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 Let's Play “Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault” What if a Ratchet and Clank game took place in open environments with more exploring, optional pathways, and full 2-player co-op support? Sounds pretty good right? Add in the traditional fun variety of R&C weaponry, satisfying third-person shooting and platforming, and you have a pretty banging game well-deserving of its title. Oh, but god-forbid you add some tower defense mechanics that add more meaning to the exploration and platforming. That's just going too far. Snark aside, what do you do in this game? Most of the game is spent jumping and shooting, but occasionally waves of enemies will descend on your home base, and that will require your attention via yet more jumping and shooting. You can also buy upgrades to your base's defenses using the bolts you acquire while exploring, which creates incentive to wander around these open environments that Insomniac crafted. I hear this game kinda sucks. I legitimately cannot personally think of a single thing that sucks about it. The open level-design is creative and makes purchasing defenses far more engaging. The 3D-platforming and shooting is just as good as it always is. The game is just the right length to avoid overstaying its welcome. There's a good variety in enemy placements and situations to make use of the game's arsenal of guns. It's a valuable take on a series that was getting far too stale. So let's play it, and enjoy it. Or, I'll be enjoying it at least. You can decide for yourself whether you think it looks good. (I think it does though.) Videos 1. Korgon Refinery  2. Hidden City of Balkai  3. Grummelnet Plasma Harvester  4. Snowstorm  5. Doom 
GamesAreSupernice fucked around with this message at 03:17 on Sep 29, 2018 |
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Sep 15, 2018 19:16
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I have exactly one major problem with this game, and that is that it coincidentally reminds me of All 4 One cause I got them the same year.
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Sep 15, 2018 21:35
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Unreal_One posted:I have exactly one major problem with this game, and that is that it coincidentally reminds me of All 4 One cause I got them the same year. I'm not sure we have the technology to remove that link yet, but science is working on the answer
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Sep 16, 2018 00:22
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I take it you never watched Kalon's LP of All-4-One with Ape, Heavenator, and RandomNinja cause that game is not very good if you go by how much trouble they had with it do to poor gameplay decisions and glitches.
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Sep 16, 2018 01:55
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Chimera-gui posted:I take it you never watched Kalon's LP of All-4-One with Ape, Heavenator, and RandomNinja cause that game is not very good if you go by how much trouble they had with it do to poor gameplay decisions and glitches. Having played it personally, I don't think it's that bad. Maybe they patched out several of the issues? Either way, I do prefer Full Frontal Assault more
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Sep 16, 2018 02:40
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I kind of can't hate the villain vocalising his smileys, like at the end of that post level speech: ": ) i'm out!" It's just the right level of stupid, although edging against the line.
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Sep 16, 2018 16:02
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BioEnchanted posted:I kind of can't hate the villain vocalising his smileys, like at the end of that post level speech: ": ) i'm out!" I really like that he speaks in Internet slang since it seems to fit with his character. He also criticizes your choice of weapons and analyzes your strategies when you fight him directly later in the game
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Sep 16, 2018 16:29
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2. Hidden City of Balkai i talk about Ratchet: Deadlocked a lot in this video
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Sep 19, 2018 19:20
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The weapon crates are being deployed all at once from the sky. They need to spread them out of they'll collide with each other on entry and damage the cargo. It's called LOGISTICS Supernice!
