It’s quite clear that Ratchet & Clank was never intended to save the PlayStation 3. Insomniac has somehow managed to create two PS3 games in the time it takes most developers to do one, and this, being an enhanced replication of what has come before, in a familiar series, is inferior to Resistance: Fall Of Man. It suffers from the same sickness as Resistance, however, in that the ideas, design and use of the technology is all in the range of the PS2, with only an adequate amount of visual flair that justifies the use of the PS3.

Ratchet & Clank: Tools Of Destruction is an often fun platformer that does exactly as the series has done before. But the combination of generic, dull levels and an uninteresting script makes this a flawed debut on the PS3. On the other hand, however, Ratchet & Clank is loaded with the sort of mainstream simplicity that could sell the PS3 to a younger market, and we won’t deny that we were, on occasion, having the sort of childish fun that the PS3 has lacked thus far. More titles need to capture the same tone as Ratchet & Clank, but so much more work needs to go into reworking the fundamentals of the platform genre. This is far too familiar.

At first, we felt that we were going to come at this review with a completely different angle to the one we’re using now, but this is down to the way that the game pans out. It starts beautifully, you see, with the broad cityscape of Metropolis looking as neat as it did in the Pixartrumping press shots. Hundreds of vehicles were speeding overhead, there was no draw distance, whatsoever, with the detail, and at the end of the level, we were buzzing. Here was the kind of platform game that just didn’t exist any more. It was exciting because it made the most out of the genre staples and clichés, but it also maintained a well-produced and funny set of cut-scenes to back it up.

This first level sees you taking part in all of the old Ratchet & Clank frolics – run, gun and collect – but the obvious graphical sheen adds credibility to it. On top of this, Insomniac had clearly put good planning into this level. There were set pieces everywhere, including a quite sinister collapsing bridge and an apocalyptic landscape of buildings being felled (by the enemies, called Cragmite) in the background. After the expected dose of platforming normality, the game will indulge you in some rather fun rail-grinding sections, which see you dodging trains and leaping over explosions. At this point, we were enjoying it. Nothing about it was innovative at all, but the frame rate is impressively stable in Ratchet & Clank, while the detail on the character models is lovely – squint hard enough, and you’ll make out some of the individual fur on Ratchet’s ears. The animation was also quite nice, with your basic repertoire of jumps and double jumps suggesting that nothing is out of the ordinary.

Unfortunately, the experience dampened from here onwards. The sprawling Metropolis is replaced with a soggy slew of generic platform settings, while the detail in each one – despite being erratically impressive on rare occasions – is nothing that a polished PS2 title can’t handle. In particular, we were disappointed by the textures on details such as rocks, or the landscape itself. What could have been beautiful, expansive environments end up feeling like rehashed levels from a bygone era, with a specific level (Planet Mukow) resembling a hub from the first Jak And Daxter game in almost every way. We felt like we’d been here before, which is actually a fitting summary of our overall sentiments towards the game.

Meh. This one, singularly annoying piece of pop-culture reactionism is our feeling about the rest of Ratchet & Clank: Tools Of Destruction. The series is just not entertaining any more, and there’s nothing to be passionate about in a game like this. Also, since the plot – which features a big secret about Ratchet’s Lombax species and a distressingly unfunny emperor – is on a quality slide from the second you leave Metropolis, the entire tone is deflated by how annoying it all is. The script isn’t funny, the characters are built with an acute sense of what can upset a person and the voice acting, while good, is just wasted on the other elements of the anti-comedic narrative.

