoRico 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcesius Posted November 2, 2021 Share Posted November 2, 2021 Man, soon I'll be spending more time reading checklists than gaming or working ? But I am in the same boat as @Joe Dubz... Awesome title! Glad that you decided to start one And hey, at least HLD gave The Witness a contest in Game of 2016 ? I hope you'll get that dash trophy soon! Speaking of The Witness.. Fantastic way to start your checklist Good choice of game and great review overall! I am one of those players that irritated by the pretentiousness of the game, but I enjoyed it very much regardless (and even had my girlfrield play through the game after I was done, cause I enjoyed seeing her struggle with some puzzles She didn't see it through). Looking forward to seeing this checklist evolve! P.S. If I may give you a tipp... once you have inserted an image into a post, you can Ctrl + Right Mouse click on it and you'll be able to resize it That way you can make all images the same size without having to edit them locally (it suffices if you just make them all have the same aspect ratio before uploading them). P.P.S. Also, I hope you were not crazy enough to read through my checklist.. I've been getting random likes from you from the very early, to the very recent pages ? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Platinum_Vice Posted November 2, 2021 Author Share Posted November 2, 2021 16 hours ago, PlutoRico said: Nice checklist, will be nice to follow up your progress. Will personally be waiting on The Witcher III and Thronebreaker reviews if you ever decide to get around and review them. Congratulations on that Gwent platinum, I missed out on it before the closure and it remains one of my biggest gaming regrets. Also are you still working on Badland ? Are you aiming for the plat ? It's a game I want to do in the future so it would be good to have your thoughts on it Good luck I'll definitely review the Witcher games, 100%. In fact I'll probably do W3, Thronebreaker and Gwent in one post. I LOVED all three. I am sorry to hear that you missed the cut-off for Gwent. I think CDPR's overwhelming success with W3 and then a subsequent cash-printer patent (ie Gwent's financial success) thoroughly changed their ethos as a company (probably something more common than not), and the console version of Gwent was tactically misplaced in a shredder as one of the results. Badland is SO GOOD. 10/10 atmosphere. But, the plat is too hard for me and I just don't have that kind of time with my family and work commitments. It was kind of liberating to play a game knowing from the outset that trophy completion was beyond me. I played past the first couple of walls of 'few levels in, ok I think I've seen most of what the game has to offer,' and then 'I'm going to finish the campaign,' before reaching a 'play every level three times to just get these last few hard trophies so I can call it a win within myself by knowing I pushed myself.' This was perfect. I probably put in about 20 hours over ten or so sessions and the last two were a struggle as I pushed out the last few trophies I wanted and was ready to move on to the next game. With 40% completion I'm position 263/71,611 on the leaderboard (top 0.367%) and I'll take it and run. Realistically I doubt I'll revisit it any more for the purpose of obtaining any more trophies, only occasionally in the future to enjoy the gameplay and atmosphere. If you're going to go for the plat I would suggest reconsideration but that 'quitter's attitude' is one of the reasons that it's out of my own grasp. I will fight anyone to says the game isn't bloody incredible but even I was done with playing each level for about half an hour each. Trophies will require about 1-4+ hours per level each to perfect them. There is a lot of luck involved too in addition to skill. AND, of course, then you need a co-op partner as good as you to do the second half of the game. It is about a 300-500 hour plat. Soooo... it is beyond me mate. Completionists should instead buy it on mobile (where it was originally released) and play it wearing headphones. 3 hours ago, Arcesius said: Man, soon I'll be spending more time reading checklists than gaming or working But I am in the same boat as @Joe Dubz... Awesome title! Glad that you decided to start one And hey, at least HLD gave The Witness a contest in Game of 2016 I hope you'll get that dash trophy soon! Speaking of The Witness.. Fantastic way to start your checklist Good choice of game and great review overall! I am one of those players that irritated by the pretentiousness of the game, but I enjoyed it very much regardless (and even had my girlfrield play through the game after I was done, cause I enjoyed seeing her struggle with some puzzles She didn't see it through). Looking forward to seeing this checklist evolve! P.S. If I may give you a tipp... once you have inserted an image into a post, you can Ctrl + Right Mouse click on it and you'll be able to resize it That way you can make all images the same size without having to edit them locally (it suffices if you just make them all have the same aspect ratio before uploading them). P.P.S. Also, I hope you were not crazy enough to read through my checklist.. I've been getting random likes from you from the very early, to the very recent pages Thanks Arcesius. The Dash Eternal is still evading me (for now). My misso was in the same boat with The Witness. I think she activated a few lasers and then was happy to move on. Thanks for the tip - game changer. ? And... I am definitely crazy enough to have read through most of your checklist (so far). You are not the first and you will not be the last ? however I will try to not necro it with more rep points in the future. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Platinum_Vice Posted November 3, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 3, 2021 (edited) 02 Series: Jak and Daxter #1 (PS3) & #50 (PS4) Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, 8/10 #4 (PS3) & #51 (PS4) Jak II: Renegade, 8/10 #5 (PS3) & #52 (PS4) Jak 3, 7/10 #53 (PS4) Jak X: Combat Racing, 7/10 This series was my first experience with trophy stacking. Hot takes: This series is unlikely to benefit from a reboot. Naughty Dog isn’t the same developer it was when they pumped these games out 15 years ago and even they were responsible for two separate stop-and-pivots as seen in Jak II (imagine being so out of ideas by your second game that you blatantly rip off the most popular title that’s already been released (GTA III), add a skateboard to take advantage of then-current Tony Hawk/EA Sports trends, blending in some time travel and a dystopic setting which were absent from the first game, spicing to taste with an Angelina Jolie-esque sheila and starting a love-triangle, AND turning your main character into Wolverine). The second stop-and-pivot is even more blatant in Jak X when even the genre goes out the window... but, in fairness, Crash Team Racing was pretty awesome, why not apply the same logic to bookend