Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast Ep. 77

Episode Date: June 8, 2021

Go to http://candidco.com/kindafunny and use code kinda funny to safe $75 on Candid’s starter kit! Go to http://purple.com/kindafunny10 and use promo code kindafunny10 to get 10% off any order of $200 or more! Go to http://upstart.com/kindafunny to find out how much Upstart can lower your monthly payments today! Parris and Joey join Tim, Greg, Blessing, and Andy for their review of Insomniac's latest PlayStation 5 game, Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart. Follow Parris at https://twitter.com/vicious696 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to the kind of funny games cast. As always, I'm Tim Geddes. Join by one of the coolest dudes in video games, Greg Miller. Do I have pizza in my teeth? Is that ad? No, that's fine? Yeah, you're looking good. Because you know right before this, I have some pizza.

And here's the question. Tim, I know this is a big review, a big episode of the games cast, a big chance for us to bring in new listeners and viewers who don't care about us usually. It's a well-known thing of kind of funny. Your favorite pizza in San Francisco is Seniors. Did they ever do an ad commercial where they were like, When the moon hits you're all like a big pizza, upon that seorries.

Hey everybody, it's me, Mr. Signore, and I think you should come eat at Seniors on whatever 19th and Lincoln or whatever. Yeah, we did sing that a lot. There was no commercial. Goodbye, you, listeners. Goodbye, new listeners. Yeah, goodbye, guys. Love you. That voice you here is the Nitro rifle himself,

Andy Cortez. Good afternoon, everybody. It is Christmas in June, Joey Noel. Hello. Of course, we got the new face of video games. Blessing at Aeouye Jr. Think about how many people made a decision in the first two minutes of this episode where they were like, okay, cool.

I want to learn more about the new Ratchet and Clank game. And they heard Greg go through his rant. And they're like, not the same for me. I'm going to go listen to Skillup. Talk about how he feels about the game. I don't need these kind of funny fools. Yes, yes. Well, despite all of that, we are fortunate enough to have the best voice in the business

Paris, Lily, joining us for this review as well. Thank you for adding some quality to this content, Paris. Well, I'm not sure if I'm going to add quality because originally I had a joke queued up about the quest for booty since we're talking about Reginal and Clank. and I'm just going to skip it and just say quest for booty. That's all you need. That's the level of quality we're at here, everybody, because this is the kind of funny games cast where each and every week we get together

to talk about video games and all the things that we love about them. If you like that, you can get it on YouTube.com slash kind of funny games or roosterteeth.com. If you want the podcast version, just search your favorite podcast service for Kind of Funny Gamescast and we'll be right there for you. If you want to get the show, ad free with the exclusive post show, you can go to patreon.com. slash kind of funny games, just like our Patreon producers, Donovan Harkness, Omega 3, Tyler Ross, Delaney, twinning, Julian the Gluten Free Gamer, James Hastings, Casey Andrew, and Elliot have done. Thank you all so very, very much. Today, we are brought to you by Purple, Upstart, and Candid, but I'll tell you about that later, because for now, I want to talk to you about something that was provided by PlayStation. Thank you very much, PlayStation, for sending us so many codes, all of us, able to play, Ratchets and Clank, ripped apart on the

the PlayStation 5 computer entertainment system. This is our full review. We're going to start it by going around the group, talking about our history with the Ratchel and Clank franchise and how much we have played of Ration and Clank Rift Apart. Blessing Adioje, Jr. Let's start with you. Yeah, I really, really like Ratchet and Clank, the series.

I started with the first Ration Clank on the PS2, and I've hopped in pretty much randomly into the franchise. I've not played every single Ration and Clank game, especially the PS3 ones. I've not touched the PS3 ones. and I still want to go back and do that at some point. But yeah, I've played some of the PS2 ones. I've played the Ratchet and Clank remake.

I really like all of the games. And then what was the last question about Ratcheting Clank, Rift Apart? And how much have you played of it? And what's your status with it? I've beaten it. I've done some of the side stuff as well. I don't think I've 100%ed the game yet, but I'm on my way to doing that. Greg Miller, PlayStation, fanboy, number one.

What's your history of Ratchet and Clank? It's scattered. You know, the one and only Janet Garcia contributor over here with us in MinMax, she tweeted, you know, today, I think, as we record this about like, oh, man, yeah, you know, you were either a Jack fan or a Ratchet fan. And that was really the line in the sand. And so for the PS2 era, I was unabashedly a Jack and Daxter fan boy. Yeah, baby.

So I thank you very much, Barry Courtney. I tinkered with Ratchet here and there. Like, I remember playing those games. Obviously, I remember loving the commercials and stuff like that. But I remember doing the original. I remember doing Going Commando. And then it's bouncing around. But then really, I remember, obviously, starting at IGN in 2007, right?

And that really obviously became my job. That was what size matters. And then on top of that secret agent clank. And then we get into the weird ones of, yeah, Quest for Booty, you know, the downloadable one only. Then you got all for one and so forth. I would say from 2007, I played at least some of all of them. But Ratchet and Clank was always one of those games, I think that I jumped into,

fooled around for a while, and inevitably would move on to something. else. I appreciate it. I liked it. I really dug a crack in time. But yeah, it wasn't something that was like a staple for me. To answer your next part of the question. Then for the new one, Rift Apart, right? I have platinum this game. I played a lot of this game and I platinum.

Ratchet and Clank, Rift Apart. Andy Cortez. My history with Ratchet and Clank is like my history with a lot of games. I rented them as kids as a kid. I never like bought the game, never fully beat any of them, rented them a couple of times. As you all know, I owned maybe eight games in my lifetime. I just rented a shitload from the local Hollywood video.

And over the last week and a half, I finally got my, I had finally beaten the 2016 version, PS4 version of Ratchet and Clink. Beat that on PS5, 60 frames, really fun, cool, pretty game. So now I kind of got prepped to know at least who some of the people are in this in Rift the Part. And as far as Rift the Part goes, I fucking marathon that shit over the last like 36 hours and fully beat it. Nice. Well, how long did it take you though? About like maybe 15 hours. I started like at 2 in the morning Saturday night, played until like 6 in the morning.

and then I woke up like at 11.30 a.m. and then played last night until like midnight. Oh, damn. Joey, what about you? So I played a little bit of the 2016 game when it first came out, never finished it then. Then when the boys were going back to replay it on PSI Love You, I had already started to replay.

So I made it all the way to like the last boss fight. which is also where I made it to this time where I'm just like, oh, this is hard and not as fun anymore. And then I stop. But now that I know that I'm on the last boss bite for this one, I might actually go back and do it because I felt less defeated by this one. Like I know what I need to do and it's just figuring out the right combination of things. So I'm close.

Mr. Paris, Lili. What about you? Yeah. For me, I started with Tools of Destruction on PlayStation 3, Quest for Booty. and then I did Crack in Time and the 2016 version on PlayStation 4 and as far as Rift Apart

a little similar to Andy I was unable to play last week so when I got back home on Friday I just marathon this thing over the weekend and I actually rolled credits like an hour before we started recording this but yeah that's pretty much my history of Ratchet

Inton I've been a Ratchet fanboy since day one I remember I bought the game the first one on PS2 the day it came out just like by fluke because i was at blockbuster and it was $40 and i saw it just there and they were just putting it in i was like i like my mascot characters i'm probably going to like this game and oh my god i fell in love with it and since then i've hundred percented or nearly 100 percented every single game the only one i haven't played is uh secret agent clank on on on psp greg i don't know if you could recommend that one or not you can go

watch my review on ijjan dot com i don't think you're missing much sadly great idea a little underbaked Yeah, and I love the PS2 games so much, but really the PS3 ones are where my heart is the most, where both tools of destruction, especially crack in time, with Quest for Booty kind of just says that fun little interlude between them. I love them so much. I remember just going in and fully decking out every single weapon, getting it to the top levels, all the stat boosts, like all that stuff.

It was just such a fun, grindy game where I don't think there was platinum's back then, but I would have got platinum for whatever I did there. And I can tell you now with Rift Apart, I not only platinum it, 100% of the fucking hell out of this game. There's so much to do. And I did every single thing. I have every single weapon all the way upgraded. I have every single bolt.

