Stats time!
Game 67.4% Complete
91 Keys
Level Stats. Chests Opened.
Level 1 4/13
Level 2 6/17
Level 3 3/16
Level 4 1/11
Level 5 1/17
Level 6 0/6
Narnia is immensely popular and I finally got around to reading the book series a while back. Prince Caspian was a decent book and the film adaption was intense since it had more action than the other titles. That being said, I doubt many people had high hopes for the game. It’s a movie tie in and the production values didn’t look very good. The Narnia game for Gamecube wasn’t that good and when a Gamecube game isn’t very good…you’re usually doomed. This game was about what I expected and maybe slightly better…maybe.
All right, the plot is pretty tricky through the game, but I’m sure that you’ll get it as you watch the cutscenes. Prince Caspian is told to flee his castle because the villains want to destroy him so that he won’t be the heir to the throne. Caspian escapes, but things aren’t looking good for Narnia. Before he is quickly knocked out, Caspian uses the legendary Horn to summon the 4 Kings of Old. Peter, Susan, Lucy, and Edmund. They may just be 4 kids, but they are ready to defend the kingdom. The time to rise is now!
A solid plot on paper, but the video game doesn’t really do it justice. For one thing, let’s talk about the graphics. They’re laughably bad and possibly the worst that I’ve seen on the PS3. Some of the cutscenes are actually scenes taken from the movie…and the movie was live action. So, you’ll have a live action segment and then back to the animated features. The Narnia game for GC did this as well, so I was not greatly surprised. That being said, I don’t consider this to be a good method. It’s essentially the easy way out, since they don’t have to worry about the animation. The actual animation just doesn’t feel like a PS3 game and you’ll feel like it’s a really old Playstation 1 game.
The soundtrack is incredibly generic and it feels like they probably just ripped it from the film as well or just opted for public domain music. It just doesn’t seem like they put any effort into any part of the game. The camera can be difficult since you can’t really move it, which limits your field of vision. You can walk all the way around an object to fix the camera or just shoot blindly. The latter saves time and usually works, so I recommend that method.
Usually I would have started talking about the characters by now, but there’s really nothing to say. Their only character is from the live action segments or the few cutscenes where they actually talk. None of the characters are likable and it’s just hard to root for them. They really don’t seem to know what they’re doing and are way over their heads. 4 kids can’t take down an army and the villains are just too numerous. Caspian’s accent is a little thick and he seems to have a very weak will and nearly jeopardized everything because he forgot how to move! The kids don’t believe Lucy even though you would have thought that they’d have wised up by now. Lucy’s response is to ditch them and find Aslan on her own.
I should also mention that the game only contains 6 levels. Not quite as long as you might have expected eh? 10 levels is really the minimum amount of levels that you can really afford to have in a game. That is still short, but at least you’ve cracked double digits. Having just 6 levels can be a little insulting. If I had bought this game at its original price, I would have felt cheated. I got it for 10 dollars, but that’s still pretty short. There are bonus levels and things to unlock, but why bother? I like to complete things myself, but there’s just not much incentive to finish everything in this game. I would do it if there was nothing better to do, but there will always be something better.
The gameplay is just as underwhelming as the rest of the game. If the gameplay had been more fun, I can guarantee that the score would have been higher. How do you mess up a generic hack and slash gameplay? Well, this game pulls out all of the stops in that regard. We’ve got infinite lives to take away all of the danger. There are a lot of puzzles that are easy to solve, but very time consuming. Finally, we’ve got a decently large amount of glitches. There’s nothing worse than having to start a boss fight all over again because the enemies forgot to appear and start the cutscene. (Similar thing happened to me in Star Trek the other day)
For combat, you really only have two buttons with the sword. Just keep hitting the square button and you’ll beat everyone. Arrows are also good to use and you can beat just about everyone very easily. There aren’t any real bosses until the final pair of levels, but they’re easy enough. Slash and dodge, rinse and repeat. There are a lot of enemies, so it can feel like a beat em up at times. That would be fun if it weren’t so easy. Plus, the fight scenes are pretty scarce and we don’t have almost any for the first half of the game.
Not being in combat can get pretty dull at times. The characters don’t run very quickly and there are a lot of things to do. Usually you’ll be putting wheels together or turning spindles. You just operate the devices and move on. You keep on doing that dozens and dozens of times until you’re finally set. Sound tedious? Trust me, it gets very tedious. The loading times for the game can also be pretty long so don’t look for that to save you!
As mentioned earlier, there are only 6 levels. One thing that I should mention is that the levels are longer than the average one. I don’t want you to think that I’m trying to masque that fact. Each level can take you around an hour or more, so this can still be considered as a 6+ hour game. That being said, I would rather 10 short levels than 6 extremely long ones. The game auto saves for you, but you’re never even sure when you’ve beaten a level unless you exit and check. The way that they made the game just wasn’t that good.
