The reason for the downloadable medium and the price is that this is not quite a full game. Quest for Booty picks up pretty much exactly where Tools of Destruction left players. That is, Ratchet is searching for the whereabouts of a kidnapped Clank. The story briefly has you re-encountering the robot pirate crew headed by Captain Slag and Rusty Pete. Petey happens to be the narrator this time around as well. While somewhat brief and lacking personalities such as Quark and Clank himself, the story is full of the accustomed humour and is thoroughly entertaining for as long as it lasts.
WEEEEE!!!
So for all intents and purposes, Quest for Booty is virtually the same as Tools of Destruction, bar the absence of key characters and the fact that you are only on the one planet rather than having a whole galaxy at your disposal. Still, given the game’s purpose, these facts don’t really hold back what is one of the most focused gaming experiences in very recent times. The game benefits from this, with some of the most exciting and challenging platforming in the series. That’s not to say this will hark back to days of yesteryear, but compared to past Ratchet games, the platforming is very strong.
Scope aside, the focused delivery has meant that you’re only really exposed to the good bits of the franchise. There aren’t any mini-games to get in the way, so you’ve only go the best of puzzles, combat and as mentioned, platforming. Despite the fact that you’re only on the one planet, there are still a diverse number of environments across the playing experience. The primary addition to the game is that of the kinetic tether, that allows you to pull and manipulate certain environmental implements. It’s a nice addition but its use is fairly obvious at most times.
Ratchet and Clank Quest for Booty may only take four hours at most to complete, but it’s an experience that never lets up and is thoroughly entertaining throughout. It’s a must play for any of the fans of the series who really want to know just what happened to Clank at the end of Tools of Destruction. However, the experience is not without its faults and there are a few things that could probably be done better if there ends up being a second time around.
New toys are always fun.
It is an obvious issue with the game that the time span doesn’t allow for the usual weapons collecting and development. Each weapon you collect will already be at level 3 and they are all very easy to upgrade. There really aren’t any purchasing options either. We found it a little strange that you still need to collect bolts to further the story, as we’d arbitrarily collected enough just by beating everyone around us. So while Quest for Booty actually fits the episodic format very well, there are a few things that could have been done to make it fit even better.
One of these relates to the timing of the game. It would have been really excellent if it were released in the middle of Tools of Destruction and the next game, as it would have been a great way to connect the two games and continue the story. As it stands, fans might end up purchasing this, finishing it in a sitting or two and then being left to wait until the second half of next year until the next game. Still, it’s probably a sign that Insomniac conceded that they couldn’t make the next game in time for this Christmas and Quest for Booty was the result of that.
Though it's a given, one area that Quest of Booty excels over its downloadable kin is the quality of its visuals. Given size of the download, you’d expect the visuals to be good, but for them to be on par and in some cases even better then their disc-based brethren from last year is quite a phenomenal achievement. While you don’t end up quite getting the variety from a Ratchet game, the overall quality of both the game and the quirky animated presentation more then make up for this. Where a lot of downloadable games skimp on sound, Quest of Booty retains all the sounds that you’d expect, taking nothing away from the overall experience.
Oh, scary.
As far as a downloadable episode goes, Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty serves its purpose extremely well. The experience is fun, fast and furious throughout the four hours that it lasts and fans will definitely get a kick out of seeing how the story has progressed. Minor faults have carried over from previous games, and there are aspects of the package that could have been handled better. However, overall it’s a great little game at a very reasonable price and a great advertisement for future downloadable content.
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