Thank the Lord, then, that Insomniac added enough gameplay features to save it from absolute mediocrity. Starting with the best use of the Sixaxis control yet seen in a PS3 game, the title comes into its own when it adds features for the sole purposes of entertainment. The weapons are often fantastic. Feeling explosive and looking gorgeous, the armoury in Ratchet & Clank offers you upgradeable fire pistols, lock-on missile launchers, and whirlwinds controlled by the Sixaxis. Flicking between them with a mere tap of the Triangle button is a joy, and the weapon optimisation is noticeably effective. Level them up, and they will change: the Raptor rocket launcher will become insanely powerful, while the Combustor – your default weapon – triples its barrels to create a hippy-troubling super weapon. On top of this, the Gelanator, which creates bouncy surfaces to help you reach higher levels, is a weapon that boosts the overall design of the levels just by existing. It’s nothing complex, but since it works fairly well, we’re going to count it as a plus point.

Some sections of the level design are surprisingly good, hinting at a more interesting approach that the majority of the game dared not take. One level sees you wedged on a space station in the middle of an asteroid field. Granted, the asteroids surrounding the level never suggest that this is anything other than a shiny PS2 game, but a gravity cube at the centre of this base adds interest to the jumping and collecting. It features some switches between gravitational pull that send you in all kinds of directions, so it’s a shame that Insomniac failed to capitalise on the success of quirks such as this for ideas in the game.

Instead, Ratchet & Clank: Tools Of Destruction settles in a familiar rut of semidifficult levels for the duration of the game, which, incidentally, is actually rather lengthy. While we respect the fact that Ratchet & Clank offers value in its lifespan, the game is too plain to be entertaining for ten hours, although in a landscape of five-to-seven-hour-long titles, this isn’t something we really have a problem with. To be honest, Ratchet & Clank is best played in small bursts. The solid platforming shouldn’t grate if played in that way, and the vibrant tone of the design is a nice departure from the mostly adult styling of the better PS3 titles.

Still, who are we kidding? Tools Of Destruction goes on for far too long without being challenging, it looks like a PS2 game and the near-pointless cut-scenes are nothing but a waste of time. We know this sounds negative for a game that we’re scoring higher than Heavenly Sword, but this is bad for the simple reason of it being so lax, uninspired and complacent with what has worked in the past.

The other sections in the game hardly remedy this. A slight attempt has been made at creating a team-based mechanic for the Clank sections, allowing you to control small minions to complete tasks such as building repairs and wall destruction. They also give you powers, such as the ability to slow down time, but this again is a meagre excursion from the main platforming slog. Playing as Clank is as depressing as it was playing as Daxter on the PSP – you know you could be playing as a much more agile and fun character, but the game won’t let you. It imprisons you in these small, boring puzzle sections that only serve as variation for the sake of having it.

After a while, you’ll find yourself bored, craving a platform game that can match the needs of the next generation. Tools Of Destruction is so annoying, because it acts like a PS2 game in every way, and it never shies away from that fact with anything near an engaging game. It has solid gameplay and it’s not a total disaster, so we can’t reasonably tear it to shreds, but it almost feels like an arrogant instalment in the Ratchet & Clank series. By assuming that the series could just have a presence on the PS3 without adding anything new or technologically impressive, Insomniac seems to have too much belief in the strength of its flagging franchise.

So, while this is as sturdy as ever and some of the additions are worthwhile, there’s not much here that’s beyond the first title from 2002. You’ll still have a good time with the weapons, and the controls are steady for the shooting (comfortable strafing noted), but the actual platforming is just average. It’s tough to really emote anything about this game, really, because Ratchet & Clank: Tools Of Destruction will just go through you with minimal impact. The visuals lack the promise that we anticipated from the early screenshots, and the powerfully dislikeable cast overshadows the Pixar-quality tone that we were hoping for.

It’s not too late for Insomniac, however. As negative as this review may sound, Tools Of Destruction never fails to create a wholly acceptable jump-and-collect game, but the fundamentals of the next-gen platform genre are lacking real focus at this point. Ratchet & Clank will only fill a void for those that aren’t looking for any innovative twists on the lastgeneration platformer, or any great overhaul of a functioning gameplay formula. For the rest of you more intelligent PS3 owners, however, the satisfaction will be far more limited.

Samuel Roberts