I have every single, all this stuff. And I beat the game fully twice once in performance mode and once on the new game, the challenge mode. It's what they call new game plus with the, you hate it. With the RT performance mode. I very much do not hate this game. I enjoy it. Enjoy it quite a bit.

And I'm very excited to talk to you guys about it. But Greg, let's start with you. What did you think about Ratchet and Clank ripped apart? I adored it. I thought it was amazing. I think that it, I mean, it's my favorite Ratchet and Clank to date. Again, I'd say I've played and finished, you know, scattered throughout. And I think the early ones all run together for me.

And then when you start getting to actually IGN and like cracking time, I remember. And then obviously we just did the book club for 2016. this game succeeds, I think, on every level that I want a rash and clank to succeed. And there's a few things it misses on, but most of the time they're not mandatory, so it wasn't the end of the world for me. I think the weapons are ingenious. I think the game is gorgeous. And I didn't even play it in the 60 frames mode that got past shit after I'd already

platinum it. And I know you guys have experience with it. But the thing I kept marveling at is that every time I wasn't playing and I'd be watching a cutscene, no matter. matter what was happening, I was like, if I screenshot this right now, I'd put this up as a background for my wallpaper on a computer. Like, I thought the game looks that good. And granted, that's a cutscene, but I'm talking about cinematography of it, the way it's shot, the way characters are in the world, let alone the game itself being gorgeous in playing so well and being so tight. And then I was

so into the story this time around. You know, it's something I usually really like, I like in my games. And I think for so many times, Rashing Clank, not that it's hit or miss, but it's more like on the side and it still is here, but the rivet or ratchet gameplay of it and going through really gave interesting reasons to be playing. I thought, you know, rivet and a couple of the other dimension characters from hers outclass the

Ratchet and Clank dimension were used to in terms of me wanting to know more about them and their motivations and what was going on with them. I set a ball with it. Blessing. Yeah, I think the game is fantastic. I had such a really good time with it. I think us playing Ratchet and Clank 2016, only a few

months before playing this game has done such a good a good thing because I can compare them almost side by side of my mind and this game feels like it it takes all the right lessons from 2016 and builds on anything that might have been something that we would have to take for you know I think the story is is way more involved in this one I think the combat feels way more quicker and even more involved in this one as well the environments are bigger that you fight in and adding the rocket boots the rocket boots for me are the are the are the best edition for me in this game because they let you get from point A to point B way quicker that make combat way faster, way more smooth, give you way more a variety in terms of how you

get around, but then you also have things like the riffs that help you get around as well. And then also that along with the points that you swing from in the environments, I think the combat feels way better, way more active. The guns, I think, are awesome as well. There are quite a few guns that I feel like are almost clonish in terms of the the Mr. Fun Guy feels just like Mr. Zorkon, but isn't necessarily as fun as Mrs. Zircon because it does the same thing,

but isn't as funny with the voice lines. I think you have that here and there, and, you know, that is what it is. But overall, I do like the variety of weapons. I do like some of the new weapons they added. I think that helps the gameplay loop go through smoother. That, I think the, again, the story is really good. I like Rivet as a character.

I like new characters that they introduce in the story. and yeah overall like I think the thing that this game does one of the things that this game does best is be a show piece for what the PlayStation 5 can do the visuals of this game are immaculate like I'm with Greg that any scene I could pause and yeah that could be more wallpaper that's how good the game looks it's probably one of the more impressive games that I've seen just from a very just from a pure visual standpoint the game is beautiful and overall really had a good time with it Harris.

So I'm going to start it this way, and I don't think this is the craziest thing to say, but it's just how I feel right now. This is absolutely the best game that I played in 2021 without question. It's not even close, in my opinion. I will go as far as to say, if you look at the track record of Insomniac, the past three or four games that they put out, this feels like such a culmination of all of those efforts just put into one to where I, I, I, I would damn near say they might be the best developer in the world right now. They really might be. Obviously, that's up to interpretation and opinion. But everything that Greg Blessing has already said,

I look at the visuals of this game. Like, I was able to play it in the performance RT mode. Just, I mean, it's just stunning. It is absolutely stunning. I found, like I put out a tweet, obviously very vague before embargo, where I said, you ever just play a game and you hit pause and, you know, say, I love this, it's this game. I got to a point where I just had to hit pause and just marvel at everything that I was doing so far in the game.

Like you said, you put in the visuals, you bring in the music, you bring in the voice acting. I mean, Rivet, Jennifer Hale, and just some of the other characters that they've introduced here are just stand out. You know, like Rusty Pete as an example, which, which, you know, is Pierre in this one and the other dimension. I love that dude. I just absolutely loved them. It was hilarious to me. The game play, like you said, the variety of weapons, some of them are little samey, but overall, I had just, I was just having fun. And that's the whole point of these things, right?

You want to have fun while you're playing a game. It's like I had to kind of rush through. So I'm excited after this to start going back and doing some of the side stuff. Like I would encounter some things like, wait, how do you get that? Then I would acquire a new building. Oh, so when I go back now, I'll be able to go get this. Things like that. I want to go do these things.

Like, it didn't feel like a collect-a-thon to me. It felt like something that I want, I want the puzzles that coming. I love the boss battles. Again, I love the story. I think one thing insomniac has really started to perfect here is when credits roll, I care. I care about these characters. I care about these worlds that they're creating. And like I said, I feel like Ratchen and Clank Rift-Daparte is just a culmination of everything

that they've been doing. I would say the past five or six years. And it's outstanding. Absolutely outstanding. Loved it. Kelly. I am hard pressed to think about anything from the 2016 rationing claim game that wasn't improved upon in this game.

I feel like any gripes I had with anything, they, I think, I don't know if it's fixed or it's just like the technology has evolved. So it's better. I felt like I was way more invested in the story. I still to this day could not tell you the story of the 2016 rationing thing. But I was really interested in these stories, these characters. I felt way more motivated to try out a lot of the different weapons, whereas last time I felt like I had like a very small rotation of ones that I would go to.

This time I was like excited to try a bunch of the new ones and just kind of change up my playstyle and stuff. I loved it. Like I'm sad that I'm so bad at platformers because I feel like that's the thing that gets in the way of it. It's nothing that necessarily the game's doing. is just that my brain just doesn't operate like that. So it's hard for me to play these games. But they're so fun and just entertaining and like, I don't know, I feel like connected to these characters,

which is so crazy because I feel like I feel more connected to some of the new characters than I do the ones that I've played like an entire game with already. But I really liked it. Andy. Fucking shit, man, you know? Look, like, God damn, you know. I think this is Insomniac's best game. Wow.

Top to bottom, front to back. It does, this is as good as a video game can be. I think presentation-wise, what it does with characters is really fun, and I actually cared about the story this time around. Just like Joe, through the 2016 version, I don't really, I didn't really give a shit, what was happening, right? I was having a lot of fun, granted.

But here, I definitely cared about the story. Not to say that it's this fucking crazy, grandiloes, is that even a word? Grandi lois. Grandios, yeah. It's got me tripping over my words right now. The, yeah, I think just like, this is such a complete experience.

The, when I think of the things I didn't love about the Spider-Man games, I didn't love the hacking, I didn't love playing as Mary Jane or even the Miles sections were just kind of like, I just want to play as Spider-Man, you know, the original Spider-Man, not a Miles-Miles. But this does so many cool things when it comes to puzzles,

and Lord knows I hate puzzles. I think there's no better thing I can say that I had just spent five hours finishing the first game Saturday night and immediately pop this in two hours after I'd beaten the first game. and was right back into it and could not get enough. And I wanted to keep on playing and keep on playing and thought, you know, I'll just mainline it. I see these are optional. Screw that.

Let me just try to beat the game and try to play as much as I can before the review. But I did those things anyway, and I wanted to keep on playing. And I think the gameplay is fantastic. Again, all the little small quality of life improvements that they've added. I don't know if it was maybe just my controller configuration on the 2016 version, but grappling and attack both being on circle or I'm forgetting what was on circle, but there were so many moments where I would try to grapple to the little things in midair and I would always hit the wrong thing and it was just a mess of confusion.