the subsequent series, too? No reboot would generate enough positive feedback to warrant further sequels, which is what is required in the current market (a la Activision's remastering Crash 1, 2, 3 and CTR to drum up interest in a Crash 4) because it would be too divisive. Who would be the target demographic of a new J&D? 10-16? Jak II and Jak X may have moulded towards the interests from pre-teens to mid-teens but the series’ identity cannot survive the shift into the interests of the modern market for that age group in the 2020s. So that just leaves us fans with ageing PS2 copies and then two attempts at remasters ports for trophy support, widescreen and smoother frame rates. I’m just not convinced that a reboot would work, despite desperate pleas from the oldskool fans. What is this series? Jak and Daxter follows the titular duo as they leave their idyllic village on a quest to understand the nature of Dark Eco, which threatens their peaceful existence and has disfigured Daxter's body. Then some significant events have clearly taken place in Jak's town between Jak 2 and Jak 10 because Jak 11 is set far in the future (seriously though, does it bother anyone else that Jak II isn't "Jak 2"? Or that Jak 3 isn't "Jak III"? Or that Jak X isn't oh nevermind). Jak has been subjected to experiments involving the life-changing powers of testosterone Dark Eco. He is now seeking revenge on a changed and unjust world, featuring the Krimzon Guard (who spell Crimson with not just a K, but also a Z, so you know they’re really hardcore). Jak's “Chosen One" narrative is given more weight. Jak 3 seeks to resolve the story beats and character arcs of the prior two games and heavily relies on what adult-Gonzo now recognises as Hollywood cliches such as the ‘man behind the curtain’ gag and the ‘I am your father’ routine, in addition to Jak II's 'fan-favourite-character-didn’t-actually-die’ twist. I actually support most of the cliches though. When you’re 14, you’ve only seen The Wizard of Oz, Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings to reference those tropes before (respectively: the precursors’ actual appearance vs the wizard of Oz, the Jak/Damos relationship vs Luke/Vader, and Sig’s escape from death echoing Gandalf's rebirth) and 14 year olds haven’t found them overused or predictable yet. Jak X is an arcade combat racer set in the Jak universe. Jak and friends must drive to survive as they avoid twists and turns on and off the track. It's easily one of the better combat racers you can get your hands on. Praises: The controls in this series are as smooth as butter. The move combos are masterfully animated. I love that they work for both combat and platforming. For example, rolling into a long jump and then a subsequent high jump provides the opportunity to jump large gaps or reach high ledges, and spin kicking in the air will cause Jak to levitate, and shooting during that process clears the room of enemies. I also found myself using a punch/shoot combo regularly as it fires a three shot burst. On the subject of controls and smooth animations, the hoverboard kicked ass. Despite many series trying to emulate Tony Hawk's fluidity, only Jak II and the SSX games could do it justice. Those mechanics were at the core of Tony Hawk and SSX. In Jak II, the hoverboard is completely irrelevant to the characters and narrative - it’s just a groovy side feature - which only increases my astonishment with how fluid they were. Lastly on the subject of animations, Jak has a separate stance and carry-style for each weapon, and when he's driving, Daxter takes control of the guns - complete with angry scowl. That's rad. Everything precursor-related caught and held my attention, be it the underwater level in J&D (best level in J&D), all other precursor-based levels in the sequels, the design of the orbs themselves, the lore in the sequels that the orbs are so much more rare now that they're deep in the future, the Light Jak powers (just the tendril wings alone were cooler than anything Dark Jak related). I mean, that one aspect covers game levels, lore and powers... that’s a lot of things to get right with one aspect of a series. I think this fed into my disappointment with the precursor reveal at the end of Jak 3. The Lost Precursor City - a lesson on how to make an underwater level the best one in the game (a truly rare feat). The Tomb of Mar The crisp design of a precursor orb Light Jak I love that J&D maintains a constant illusion that the game world is all fully loaded in and that you can look to your horizon and see parts of the world you have affected/are yet to explore. For example, Misty Island is always visible off the coast if you can get to a location that faces that direction. Elevated heights reveal large precursor buildings. A large zeppelin that is tied down in a marsh level is visible from one location in a different level before you set it free, and not visible afterwards from that same location. Those details and the lack of loading screens gained widespread praise for the technical achievements and have impacted not just future Naughty Dog games, but throughout other spheres in the gaming industry. A still from J&D with the zeppelin visible on the horizon (and precursor towers in the Forbidden Jungle). Despite calling out the change in tone between J&D and Jak II, I support it. The world of J&D was fully explored. It hit all the adventure game locales: beach level, jungle level, underwater level, lava level, snow level, cave level, dungeon level. The was no ‘logical’ path to evolve the series without the major pivot in tone. I do love the atmosphere of Jak II. I was in the perfect demographic to enjoy the mish-mash of ideas and not find it cringey at all. The oppressive dystopia feeds Jak’s change in attitude to a more adolescent angst; his anger is totally justified, Haven City is a horrible place to live. The industrial areas in particular were well realised (such as the prison). The best level in Jak II has to be infiltrating Haven Palace by platforming across a support beam high up in the air: A+ idea, visuals and gameplay execution. I don’t usually keep up with video game voice actors. I mean I know of Nolan North and Troy Baker, but that’s about it. However, Clancy Brown, a classic villain actor with maaaaany credits to his name (such as Shawshank Redemption and Highlander, and he’s also Uka Uka and Mr Krabs... and he’ll be in both the upcoming season of Dexter and in John Wick 4), KILLS IT as Baron Praxis. It’s especially chilling to listen to his character’s broadcasts throughout Haven City. His dialogue and voice work really feed into the dystopic setting. The three-way conflict between Torn's Resistance/Krew's syndicate vs Praxis/Krimzon Guard vs the metal heads was great. A large cast of characters with their own motivations was fertile ground for interesting mission variety and a convincing ability to affect change on the world around Jak and it was sick. Video game voice acting royalty Nolan North and Troy Baker Jak 3 brings everything great about the