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Sep 19, 2018 19:53
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BioEnchanted posted:The weapon crates are being deployed all at once from the sky. They need to spread them out of they'll collide with each other on entry and damage the cargo. It's called LOGISTICS Supernice! i'm sure game developers would love to have you around to make excuses they could never think of
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Sep 19, 2018 20:17
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So, I think the thing about this game is not necessarily that it sucks, the consensus seems to be that it's just average, it's average Ratchet and Clank gameplay attached to average, and potentially unwanted, base defense gameplay. With the exploration being actually kind of less interesting then the searching for the secrets in previous games. Deadlocked is weird because it has all the parts of a good Ratchet and Clank game but it just doesn't all click for a lot of people, and I definitely disagree with your opinion that gladiator should be the default and lowest difficulty, because the game is plenty hard enough for some people on the difficulty it pre-selects. Also Ace Hardlight is great but Gleemon Vox feels like a retread of the villain from the first game. Also, one thing I definitely disagree with is the constant assertation that playing below gladiator difficulty makes you a pussy, because it feels unnecessary for the discussion. Also, the best boss in the series personally is evil Clank, it feels like an emotional betrayal even if you know what's going on, and it's tense and interesting. The bosses in Tools of Destruction through Into the Nexus are kind of interesting in general and fun. Deadlocked does have really good bosses, it's the other missions that tend to be less great to most people. Also, as to answer your question about if watching you play makes me appreciate the gameplay, mostly it makes me agree with the consensus that it's an average Ratchet and Clank game, and personally I would find the base defense gameplay an added and kind of awkward gimmick, if I was playing with friends it'd definitely be a fun time though. The Scorpion Flail being really powerful is intentional, and overpowered weapons in single player games aren't necessarily a bad thing. Lord_Magmar fucked around with this message at 05:10 on Sep 20, 2018 |
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Sep 20, 2018 05:05
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Lord_Magmar posted:Also, one thing I definitely disagree with is the constant assertation that playing below gladiator difficulty makes you a pussy, because it feels unnecessary for the discussion. i think i only said that twice, but it was to be humorous, not an actual, genuine insult. i wouldn't call people pussies without ironic comedic intent, because that's not a good way to establish a dialogue so no, i don't think anyone playing on contestant is a pussy, but i do think anyone having trouble with the default difficulty really really really sucks at videogames and strategy on even a cursory level whether the exploration is more/less interesting is up to personal taste i suppose? i think it's better here because it feels like the reward for exploring is more directly linked to progress
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Sep 20, 2018 05:10
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Lord_Magmar posted:So, I think the thing about this game is not necessarily that it sucks, the consensus seems to be that it's just average, it's average Ratchet and Clank gameplay attached to average, and potentially unwanted, base defense gameplay. With the exploration being actually kind of less interesting then the searching for the secrets in previous games. you keep adding so much more to the post every three seconds i can't keep up
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Sep 20, 2018 05:11
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GamesAreSupernice posted:i think i only said that twice, but it was to be humorous, not an actual, genuine insult. i wouldn't call people pussies without ironic comedic intent, because that's not a good way to establish a dialogue I can accept the idea that they suck at video games, I honestly would agree, I just think that it's not necessary to force people out of their comfort zone in what is generally speaking a leisure activity. Also, some of the missions in Deadlocked really do kind of just suck unnecessarily on every difficulty, even with strategy and skill, because some of the enemies in Deadlocked really are very dangerous. Yeah sorry about adding things, it's a bad habit of mine, I'm done now though.
