Revealed yesterday by Insomniac Games, Ratchet & Clank are back with a rebooted adventure based both off of the original game on PS2 and the new movie coming out in 2016. As a massive fan of the series I already cannot wait for this, but what can we depict from the trailer?

First off, doesn’t everything look beautiful? The PS4’s power has pushed this to the next level. The visuals of the characters, weapons, environments and backgrounds are all exquisite. Even the effects on Ratchet & Clank themselves have improved to make the fur or metallic look really shine. As well as the graphical upgrade however, I am also happy to see Captain Quark return to the series. This hilarious hero had some great humour in the previous trilogy which I thought began to lack once the later titles came into play. I hope more of the old Quark returns to supplement the new look.

The cut scenes and gameplay transition between each other seamlessly as seen in this trailer. At one moment you’ll be staring down a boss and then you’ll soon be going toe to toe with him. Another example of the PS4’s power truly shining through. The wrench returns with its classic attack swing combos, but there is no sign of the boomerang move returning. Hopefully it is as it made a melee weapon have ranged potential which could be very handy against certain opponents.

Soon after this we see new weapons on show. One of them is a rocket launcher that launches rockets out above your head that lock on to nearby targets. After letting go of the fire button, the rockets leave to their targets and explode also dealing area of effect damage to nearby foes. As well as this we also have a retro gun of some kind that is able to turn enemies and the environment into pixels. It would be interesting to see whether this weapon can also have a puzzle based use to it other than just a straight forward gun.

The new armour and ship look great and seem to be fitting the theme of the movie more than the original game. It is also interesting to see that ship battles return. My only concern about this at the moment however is that the field of view is very narrow making your ship large and the enemies tiny. This could end up being disorientating if this is in the final version of the game, especially if HUD and target reticles are to be placed on top.

Returning elements include that of hover boarding, the swing shot and the discotron. This leaves me to wonder if popular characters such as Helga, Big All, Skid McMarx and The Plumber are going to make a return to the game this time around. These characters were written perfectly with some great humour to back them up. Loosing these guy would be a shame, but seeing new faces is to be expected regardless.

Ratchet & Clank returns exclusively on PS4 during Spring of 2016. The game looks great as it is at the moment and I cannot wait to see more, especially since E3 is on the horizon. What are your thoughts on the robot and lombax returning? Let us know in the comments.

by Dominic Coles | June 11th, 2015