All the small things that they've done and added in here have just improved upon the formula. The gigantic big spectacle moments are all there that you expect from the god of war, uncharted, naughty dog sort of sequences, right? those big sort of moments that have you just jaw on the ground, just blown away by what's happening on your screen. And also, from a technical perspective, how is this being achieved? This is fucking bonkers that this is possible right now. Dude, it's a Pixar movie.

It is literally a Pixar movie. That's what I just played. It's incredible. Like, I think about the giant sequence, Paris and God of War, where you're fighting the big giant, and there are those moments where you're kind of falling through the air and they're super cinematic. And there's several of those moments.

but the gameplay is more involved. And one thing that I also want to add on that's really neat is there are some cool gameplay moments that also lend to the character's development, which is something that I haven't seen a whole lot of where I don't want to spoil anything. So I'm just going to stop there. But it's kind of an interesting thing where you're used to kind of just doing these mini games and small puzzles and it feels like busy work. but in here it's actually adding to the character growing in some way.

And God damn, dude, yeah, I think this is like as 10 out of 10 as a game can be. And I think I would love it way more if I was a Ratchet and Clank fan. And I think it's just perfect, dude. I think, and I know I'm talking a lot. I'm sorry, but I think you make a great point. God damn it, Paris. We didn't bring you on this podcast. What am I doing?

No, but I think you make a great point. Obviously if you're a Ratchin and Clank fan instant 10 out of 10, but I think the beauty of Ripped Aparted, it is going to rip apart. It is going to bring in people that are not Ratchin and Clank fans into this IP, into this universe because it's just that good. I don't think there's any requirement to have already been a ratchet, history or anything to be able to play this game and enjoy it. Yeah, it's a great jumping on point, right?

And I think it's a great onboarding point. And one of the things you said, Paris, that I can't echo enough was what a joy this game is to play. And I mean that from storytelling, sure, gameplay, weapons, yada, yada, but I also mean it in the way that I don't agree with Andy on the mini games. I thought they did have their Mary Jane moment in here a couple times where there's one where you're, you know, glitch doing, getting rid of some viruses and another bunch of puzzles for clank, which is very much cracking time like in terms of what you're doing. Oh, look at that. Barrett's got the B-roll ready to go. And for the most part, I enjoyed the clank ones towards the end. I was like, uh, all right, can we

get going. I know what I need to do. In glitch, I was, there was certain times where I thought they were just buzz kills in terms of what was going on. And they weren't fun. I wasn't having fun playing them. But I love the glitch puzzles. See, I love that you do it. Just listening to hear everybody. Oh, no, no, totally. I love

that you do and I love that they're there, but I love more that if I did it, you can hit start and skip the puzzle. Like, if you're not having fun in this ancillary thing, go ahead and opt out. And that was the thing. I'm like, all right, I know I just need to get over there and do the thing. Like, I'm not engaged in what I'm doing exactly. I want to get back to the main campaign. This game is designed to do that.

And I know we've talked so much in the lead-up to this about the accessibility settings of it, how they're on par with what's going on last. It was part two. Worth pointing out that tomorrow, PSI Love UXOXO is going live. We're going to have Steve Saylor on to talk specifically about that. And as you watch this review and I'm sure dozens of other reviews today, make sure you hit up immediately patreon.com slash kind of funny games.

Get in your questions because, yeah, they're going to, Tim, blessing and Steve are recording PSI, I love you. The afternoon this posts to get it up on Wednesday. But what I'm saying is I think they've done such a great job of giving you a game and saying, enjoy it how you want. And so you enjoy those puzzles great. I don't.

And it doesn't stop my experience. It doesn't, I don't get stuck and go, I don't like this. Well, on top of that, I mean, like even just the platinum.

I think it's a very well-designed platinum where they, they are giving you fun tasks to do. And earlier I said I 100% of it, that's above and beyond the platinum. Like that is, like they really kind of take most of the tedious stuff out of the, the platinum. stuff and for some of the trophies it's not collect all of this thing it's collect three of that thing

collect four of that thing and there's 12 of them and i like that because it's kind of like giving you a tease giving you a sample you are doing all the different gameplay but you don't need to go all the way just like greg was talking about with the puzzles if you want to skip it you can um which i didn't my first play through but i did skip all the puzzles my second one because i already did it i didn't really need to do it again um i'm just so happy this game exists because it could not the fact that playstation studios has a 3D platformer series that they are putting this much love and attention to is so, so impressive to me. And I'm a little shocked, honestly, and especially for a franchise that has kind of been gone for a while, like, even if you, the 2016 game, like, that great game, but it's like,

it's not a great ration and clank game. And like, the story is not good. The story is not what the story was in the, it's not canon. It's definitely was a movie game. And so it's like, it is, it was very refreshing to me to see this game kind of, uh, like, uh, like, Paris was saying be such a good jump on point while still having all the characters from the games like Quest for Booty and all the previous ones. But you don't need to know the characters. They introduce them very well and like they play with them very well in a way that you're always kind of invested in it all. I can't talk enough about how gorgeous this game is, how well it runs. You guys already talked about all that.

But having played the game the first time in Perf or in Fidelity mode and then the second time in the RT performance mode, it's like go with RT performance. That is undeniably the way to play this game. Getting the 60 frames per second is fantastic. The ray tracing is gorgeous and you're not going to miss the resolution. But man, it is just a visual feast. And the weapons are so fun. I love how varied they are. And the clony feeling weapons,

I was okay with that because by the time I was working on the second one, I had already maxed out the first one. And the way I play the games is once I maxed out a weapon, I try not to use it as much so I can keep leveling up all the weapons. So them having multiple versions, quote unquote, of different weapons, I thought was actually a good design because it allowed me to, and I know a lot of people play like me, to keep moving on with different weapons and have similar gameplay experiences. But with, with, you know, new visual gimmicks and, you know, a bunch of shit exploding on the screen and all that stuff, which is just constant in this game. I will say, though, this game is fantastic. But I do think that I'm a little lower on it than it sounds like a lot of us are.

Having said that, I played the shit out of it. This is a Tim Getty's ass game. I think Insomniac are, to Paris's point, one of the greatest developers of the world. I think that they are inching towards number one game after game after game. But I do think that a lot of the moments in this game, I don't want to say let me down, but didn't blow me away. Like Andy was talking about a lot of the big set piece moments. They all felt slow to me. They all felt like I wasn't in control enough.

And I felt like they could have used more gameplay. All of the on rails grinding stuff, which there's a fair amount in the game, it just felt slow. And that stuff was mind blowing back in 2002 when, you know, that was what a quick time event looked like. And it felt like you were actually playing this movie. But we've done this so many times that I kind of was hoping for something a little bit more from that. And even here, like the speedle stuff, never quite felt thrilling. I guess that's the word I'm looking for thrilling. Playing on Charity, getting dragged behind a Jeep.

I feel like I'm in that. Even though most of it is just a movie that I'm watching and you're just lightly controlling it, I feel like this game, I never was quite thrilled by the big epic moments. Greg, what's up? See, I think jumping off of that, like the rail grinding in particular, that's how I felt with Ratchet and Link 2016. And that's obviously fresh in our memory. We just did the play through with PSI Love You earlier this year.

And I remember that being like, oh my God, why is this so slow? Here I thought it gave me more to do and it was visually stimulating, let alone, and this isn't a spoiler unless you're on complete black. out, but they showed, and one of the, where we've talked about it, right, and some of the B-roll, when you're grinding around a giant, like, basically mech as he's grabbing at you and stuff like that. Like, I felt like that was

one of its uncharted moments. I felt like the opening we've seen before where, you know, Dr. Nefarious rips off the parade floats and ratchets hanging on and stuff's blowing away. Granted, you're not in control there as you're holding on. I thought that was another big budget uncharted moment. Yeah, I thought the on-rail stuff

that kind of switched it up, which again, this kind of goes into the hardware with the PlayStation 5 was as you get later in the game, you can start instantly switching dimensions while you're on rails and you're like in a completely different world like instantly. And that to me kept the fun going. It didn't just feel like, okay, we've been doing this, you know, the past 10 years. And it was like, oh no, this is a cool new wrinkle to an old gameplay mechanic that Ratchet and Clank has always had, right? And it kept me engaged in everything that we're doing. So what's interesting there is that we talked about this when we watched the state of play thing.