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Sep 20, 2018 05:12
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Lord_Magmar posted:I can accept the idea that they suck at video games, I honestly would agree, I just think that it's not necessary to force people out of their comfort zone in what is generally speaking a leisure activity. Also, some of the missions in Deadlocked really do kind of just suck unnecessarily on every difficulty, even with strategy and skill, because some of the enemies in Deadlocked really are very dangerous. Yeah sorry about adding things, it's a bad habit of mine, I'm done now though. there are games to play casually, and some not to when everyone in Deadlocked is screaming about how hard and deadly and impossible the challenges are, i think that should be reflected in the actual gameplay
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Sep 20, 2018 08:25
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GamesAreSupernice posted:there are games to play casually, and some not to But part of that is the over the top ridiculous nature of that game, Dreadzone is intentionally hyped up as the hardest most impossible challenge in the galaxy, but that wouldn't actually make for a fun or accessible game for the large majority of the playerbase. There is a difference between presentation and accessible gameplay, and the second should probably never come at the cost of the first. I like the Souls games and Bloodborne but they are needlessly and intentionally obtuse in ways that could definitely be improved for an actually better game without reducing the game itself. By the same token if Deadlocked was set to Gladiator as default and didn't have an easier game mode it should probably have a better way of teaching the player to use all their options that isn't lose until you win, which is how it would play out as the game ended up. Also as I said, the game is difficult on the lowest difficulty for some people, I'd say for the majority of people, because even on that difficulty it's still harder than the original trilogy of games due to the greater focus on combat over platforming. Also, Ratchet and Clank as a series is pretty "casual", and I imagine Gladiator would have been received even more poorly than it was if it was intentionally super difficult. Related to these discussions of Game Design and Ratchet and Clank in particular, this article is interesting. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-03-26-dont-get-cocky-the-secrets-of-ratchet-and-clanks-15-year-survival If nothing else I appreciate the actual joke from the remake which is it isn't the story of the first game, it's the story of the first game as told by notorious liar and self-promoter Captain Qwark, so the changes can be attributed to him either not knowing or outright lying about what happened. Lord_Magmar fucked around with this message at 09:18 on Sep 20, 2018 |
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Sep 20, 2018 09:11
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Lord_Magmar posted:But part of that is the over the top ridiculous nature of that game, Dreadzone is intentionally hyped up as the hardest most impossible challenge in the galaxy, but that wouldn't actually make for a fun or accessible game for the large majority of the playerbase. I'd argue Deadlocked is easier than earlier games because of the focus on combat, since you can just hold down R1 for most of the game on default difficulty. It's a thoroughly mindless -if satisfying- shooter. It feels that Gladiator difficulty was the original intended difficulty mode, and it even has 3 stars next to it out of a total five star difficulty rating. I'm not sure if executive tampering or Insomniac's hesitance lead to the cursor defaulting on "Contestant" mode, but I think it was a poor decision. The idea that the changes in the reboot are due to Qwark being an unreliable narrator don't pan out if you're familiar with the film tie-in, and like it or not, the 2016 reboot completely erases Ratchet's character development. He no longer slowly comes to be less selfish after being exposed to the horrors of people suffering, and instead desires to be a hero from the start. Boring, predictable, bland, and entirely without meaning. Clank no longer plays foil to Ratchet, but is just a Ratchet 2.
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Sep 20, 2018 12:59
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Or it could be that contestant was the intended difficulty because it's a nice easy but not entirely mindless challenge for a lot of people, and there are higher difficulties for those who want to push themselves. The film I'll never defend because frankly the film is terrible, but the game of the film of the game is at least competent and works great, it's a sign they can make Ratchet and Clank still if they so wish which is good to know. The combat being hard for people is also a thing, it's intentionally the bit of Ratchet and Clank that is meant to be difficult, as opposed ot the fun/puzzle nature of the exploration. It's also worth noting that they regret making Ratchet as much of a selfish dick as they did in the first game because frankly he came off as outright unlikable to a lot of people, it's been known that Ratchet and Clank 2's personality shift was not so much character growth as a rewrite using a time skip to mask it as such. I think you're looking at narrative depth that is at least not intentional, in Ratchet and Clank and Deadlocked, even if it does exist, and intentional narrative is what game designers focus on more often than not when making future narrative decisions. I'd also say the character development does still exist, it's just different, Ratchet still starts the movie wanting to be a hero for selfish reasons, he wants to be recognised as a hero and is much closer to Qwark than he realises, over the course of the game he learns that being a hero for a sake of being a hero is meaningless and dangerous, and so becomes a true hero for the right reasons, wanting to save people. But again, these differences in opinion are interesting especially as someone working to become a game developer, as I don't think there's a "wrong" way to think about these things, although there may be unhelpful ways to think about them. Lord_Magmar fucked around with this message at 14:39 on Sep 20, 2018 |
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Sep 20, 2018 14:34
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Lord_Magmar posted:Or it could be that contestant was the intended difficulty because it's a nice easy but not entirely mindless challenge for a lot of people, and there are higher difficulties for those who want to push themselves. The film I'll never defend because frankly the film is terrible, but the game of the film of the game is at least competent and works great, it's a sign they can make Ratchet and Clank still if they so wish which is good to know. I am pretty sure given the scripting, bombastic nature of line delivery, facial expressions, and nearly every other factor actually present in both Deadlocked and the original R&C that the themes I'm referring to are intentional. No matter how much Insomniac perpetually regrets actually writing well and despises their previous excellent works, that doesn't make them go away.
