April 8, 2005 - Playing through the three Ratchet and Clank games you'd expect that the fourth one would follow along just like the other. More bizarre guns, more oddball enemies, and some plot twists with a unique sense of humor. This platforming shooter has set up a fun formula for those who want to run and jump and sniff the flowers and blow everything in the universe to bits with gigantic piles of ammunition. But with the newly announced Ratchet: Deadlocked on the way all of this is about to change. This shift might not be as radical as the change in the Jak series, but it's going to take the series, and console gaming, to some uncharted territory.
Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal provided the same high-quality thrills of its predecessors, but it also included a solid online portion of the game. Instead of a typical online segment that puts a meaningless bullet point on a box, Up Your Arsenal managed the trick of creating something much deeper than deathmatch. Teams had to work together to take control of a map via node points, hidden items, use of two-person vehicles, and a joined effort to destroy the enemies' fortress.
With Deadlocked, developer Insomniac has gone a few steps further and is now merging the single-player and online halves of the game. While searching for some missing heroes, Ratchet and Clank are captured by media mogul Gleeman Vox. Ratchet gets a Deadlock collar put on him that will explode if he tries to escape. With no choice but to go along, Ratchet enters into Vox's combat show, DreadZone. Until he can figure a way to escape, Ratchet must compete in a series of increasingly dangerous events to keep up the show's ratings. Meanwhile, Clank has become a mission engineer and provides help over the radio.
With this new deadly scenario, Ratchet faces missions that have a series of challenges ahead of him. Instead of the somewhat linear feel of the levels in previous games, Deadlocked will have wide-open levels that are more challenging. There are plenty of enemies to fight as well as four Exterminators, Vox employees who specialize in killing contestants. Fortunately for Ratchet he has a couple different types of friends to help him out. There are some bots that he can control and there's the option to bring a friend along for some co-op play.
Someone is about to get smoked.
The entire offline game of Deadlocked through with one or two people. This is not just one level or a LAN or online option, but a two-player split-screen experience for the whole thing. With the challenges there are several times where a coordinated effort is required and with the ability to have a buddy along for the ride this feature alone is enough to make us want to play some more Deadlocked right now. For those who will be playing it solo the bots are no slouch either and can more than hold up on their end.
Ratchet runs around with a squad of bots that are much more evolved from the robos that were in the Up Your Arsenal multiplayer. These bots can be given context sensitive commands that are appropriate for whatever situation Ratchet is in. When there's a bolt that needs to be turned to open up a door, it's possible to quickly assign the bots to turning the bolt or providing cover while Ratchet does it. Other doors need to be hacked into and again this is just one quick button-tap for giving orders. With the commands extremely easy to pull off and varied for whatever's going on, more time can be spent running around and actually playing the game.
