Check out our video review:
The first Ratchet & Clank is an excellent action-packed platformer. It takes you on a galactic adventure to a variety of planets with aliens and robots and gives you plenty of weapons to blow them away. It’s silly, rewarding, and fun. It was followed up by Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando, a more ambitious sequel with several new ideas. Developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment, Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando was released for the PlayStation 2 in November, 2003. A remastered version was released for the PlayStation 3 in June, 2012 and Vita in July, 2014 as part of the Ratchet & Clank Collection. For this review, I played the PS3 version.
After the events of the previous game, Ratchet and Clank have become celebrities. When Abercrombie Fizzwidget, the founder and CEO of MegaCorp, the galaxy’s largest maker of consumer goods and electronics, requests the duo’s help to recover an experiment, they uncover a plot that threatens the entire galaxy. Overall, I thought the story was on the same level as that of the first game. It’s not so much the plot itself that I really enjoyed but the silly characters and interactions. Some of the attempts at comedy fall flat but it was hard for me not to smirk or smile as I progressed through this wacky galactic adventure.
Like the first game, you’ll get to play as both Ratchet and Clank. You’ll play as Ratchet most of the time and play as Clank in areas that are inaccessible to Ratchet. Ratchet and Clank possess the same move sets they had in the previous game along with some new abilities. You can strafe now which is helpful during combat and Clank can command more bots like Bridge, Hammer, and Lift bots to get through areas.
Unfortunately, the camera still sucks as does the auto lock-on for certain weapons. Strafing helps but because of how the controls are, strafing, aiming, and shooting at the same time can feel cumbersome. What I finally realized during my playthrough is that the game needs a proper lock-on mechanic. Just a button press to lock-on would do the trick. I found out that you can actually do that. Sort of. You have to press two buttons simultaneously. And it’s in the form of modifications. You have to spend Platinum Bolts to modify weapons with special abilities like lock-on and acid and shock damage. It’s not so much the lock-on that’s the issue. It’s that you can’t stay focused on one specific enemy without manually manipulating the camera.
Once again Bolts are a form of currency and Platinum Bolts are like hidden collectibles and act as a special form of currency. You can purchase weapons and ammo at vendors and in addition to these and modification vendors are armor vendors that sell armor to better protect you against attacks. Several weapons and gadgets from the previous game do make a return and if you have a save file from the first game on your PS3, you can get these items for free which is really cool. Some of the stuff you can buy is quite pricey so grinding for bolts can be beneficial. When you beat the game, you have the option to play through it again in Challenge mode which is tougher but you can earn more bolts and you will keep all your equipment and will have access to Mega Upgrades.
One of my fears going into this was an abundance of minigames. This series is from the same people that brought us the original Spyro trilogy and while I love those games, each sequel brought with it more minigames and I prefer the action, exploration, and platforming. There is more minigames in Going Commando, however, most of them are quite enjoyable. I was impressed. You’ll get to participate in ship battles where you pilot your ship and will have to defend things, blow up enemy ships, and even race through rings. You can actually upgrade your ship by spending Raritanium which can be acquired during the battles by destroying enemies and things in the environments and by drilling for it. Some planets include Battle Arenas where you can complete different challenges for Bolts and then there’s the Hoverbike Racing which I hate. Like the Hoverboard Races in the previous game, unless you’re boosting all the time, the AI will speed past you and the tougher races are just downright frustrating.
Ratchet and Clank will travel to planets by ship. Each planet has objectives for you to complete and you’ll need to acquire coordinates to fly to new planets. The planets do get more challenging as you progress but if you take the time to collect and earn Bolts, you can acquire the new weapons and gadgets that become available to help you on your journey. I love the arsenal in this game and many weapons feel great to fire. You’ll get to unleash projectiles, the bouncer is easily one of the best weapons in the game, you can snipe enemies with the pulse rifle, lay down turrets, and throw homing discs. There’s a lot of cool weapons and killing enough enemies with one will result in the weapon upgrading to a more powerful variant. The Lava Gun to Meteor Gun upgrade is the only one I didn’t care for. The Lava Gun is great for dealing with mobs of little types like flying drones and the Meteor Gun really isn’t. It’s a projectile weapon and while it’s cool, I didn’t use it much since there’s better alternatives as far as projectile weapons go.
