Long before the days of playing an Insomniac Studios game meant hovering around New York City like a friendly neighborhood webslinger, you could count on their wacky sci-fi platformer series of Ratchet & Clank games to keep your 2002 pipe. blaring all night, resulting in a less-than-friendly neighborhood the next morning.
After two successful games starring Lombax and robots, Insomniac decided to complete the original PlayStation 2 trilogy with 2004’s Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal. After you’re done giggling over the title’s allusions, you’ll find a game that stays remarkably fresh 15 years later. Thanks to his writing and gameplay, he is the strongest Ratchet & Clank for PS2 and possibly the entire series.
Characters
Three Adventures and Insomniac has effortless control over the tone of this game. Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal goes from hilarious to heartfelt to captivating. Most of this is due to laser-focused writing that portrays the characters in a tonally congruent fashion. Everyone’s dialogue fills them with personalities that feed each other organically, even if it clearly takes on a cartoonish atmosphere.
Regardless of whether the characters return favorites or new faces, they are inherently likeable from the start, even if their actions in the story aren’t the most heroic. I can always get a chuckle from Captain Qwark’s cowardly selfishness, but the irreverent butler Lawrence has given me the chills just as many times.
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