prior games’ levels and character diversity back for the conclusion. It’s more of the same... but in a good way. Nothing feels overplayed due to an adherence to The Rule of Threes with all side-questing mechanics. Regarding Jak X: this game is totally dope. The tone perfectly appeals to the interests of young teens. The plot provides the characters with the excuse to take part in a series of races and it is a step up from the poor effort that was Crash Team Racing's half-baked narrative, which is now well known to have contained a low quality plot to convince Sony to let Naughty Dog do something not Crash Bandicoot-related. Jak X's soundtrack is slick. Shout out to Queens of the Stone Age for You Think I Ain’t Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like A Millionaire for the music in the intro. The intro cutscene itself is up there with J&D and Jak II's intros as some of the best introductory cutscenes for anything closely related to their genres. Also, I am convinced that the movie Death Race heavily 'borrows' ideas from this game. If you liked this game, watch that B-grade shlock too. Shortcomings: J&D is too short (although, is that really a negative? Wanting more of a great thing?) In Jak II, Dark Jak takes forever to power up, and if you die after using the ability at a hard spot, it isn’t available again upon respawn. The combination of those two factors meant that I never used it for fear of needing it later. Jak 3 fixed this by implementing a symbol of Mar (read: yin/yang) as a gauge for both dark and light powers, each of which could be activated for a length of time that was determined by how full the gauge is. Jak 3 has no central villains. The trilogy's final boss is Errol. Errol. Yikes. Even worse, Jak 3’s villains aren’t relatable. Also with Jak 3... towards the end of the series it is brought about that Jak is Mar... what? How does that even work? Mar built Haven City using his affinity with Precursor tech. Fine. But how can Jak go back in time to a period between J&D and Jak II? He doesn’t have a time machine anymore. Is Keira going to build one? And, a city takes a long time to build... Better get going Jak. Don’t dilly-dally with any side adventures or sequel spin-offs mate. Sure, we knew he was a descendant of Mar, and that he is the child from Jak II having grown up, but nowhere is it implied or stated until the last cutscene at end of Jak 3 that he is Mar himself... right? Doesn’t make any sense. Jak X suffers from classic ludonarrative dissonance: people are clearly killed during the races. You kill your old friends and they are out to kill you. There isn't a hint of hesitation or remorse. But once the race is over everyone is okay and talking about how they nearly died and how the baddies are going to smoke them. And then when someone dies in a cutscene, then it's canon. I can't put my finger on why, but this is particularly jarring for me in Jak X. Trophy talk: J&D was my first ever platinum back in the days when I couldn’t give a hoot about trophies because PlayStation wasn’t my primary console yet. It has a simple list that only requires 100% in-game completion and nothing else. In honour of that first milestone, I ensured that the PS4 port would be my 50th platinum multiple years later when I was giving many a hoot about this hobby. I completed J&D that time in one sitting in 5 hours without any preparation or speedrunning techniques. I bring that up to show how small that game actually is. The four games are genuinely easy games to platinum which accounts for how early I had them bagged and tagged. Is there a desire for me to continue playing after platting all four games? Not in an immediate sense, but I’ll play them again in about ten years or so. I’ll also keep them for my kids for when they’re old enough to play them too. I think they’ll love them. Stick around for the next review in a few days: the Ratchet and Clank series! Be prepared, it will be a looong one, and probably controversial (definitely involving shouting and fist waving towards the skies), and probably the longest for my whole checklist (nine games!) Thanks to everyone who has begun following and commenting!! Let me know your thoughts ? Edited June 22, 2022 by Platinum_Vice 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaManSmevz Posted November 3, 2021 Share Posted November 3, 2021 Great work man, I feel properly schooled! Was more a Ratchet and Clank person back in those days and never dove into the Jak games, so this was a real treat. I lost track of R+C after the PS2 days so I'm very much looking forward to that write-up! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KindaSabbath Posted November 3, 2021 Share Posted November 3, 2021 Awesome checklist dude! I really enjoyed your write up of The Witness! I'm intrigued as it's a game I picked up for free so I must check it out for myself at some point! Love the title of your thread, too. Plenty of us older boys on here and we're all absolutely smashing this shit. ? Excellent taste in games mate. This will be one to watch in the checklist space. Looking forward to all that is coming! @Arcesius - I hear you with all these awesome threads popping up. Luckily for me both gaming and work is out for a hot minute, so I I'm all in on all of this excellent reading material. Which reminds me - I have a little Yakuza 0 reading to catch up on ? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sendai-Horatio Posted November 3, 2021 Share Posted November 3, 2021 I gotta ask how much does the debug menu cut down on the original Jak platinum. Because now I'm curious how much of a time difference there is. I've got all the release of Jak right back to the PS2 ones and went through them multiple times. Also @GonzoWARgasm if you liked The Witness, you should probably check out Obduction, it's on the PS4 and it's made by the same people behind Myst itself. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Platinum_Vice Posted November 3, 2021 Author Share Posted November 3, 2021 4 hours ago, YaManSmevz said: Great work man, I feel properly schooled! Was more a Ratchet and Clank person back in those days and never dove into the Jak games, so this was a real treat. I lost track of R+C after the PS2 days so I'm very much looking forward to that write-up! So was I! I had both but preferred R&C more. Never got a copy of Sly Cooper though. 2 hours ago, KindaSabbath said: Awesome checklist dude! I really enjoyed your write up of The Witness! I'm intrigued as it's a game I picked up for free so I must check it out for myself at some point! 100% do it. Might look a little different compared to your usual plate, but the strange fruits often taste the best. If you like puzzles, you won't go wrong here. 2 hours ago, KindaSabbath said: Love the title of your thread, too. Plenty of us older boys on here and we're all absolutely smashing this shit. Oath. 2 hours ago, KindaSabbath said: Excellent taste in games mate. This will be one to watch in the checklist space. Looking forward to all that is coming! Appreciate it, I'll try to live up to the hype ? 