Just like the first game, the Quick Select menu cannot hold all of the weapons and gadgets. Furthermore, having to switch to items not in the Quick Select menu and frequently re-configuring the Quick Select menu can be tedious. But it’s a small price to pay for the amount of fun the tools in this game offer you. Gadgets are required to access certain areas. I really dislike the Electrolyzer and Infiltrator because of their minigames. These gadgets basically let you bypass security to gain access to new areas but, of course, you have to complete minigames to gain the access and the Electrolyzer minigame in particular really sucks. You have to flip connectors so the blue particles moving around can pass through them and I just don’t find it enjoyable.
As you progress through the game and visit new planets, you’ll notice the enemies get tougher and if you’re not prepared, they’ll wipe the floor with you. You want to upgrade as many weapons as you can, buy better armor, and increase your Nanotech. Nanotech is like your health and can be permanently increased by killing enough enemies and by finding Nanotech Boosts in the environments. You’ll engage different alien creatures, robots, flying types, armored foes, and even bosses. The enemy variety is excellent and each planet usually features its own set of foes. Without the right weapons and/or upgrades, later enemies can just feel like damage sponges. The action in Going Commando is often more hectic than that of its predecessor and some areas can be really tough and trying to rush through them can result in frustration. Luckily, taking the time to explore is a lot of fun and often rewarding.
Each planet is visually diverse and nails the whole alien sci-fi thing. Going Commando is an action platformer so in addition to blowing up a ton of shit, you’re also going to be running, jumping, swinging, and swimming. You’ll even get to fly around with items like the Glider and Levitator. You’ll have to avoid hazards and dodge projectiles which can sometimes be a bitch when the action gets hectic because of the camera. If you’re up against a ton of foes, it can be easy to get surrounded and hit by attacks you didn’t see coming. Bolts are usually lying around everywhere and are in breakable boxes, there’s hidden areas to discover, and you will have to revisit planets when you acquire the proper gadgets to access new areas. Some planets feature areas that have you locating items that you can sell for a good profit. You’ll still have to work to afford some of the more expensive stuff but the developers give you a lot more ways to earn bolts this time around which I appreciate.
Much like the first game, Going Commando is a good looking PS2 game. The character designs are well done, the animations are good, the presentation is colorful, the visual effects are solid, and the environments are diverse. You’ll see ships and creatures flying around, each planet has it’s own atmosphere and feel, and many planets showcase beautiful backgrounds. Unfortunately, this remaster feels very barebones and you’ll see frequent pop-in. I do like the soundtrack much more than that of the first game. Some planets have some excellent tunes. I really enjoyed the songs heard on Planets Oozla and Barlow. The sound effects are also well done. Because many weapons sound great when firing, like the Blitz Gun for example, it helps make the combat feel more satisfying. On the technical side, I didn’t encounter any serious bugs but the frame rate did dip on me frequently. It usually happened when there was a lot of enemies, action, and things going on on-screen.
Despite some issues, I love Going Commando. It improves upon the first game and delivers more action-packed gameplay. I do think its more challenging and the increased action and difficulty do make some of the problems that were carried over more pronounced. When I’m engaging a ton of enemies and trying not to die, I really don’t want to have to worry about the camera and it sucks when my shots miss because I couldn’t properly align Ratchet which could be easily remedied with some kind of auto focus mechanic or just a better camera in general. Regardless, the good outweighs the bad here. It takes everything great about the first game and adds more. Even the skill points return and you’ll need to earn them to unlock special content. At first, I was a little nervous that the game would throw minigames at me at every turn and while there is an increase in minigames, most of them are enjoyable. I particularly enjoyed the Giant Clank and ship battles. There’s a lot of cool weapons and gadgets, you can unlock and use equipment from the first game, exploration is rewarding, and it’s just a fun game packed with a ton of things to do and discover.
I would absolutely recommend Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando to fans of the previous game or action platformers. In fact, I’d recommend it to anyone that simply enjoys fun. It’s a galactic action-packed adventure that you should go on. It’s challenging and gives you plenty of fun ways to overcome the challenges. It’s got aliens, robots, you can even command robots, you can blow things up, discover secret areas, and decimate your foes with awesome firepower. Need I say more? Definitely check it out.