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Sep 20, 2018 14:38
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GamesAreSupernice posted:I am pretty sure given the scripting, bombastic nature of line delivery, facial expressions, and nearly every other factor actually present in both Deadlocked and the original R&C that the themes I'm referring to are intentional. No matter how much Insomniac perpetually regrets actually writing well and despises their previous excellent works, that doesn't make them go away. Themes are not depth, and they specifically regret writing Ratchet as a selfish person in the first game, not all of the other stuff. Deadlocked is a different kettle of fish where the narrative problems were the removal of Clank as a directly interactive friend who you take on your journey.
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Sep 20, 2018 14:40
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Lord_Magmar posted:Themes are not depth, and they specifically regret writing Ratchet as a selfish person in the first game, not all of the other stuff. Deadlocked is a different kettle of fish where the narrative problems were the removal of Clank as a directly interactive friend who you take on your journey. They seem to regret things a lot, is what I was trying to get at. If you play the games in order, they always seem to retcon or double-back on a decision they made previously. I don't think it's okay to retroactively "fix" things like that. I appreciate the intelligent conversation, by the way. It's pleasant to have discussion like this without it devolving into nonsense.
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Sep 20, 2018 14:46
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GamesAreSupernice posted:They seem to regret things a lot, is what I was trying to get at. If you play the games in order, they always seem to retcon or double-back on a decision they made previously. I don't think it's okay to retroactively "fix" things like that. That's kind of how game design works in the end, you do things that are good and things that in hindsight you realise weren't as good as they could have been so you do them different next time, in hope to refine a game or your own skills to the point where you can truly be satsified with your work. This point probably doesn't exist like most artistic endeavours because there is always room for improvement. It's also one of those things where you can't please everyone so you choose who you want to please, in the case of Ratchet and Clank they chose what they felt would make the best game, although the movie was out of their hands and marred the remaster rather poorly in the end I will agree. This does not, of course, stop satisfaction in the moment of a game well made. See the most recent God of War game, which I would argue is a masterpiece and they still found things to improve with later patches just because game design is hard and constant. Deadlocked not having Qwark is another thing they feel weakened the narrative of the game, instead of improving it, but Qwark can be an acquired taste in general so I'm not sure if that's really true. Lord_Magmar fucked around with this message at 14:57 on Sep 20, 2018 |
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Sep 20, 2018 14:51
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Lord_Magmar posted:That's kind of how game design works in the end, you do things that are good and things that in hindsight you realise weren't as good as they could have been so you do them different next time, in hope to refine a game or your own skills to the point where you can truly be satsified with your work. This point probably doesn't exist like most artistic endeavours because there is always room for improvement. It's also one of those things where you can't please everyone so you choose who you want to please, in the case of Ratchet and Clank they chose what they felt would make the best game, although the movie was out of their hands and marred the remaster rather poorly in the end I will agree. I was talking about their attempts to "fix" the narrative and characters, not the game design. Game mechanics changing I can cope with, but characters should act like.. characters. Like they have consistent personalities and beliefs and ideas. Ratchet and Clank as a series fails at that spectacularly.