2 hours ago, Sendai-Horatio said: I gotta ask how much does the debug menu cut down on the original Jak platinum. Because now I'm curious how much of a time difference there is. I've got all the release of Jak right back to the PS2 ones and went through them multiple times. Also @GonzoWARgasm if you liked The Witness, you should probably check out Obduction, it's on the PS4 and it's made by the same people behind Myst itself. I've just done a bit of research... apparently with The Precursor Legacy's debug you can obtain all power cells but not scout flies or precursor orbs, so... sounds like not much time is actually being saved there considering you still need to pretty much do the whole game anyway. Apparently you can fly around (which is probably faster than travelling on foot), but that's still going to take you multiple hours anyway even if you know the game. Sounds very counterintuitive when anyone familiar with the game could beat it in >6hrs anyway. You might feel the same way with that information? Obduction... *goes and watches trailer* Wow! Straight to the wishlist! Thanks for the recommendation ? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Dubz Posted November 3, 2021 Share Posted November 3, 2021 Brilliant write-up my dude!! You really described the series really well, from start to finish. J&D have always held a special place in my heart... I always loved these games because I think they gave me the feels towards games like Mario 64, or even more so Banjo Kazooie, which I was obsessed with as a kid/young teen! The original was def my fave, then 2 came out and it was... Meh IMO. I just wasn't digging the much darker, GTA-themed thingy they had going on. Although agreed with you that the skateboard aspect was pretty well done and at least made traversing that retched city a lil less sucky! I know I played 3, but I don't remember it much so I guess that tells me I wasn't necessarily infatuated with it like the 1st. Something else I love, which you also touched on a bit, are the graphics. Sure, compared to some newer stuff, esp PS5 games it might not be great to some. But looking at your screenshots and such of J&D reminded me of the beautiful, vibrant world they had going on there! I feel like they seem to have stood the test of time! Funny enough Gonzo, I've never played the Sly series either, despite always hearing decent things about it! Very much looking forward to your take on the R&C series too, that's another one I've loved since inception and still do to this day! Cheers mate ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Platinum_Vice Posted November 6, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 6, 2021 (edited) 03A Series: Ratchet and Clank - Part 1 #6 (PS3) Ratchet & Clank, 9/10 #7 (PS3) Ratchet & Clank 2: Going Commando, 8.5/10 #2 (PS3) Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal, 8.5/10 #16 (PS3) Ratchet: Deadlocked, 7/10 I've played 9 games in the Ratchet and Clank series and there's only so much room per post before the website's infrastructure freaks out, so here's part 1 of 2. My opinions on this franchise will be divisive. The franchise is extremely popular (as reflected in review scores (Metacritic rates all of the games I’m reviewing as above 77% at the lowest), sales and particularly in a reverence within this site). I don’t criticise it flippantly or with malice, but out of a desire for it to return to the heights where this dynamic duo shone the brightest. Hopefully that will be explained over the course of this series analysis... Hot takes Unlike rival/sister studio Naughty Dog, whose game series are cited as having been designed for an ageing target audience (Crash Bandicoot -> Jak and Daxter -> Uncharted -> The Last of Us), Insomniac Games’ Ratchet & Clank has been given the opposite treatment. The PS2 games are aimed at a target audience between 11-16 years old, the PS3 games are aimed at children to pre-teens; 7-13 years old, and the PS4 reboot is designed for an even younger demographic. This decision making is directly responsible for the diminishing returns for long-term fans. Promotional material for Ratchet and Clank, 2002 Promotional Material for Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time, 2009 [clank pls] Ratchet and Clank [2002] RaC1 had the best character development, plot, soundtrack and planet-lore in the whole series. Ratchet undergoes growth from being a selfish mechanic to someone willing to put himself at risk for the interests of others, including the annoying robot (his perspective, not mine) who he is forced to partner with to overcome physical obstacles or other challenges, such as starting the engine of his spaceship to retrieving a plot item in a world with an atmosphere that is too toxic for Ratchet to survive in, or entering areas too small for Ratchet’s body. In this game alone, their relationship has a genuine arc for the only time in the series. A recurring theme in this game is that resources are finite and valuable in the wake of an ever-hungry hyper-consumerist galaxy. You visit planets that have their own lore: - The depleted home world of the primary enemies of the game, the Blarg, who were forced to flee the toxic atmosphere generated by their industrious economy. [Orxon] - A forest planet currently under a widespread logging operation. [Eudora] - A thriving city with living toxic waste that multiplies when damaged. [Rilgar] - A planet of tropical resorts relying on tourism that is being used by the Blarg as a dumping ground for their waste, with once-peaceful ocean life having mutated into hazardous enemies. [Pokitaru] - The headquarters of the monopolised corporation that has been supplying your weapons at every opportunity, overrun and under occupation by intimidating Blarg special forces. [Kalebo III] Intelligent life in this galaxy are cynical, selfish and street smart from having been subjected to constant manipulation. Every character that you interact with has information or items that you need to progress, but they all outright refuse to provide any of that to you without a monetary exchange. Have you noticed that purchased weapons from Gadgetron never come fully stocked with maxxed ammo? Technology is utilitarian and improvised. All of the guns look like they’ve been bolted together haphazardly like Ratchet's patchwork ship. Drek's new planet is the same: puzzle-pieced together by bringing together chunks of other planets at their expense. To go even deeper into the meta, even the soundtrack of the game heavily utilises sampling and DJ techniques to weave a variety of musical styles into a new groove, just like Drek's planet, Ratchet's ship and the weaponry. The soundtrack is one of the best I’ve heard in a game. Ever. Early concept art shows Ratchet wearing his signature gloves and a pair of headphones before Insomniac even nailed down his colour scheme. Having a sick OST was clearly an early priority for the devs. Early concept art for Ratchet Prior fan or not, you owe it to yourself to listen to this soundtrack... the