And I was saying that one of my fears for the game is that all the Rift stuff is going to be completely on rails. And it is completely on rails. Completely. There is no choice. And when you're on rails in multiple terms here, but when you're grinding on the rails and then going into the nexus, there's no option to switch to them if you didn't want to. Like you have to or you have to not. Like there is no in between. And here, this is a different thing, these crystals that transport you back and forth.

But this is different. But when you're in these kind of like more scripted moments, I was hoping there was going to be a little bit more like player agency in that stuff. And we don't get that, which is fine because like what the, the on rail stuff is great. It just kind of didn't hit the highs that I was hoping for with all the power of the PS5 and all that stuff. I kind of just was hoping they're going to take that stuff a little bit deeper. And again, I'm just being critical of the game that I absolutely did adore. And I think that everybody should play this.

But what's up, Les? Yeah, I was going to say, Tim, I think I'm more along the lines of you. with how I feel about the game overall where I really like I think the game is fantastic I think the game does plenty of great things I don't think this game is a 10 out of 10 like I think this game

the thing that's missing for me is the magic when it comes to trying to strive to make a super excellent game I think it is insomnia I'm most refined a game I don't necessarily know if it's their best game where you talk about the riffs

the riffs do feel on rails the blizon crystals where you go back and forth between the different dimensions. I think that's a cool thing, but I also, I've seen that same thing done in different games in ways that are even cooler and better.

Dishonor, for example, Titanfall 2, for example, where you're going back and forth from the past of the present. I think there are a lot of ideas here that work because technically, they're super good. Like technically,

they feel so refined and so well done that, you know, it's hard to really get on them. But I think there's creativity and the player agency there that is slightly missing that makes this game fall a little bit short of X-Land for me. Can I jamming one thing before you go?

Because right there with you with the crystals and stuff, it reminds me so much in this, depending on your thoughts of it, but it reminds me a lot of how we thought the medium was going to be,

oh, we can go back and forth between the worlds whenever we want to. No, it's that. So, like, hitting the crystals to go between them is very linear because you're going

from one point to the other. Sorry, Tim. But what I do want to say is while I kind of wanted more from a lot of the on-rail stuff and then the riffs and stuff, I think that the actual boss battles and the big epic gameplay moments really shine. And that's when we get the uncharted moments that Uncharted doesn't even have,

where when you are actually in control of facing this giant boss with crazy visuals happening everywhere, that it feels like there was no concessions made in the foreground, background, anything going on. It feels like you are in this crazy world with ships flying around and like so many characters everywhere. And as you're fighting the boss, like switching out all the different weapons, like you feel like a badass and it feels epic like the the fight we're we're seeing right here it's like it really you feel engaged and there is that agency there and like at the end of the day it's like I would much rather the core gameplay be a 10 out of 10 which I think it is here than the kind of like

to be honest on rails movie moments that we're just pretending we're playing and yeah and and that's the thing that I guess impressed me the most is that there was nothing in this game that It made me sad, oh, God, I don't want to do this right now, but I guess I'll just kind of, you know, pain my way through it. Like, I know Greg didn't love the glitch moments. I love the way the gun felt. It was fun for me. The Dual Sense, actually, I thought was fantastic.

I played with headphones a whole way. I don't have the 3D audio headphones, but the audio I thought was fantastic. The Dual Sense actually did a lot of kind of neat fun things. And again, it's all gimmicky, but it's fun anyway. but I never got to a section, much like in the 2016 version, where you have to fly using the left stick. You're not aiming with the right stick.

You're aiming with the left stick. And that was just like the dumbest shit I could have ever conceived, right? Like I couldn't my baby. It was awful. It sucked. And anytime we got to one of those, I said,

oh, God, I don't want to do another spaceship shit. Anytime I got to a clink puzzle, the 2016 version, goddamn too stupid for this. I hate puzzles. This is why I hate puzzle games. I, again, with all of the side stuff, when I compare him,

the reason I think that this is Insomniac's best game is that I think that all of the, all of the extracurricular activities are doing in this game that are not main, I am Ratchet or Rivet running through the world shooting shit, I think are so much better than the other side stuff in the Spider-Man games. And for me, I'm like, I'm just comparing main gameplay from Spider-Man, main gameplay from to Ratchet, I think they're comparable. And like, I like Spider-Man way more as a character, obviously. I love that world way more.

But I would have never thought that shit, I think I'd rather just play Ratchet, honestly, because I love the gunplay. The action's fantastic. Those set pieces are now, there's not a whole lot of set pieces like you were saying, Tim. But I think when they are there, that giant Macrobot moment was just, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. And then all the side stuff I still thoroughly enjoyed. And I also love that it took me six hours to get to a point in the game where a character said,

hey, I got to do this thing, defend me. Don't let them get to me. I said, shit, oh my God, barely. We're barely getting here. Like every other game, you get that every fucking hour, every 30 minutes ago. And it took that long to get to one of those moments I thought was just like kind of like impressive, which is a weird thing to like be impressed by. But yeah, I don't know.

I just, I can't really think of a whole lot of things that would have improved the experience for me. And that's what just kind of blew me away. For me, there were some side stuff that I wish was way better. Like, there's a main story moment and also a sidequest moment where you are riding, like, a multiple flying creature. And I thought the controls for that were bad. Like, I did not like how that controlled. You would have to, like, land in different places.

If you're doing, like, the more sidequesty one, you would have to explore the map a little bit to find certain things. I thought that didn't work out very well. And I thought the side quests overall, I was desiring more from it by that time I've gone through all the main ones. Because a lot of the planets that you're traveling back and forth from, they have like one or two side quests that you can do per planet. None of them really grabbed me. Like all of them I thought were fine. I don't think any of them were bad except for that flying around one.

But those ones left me wanting more because you have these open environments that look fantastic and that are kind of fun to go around. Like there, there's a lot of beautiful visuals in there. and there are crowded, or there are crowds in there. But I would, like, in the first level that Plano was a scene where you're going through and there's the club and there's this nefarious city, I was expecting to be able to do way more in that. And I felt like you had the main stuff, you had the one side quest and that was it. And I wanted way more from that.

I guess I shouldn't, I shouldn't have said side missions. Sorry. I meant more of the non-ratchet gameplay stuff, which is just like the Miles Morales Sneaking missions in the first Spider-Man, the Mary Jane sneaking, missions in the first Spider-Man, the hacking stuff. I meant more in this game, which would be the glitch stuff and the clink sort of, yeah, these little side missions that you get where you just kind of throw away, throw a little

orbs. I thought they were super fun and involved. And I surprisingly liked all of them. Again, I hate puzzles. I hate anything having to do with puzzles and games. And I had a blast with all of these. So that's what I meant. I should have said that instead of like side missions.

Because yeah, some of the side missions are just go collect these things, shoot those things, whatever. But see, I'm with blessing that I think I wanted more of those. I feel like the optional objectives you'll get on your HUD or whatever when you go to the thing are few and far between. And this isn't a knock as much as I just want more to do in this game because I enjoy playing it, I guess. Gojia? Oh, I was just going to say, I agree with Andy. I thought the puzzles in this game work because I feel like I'm on the same page with him is like,

I'm usually the one that's like, I have a guide because I'm just dumb and I can't figure this out. My brain doesn't work this way. It doesn't. And so I was like really pleasantly surprised to see that they were like really, they just worked with the way that my brain worked. They were clever. I thought they were super clever. The glitch ones I thought were really fun.

Though I will say that some of the movement for the glitch ones made me feel like kind of motion sickness when you're like flipping. Mario Galaxy type shit. Yeah. And I was like, oh, I can't do this too many times. But I like when games don't make me feel stupid. And I appreciate that this. I also, I like the glitch stuff and also the clang stuff in the most part.

The one thing where I'm kind of with Greg on is I don't like how they take you out of everything else. Like you're doing something completely different from the main game. Like I wish if they were going to find ways to break up the gameplay in that way, I wish they would have found ways to do that within the actual like ratchet or Rivik gameplay where it is, okay, here's a different platforming challenge or here's like a weapon challenge. They got those, but I feel like for the most part the game really is, the games on fewer gears than it could be. Where it is, all right, here's your third person shooting gameplay

where you're in the action. Here is you getting from point A to point B. And then here's also like the Rift challenges, which are the platforming challenges. Here's the glitching. Did you guys hear that? What? What did you do?

