Review: Ratchet: Gladiator (PS2)

Perhaps in preparation for their forthcoming PlayStation 3 FPS, Insomniac have decided to scrap most of the platforming elements of Ratchet and expand on the series' other gameplay element: blowing stuff up. Sounds fun - it's the stuff games are made of, after all. But will it get a thumbs up?

Poor Ratchet - who really deserves a rest after saving the galaxy from Chairman Drek, the Protopet menace and Dr. Nefarious - has been abducted by a pirate TV station, and forced to battle in an illegal gameshow called Dreadzone for the entertainment of the bloodthirsty Shadow Sector public. There is something of a plot in the between-level cutscenes, but it's nothing very exciting (it's mostly Ratchet and co saying "we must escape", "yes, we must"). It's not even necessary to move the game along: that's the job of the medals and Dread points, which are needed to unlock venues.

Instead of the over twenty-strong arsenal of boomsticks that were your tools of the trade in the first three titles, Gladiator has only ten guns, plus a shielding device and a couple of gadgets. These level-up with use, becoming more powerful and gaining more slots into which you can insert mods. Alpha mods allow you to customise the weapons by adding more ammo capacity, lessening the reload time, widening the blast radius etc. as you like. Omega mods add an element to the weapon, such as napalm, thunder or freeze. Gamestyle especially likes the sticky bomb omega mod, which fastens delayed-reaction explosives to an opponent. The now-obligatory 'turn the enemies into fluffy animals' makes a return as the morph mod. It's not a bad system, but it takes a while before you get the good mods and a decent number of slots so it can really fly.

Fighting by your side are Merc and Green, a couple of reluctant but loyal battle-droids who will operate your gadgets for you and provide backup fire. You can issue context-sensitive commands to them via the d-pad, such as telling them to operate switches or set up a grind rail for you. They'll also launch EMPs at armoured tanks so you can take them out, and after they've spent enough time powering up they can launch a huge laser-bomb that kills all enemies in the vicinity. Whilst you do need them (you can't use EMPs or create a grind rail yourself), they're a bit useless in combat to begin with and you'll have to resurrect them often. Thankfully you can buy them upgrades from Big Al, as well as paint jobs and new heads.

Conspicuously absent from the field is Clank. He's in the game, certainly, but safely ensconced in your Dreadzone living quarters, where he relays important information to you. There's very little platforming to be had at all: relentless combat is the order of the day in this title. The first-person camera actually has a use now - whilst it was present in the last two Ratchet games, it didn't really work. Metroid Prime showed us that first-person platforming can be done well, but Insomniac couldn't pull it off. The first-person camera in Gladiator isn't that great, because neither are the PS2 thumbsticks, but it's nice that it's now a feasible option.

No changes have apparently been made to the graphics engine, but this is hardly a criticism as Ratchet has always looked fantastic (a lot of it, in fact, is directly lifted from Naughty Dog's equally good-looking Jak series as a result of a friendship between the developers). The explosions and particles are especially pretty, and the whole experience becomes positively psychedelic if you turn on the maximum bloom, which makes glowing objects become super-bright. It's also very nice that the series has stayed bright and sleek instead of becoming dark, gritty (oh, how Gamestyle dreads seeing that word on a press release) and sweary like far too many other games have done.

At each new planet (some of which are old favourites from the first game) Ratchet visits, the objective is to complete a series of missions to earn a medal. Once the main mission is under your belt, you can then play bonus missions for bolts (the game's currency) and Dread points, which increase your status and are sometimes required to open new areas. These bonus missions include hoverbike time trials, aerial ship combat and sharp-shooting in a mechanical spider called the Landstalker. It's familiar stuff for anyone who played the Galactic Ranger subquest in Ratchet 3. You can also supplement your bolts by achieving skill points, such as defeating a boss character without taking damage, or activating yay number of switches without relying on Merc and Green. Skill points will also unlock cosmetic effects, like HUD colour (pink, anyone?) and weather. You can play with bonus skins unlocked by obtaining stars - the higher the difficulty you play, from granny-friendly Couch Potato to absolutely nails Exterminator, the more stars you'll get. Oh, and you can get Top Trumps-style cards of the bosses. Even though it's no platformer, there's still lots of stuff to collect!

Gladiator has obviously been carefully crafted and isn't just a boshed-out "there, look, we're not a one-trick pony". More's the pity, then, that after three Ratchet games it just doesn't really hit home. It does get a bit samey, and the RPG-lite weapon system can be a bit fiddly. It's also very short, although the five levels of difficulty do increase its longevity. Exterminator mode, or Ratchet Must Die mode as Gamestyle affectionately calls it, is a real challenge. There are also online deathmatches for those gamers who've managed to get their PS2s online (all seven of them), or you can play locally with a Multi Tap.

There are worse ways to end a series, it's true. Ratchet: Gladiator is competently made, but can you really be bothered with it? If you fell in love with the jolly platforming antics of the first games, Gladiator won't satiate your need for more. If you're after a good shooter, there are plenty of others that do the job better. This looks like one only for the hardcore Ratchet fans.

Rating: 6 / 10

Words by Anna Ghislaine