Ratchet Deadlocked

The fourth installment in the main PlayStation series following the adventures of the famous Lombax and his trusty robot sidekick—Ratchet: Deadlocked pushes for an older gaming audience by removing Clank from the titular duo. Much like the evolution to Jak 3 from Jack & Daxter, this adventure takes Ratchet & Clank to simply Rachet, who goes off on a solo mission as Clank takes a more ‘guy in the chair’ role in the story. That being said, the exciting combat the series is known for remains as this entry sees a ton of arena based enemy encounters and slew of new gadgets to play with.

Welcome to the DreadZone

The story of Rachet: Deadlocked sees the titular Lombax thrust into an arena gameshow—where aliens from all over the galaxy fight waves of enemies and each other for acclaim and total domination. Overall, for a shooter—it’s a fantastic set-up. With the addition of multiple antagonists like Gleeman Vox, the showrunner of DreadZone and the announcers who really have a bone to pick with our hero—there’s no shortage of humor and exciting missions to run through.

So Long, Old Friend

There was a theme of games going for a grittier approach toward the tail end of the PlayStation 2’s lifecycle and Ratchet: Deadlocked was an offshoot of that. After all, Gears of War was pretty much a launch title for the Xbox 360, along with Resistance: Fall of Man and Killzone 3 for the PS3.

While it didn’t lose its sense of humor, the game tried to appeal to an audience that was growing up along with it. With that in mind, Ratchet: Deadlocked focused less on the platforming that made it popular, and dialed up the shooting mechanics and arena type combat. All that being said, Clank had to say goodbye for this game, and was replaced with two AI robots that follow Ratchet around, fighting and helping with various puzzles.

It’s Simple, Just Nail the Shooting

It’s an old phrase now but when making Halo 2 one of the designers said if ‘you don’t nail that 30 seconds of fun, you won’t have a great game.’ And while Ratchet: Deadlocked did away with much of the platforming that made the game popular, it doubled-down on the gunplay. With less weapons, but with ammo limited meaning you have to use each, there is more of an appreciation for every unique weapon the game offers. Additionally, as the weapons get more powerful with use and ‘Alpha’ and ‘Omega’ upgrades, there’s always a sense of RPG progression when playing. Not to mention, the shooting and combat is loads of fun and consistently engaging.

Just an Experiment

While Ratchet: Deadlocked was the only sequel in the series not to feature Clank as an ‘on your back’ sidekick—it was, in no way, a failure for the series. Though it might not be the best, it’s still an extremely funny, and exciting game to play. If you’ve recently played the remastered Ratchet & Clank, then this is a must play of the series.

Pros:

• Fantastic gunplay
• Funny story and characters
• Lots of replayability with weapons experiencing ‘New Game Plus’

Cons:

• Lack of Clank in gameplay
• Limited platforming and repeat environments/announcer lines

Ratchet starts his newest adventure with a standard-issue set of body armor, as well as a Deadlock necklace--if he doesn't garner high ratings on a Running Man-style game show (that happens to play like a squad-based shooter), he'll be blown to bits.

Why does Ratchet suddenly look like Master Chief? Is this turning into Halo? Not really, but this series is moving even deeper into action-shooter territory: The entire singleplayer mode is played with a squad of intelligent robots that Ratchet can command and upgrade. The number of weapons has been reduced to 10, but customizable upgrade paths give players a high degree of control over their arsenals. It's more intense and violent than past games, but also more rewarding...especially with a pal in splitscreen offline co-op. And the five online multiplayer modes add infinite replayability.