themes for Veldin, Novalis, Aridia, Kerwan, Rilgar, the hoverboard race, Quartu... and dog-bless composer David Bergeaud's theme for Oltanis Base (Gemlik Orbit), for that track is the dankest of them all. I also really enjoyed the sidegame/postgame hunts for collectables in hidden areas. I like the Trespasser puzzles as well. My RaC1 weapon highlights include the Visibomb Gun and Tesla Coil. The Visibomb Gun's fired missile allows you to guide it into enemies from it's own POV I only have some very minor negative criticism of RaC1: I can’t help but wonder if the order of Gemlik Base and the planet Oltanis is actually backwards because the character development would work better the other way around. It’s actually a little jarring as it is. Gemlik Base, a Blarg operations centre in orbit of the planet Oltanis, must be played before the subsequent adventure on the planet's surface, and it marks the end of the second of three acts for the plot, where Ratchet realises that his poor attitude towards Clank and his apathy regarding Drek's villainous plans is inappropriate, and Ratchet finds a renewed motivation to continue onward with Clank's quest to stop Drek. The players then visit Oltanis where a thunderstorm threatens to harm Clank, forcing him to remain in the ship while Ratchet ventures out by himself. Ratchet faces his most extreme platforming challenges in the game on this planet and they are noticeably more difficult without Clank. Was this conceived during pre-production as the moment when Ratchet was originally supposed to come to the realisation that Clank was critical to his own success all along? A standard criticism of this game is the lack of a robust strafe function and I agree with that. However! If you go into this game without having played others in the series, you won’t notice the lack of strafe, and you’ll actually be better for it. There’s a bunch of weapons and gadgets that you’ll used to compensate and assist you in battle as a result: the Taunter, the Mine Glove, the Sonic Summoner, the Drone Device, the Decoy Glove and the Visibomb Gun are all designed for tactical defence. None of these are useful in the run-and-gun frenetic combat that Ratchet 2 began for the series, but they work for the slower-paced combat in this game. The same people complaining about the lack of strafe function are the ones complaining that half of the arsenal doesn’t suit their playstyle... maybe it is them that needs to play how the game is asking to be played, not the other way around. Ratchet and Clank 2: Going Commando The plot for Insomniac Games' sophomore effort can be summarised as: Ratchet wants to be a hero again and wishes that tragedy will strike so that he can take action. A threat does present itself and Ratchet jumps at the chance to resolve it. That threat was brought about by an ex-hero who wanted to resolve it himself to relive his own glory days and return to a period of appreciation by adoring fans... I like this. I love that a dark mirror is held up to Ratchet for us. I would like it a lot more if Ratchet acknowledged it or if the story could have been less subtle about this. RaC2 pulls back from environmentalist themes prevalent in the first game but doubles down on its commentary of hyper-consumerism. The lore involved in the planets visited by the duo follows this theming like it did in RaC1, although on this occasion the primary focus is upon the ubercorporation Megacorp. Highlights include: - Megacorp having established a store in a hazardous swampland on Oozla despite it being insanely unlikely that any lifeforms would even be able to access it safely. - Maktar Nebula: Las Vegas in space with a gladiator arena sponsored by Megacorp. - A run-down ex-headquarters of no-longer-competitor Gadgetron which has been muscled out of business. It is now home to looting marauders and biker gangs on the planet Barlow, and small two-legged chihuahua-esque enemies are rife throughout this level... could they be a failed attempt by Gadgetron to create their own version of the Protopet? - The Tabora desert, a once-thriving forest that has now become a land of endless sand due to Megacorp's depletion of the planet's resources. - A Megacorp missile factory providing Wonka tours to paying customers on Todano. - A Megacorp testing facility (Dobbo) and distribution facility (Smolg), and then the final level of RaC2 is Megacorp's HQ. Gadgetron's abandoned effort to expand into the Bogon Galaxy Gadgetron's failed attempt to create their own version of Megacorp's protopet? Planet Todano hosting guided tours of it's Megacorp missile facility RaC2 is the game in the series that added the most content compared to the prior entry. Weapons now upgrade once with frequent use (EXP-based), then once again in NG+ for a paid amount, and then once again after that with frequent use of that paid upgrade. In addition, applying a critical eye to the first few levels reveals just how much other new content and side activities were added into the game: - In between planet 1 and 2 – Wupash Nebula: the first of three ship combat locales. - Planet 2 – Maktar Nebula: the first of two gladiator arenas & the first of three “mini planets” (the later two occasions feature Giant Clank boss fights). - Planet 4 – Barlow: the first of two hoverbike races. - Planet 6 – Siberius: set piece of a truck chase involving platforming during a boss fight. - Planet 7 – Tabora: first of two open areas with a hunt for 100+ crystals. This is all in addition to building on RaC1 with more platforming missions, more gadget puzzles and retaining a majority of non linear planet designs for the last time in the series. A greater emphasis was given to combat in this game than the debut and the new strafe function is smooth and effective. This is the Ratchet game with the most content. Slim Cock-nito's illegal weapon mods provide a thought-out solution for making the game's collectables actually mean something (addressing a pet peeve of mine). I like the options for ship upgrades in his workshop as well. "Stick it in the slot." "What?" "Put your weapon in the slot and I'll give it a lock-on mod." "Oh." This is the last game in the series with a notable soundtrack. I don’t think that it meets the bar of RaC1. It features less sampling and breakbeat influences and is more ambient. Favourites of mine include themes for the Wupash Nebula, Smolg and Boldan, but mostly the Tabora Mine theme which is particularly melancholic. Like RaC1, I have very few issues/nitpicks with this game: - Clank's gameplay is still lacking of anything dynamic or interesting. - Despite adding more weapons to Ratchet's arsenal, a lot of them are underwhelming. - There’s a long boss fight on the planet Snivelak that takes about 15 minutes. It puts me to sleep every time. Ratchet and Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal RaC3 continues the trend of decreasing the amount of platforming while increasing the emphasis on combat. The development period was significantly truncated which resulted in less new features than RaC2’s offerings while also releasing with the simplest plot for the series at the time. The developers faced a startling amount of challenges to overcome with RaC3: - They had a one year development time – the shortest in the series – with a bunch of new hires taking over roles of departing Insomniacs due to the company's over-reliance on ‘crunch.’ - Sony demanded an online multiplayer function despite the series not having implemented that feature before, and despite Insomniac Games’ lack of experience in that arena, and at a time prior to online console multiplayer taking off. - Also, Insomniac wanted to continue to lean into the trend started by RaC2 to appeal to ageing gamers: less platforming, more combat. So how the hell did they do it? 1) The plot was simplified: supervillain Dr Nefarious wants to turn all organic life in the galaxy into robots. He is utilising the Tyhrranoid species as enforcers. That's the premise. A basic plot and decreased amount of enemy types reduced the cost to resources that would have been needed for conceptualising, programming and animating multiple enemy types per planet like the prior games. 2) Intelligent life on those planets was also removed as Insomniac Games moved further away from a pattern that RaC1 and 2 had inherited from the Spyro series where every world had a people that had some problem that needed solving. The Ratchet and Clank series never recovered from the loss of this injection of personality and world-building in my opinion. 3) Multiplayer maps gained secondary utilisation as wave-attack arenas in the campaign, assisting in justifying that expenditure of the time needed to bring them to life. Finding multiple uses for multiplayer level designs was not yet a common strategy for developers in 2004. This was presented as a feature; most of the multiplayer map-come-campaign-arenas were implemented on planets returning from RaC1. Some of them even featured remixed soundtracks. The rewards for completing this side content resulted in quality of life improvements for the player such as charge boots to get around faster and maps that highlighted secret areas. Also, Ratchet engaged in wave attack arena combat alongside the Galactic Rangers; robots with a genuinely funny sense of humour, and often entered combat with a new skydiving sequence alongside the Rangers where you had to manoeuvre around anti-air missiles trying to shoot Ratchet down. In addition to this, critics and players frequently attribute RaC3 with being the funniest game in the series (I agree. It’s hilarious). The controls are also silky smooth. Ratchet handles like a dream. It has the best range of weapons for the series too. Shout-out to the Rift Ripper, Quantum Whip, the Bouncer and the Liquid Nitrogen gun. The Quantum Whip gives me a Quantum W.A.P. The Metropolis level is probably one of the strongest for the game. It is the most well-recognised location in the series with the most-recognised soundtrack (remixed for RaC3). Supervillain Dr Nefarious succeeds in activating his weapon and begins turning all life into robots city block by city block. Ratchet has to race against time as he is one step behind Dr Nefarious and losing. The Tyhrranoid enemies are being turned into robots throughout Ratchet’s progress which is giving them armour buffs. The level culminates in a boss battle against a Giant Clank (games always earn points from me in pitting players against a powerful weapon usually used by them against enemies) which takes place on the iconic Metropolis moving train from RaC1. Awesome. I also like that RaC3 features a return to Ratchet's native galaxy after the departure in RaC2. RaC1 featured an endgame where Ratchet's home planet, Veldin, was under threat. RaC3 starts with Veldin under attack again, which is great because it tells the player that this game won’t be a repeat of a prior plot because it starts with the same high stakes from the end of another game. That gifts the player with the illusion that the stakes can only escalate from there. New threats automatically inherit prior levels of tension and build upwards from that starting point. But there are some things I don’t like about this game, like going all-in on a urine-coloured HUD and menu. There's also a lot of nonsense. There’s ghosts, robot ninjas, parodies of Britney Spears and Bill Clinton, Clank is now a James Bond-esque movie star, there’s side-scrolling video games within the game that are relied upon by characters to drive the central plot... This is the first time that the series genuinely falters with any real thematic exploration or depth to any characters. For example, what are Dr Nefarious' motivations? Turning all life in the galaxy into robots... but why? Because he was bullied as an organic lifeform before he became a robot...? What?? He adores Clank, who he genuinely believes is a Secret Agent and not just acting in a TV show. I mean, sure, if Clank was manipulated or subjugated as a character or as an actor then that might assist in making Nefarious’ motivations more... understandable... but that’s not how the Secret Agent show is. Ratchet is the one being dunked on, not Clank. Despite being the game that so far is the thematically weakest if the trilogy, it was my favourite to play when I first got it back in 2004, and my love for it as a favourite now is only eclipsed by my feelings towards RaC1 as I’ve come to appreciate that game so much more as an adult. Ratchet: Deadlocked As Insomniac Games leant further into its belief that fans wanted darker tones and an even greater emphasis on combat, Deadlocked ended up as the first ‘black sheep’ of the series. Clank is finally sidelined and the game trims away anything not related to blowing stuff up. Hide your daughters, hide your wife But Deadlocked was so edgy that it accidentally cut itself off at the knees. There's no heart. The colour palette is fucking miserable. Everything is maroon, dark green, dark blue and GREY. The game ultimately left me wanting more from a narrative perspective. Ratchet and many other heroes were abducted to take part in a televised gladiator games on the fringes of space, but we only get to meet one other hero (a villain and rival to Ratchet) who is a 'what could have been' for Ratchet if he had not been influenced by Clank's integrity and optimistic spirit; someone who kills for sport and the adoration of fans. I wanted more from other heroes struggling with their own captivity in the sport. All we get is a leaderboard with names and scores without any real quantitative notion of progress. There’s no big picture, there’s no meeting other heroes or helping them out of a jam or them helping Ratchet out, no rebellion against the machine by anyone except Ratchet. The television show is run on a network that at first slanders Ratchet until he becomes popular for ratings, at which point his image is given a different spin to aid his marketability. This game therefore returns to series roots in an exploration of consumerism, although it is not as insightful in its themeing and world-building as the