Up Your Arsenal opens with the titular duo playing a board game, until it is interrupted by an episode of Clank's new (I think) TV series Secret Agent Clank. While this is a recurring joke throughout the game, it never really goes anywhere. Don't get me wrong, the satire is fantastic, but again, it isn't really used in any meaningful way. Anyways, Ratchet switches the channel out of frustration and comes across a news broadcast from Ratchet's home planet Veldin, showing it being under attack from a new threat known as the Tyhrranoids. Ratchet & Clank rush off to the galaxy and quickly arrive on the planet. There they come across the recently formed (I think) group known as the Galactic Rangers, who Ratchet quickly joins to help stop this new threat throughout the galaxy. We then learn that it is helmed by robotic scientist Doctor Nefarious, who apparently wants to kill all organic life because apparently robots have been subjugated? Uh, where the flying fuck did this come from? Nothing of this sort was ever even hinted at in previous games OR in this game. If anything, it feels like organic life is being shat upon, with the new running gag of Rachet being Clank's butler on Secret Agent Clank, and him being constantly tossed off to the side for it. Not only that, but nothing relating to him has anything to do with consumerism-focused satire that the entire series is based on. It feels completely mismatched for this series. The previous games' antagonists were all about this kinda stuff. Drek was just a guy who was in for the money, and SPOILER GUY from Going Commando only plotted his entire scheme for fame and fortune, but this new villain is only here for some wAcKy hIjInKs and some really disparate gags about racist segregation, which, and I think this goes without saying, is kind-of a mismatch for a series about consumerism and shooting the shit out of cartoony robots with exceedingly over-the-top weapons.

Also, this guy is apparently the strongest supervillain in the galaxy or something, and the only man who is known to have beat him is Captain Qwark, now hiding away deep within a jungle. Ratchet visits the planet to rescue him, only to find out that he has lost his memory. After returning him to the Galactic Rangers' base of operations; the Starship Phoenix, the group soon discover that a vid-comic depicting his adventures fighting off Doctor Nefarious may restore his memory. I'll get more into these when I talk about gameplay. Anyways, it fully restores his memory. Qwark then forms a new team known as the Q-Force to fight off the Tyhrranoid army. This team consists of Qwark, his monkey, the returning Al, Skidd McMarx, and Helga von Streissenburgen, along with Ratchet & Clank. They then go on a variety of misadventures until I decide to put up the spoiler warning.


Overall, while Up Your Arsenal is certainly hilarious at times, everything is completely disconnected, and what you’re left with is a clusterfuck of themes, characters, and ideas that have nothing to do with each other at all. What does anything from Secret Agent Clank have to do with Doctor Nefarious’ goal of total robotic conquest? Well, I’ll tell you: nothing! What does anything with Qwark have to do with anything else… wait, I haven’t even gotten to the Qwark vid-comics yet!

While the consumerism-fueled satire that practically defines the series is here, it is just as disparate as everything else! Compare this to previous games, which were all about consumerism and satire! The gameplay is about exploring alien worlds and blowing the shit out of everything in your path, so the story detailed a society and universe that allowed that kind-of stuff to happen, whereas this is just a huge load of random shit for the sake of a few chuckles. Haha, Nefarious said a funny thing. Haha, Qwark is a dickhead. Haha, Secret Agent Clank is funny. None of these, or the game’s other themes and concepts, have any correlation whatsoever!

OK, I’ve done enough bitching about the story in this baby game, let's get to the gameplay.

In terms of core movement and controls, they stay pretty much completely intact from the last game. Ratchet has very smooth ground control, striking a perfect balance between precision and naturality. Air control is also rock solid. Jumping normally is very quick and responsive, but the double jump allows for much more mid-air control and correction, without coming across like a crutch. He can strafe with the triggers, which continues to be just as useful as it was last time.

The wrench returns yet again, and provides a fantastic little quick option to wipe out small fry and nearby enemies. It also serves as a way to quickly force Ratchet back to the ground, much like a ground-pound, as he can slam down with it to destroy enemies underneath him. This is also a fantastic way to cancel out of a jump. Ratchet’s firearms return, which I’ll get into later, but now I’ll say that the lock-on system is just as solid as it was in the previous game, and he can also aim in first person, just like the previous game.