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Sep 20, 2018 19:57
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Ratchet as he was in the first game would possibly have considered the proposal put forth by Deadlocked's villain. That's fine, it shows how far he comes as a character. A character can be an rear end in a top hat, and it's fine, as long as it serves a purpose or organically changes. Insomniac could have had Ratchet become a boyscout in a later game after realising what an rear end in a top hat he was at the start, as maybe the character overcorrecting, until finally reaching a balance in deadlocked. If you regret a direction a character is going in, you can change course without throwing out what came before.
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Sep 20, 2018 22:25
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GamesAreSupernice posted:I was talking about their attempts to "fix" the narrative and characters, not the game design. Game mechanics changing I can cope with, but characters should act like.. characters. Like they have consistent personalities and beliefs and ideas. Ratchet and Clank as a series fails at that spectacularly. Narrative and characters are part of game design, also I would argue that Ratchet and Clank do have consistent characterisation for the characters, the only game where Ratchet has a different personality is the first one which he grew out of. The outlier is the first game and the side games, the main games besides the first do have pretty consistent characterisation for the main characters, Qwark, and Dr Nefarious if nobody else has them. BioEnchanted posted:Ratchet as he was in the first game would possibly have considered the proposal put forth by Deadlocked's villain. That's fine, it shows how far he comes as a character. A character can be an rear end in a top hat, and it's fine, as long as it serves a purpose or organically changes. This actually is the general narrative of the first game without the full Boyscout thing, Insomniac’s problem was they felt they overshot Ratchet’s initial selfish rear end in a top hat personality and didn’t have Ratchet grow enough, hence after the year or two time skip into the second he’s a lot less selfish then even the ending of the first made him. Honestly Ratchet at the start of the remaster probably would have accepted that deal too, if marketed to him as becoming a Galaxy famous hero. Insomniac didn’t throw out what came before until the remake of the first game, which was explicitly them going back and doing it again with all the lessons of the 15 years of experience making the games. If it weren’t for the movie I actually think the remake probably would have been one of the better games, as it is the movie stifled their design too much.
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Sep 21, 2018 00:22
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Lord_Magmar posted:Insomniac didn’t throw out what came before until the remake of the first game, which was explicitly them going back and doing it again with all the lessons of the 15 years of experience making the games. If it weren’t for the movie I actually think the remake probably would have been one of the better games, as it is the movie stifled their design too much. There's absolutely no spark or tension present between Ratchet and Clank at all in the remake. No reason for them to argue, or disagree, or fight, and no conflict of personality. They're both just generic goody two-shoes, and so is everyone else. A lot of funny lines were removed to this end, as well, such as the plumber no longer bringing up "socio-economic disparity".
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Sep 21, 2018 05:00
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GamesAreSupernice posted:There's absolutely no spark or tension present between Ratchet and Clank at all in the remake. No reason for them to argue, or disagree, or fight, and no conflict of personality. They're both just generic goody two-shoes, and so is everyone else. A lot of funny lines were removed to this end, as well, such as the plumber no longer bringing up "socio-economic disparity". Fair points, honestly I don’t really like the 2016 remake either but I feel a lot of the narrative and characterisation changes were because of the terrible movie, not entirely insomniac wanting to change absolutely everything. If nothing else I do like the inclusion of Nefarious, a much more fun villain then Chairmen Drek. At the end of the day people like different things, the world would be rather boring if everyone was the same and had the same likes and dislikes. To return to discussion of Full Frontal Assault. I think the thing that I’m finding I dislike the most watching you play is the coloured glow around the bolts. It’s incredibly distracting and weird somehow. Lord_Magmar fucked around with this message at 05:26 on Sep 21, 2018 |
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Sep 21, 2018 05:23
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Lord_Magmar posted:To return to discussion of Full Frontal Assault. I think the thing that I’m finding I dislike the most watching you play is the coloured glow around the bolts. It’s incredibly distracting and weird somehow. I think it's to highlight which character is collecting them, but in Co-Op you would never be right next to your partner anyway, so it does look very odd.