That's the stream lab notification when somebody gifted subs. So whoever gifted subscribers right now, that is not on my end, Barrett. don't have access to that. Oh, so people are watching Mike and Nick, and they just gifted subs. That's not my own, why do we hear that? Yeah. That was really weird.

Paris, you had your head race. What were you about to say? Yeah, I just wanted to pivot on what we're currently talking about, because obviously we all love the game. And I think when you love something so much, we start to get a little nitpicky about things that we didn't like, which totally is valid and makes sense. but I think to Blessing's point, I don't think it's hitting on all gears for on purpose

because the Ratchet series, they want everyone playing this. They want this to be a more, quote, quote, family friendly type game. You want it to be more accessible. So I do think some of the optional things may be a little light for that very reason because you don't have to do them, number one.

And number two, they want to make sure that everyone can engage with this game, get the full story out of it. Obviously, you know, the visuals are, or off the chain and just enjoy playing it, just having fun. I totally get what everyone is saying as far as I wish some of these things could have been a little deeper, but I guess I'm not, and this is not a 10 out of it. No game should be 10 out of 10.

So I won't say that, but I'm not going to. More games should be 10 out of 10. More. Ever played Hyperlight Drifter? Come on. Oh my God. You ever played Mario Odyssey. Uncharted three.

Yeah. But my point. I'm going. No, no, no, no. Go ahead. I was pretty much done. I'm with you. I feel like this game, I was talking to Barrett a little bit about it.

Like, I feel like it is, it's fairly content light, but I don't necessarily mean that as a derogatory. Right. In a way for that because the game does a very good job of making you want to replay certain sections and making it really easy to get back to certain sections. Like going back to the planet, there's a great amount of fast travel. There's a great. The hover boots like Blessing was talking about. make the what would in another game be like, oh, I have to get all the way to that part of the map.

Like, that's annoying what Greg was talking about of being able to skip the puzzles once you figure it out. You're like, I don't, I just don't want to do it. I know what I need to do. I just don't want to do it. This game is so good. I think better than any game I've ever seen at kind of giving you multiple ways to go about the task that you are trying to do.

And like, you can take the long route and see all the views or you can just get right where you need to go to collect the thing you're trying to get, pop over to the next thing. And they gave you a lot. options for that. And especially as you go through the game and go back to the different planets, more and more things open up to be able to teleport between the different areas. And I think it's very well designed because the game is extremely linear, like extremely. There's one level that has some level of not even open world gameplay, just it's a bigger area.

That's where the boots really shine, right? Where it is. Exactly. You want to go get this gold boat. You want to go get this, you know, a deposit of the raritaneum. Yeah, exactly. but with that every single time you go back to the levels even though they're so linear there's so many good entry points into different parts of that level so if you really enjoyed a boss fight or you really not even a boss fight enjoyed some of the more epic encounters and by the way that's something we haven't talked about yet i think that the the scale of some of the encounters are Andy you'll appreciate this and then Paris probably you too grandee they remind they remind they're grandelos they remind me of what what we thought the one of that

that early mission in Halo combat evolved when you're on the beach and you're going through and you're with all the AI and it feels like a giant epic war, but really it was like 10 people on a beach. This really kind of fulfills that promise where it's like you at certain points are fighting alongside others against a tons and tons and tons of enemy and it feels great and it feels epic. And it's like if you just want to pop into just that moment of the level again, it's super easy to be able to do and use your old weapons with new forms or like, All that stuff, Andy. To touch on something that Blessing was mentioning earlier

about how some of the hacking terminals do take you out. And I only agree with that at the end. There's a moment at the end where Ratchet, you're kind of like doing the final stuff. You're on the way. And Ratchet's like, all right, let's head to so-and-so. Let's head of this place. Oh, dang, we got to hack this thing.

And you go into the hacking thing. And it's totally like, obviously the momentum is like, slowed in a way and you're like damn i just kind of want to go do that thing that's always my issue when games do that but it's the hacking thing and i'm having fun and it's kind of also has this side story that like i don't really care about but i kind of do it it's weird yeah and then you and then you do it and then ratchet goes all right time to go to so-and-so and like it's like it's such a weird transition and i think it's i think it's more of a how do you present this transition because you got to assume the people in sonny we're like oh fuck like what are we going to have

Ratchet say when he gets back to this moment. And it's pretty much the same line of like, got to go take down the blah, blah, blah. It's just like, I don't know, it just feels odd. It feels awkward. So there are a couple of moments like that that I agree with Bless that it can kind of slow down those moments. Transitions are so hard, you guys.

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To clarify like my point earlier, because I think I got interrupted by myself as a notification, like the main, my main thing. Which we still don't know how that happened. don't know where that came from. It's honestly scaring me a little bit. The main thing with my critique for that, even though I liked the actual gameplay of it

because I like puzzles and I think that stuff overall worked, my main thing is that it felt like they were answering to, well, the main ratchet and rivet gameplay is just the third person shooting and getting from point to point B. And sometimes the platforming challenges, which I thought were overall pretty fine. Like aside from that,

you're pretty much doing the same thing over and over. Like it gets kind of repetitive in the main ratchet gameplay, and it felt like those were their answer to kind of switch things up. Break it up, yeah, to break it up, which overall, I think works. I think is a fine solution, but I don't necessarily think was the best solution. I wish there was more variety in the actual ratchet and rivet gameplay itself. Like, I wish the pacing from what you're doing in one level to the next level was a little bit more varied. Because as you mentioned earlier, the level where you're going through a big environment and doing the three things,

and the boots are really good for that level, when you're, when you're, when you're, when you're, uh, exploring and hanging out. I think that's an example of doing it right. I think the nefarious city toward the beginning was an example of doing it right of like, you know, walk around the city a little bit, check, go to the club and you can kind of hear where the club's at based on the 3D audio, which is pretty cool. I wanted more of that. Like, I wanted more of the world feeling like a world as opposed to very linear pass that I'm taking through in this very linear game. I think the fact that it's linear is fine. I think you're good to make linear game. But I think there's, there are a few things they could have done here and there to really make the

world feel broader and more explored? You know, like what if instead of one side thing or one side objective in a planet, there were three or four? So you're talking to a few more characters in a planet. I feel like that would do so much more for building out and really making this world feel like a world as opposed to making it feel really like a video game. And that's definitely possible. But I think just one thing I really appreciate about what the game does, I think it's,

I think personally the game is paced like pretty perfectly. And I, what I mean by that is. no gameplay section feels like it overstays its welcome, in my opinion. Like, I never felt like, damn, this should be over by now. And I've felt that with a lot of video games. There are tons of video games that seem like they do that. But I never really felt that here. And I just, I thought that when the game needed to slow down or when I didn't think

it needed to slow down, and it did, I was like, damn, this is a good, nice little change of pace. There's a couple of, there's some moments in. between that slowed down and are kind of creepy and freaky, which I wasn't expecting, and that was really damn cool. And you get kind of moments to chill out and there's not a million explosions all over the place. I don't know. I thought the game just did a fantastic job with not just, with sort of mixing things up when it needed to.

And that's one thing I appreciated about it. See, I appreciate that everything we're saying we're talking about, but to Blessings point that it could feel more immersive versus just feeling like a video game. I think that it commits to feeling like a video game. And I think that I like that. And I know you too, bless I'm on saying that you, hate this game.

It's not like Miles Morales for you, I understand. Hey, you still like it's on my favorite games, it turns out. That's crazy. I'm the least favorite developer. Wow.

This one in particular, like I appreciate that this is a ratchet video game, which is a video game I feel has always been very in your face about being a video game about getting this gold bolt, about upgrading your weapon, about replaying again. I appreciate that it's a modern take on that. And I think it's the,

quality of life features we're all talking about, whether it's skip the puzzle or accessibility or performance mode, things like that, or, you know, being able to dial in difficulties or whatever you need from it mixed in with the fact that, yeah, it is linear and it is this thing. And I, I appreciate that I'm left as somebody who's platinum of the game wishing there were more characters for me to run around and do things with. There was more challenges for me to run around and do. And they're there if I want to go get them, right? Back to Tim's thing. I'm like, this is an excellent trophy list because it isn't the, you know, I, when I got the platinum here, I was like, man, maybe I should download the Ration and Link collection to my Vita and maybe try to platinum those.