But that is all only talking about the default “Third-Person Scheme”. Yes, Up Your Arsenal introduces two new control schemes, “Lock-Strafe” and “First-Person”. These are accessible anytime via the Control option in the options menu OR by selecting the icon after equipping it to the quick-select wheel. I really like that feature, as players can switch between their preferred scheme for the situation at any time. Like exploring with the Third-Person scheme, but combat with the Lock-Strafe scheme, well, you can switch between them any time. Even better is the fact that you can customize camera control for each scheme, really allowing you to create your experience of choice. There is an uncomfortable shake that occurs when switching schemes, but I’m really nitpicking at this point.

Despite this, you’ll probably just stick to the Lock-Strafe scheme, because the game was very clearly designed around this. Essentially, Ratchet will, well, lock-strafe while holding out a weapon. He can shoot with the Circle button like normal, but he can also now shoot with the R1 button. To accompany this, he can freely shoot with the right Angelou stick, and this is just as big of a deal as it sounds. Now developers can design enemies that require the player to aim accurately instead of just relying on the auto lock-on. While that wasn’t a problem in previous games, er, while that wasn’t a problem in Going Commando, the new addition is most definitely appreciated. Even with all these changes, I appreciate the fact the developers left in the option to play it like Going Commando if you so desire. The game doesn’t change to reflect the different control scheme, but it is still cool nonetheless.

The new First-Person scheme is also a cool addition. As the name implies, it is a traditional first-person control scheme. The player strafes with the left stick and aims with the right, nothing more, nothing less. Obviously this is a clear handicap during normal play, but is still a cool little option. The only real issue in terms of control in this game is that Ratchet always feels like he’s locked to eight directions or something. I don’t know what it is, and maybe this is just in the lock-strafe scheme, as I played most of the game with that, but when holding out your wrench, which is supposed to allow you to move freely, Ratchet feels very rigid. Maybe its just me, I dunno, and its not like the game asks you to move like this much, but it still doesn’t feel right. The biggest issue with this entire system, however, is that the game pussies out and defaults you to the third person scheme. This isn’t a huge issue, and not even necessarily the game’s fault, but many players simply ignore the options menu in many games, which likely left some players stuck with the completely incompatible third-person scheme.

Before I get to some more specific stuff, I think I should list off some handy and time-saving new additions to the core mechanics. First of all, there is now an option to completely restock your ammo at the vendor, removing the two seconds of spamming the X button at the vendor. See, that’s the problem with the old games. A much bigger new addition is the second quick-select wheel, activated by holding down R2 (R1 in the Third-Person scheme) while holding the quick-select button. The reason for this being great speaks for itself. I wouldn’t have minded if they removed movement on the D-Pad to make way for some more quick-select options, as movement precise enough to require the D-Pad can probably already be achieved with the analog stick with how well the game controls, but the game doesn’t ask for pin-point precision anyway. Oh well, maybe next time.

Weapons, which were one of the biggest parts of gameplay in previous games, have now taken center stage. This is dipping my toes a bit into level design here, but the stages are now much more combat focused, fitting for the new, dominant Lock-Strafe control scheme. Anyway, the level-up system has been greatly expanded from the previous game. In Going Commando, you could only level-up your weapon once (I believe) on your first playthrough. Later levels were only achievable on Challenge Mode. Oh jesus, Challenge Mode, how did I forget to mention that in the previous reviews. Sorry bout’ that! Anyways, that wasn’t a problem there, as its not like the game required those extra levels, but with the new focus on combat, it is a nice change.

Weapon mods have been streamlined as well. Before you had to purchase them from the Slim Cognito character with Titanium Bolts, which are extra collectibles found throughout planets in all sorts of places. In Up Your Arsenal, however, they are now gained by simply leveling up your weapon. While I understand why this was implemented, you know, to incentivise experimentation even more, it kinda leaves Titanium Bolts feeling a little useless, as they are now only used to purchase skins that only really matter in the multiplayer mode (we’ll get to that later). While some of the skins are dope, including a throwback skin to the first game, accessed by detecting a Ratchet 1 save file on your memory card/hard drive, and most importantly, a tuxedo skin. Buy this, and only play the game with it. Overall though, while skins are a neat little addition, it isn’t enough to make Titanium Bolts worth a damn.

I take that back. Tuxedo Ratchet is worth it alone, full stop.

Speaking of save files, I think I should talk about the cool bonuses for long time players. I didn’t mention this in the Ratchet 2 review, so I’ll talk about both games’ handling of this here. In Going Commando, you could get pretty much all of the Gadgetron weapons you purchased in the first game. The game will simply scan your memory card (or hard drive on PS3) for the game’s save file! While most of these weapons become less and less useful as you progress in the game, they really come in handy early on. I don’t get why more games don’t do stuff like this! It is a fantastic way of rewarding long-time players with a little bonus.

