Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty Review, Continued

The puzzles themselves are not that difficult, and proved to be more entertaining than a challenge. One puzzle required Ratchet to follow a sequence of sounds and repeat them back by bouncing on large keys. Another puzzle actually required Clank to brew multiple drinks (or rather brews) by stepping on four dispensers, while each contained a unique liquid in color and state. "A bit of the bubbly, a chill to the bone," the Bartender tells Clank. "Top it with a twister, and send a happy pirate home."

Another good puzzle involves the wrench's Kinetic Tether feature. Many objects throughout the game have grips that the wrench can grab using an energy ribbon of sorts. Simply hit the R2 button to select the grip and the square to activate the energy ribbon and then use the Right Analog Stick to move the object. In this particular puzzle, Ratchet is required to put together a shadow on a wall. Three objects stand in front of this wall, and he must manipulate them by moving them front to back, or side to side in order to create the correct image on the wall.

Other puzzles are not so obvious, and probably lean towards the platform category instead. These merely require the manipulation of objects in order to advance a state. For example, you use the Omniwrench's Kinetic Tether to move a platform across a bottomless pit in order to reach the next platform, but you must also move the second platform first in order for the "stepping stones" to work. The whole platforming aspect gets a little brutal towards the end, when Ratchet enters the dark Lythion Caverns and must traverse across narrow pathways crossing over fathomless dark pits. This is where inner thoughts like "were they on drugs when they designed this?" come blaring in, and they honestly knock the overall score down a notch. Challenging platforming is one thing; absurd level design is another.

Though the downloadable title is short in length, Quest for Booty serves as an entertaining experience that will please fans until the next full-length Ratchet & Clank title launches in 2009.

But these missteps aside, Quest for Booty oozes with action, and there is a lot of it to keep your toes clenched. Besides serving as an awesome tool, Ratchet's Omniwrench proves lethal as a skull-bashing weapon. But let's not forget his other tasty weapons in the arsenal such as the fantastic Predator Launcher, hilarious Tornado Launcher, the uber-deadly Alpha Disruptor and four others that are just as awesome to blow stuff up with. Although you'll pick up a near-infinite amount of mechanical parts throughout your short journey, you won't really need them for purchasing said weapons (save for the Alpha Disruptor, that is).

No, there were only two instances in my brief play through where Ratchet actually made purchases. One was to buy a VerseBolt from a shady, beachside smuggler, and then later to actually hire him to guide Ratchet to Darkwater Cove. Ratchet initially carried all available weapons at the beginning of the game, but once he and Talwyn were banished to the island, they lost all but their primary weapons. Eventually Ratchet retrieves the rest of his arsenal by way of the Smuggler (he hands them over strangely enough) and Rusty Pete. Honestly, Talwyn proved to be useless save for plot progression reasons, as she really served no purpose when battling enemies and bosses.

Again, the emphasis of Quest for Booty is certainly on the action, and it will keep you pinned to your seat and glued to the PlayStation 3 until the final credits roll. There's never a dull moment with this game, casting Ratchet into trap after trap, ambush after ambush. There are some insane instances where you'll need to outline a good strategy before entering an infested area, and this definitely holds true once you enter Morrow and Lythion Caverns. The controls are really easy to master, but during intense scenarios, you may find the camera a bit frustrating, especially when it lodges into a wall and refuses to rotate. If anything, you'll come away from Quest for Booty with your hands and knees trembling from sheer adrenaline overload.

What also makes the journey worthwhile is the game's overall presentation, from the voice acting to the script writing to the character animations. Quest for Booty offers a good, entertaining story, and will keep you grinning from its goofy comments and over-the-top silliness. The game definitely has loads of character, while there were certain times when Ratchet should have been more interactive. A good example is when Slag must open a door using a super secret password. It turns out to be the "I'm a Little Teapot" song, and at that moment, Ratchet should have looked at the metallic head in bewilderment, rolling his eyes. Instead, he only moves on through the now-opened door.

Other than that, the good news is that there isn't really anything else that negative to say about Quest for Booty despite its odd name (which can certainly invoke some off-color comments). After all, this four-hour romp wasn't about seeking treasure, but was rather about hunting down the Fulcrum Star in order to reactivate the Obisdian Eye and find out Clank's location. Certainly, Insomniac's could have named this "Secret of the Obsidian Eye."

But because this game is so short -- less than half the size of a full game but larger than a demo -- you can't really give Quest for Booty a high score. Fortunately, gamers new to the Ratchet and Clank franchise really don't need to be familiar with the ongoing story. Quest for Booty is a great title for what it's worth, and should serve as a good snack for Ratchet and Clank fans, new and old alike, until the next full-length adventure hits store shelves in fall 2009.

Overall Score: 8.0 out of 10

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