And I looked at it as like, you know, get a million bolts or whatever. And the trophy guy's like, well, if you put a rubber band on your thumbstick for five hours, like, fuck this. You're like, this is a game that is knows it's a game and I think is perfected trying to be a game, which I appreciate. There's one bad trophy. Which one? The, the bear one. Oh, that's like the, but like, that's bad for you and me like pre-release. Once that's out in the public, that's like, but that's what.

That's why I haven't planned them to yet. I'm waiting for the guys to come out so I can do that one. There's one collectible item that doesn't come up on your map. So you just don't have any idea where the things are and there's some in every level. And I just don't like that for the way the rest of the game is designed, the way the rest of the trophies are designed. It's like they very clearly are telling you what you need to get and where to get them and how to get them and all that. And then there's just this one X factor. It's like, all right.

So I need to find a guide to get this. You're not just going to come across these organically. Some of them are just like a little obtuse. And it's like, you're not really like lead. There's no hints. There's no clues. There's no direction. It's just if you get lucky, you come across it.

You're not wrong. I mean, like, you know, the people I was talking about who were hunting ahead of time were doing the same thing I did last of us collectibles where it's like going to accessibility, turn on color blind mode. Things will pop that way or whatever. But I what I appreciate about that is the same thing I appreciate what you're talking about about you. The fact that I plat, I platinum it, but you 100%. presented it, right? Like, that there is an added level of if you really want to go get all the gold bolts, you can, you don't have to,

you can. It's the same thing here where I feel like if you were the, if you're the Ratchet and clank fanboy, fanatic, if you're kebabs, right? Like, you just want to be playing this game nonstop. I feel like you don't go look at that guide. You do want to go into every nook cranny and try to find it on your own. Or if you're with me and just want to get the platinum,

you take the guide and you bust it out in like, what, all 20 minutes, because you're warping around and then going to where you need to go. It feels like semantics, but I just think that when it comes to it being a trophy versus what you're talking about just the 100% stuff, if it was just the 100% stuff, I'd be like totally cool, that makes sense. But it being a trophy and all the other trophies being so well defined, I think, is just an issue just because it stands out because I think that they really did a good job with creating

a game that really incentivizes you to keep playing after you beat it. And, you know, platinum is a thing that Greg Miller loves to do. It's not a thing that everybody does. So I think that for a game to really kind of incentivize normies, to want to go that extra distance. Don't ever come in, Normic. Okay. I saw you dashing a pair, and I would never call you a Normie.

Thank you. Oh, my God, that sniper at the end. Oh, baby, clicking heads. Oh, I felt so good. It felt so good. But yeah, I enjoyed that stuff quite a bit. While we're on this topic, I tried using game help for some of that stuff

that's built in the PlayStation 5 system. I thought that could have done, that could have been done a little bit better. You know, they might maybe add more after the game comes out. I don't know how that process entirely works. But for what's there right now, on the road to Platon, I mean, Ratchy and Clan Gryft Apart,

there are quite a few things that weren't main quest stuff that just didn't appear in the game help because it seemed like it was geared toward the main quest, which is fine if they want to do that, but I don't know. I wish that stuff was better. I know this isn't necessarily a game complaint, but it's a PlayStation first party game. Yeah, I was going to say,

this is a PlayStation Studios game that's being used to sell you on the PlayStation 5, the dual sense and everything in between. Like, yeah, I think it's a worthy call out there. Yeah. Yeah. What you just said, Greg, it was a point I wanted to bring up. When I just think about this game overall, when I just think about being this early in the generation, and I think about obviously what we got at launch, what Astros Playroom,

you had like Demon Souls, obviously we just had Returnal. I've thought this before and now that I've played it. This is pretty much confirmed it. This is the reason you own a PlayStation 5 right now in 2021. It's this game because those other games aren't necessarily for. everyone. Whereas I think what Ratchet, the beauty of what Ratchet has done is they've made this inclusive for any, any type of gamer can pick up the stick, start playing this, and they're going to have fun with it. I think that's the best compliment that you can give the game is for everybody.

And I had a blast with it. I again, like I said at the top, I just think about the writing team. I think about the voice acting. I think how it's using the 3D audio. I think how it's using the dual sense. Obviously the visuals, the gameplay. It just feels like the complete package of why you would want to own a PlayStation 5. And to add on to that, Paris, I think that after just, again, beating the 2016 version, I think this game kind of tones down that PG-rated Borderlands humor, like, just enough, right? Because I got kind of tired of that vibe in the 2016 version where everything is just, everybody's a crazy character and they all have a wacky voice actor and and there may be

saying one-liners that are just not hitting. I think this game definitely did better with the writing. I think it could have been better still, right? But I do think that this game toned down that sort of, that just silly humor that you just kind of roll your eyes at. It's like, somebody's laughing at that, but I'm not. I'm just not feeling this humor right here. But it definitely worked a bit more for me this time around.

and I think it was toned down enough to where it wasn't obnoxious. Four fans of the more classic Ratching Clank games, this game is entirely in line with those. It is not at all like the 2016 game. So it was, I was really impressed with how much they can just get right back into that

having the last game in the last decade really being the 2016 one, but I was very pleasantly surprised with the love they gave to the old characters, the way they made them accessible to new players as well. But to have that writing be a little bit more for us,

even though I agree with you, there still were moments that didn't hit, but that's comedy for you, right? And correct me if I'm wrong, but did the 2016 version, I should know, I just fucking played it, but did it tell you bios of all the characters?

Like, did you have that in the options? Because I enjoyed that. I enjoyed having that here. Somebody who doesn't know who 80% of these characters are. Now, granted, a lot of people in the bios are just random enemy spawns,

but the characters from past games that I don't remember at all because I rented it over a weekend where I was just shoving pizza hut in my face as a 10-year-old or a 15-year-old or whatever. I enjoyed having those bios there and being able to just read a snippet on who that character is and what their past is with the whole gang and just adding more context.

Now, granted, this isn't some gigantic Mass Effect Destiny-style lore dump, right? There's not all these crazy things you have to read and catch up on. But it's about a paragraph long and you just read, oh, okay, that's who that person was and that's what they're, okay, cool. Feels kind of mass effecty. Yeah.

Maybe it's just because I'm playing it right now too, but. Pretty good game. Pretty good game. I like that they didn't shy away from a lot of the Star Wars influences. You know, like when you go from planet to the planet, it feels very much like it is. Yes. This basic, like, or not basic, but like this fun, I guess, mascot version of Star Wars,

even when you get into the naming of the planets and everything you feel. The wipes also. The wipes, the whole. I mean, it's literally a resistance story, right? It is literally a Star Wars story where you're fighting an emperor. And so I love that they didn't shy away from that. I will say about the story. I feel like some elements of the story felt like they were repeats of earlier.

Ratcheting and Clank stories in terms of like character relationships and overall arcs felt very much like earlier Ratchezer Clank games. I couldn't tell if that was a, hey, we're doing this on purpose as like an homage or if it is kind of that. loop that ration clink kind of gets into. But now after playing the first ration clank and then ration clank, 2016, the remake and playing this one, I'm at the point where I'm like, all right, cool, it would be nice to have them. I don't know, like, steer in a left, like, take a left turn in story and do something completely different. That is still in the ration clank world, like, still ration clank, but something that feels

less iterative off of the stories that we've gotten before. Like, I don't know if you guys feel what I'm saying there, but. Yeah, totally. I have no backs. I have no basis for it. Sorry, bless. I don't got your back right there. You just want new, yeah, where it's not like there's always a tie to something that's come before kind of thing.

One thing I do with, with Paris is that no game is a 10 out of 10. This would be if had a perry mechanic, honestly. Like, now that I think about it, add a parry in there, totally 10 out of 10. Yeah, I was thinking you might put a shield and you grab the bolts and you shoot them back. It's not a parry enough for you. I didn't. I bought that gun at the end because I had a lot of money, but I saw that weapon.