first two games. Far and away the highlight of Deadlocked is the weapon mods system. As the weapons level up from 1 to 10 they gain one extra slot for ‘alpha’ mods, the likes of which include faster fire rate, increased ammo capacity, greater stagger effect, et cetera. In addition, each weapon can have one ‘omega’ mod attachment, such as electrifying nearby enemies, brainwashing enemies to attack each other, and spawning mini-bombs upon a explosive's detonation. This led to (a) giving the player the power and freedom to customise their own arsenal to their choosing, and (b) allowing series-regular B-list weapons to be relegated to omega mods instead of being brought back as an actual weapon (so no more grinding to level up guns that change your enemies into chickens. No more grinding out kills with The Infector). It’s an all-round win. I’m staggered that the series never maintained this as a feature in future titles because this was dope. Shoutout to the Scorpion Flail with a Freeze omega mod and 10x Damage Radius alpha mods ? I like Deadlocked. It was fun, but it is the first real victim of a series in decline. Series: Ratchet and Clank: Part 2 [Pre-trophies] (PS3) Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction, 3/10 [Pre-trophies] (PS3) Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty, 2.5/10 #25 (PS3) Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time, 5/10 #32 (PS3) Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus, 4/10 #39 (PS4) Ratchet & Clank [2016], 4/10 The Future Series Deadlocked was internally considered a failure at Insomniac Games due to reduced sales numbers and the lowest Metacritic score the series had received at the time (81). Most of the original developers had already departed - likely due to what has since been uncovered as poor working conditions at Insomniac Games. Most of the remaining team had begun working on Resistance, a new IP which continued with Deadlocked's monotone colour-palettes and a weapons-based gameplay. The remaining Insomniacs changed the trajectory of the RaC series; it appears to me that a decision was made to not have the Resistance games compete in sales with RaC. That way ageing fans could continue purchasing Insomniac games with the new IP while younger gamers could commence with a rebooted RaC arc of games. In Tools of Destruction and Quest for Booty, ideas that were left on the cutting room floor in previous games were picked up by the new team and used to poor effect: - The Groovitron: a gadget that makes enemies dance hearkens back to a RaC2 idea for the "Rainbow-Afro-izer," a weapon that gave enemies a rainbow afro and made them dance (instead of the Sheepinator that made it into RaC2).' - Similarly, the Tornado Launcher was cut from prior projects but rebirthed for ToD. - An on-rails Starfox-esque spaceship combat section was introduced after having been cut from RaC3 because it wasn’t considered to be fun by the RaC3 dev team versus it’s cost on development time. - In RaC3, “robotic space pirate ghosts” was part of a joke undermining Quark's credibility. In ToD and QfB, they were fully realised to become a major recurring enemy type. Overwhelmingly, with the Future series being the fifth, sixth and seventh R&C games, the mechanics have become old and tired. Weapons are unoriginal and aren’t fun to use. Gadgets are recycled. Characters are one-note. Even if we include the Groovitron and Tornado Launcher, the Future Series only introduces six new weapons to the Ratchet universe: the Mag-Net Launcher, the Sonic Erupter, the Spiral of Death and the Tesla Spikes. I never want to see a Combuster again in my life I was politely excited when upon meeting the Smuggler the first time because it made me think that ToD was bringing back planet-specific characters. Surely I’m not the only one disappointed by him repeatedly showing up with a convenient new gadget in exchange for your cash? Instead of level-specific NPCs like early-Insomniac's creativity-based Spyro trilogy, we just get Moneybags 2.0. A Crack in Time's introduction of Azimuth as Ratchet's apparent first meeting with another Lombax (RaC2's Angela was retconned out of canon) is devoid of any real emotion. Ratchet is the last of his species as far as he knows. Meeting another Lombax should be life-altering but we don’t get to see that. In addition, Azimuth knew Ratchet’s father, was integral in how he died, and Azimuth and Ratchet have conflicting value systems. This is fertile ground for character exploration and growth. Is there any? No. A logical resulting loneliness and a hunger to connect with his people would make Ratchet genuinely relatable to any audience, and doubly-so to teenagers, the series' target demographic! I can't help but cast my memory back to being a teenager watching the TV show Smallville. The show was about Clark Kent going to high school in a small Kansas town many years before becoming Superman. It was a show for teens and the hook was that Clark (an alien and the only one of his kind) was uncovering who he was, what he was capable of, what his body was beginning to do as he underwent puberty, and ultimately where he and his values fit in the world. That was fertile ground for teen drama because that was what the people watching the show were going through to. My point is that if Ratchet games are going to be marketed and built for younger audiences, have themes consistent with what the audience is experiencing. ACiT also benefits from an inspired idea: sending Ratchet back and forth through two moments in time during combat on some planets. For example, you plant a tree in the past and return to the present to utilise the vines of a now-ancient tree like a grind rail to get up to a new spot. It's a great idea... but the game does nothing else interesting with it. Insomniac prove game after game that they have no genuine creativity or passion for this franchise as they reuse tired mechanics while simultaneously failing to leave emotional impact. The worst thing about the Future Series is the leaning into a Chosen One narrative for both Ratchet and Clank (two Chosen... Ones). A story where characters are destined to save their worlds has no tension. Heroic actions don’t have weight when you do this. This also undermined the accomplishments that players had achieved during prior games by stating that the heroes were destined to succeed the whole time. Ratchet and Clank [2016] The rant continues! This is the Rotten Tomatoes score for the Ratchet and Clank movie. This is the Metacritic score for the video game tie-in. This is a perfect example of widespread critical groupthink in the video game industry. Authenticity amounts to nothing when developers have so much power over what reviewers can say to get early access to their games. This game is just not good. It is a reboot, not a remaster or remake. It is not tonally consistent with the 2002 original. The best aspects about that game (soundtrack, themeing, great character arcs) are all gone. Ratchet’s personality has been butchered. He is a wide-eyed, bushy-tailed