Ratchet & Clank Review

As an object it is astonishing. The lighting, the density of the crowds, the particle work and the frame stability make this one of the best looking games of its generation, and it holds up years later without qualification. The arsenal borrows the best ideas from the whole series, including the Pixelizer and a returning Groovitron, and the weapon levelling is the refined version rather than the 2002 draft. Where it stumbles is identity.

It is neither a faithful remake nor a confident new story, because it retells the original through the frame of a film adaptation, which means Qwark narrates events that contradict what you are playing and the plot beats get compressed into whatever the film needed. Several of the original's better planets are gone. The campaign is also short and easy, roughly ten hours with a difficulty curve that never really arrives, and the platforming is simplified to the point of being automatic. Beautiful, pleasant, and considerably less interesting than the games it is quoting.