I was like, I don't need that, dude. For me, it's all, it's the blades. we got the Ricosha Andy, Andy Cortez is a new episode of nicknames where Andy's going to

make all the ratchet and grift of our weapons We got the ricochet Rickshay is hot the sniper at the end is fantastic God man This game

I like So much What did you actually use the most? Well is this kind of spoiler? Do we get kind of spoiler here? To talk about weapons

I don't feel like that's that bad I don't think so either I mean like There are a couple weapons that don't talk about but we know that well yeah there's that one very specific one i think that yeah but besides that that i i thought rickshy was really cool i i i the uh the sprinkler torporatory sprinkler that

changes like that was the shit man of putting it out and watching you turn people into hedges or whatever that you can then shoot uh i i was using the blast pistol a lot i i that was the first thing i upgraded so i stuck with that a long long time um i like the executor or an enforcer i like the enforcer a lot. It's like a shotgun. It's the shotgun that they made purely so they can show off rate tracing. It's great. I fully upgraded the shotgun.

I fully upgraded the sort of grenade launcher type things. Fully upgraded the sniper. The war machine or whatever the hell it's called, the rocket launcher. Really, really good. Yeah. Yeah, I love the ricochet, though, quite a bit. and I still don't really even know if I figured out the correct timing

on it. You get sort of bonus damage if you time the hits correctly, what it is essentially, you shoot out a shot and then you click the trigger more and the shot kind of goes through them back and forth and back and forth and you can time it really well to get more damage. I never really fully figured

that out, but it didn't hinder my experience because it's just going in with the rhythm of it because it's got like pinball noises so you're trying to line them up with that. Ding, ding, ding. Yeah. I never figured it out. stopped using it.

I'm not doing this right. There's 17 other weapons or whatever. I have other things to waste my time with the electrocution. The lighting is I didn't have a load out. Yeah, lightning was awesome. I really, really enjoyed the majority of the weapons there. I think that the shield one, the void dispenser or whatever it's called was, but my least favorite, uh, just because I didn't really like how it, how it worked out.

It felt like it didn't do enough damage for what it, how much timing it required, uh, to get right. But I think that like so many of the weapons were fun where I was, was never bummed having to level up a weapon. And I think that there have been some previous Ratchet games, been ones where I'm like, oh, I just want to get this over with.

But this one really was fun to switch through. I think the amount of ammo they give each weapon is almost perfect. Like it's so well designed to keep the gameplay fun and engaging so that it's challenging, but it's never like too hard. But then also it's incentivizing you to switch between all the different weapons in a very, at this point, classic insomniac way when it comes to, you know,

since it overdrive or the multiple Spider-Man games we've had. And here it really, really is refined and works really well, like no matter what weapon you're playing with. And I love that as you, there's multiple ways to upgrade the weapons. There's a level system for each one. Then as you beat the game, more levels unlock. And then on top of that, like the weapons name changes, which changes some of its properties.

Then there's also skill trees for every single weapon that as you play through the game, as you get the different levels, more and more skills unlock. And there's just a. lot and it's really cool to be able to look at the skill trees super easy to understand like what each thing does but it this game does two things extremely well and it's the two things ration and clang games need to do in order to be fantastic and that is collecting bolts needs to feel absolutely like the best thing in video games and it ray tracing on the bolts that but even just the sound of them flying to you and like feeling it in the dual sense all that it's just so satisfying like we play

video games to see numbers go up and see all that stuff. And I think that this game does a very good job, both of just having the, the effects of what the PS5 allows with the 3D audio and all that stuff and the visuals looking and sounding better than we've ever seen. But then on top of that, like the skill trees and all that, every single time you get a skill point to unlock something. I can't wait to get back to Mrs. Surcon to upgrade something.

And it's like, that's the loop of video games. That's what this game needs to nail it. It's a slowmo of leveling up, fantastic. Just feels great every time. Yeah. Jumping off of what you're talking about, Tim, like, you know, not to spoil stuff, but like, you know, you're getting gold bolts, which of course, you know, unlock special optional things.

And like you can replace the bolts. I replace the bolts with the overdrive cans from Sunset Overdrive or whatever and played for hours like that because I thought it was just a cooler visual. I had rubies than mine. Yeah, right. And then on top of that, like the one thing we haven't talked about is, you know, the pocket dimensions, which I know you referenced in when we were talking about side stuff for a glitch and we were talking about side stuff for clank.

But the pocket dimensions are there, right, has little mini challenges for ratchet or rivet that as you go through, you're guaranteed to get a piece of armor because there's armor sets throughout the game that have three pieces for them. And when we had heard about them, I thought they were cool because they come with obviously stat bonuses. But I thought it was going to be like, oh, it's lame that you have to be wearing it to get the stat bonus when in the fact it's not that way. Like just collecting them adds to those bonuses and keeps them active to you. And then on top of that, when you find a set, you like being able to put it on and go in and

change the colors of it to really customize it to your character. It's little touches like that. again, that I think the game knows it's a game. It is very much, I am making a video game, and how can it be the most enjoyable experience for you to play? You felt like a badass with, like, getting the right sets of armor looking just right, and maybe, I'm going to color scheme, rivets look this way.

I'm going to color scheme, uh, Ratchet to look this way. But I unlocked this new helmet and it doesn't really let me do a whole lot of colors. All right, we're just going like full kind of chromed out, like gun metal. Whole ray tracing, baby. Oh my gosh. I had so much fun with all the customization aspect. I want to talk about the soundtrack, because the soundtrack, because the soundtrack in the game is phenomenal.

Like, it does, in the preview we did, they talked about the composer being, the composer from Thor Ragnarok and then wanting to kind of invoke some of that energy and I feel like they nailed it. I think that the soundtrack is pretty much. The glitch sections were so sick. The music in those, if you take,

it's got a certain tempo and then it kind of goes halftime with its drumbeat, and it just sounds so sick. I just want to like pause this, it's just kind of listen to it because it's fun and it's it's involved, but it's not like, you know, it doesn't take you out of the moment,

but it's very, very good, very good. Since stuff really, really worked for me, I loved it a lot. It was very Thorrag and Rock, and that fits the aesthetic of the game and the missions, especially, that they're in so well. And Andy, earlier you were referencing,

there's like some more kind of like thrillery moments in the game and I think the music there was like really unnerving and really perfectly kind of set the scene for where we were at. And the epic cost. that we get towards the end of the game for sure, and then in a lot of the combat arena stuff,

is like 10 out of 10 where I'm like, this is so hype, so great. I do think the majority of the score in the game doesn't sound that high quality. And like that's a Tim thing, but like I just gotta call it, doesn't feel like a real orchestra. And I feel like it,

for a game that looks this great, I thought the music sometimes sounded a little less than, yeah, it sounded digital. Midi electric keyboard as opposed to like bombastic, violins and trumpets and all this stuff. And it took me out of it a little bit because when the polish is so high, that stuff matters that much more. There are a couple that I think are fully orchestrated. I could be wrong about that.

But there's some stuff that really stood out like the final fight scene. There's also the point when when you're in a nefarious city, the club there, the way that you can feel that in the dual sense. One of the dopest uses of the dual sense yet. Because it basically like pulses through the controller and it feels great. Yeah. I wanted to mention just how kind of, you know, worried I was hopping into this franchise, because obviously it's a, you know, 2016 was a remake of a 2002 game, but with a new lens or whatever. And it's a mascot platformer.

And I think we think about those games in such high regard because that's just our nostalgia. But after playing Returnal this year, I was like, how can this game feel, right? I feel like I played one of the best third person shooters I've ever played ever, having played Returnal this past year. And I was just really kind of worried about will this gameplay hold up, the 2016 version. I was like, shit, this actually does work. And then Insomiac found a way to make it even better and more involved and fun. And it becomes so erratic at moments, but in the best way possible.