child dreaming of a fairytale involving him leaving his job as a garagehand and flying off into space as a Galactic Ranger. Ratchet's understanding of what a Galactic Ranger does just consists of attending parades of adoring fans. That’s it. In the 2002 Ratchet and Clank, Ratchet lived alone, built his own spaceship to escape his planet because he wanted to experience some dangerous adventures and see what was beyond the horizon. He was cynical and streetsmart. He had to be those things because of the dangerous and predatory nature of the universe in which he resided - a predatory universe that the player experienced repeatedly. Reboot Ratchet wouldn’t last two minutes on OG Ratchet’s side of town, he’s a mopey gimp that kicks his can around because he just wants so so so bad to be a Ranger. I don’t like the changes made to appeal to younger players. I don’t like the art direction. With Ratchet’s body shape and running animation he now resembles a human child. The dialogue and plots points are over-simplified. Weapons have been pulled right back to basics. There is no humour. The soundtrack is now generic and lacking in character. NPCs in this game are like all the extras in The Truman Show. They’re always plucky. They’re zombies who won’t stop smiling. Even Ratchet and Clank just stare at other people during in-game cutscenes (pre-rendered cutscenes exist only in the form of clips from the movie (where full context is often left out)). Clank has a vacant expression on his face all the time and Ratchet just has a constant look of determination. Is this why Dr Nefarious is in this game? Because he has successfully turned everybody into robots? Above: Ratchet and Clank arguing on Batalia in 2002. Below: Ratchet and Clank talking to Al on Pokitaru in 2016. I have ONE positive that I took away from this game, and that is during the fight against Qwark at the end of the game. Qwark uses a Groovitron against the player which forces Ratchet to dance. The player has to manoeuvre the dancing Ratchet over to the deployed Groovitron disco ball to destroy it before being able to use his weapons again. This is a great reversal to a weapon that has been a series staple for Ratchet for a decade at that point. Wrapping Up: Regardless of which galaxy Ratchet and Clank visited on the PS2 originals, you met characters or enemies with their own genuine motivations and frustrations. They were sarcastic and they judged Ratchet with their own individual ways of saying “I’ve got my own problems, who the hell are you?” and Ratchet would bite back with his own flavour of cynicism. Future Series Ratchet is not a cynical creature in a dog-eat-dog world that gets set back by other people beating him to the punch. He’s jarringly optimistic and able to overcome all challenges because he’s 'The Hero,' and it’s fake. I don’t believe it or relate to it. It amazes me that the series began without a professional writer and yet the dialogue was lit. Conversations between characters was so engaging despite often featuring a lack of action or backing music. I can imagine an overworked 2001 programmer typing away at a conversation for RaC1 and making a conscious decision to not include physical confrontations or soundtrack in the script because it would complicate another person's job and cost more money and time from the then-smaller company. We now know that plot and character development were considered by RaC1 and 2 Insomniacs as being a low priority – they considered the plot to be a tool to serve as a reason for the gameplay to exist, not a fundamental aspect of the game – and therefore members of the development team moonlit as ‘writers' to put something together for those games. Somehow the plot, characters and dialogue in those first two games were the best in the series despite that fact. And as far as the gameplay goes, I'm just not excited by using the same weapons and gadgets again for the fifth to ninth time. But hey, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me this many times... clearly I'm the fool. Do I have a desire to play these games again post-platinum? The first four: for sure. Actually, after doing this series review I want to go ahead and replay RaC1-3 right now. I'm unashamedly listening to RaC1's OST on the way to and from work lately. From Tools of Destruction onwards: I have no desire to play them again. It is out of my love for the roots of this series that my frustration for its subsequent failings is so impassioned. Let me know your own thoughts. The next review is not likely to be so harsh: the Uncharted series! Edited December 31, 2023 by Platinum_Vice 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaManSmevz Posted November 6, 2021 Share Posted November 6, 2021 First of all, excellent work! I'm pretty sure I still have R&C and Up Your Arsenal sitting around somewhere, you got me wanting to dust em off? (of course that would also require a dust off of my PS2 as well as hoping that he's still alive, but I digress) You've also got me sad about the 2016 R&C, I was kinda happy to cop that in spite of a few naysays and was saving it for a rainy day, now I'm officially bummed about it. Also woohoo, Uncharted!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted November 8, 2021 Share Posted November 8, 2021 First of all, I want to say: I love the "Series Review" angle! Seriously, this is a really interesting approach to the checklists, and I think sets yours apart completely from most of the ones I follow and gives your write-ups a completely different flavour to most others. I also really like the heavy dispersement of images in them - more than any other thread, your series reviews feel like a write up in a magazine, where I find myself reading faster to get to a section because the splash image has already caught my eye! On the Ratchet Series - I agree with a lot of your points, though I think for me the enjoyment graph would be a little more up and down, rather than the slow decline you experienced. I'm still trying to finish up my reviews of the two I played recently - Crack in Time and Nexus - and while Nexus was fine, though a bit short and a little throw-a-way, I actually think Crack in Time is the first one with a genuine shot of competing seriously with Going Commando for the top spot for me. Setting aside the "Chosen One" angle (which, yes, you are right, does retrofit a letterboxed interesting concept onto the franchise,) I think the actual level design, variety and weapon set in A Crack in Time is up there with the best of the games, and the one area it manages to outdo all others, is the Clank sections. I generally have never cared for any of the Clank sections in any of the games, but those time-rewind / duplication clone puzzles are the highlight of the game for me - especially the "optional" ones later in the game, required to get the gold bolts. Frankly, I would pay full price for a game that was entirely based on those kind of puzzles! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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