Up Your Arsenal has a very similar feature. The returning Slim Cognito character will sell you weapons from the previous game, with more and more becoming purchasable throughout the game, but if you purchased it in Going Commando, you’ll get it completely free! This is even better, because the game releases them to the player throughout the game, keeping the strongest weapons until the end. If you have a save file from the first game, you will also get the Gadgetron Employee Discount. Basically, once Ratchet joins Gadgetron in the first game, he asks if he gets the discount, but you’re told that it doesn’t kick in for two years. Well, two years later, you get it in Ratchet 3. Mmm, fantastic!

So, what is that Challenge Mode? Well, I want to preference by saying that this goes for all three games in this trilogy, as they all have this feature. I don't know how I dodged it twice before, but its about time I talked about it! Basically, once you finish one of the games, you are met with a message asking if you'd like to continue playing your same file OR to replay the game in Challenge Mode. Challenge Mode will keep the player's Nanotech, Weapons, Gadgets and Upgrades (such as the Heli-Pack). To combat this, the game makes enemies stronger and beefier. Unfortunately, it isn't a strong enough buff to make turn the tides, but Challenge Mode still alleviates that awkward feeling of replaying a game, but having to re-obtain all of the abilities that you had become so accustomed to using. The devs also add some additional features only accessible via Challenge Mode, which includes the extra weapon level-ups in Going Commando, and the Ry3no (or just Ryno 3) in Up Your Arsenal. I don't like how that is offloaded to replays though. I thought it was a staple of the series, so making it inaccessible the first go-around made me think it wasn't in the game at all. Oh, whatever. Anyway, fantastic feature. I'm still just baffled that I forgot about this before, and TWICE!

Unfortunately, despite the game's inherit mechanical excellence, the stuff those mechanics are thrown up against are... underwhelming. Oh, what am I kidding. The level design is piss and the enemy design is shit. There, I said it.

The exciting exploration that always pushed players forward in previous game is pretty much non-existent now. The only real incentive to explore now is for the returning Titanium Bolts, but they don't really facilitate exploration, as pretty much all of them are just hiding slightly off the main path. The only real exception is on Planet Daxx, where the player must take a mental note of where the bolt is located. He/she must then press a switch and rush to a far away door just in time, and then proceed through a short combat challenge to reach the bolt.

Daxx is really the only stage to be designed like one from the previous two games, as it immediately presents the player with two different paths, and one of them also branches off into two quickly. There is a path with some fun platforming, utilizing the new Hypershot gadget, which is pretty much just the Swingshot and the Dynamo from previous games combined into one. There is a straightforward path filled with enemies, and there is a path with puzzles intercut with short combat sections. Top that off with a mini-boss, and you should have a neat Ratchet level on your hands, but it all feels so... artificial, so fake. Daxx doesn't feel like a distinct alien world, an actual, believable place, but instead a bunch of textures thrown on to geometry in a video game. There are no one-off NPCs, there is no original gimmicks, there is no atmosphere or tension. It is just empty. The place is so flat, too. All the player traverses is a grass-like island and a facility-like island, and that's just all she wrote. Neither of them are unique whatsoever, and the player is just left wanting more out of the stage, instead of being fully satisfied and ready to move on to the next fully realized world.

The saddest part about Daxx is that it is pretty much the best stage in this game. Every other stage is pretty much just a straight line to the end, filled to the brim with a bunch of enemies in locations that rarely, if ever, require the player to strategize how to tackle enemies. Instead of having to aim carefully while skillfully dodging attacks and reading the environment, the most the player ever has to do is look at the enemy, maybe destroy a barrier in front of them, and that's it. Stages have been significantly flattened from last time, making the simple act of walking less exciting. Battlegrounds are simply not exciting to traverse of think about, leaving every single battle feeling empty.

This is not helped by the poor enemy design. Unlike last time, where enemies would aggressively shoot several different types of projectiles and cleverly move around the environment to keep you busy, enemies now just hit like trucks to keep you on your toes. They are rarely combined in interesting ways, making encounters rigid and kinda boring. Enemies also fail to telegraph their and YOUR attacks, making shooting enemies, the entire draw of the game, completely boring. But again, the game continues to be challenging by simply making enemies hit like trucks and take as many hits as trucks. The challenge is no longer "how can I use this weapon and this weapon and this weapon to overcome this daunting situation", but instead "how can I circle strafe while holding the fire button but not get hit twice this time".