Like you are, it is pure chaos and I have full control of what is happening at the moment. I know what weapon I'm going to use on that mob who's behind me because I can hear him because the audio is fantastic. But I'm going to snipe this person right here. Like it's just perfect, dude. I found the gameplay to be just immaculate, man. I think you bring a great point. I just want to say with the audio of what Andy's talking about, this game, undeniably hands down, is the best 3D spatial audio I've ever seen. 100%

Like I multiple videos and even on the the Sony side where they really focus on this stuff Even the the Resident Evil games where Capcom recently is done a really good job The spatial awareness of where shots are coming from or where enemies are especially because of how much they talk and how much like quips are happening from the enemies and just the the sounds and how the the all the sound effects are so well Done and and appropriating cartoony and over the top that you really know exactly where all these things are even if they're flying around you or whatever and you feel it in the dual sense too. It's like it's again, I've said this recently with, uh, I forgot what the game was, but it's like feeling the shaking is part of the sound experience.

And having that dual sense with the 3D audio, whether with headphones or even with the surround sound stuff, I was blown away by how much more engaging it made combat because you felt like you were in the arena. Sorry, Paris. Go for it. No, no worries at all. You're spot on with the 3D audio.

Completely agree. But the one thing I was going to pivot off of what Andy was saying, is with the weapons, like, again, the gameplay, they really encourages you to switch between your arsenal of weapons as you're going through various encounters. And my dog clearly agrees. As an example, you know, I would have this loop of where I would come into an encounter. I'm throwing down the sprinkler.

I'm hitting them with the lightning. And then I'm hitting them with the shoddy after that, rinse and repeat. You know what I mean? And it just wants you to get into that practice of, using all the different weapons, figuring out different ways to chain them together. My dog just completely agrees. So I'm going to stop talking and mute. Within the same topic of weapons, I do love some of the shouts that the enemies do that will be in context of,

oh, he's got the enforcer. Oh, he's doing this weapon. Oh, what is that bouncing around? And they literally referenced the way you're playing. I thought that was really cool and not something I've seen as much of in video games lately. And so that was a really dope thing. I noticed that a lot in the 2016 version. They did good as well.

Yeah, they do that quite a bit where they'd be like, oh, you're using a whatever rocket out, you get your hands on that. So there's a lot of references like that. And I'm so glad that those are here as well. There's one thing that is just super tiny and doesn't matter at all, but I kind of missed it, was when you're walking on those platforms with your grab boots or whatever, your magnet boots, the tiles would sort of shift and suck up to your feet when you're walking on them in the 2016 version, they don't do that here.

So this game is a no buy for me. Wow. Wait for game pass or whatever it is. Oh. We're wrapping up here. I do want to give a major shout just to the technical aspects of this game, not just how beautiful it is, but just how well it runs. It doesn't hitch at all in either of the modes that I played in.

I did have some weird like T-Pose things and like the game crashed from me once. But besides that, it loads so quickly. No matter what you're doing, it's like, I don't even. I noticed loads. Like if you die, you get right back into it. With all the RIF stuff, it is so seamless. And it's like the flashes happen and you're just somewhere else. And I was blown away the entire way through of like just how fast everything was happening.

And really quick with the gameplay that we've been showing. I know there's some chugging. That is definitely like an OBS problem with VLC and stuff. So don't look at that and be like, oh, like it doesn't look that great. Like on my end, at least it looks really dope. I had a, yeah, I had one crash. I had a moment where Ratchett's right arm was missing and then I just reload it and it was fine.

It was more of like the right hand that's holding the gun, all that section was gone. And then there was a moment that I kind of broke things and the way that Ratchet would look in the game engine, he has like the white proxy cube underneath him to kind of show this is where the player is located. That popped up a couple times. So wherever I would jump and run around,

And this white cube was just underneath my character the whole time. And I reloaded and it was fine. Again, I'm shocked by just the polish of this. I know that we shouldn't be surprised that Insomniac is constantly putting out games that are really insanely high quality. But I don't know. I'm kind of just used to games coming out and us talking for 20 minutes about the bugs. And, you know, it's great. The game works fantastic.

I do have quite a few things to say about bugs. Because I don't know why. I feel like I have like a unique experience. with insomnia games when it comes to bugs because Spider-Man, Spiderman and now this game I have had consistent bugs in where it is like it goes beyond

crashing where it is like T-posing stuff or Spider-Man will go through a wall this game the recurring bug I had was in one level there was a door that was supposed to open or there was a door that an enemy would come out of and for some

reason the enemy would never leave that door and that door would close and so the next thing I was supposed to do after that wouldn't open. And that happened to me like five times in a row after I reloaded, reloaded, reloaded. And basically what I needed to do was I needed to get to that door and kill that enemy before the door would close them in order to make it, in order to get to the next thing. And that was a place I was stumped at for a little bit because at the first I didn't know. I was like, why isn't this next thing opening?

So I'll run around the level, try to figure it out. But that was the thing that would have, that was the thing that happened to me consistently in that point. And then there are like a few other things that were just random, like, Ratchett would get stuck in geometry. I'll try jumping over something. I would get stuck in a rock. Like that shit would happen,

but it was never game breaking. It was never like, this is ruining the experience. It was mainly that one time where it kept happening, where I was like, what the fuck is going on with this right now? Oh, Klink got stuck in one of the puzzle things when it smushes you down.

Clink, no, he just, he didn't die. He just was in there. And like, I could just kind of jump and I wasn't able to get out, but I just ended up reloading. but there's a moment towards the end of the game that I almost texted Tim and Greg similar to how I did during Fallen Order and I was like, what the fuck am I supposed to do here?

And you walk up to this door and then a red X pops up in front of you. I'm like, am I supposed to like camouflage as a robot? And like, how am I not getting in this fucking door? I was like, circle baby. Hour one, they taught you that you could dash through these doors. Like, God, I'm a fucking idiot. I was so confused.

I was straight up doing like some Mario 64 speed hack shit where I was running in places you're not supposed to be trying to find the way around. I was like, this game, like, what are you doing right now? This is awful. I was like, oh, I could dash do the... I had a very similar thing where I texted blessing. I was like, have you finished this game yet?

Because I couldn't figure out how to fly over this water section. And I was like, oh, it's the dumb snail. And I just didn't see the spawner, like literally right in front of my game. face. But then bugwise, I had my HUD disappear for like a couple boss fights and then like the health bar just wasn't going down for one of them.

All right y'all. The game's broken as shit. Oh, you know what? I did have like the same thing where my health bar wasn't appearing and then I had a different one where it was not showing me my ammo at all. Yeah. So I was just like well I guess I'm just going to keep going. You're playing it wrong. Y'all are playing it wrong.

This is also less before like the technical day one hatched. It was something I even think about until you guys brought this up because it was such not a major issue compared to the rest of the game. Oh, you played before day one patch. That's right. Yeah, I think we all played before. Oh, yeah.

Because you not in. Yeah. Yeah. The day one patch came out and I got the email. I was like, I should start this game, huh? Because, fuck. Time really went by. Well, let's close this out.

I highly recommend this. I think this is a must play video game. If you have a PS5 or can borrow someone's PS5 or get your hands on this anyway, shape or how, I think. it's entirely something that is worth the money. $70 is a lot of money, and I do think that this is pretty content light for that, but I think the polish of everything that is there is entirely worth it. Thousand percent agree.

I think it's, like Perez said earlier, I think it's the best game I played this year. It's just a returnal so far. That's a game of the year for me. Yeah, I love this game. I highly recommend it. It's not my game of the year, but it is in that top five. like it is in the running for one of the best games this year for me. And there are things here and there.

Like I think the game, I think performance wise, visually, all that stuff, I think that stuff is 10 out 10. There are some things on the game design level that I wish was done a little bit better. But overall, I think it makes her a fantastic product that people will have fun with and for sure be satisfied with. Yeah, I think it's a fantastic game. I think if, yeah, you have the means to get it, you should get it for sure. I think it's definitely going to be a shortlist for game of the year.

agreed why you own a PlayStation oh sorry no you're good well there we go everybody this has been our Ratchet and Clank review like Greg said well this game has been provided by PlayStation

for review but like Greg said tomorrow we will be doing the PSI love you that is answering all the questions you might have about the game so please get those in at patreon.com slash kind of funny games and speaking of patreon.com slash kind of funny games if you are a supporter over there stay tuned for our exclusive

show. But for everyone else, I love you guys. Stay tuned here for E3, all that stuff. It's going to be a great time. Love you. Goodbye.