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Sep 21, 2018 06:24
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GamesAreSupernice posted:I think it's to highlight which character is collecting them, but in Co-Op you would never be right next to your partner anyway, so it does look very odd. It’s also just an ugly glow they’ve used, personally I would have made different textures for the bolts that coloured them for the player who is receiving them. Also I am reading that split screen isn’t always available when playing local co-op, which would explain it kind of.
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Sep 21, 2018 07:05
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Lord_Magmar posted:It’s also just an ugly glow they’ve used, personally I would have made different textures for the bolts that coloured them for the player who is receiving them. I've played local with my family a lot and it was always split-screen. Do you mean a different game mode besides the campaign?
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Sep 21, 2018 10:29
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GamesAreSupernice posted:I've played local with my family a lot and it was always split-screen. Do you mean a different game mode besides the campaign? I think it's based on TV size from what I'm reading, or other people are stupid and don't know how to use technology.
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Sep 21, 2018 11:54
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While I didn't consider Ratchet too bad in the first game, I have heard that many who played at the time thought that Ratchet should have been dropped altogether after the first game and that the series should be about Clank.
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Sep 23, 2018 01:39
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Chimera-gui posted:While I didn't consider Ratchet too bad in the first game, I have heard that many who played at the time thought that Ratchet should have been dropped altogether after the first game and that the series should be about Clank. Those people sound very boring and I hope they enjoyed the 2016 reboot
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Sep 23, 2018 04:50
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The thing is that Insomniac's biggest game series prior to R&C was Spyro and they altered his attitude between the first and second game as well according to Gaming Historian. They made everyone in the original R&C jackasses to some degree to the point that it was a running gag in Kalon's LP of the first game to point out how much of a jackass a character was, especially when compared to how they are now.
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Sep 23, 2018 05:58
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Chimera-gui posted:They made everyone in the original R&C jackasses to some degree to the point that it was a running gag in Kalon's LP of the first game to point out how much of a jackass a character was, especially when compared to how they are now. I feel like them being jackasses was kind of the point They were selfish and had motivations and character, they weren't bland altruistic harmless G-Rated tropes
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Sep 23, 2018 06:59
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Fair enough. I do think that Jak II was mostly Naughty Dog trying to find the right tone since Jak 3 seemed to handle the characters better in my opinion. Veger as a villain made sense as he embodied light at its most extreme as opposed to Erol who represented darkness and Jak who embodies balance. He butted heads with the former in Daxter because he was completely against the Dark Warrior Program from the start, sincerely believing that light eco would be the key to destroying the Metal Heads. He even rightly predicted that dark eco would be Erol and Praxis' downfall.
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Sep 23, 2018 07:41
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Chimera-gui posted:Fair enough. I do think that Jak II was mostly Naughty Dog trying to find the right tone since Jak 3 seemed to handle the characters better in my opinion. I agree, and I think Jak II has a lot of positives in its storytelling and I appreciate its ambition. I mostly had issues with the character consistency and character dialogue, but that got improved a lot in Jak 3
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Sep 23, 2018 09:38
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I totally called the twist relating to the Precusors through overthinking Jak 1. Jak 3 spoilers: Daxter fell into precursors crap and was turned into a weasel thingy. I just figured, what if the precursor garbage turned him into a precursor? Turns out I was right on the money.
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Sep 23, 2018 11:33
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To be fair, that it just the right level of glorious stupidity to work and we can thank creative director Dan Arey for it:Developer commentary of The Strange Gets Stranger posted:Yeah, this scene, when Dan Arey, our creative director, first told me that the Precursors were going to be a bunch of ottsels like Daxter, I said "Ooh, ooh, ooh, you gotta let me animate the scene where they're revealed." Little did I know that the scene was going to be nearly four minutes long and I had to do it in about five and a half weeks. But hey, you know, that's all right, these things happen.
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Sep 23, 2018 19:23
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3. Grummelnet Plasma Harvester time to talk about the reboot
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Sep 23, 2018 22:59
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