I would go into more detail about all of this, but shallowness is simply something you can't really talk about much, because that's what Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal unfortunately is. Just plain shallow.

The game attempts to pad out its stages with these new hoard-mode like Arena challenges. And that's because that's exactly what they are. Multiplayer maps, but in the main stages. The most egregious of these is most definitely the returning Blackwater City, which was one of the coolest stages in the first game, but is now just a tiny island with nothing to see or do, well, except for holding the fire button.

I think the biggest showcase for why Up Your Arsenal's stage and enemy design is so shallow and boring is the returning Metropolis stage. The original stage was so vibrant, so eye-popping, and yet so sophisticated. You understood what this city was like just by looking at it. Everything felt perfectly placed. After landing, Ratchet can either go off to a difficult platforming challenge, which will require the player to traverse moving platforms, and then another difficult platforming challenge. After finishing, the player will be sent down to the funny Helga character, who not only showed the player one of the inhabitants of this world, but also rewarded the player with the Swingshot, a fun tool that will be a mainstay throughout the entire adventure. The player then goes back, and is able to traverse the right path. That leads him/her to a long stretch of enemies that test the couple of weapons the player has obtained. The duo then run into the Al character, who gives us a bit more insight into how normal people act in Metropolis. Clank then gains the Heli-Pack, another essential movement tool for the rest of the game. Ratchet then has an optional platforming section that has a secret area that leads to more platforming for a Gold Bolt. Ratchet then boards a train and must platform and shoot his way to the front. And that's not even talking about all the cool extras and the skill point(s).

Now look at the new Metropolis level. Straight line. The player dodges a bunch of tanks until they make it to a magnet boots section that is finished in ten seconds. The player then simply walks to Nefarious and that's it. No NPCs, either. The visuals are bland and forgettable. I would continue to talk about Ratchet 3's stages, but that sums up everything perfectly. The stages in Up Your Arsenal are boring and uninteresting to traverse, and the enemies are boring and uninteresting bullet sponges that require nothing more than a bunch of circle strafing, and that is on the occasion they do anything at all. There are no systems in place outside of combat, and enemy design is so unsatisfying that the game is ultimately just boring.

The game also lacks many of the extracurricular activities from previous games. The arena challenges return, and have actually been nicely expanded. We now get short but tough platforming challenges, and the actual arena battles have much more stage variety than before. Good stuff.

We also get the brand new Qwark vid-comic levels. All 5 of these have an opening an ending cutscene, and those are definitely the best parts. They house some of the game's best jokes, and I find it nice that they tie into the main game. It is still completely disconnected from everything else, but I think that's fine in this case. The gameplay doesn't fare quite as well. Control is smooth and responsive enough, but it isn't exactly exceptional or anything. Stages are unremarkable and feel slow, and they never really leave an impression. A neat little addition, but nothing more.

The multiplayer mode appears to be a big focus for the title, and that's why it is so unfortunate that the multiplayer mode is as lackluster as it is. I would go into detail, but there's really nothing to talk about. Create profiles, join matches, and go to town. There are plenty of maps and modes, but the multiplayer is just kinda... boring. To be fair, I only played with two others, but I made an honest attempt to interact with them and the CPUs, but nothing was really engaging. See someone, shoot them a few times, and dead. Then walk back. Walk back. Walk back. Walk back some more. Yawn. Walk back. Yeah, that's the problem with the muliplayer; maps are barren and boring. I played many of them, and none made me feel engaged to woop' my friend's ass, and that is a problem.

Presentation wise, this game is by far the worst of the trilogy. As I've said earlier, environments are bland and boring. Very bland and boring. The story is just as rocky as I've already detailed. Luckily, the fantastic cutscene presentation from the previous games returns, and is just as fun to watch here as it was there. Characters are fluid, expressive, and distinctive, always keeping your eyes glued to the screen. While the fantastic, movie-like instrumentation of Going Commando returns, the actual musical compositions are quite forgettable for the most part. There are some bangers here, but it pales in comparison to past games.

So, in summary, Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Aresnal is far from a great climax in the trilogy. The underwhelming enemy design, boring stages, mindless multiplayer, scattershot story, and forgettable presentation leaves this third entry in the Ratchet & Clank series with an empty feeling.