For “Replay Value” there are chests that are scattered through the levels. They aren’t really hidden and you may actually find them all as you are going to the end. You open them with keys that you find and they unlock things. That being said, I ended the game while holding 91 keys because I just didn’t care enough to go and open a lot of them. Going to open one would take precious seconds and those seconds add up. The game just feels long while you are playing it and perhaps I would go back and open the chests at a later time. If I ever replay the game, that it what I would do. If the chests part intrigues you, that can make the game more enjoyable.
Overall, what more can I say about the game? It’s not a bad game per say, but they did a bad job of handling it. Technically, it should have been a good game. The battle style has potential and the plot could be interesting. They just didn’t put any effort into making the characters likable and there’s really no excuse for such animation. The soundtrack isn’t exactly a good one and the game is far too short. I don’t really recommend this game since there are literally hundreds of games that are better, but get it if you are a big Narnia fan. You will need to be, if you want to enjoy the game. I think that the developers also stopped caring the ending is extremely abrupt. One second, the heroes are chasing after a villain. The next second, they’re being thanked and then the game ends. It just hits you in an instant and the game is over. Personally, I’m just going to go ahead and play a Terminator game and just forget this one for a while. It will go into the vault of many games…destined to be forgotten! For a true war game, I recommend checking out Dynasty Warriors Gundam!
Overall 5/10
Stats time!
Health 165
Money 120031
Raritanium 18
Gold Bolts 5
Weapons 14/15
Inventory 7/10
Gadgets 11/11
Devices 8/8
Skill Points 70
Skins 2/8
Weapon Stats
Magma Combuster Level max
Fusion Grenade Level 3
Lightning Ravager Level max
Tornado Launcher Level 2
Doom Blades Level max
Predator Launcher Level 1
Alpha Cannon Level max
Pyro Blaster Level 1
Plasma Beasts Level 1
Nitro Reaper Level max
Negotiator Level 4
Nano Swarmers Level 4
Mag-Net Launcher Level 1
Razor Claws Level 1
After Size Matters, it was time to see Ratchet’s next big adventure. This is the start of the PS3 era for Ratchet and Clank, so it’ll be interesting to see how it goes. This is also the start of the future games for Ratchet. This means that we can have a continuing plot like the first few games for PS2. There are definitely fun times ahead of us!
Ratchet and Clank are having some good ole times in the extremely futuristic city when Captain Qwark is in danger. They head off to save him, but then a lot of things happen at once and now Ratchet and Clank are involved in a situation where the galaxy may be doomed. See, there is a plot twist about Ratchet’s father and Ratchet has a pretty dangerous destiny. The Lombax race created an object of immense power and if Ratchet doesn’t recover it before the villain…well, this adventure could be his last one! There is a fellow hero named Talwyn who is here to help and may give the heroes the edge that they need!
The plot isn’t really the important thing in this game since you’ll be focused on the gameplay. As far as Ratchet and Clank plots go, this was definitely one of the least engaging. That being said, it’s their first adventure on the PS3, so you should be too overwhelmed to worry about that. The graphics are definitely intense on the PS3. One thing that I’m not a big fan of is Ratchet’s new appearance. I’m sure that it’ll grow on me in time, but I miss his hardcore look from Size Matters and the older games. He’s more streamlined now, but less threatening. Aside from that, the graphics work quite well and everything is a lot brighter and more intense!
The gameplay is what you would expect from the series. Gathering bolts has never been easier as you can get 100000 in no time at all! I was able to buy all of the weapons by the end of the game. (Except for the RYNO) There actually aren’t too many weapons in this game, but that may be because of the new devices. For the most part, I don’t care for the devices, but they can be useful. You’ve got a helicopter that deals a lot of damage and mini robots who help you during fights. Beyond that, I recommend sticking to the classic weaponry.
The best weapon is the Alpha Cannon since one blast will take out just about any enemy and also take a large chunk out of a boss’ health. The good ole laser blaster is always fun to use, but it doesn’t possess a lot of power anymore, which makes it a little less ideal to use. The Rocket Launcher is an ideal weapon during the later stages of the game due to its high attack power and quick launch. The flame thrower has an impressive reach and you can hit an enemy while still being pretty far away. You have Metal Discs which are like a new version of the laser blaster and those are definitely spamable! You’ve got 260 shots of ammo and they fire even quicker than the laser blaster while also bouncing off of walls and other objects. I guess they nerfed the laser blaster so that they can go all out with this one. I love the weapon so I guess it’s acceptable.
There’s a laser whip that is incredibly good against any opponent that doesn’t have long range capabilities. It can break through shields and also deal a lot of damage. Two shots is usually enough to take the enemy down for the count and it has a long range. It’ll basically hit any enemy who is around you since it covers you like a circle while striking. The Shard Reaper is a good weapon to use since the damage is reasonable and it covers a nice area. Once you’ve upgraded it, it’ll also freeze the enemies temporarily. There’s also a lock on missile system that has the potential to be great, but the damage output is pretty low. It’s still fun to use.
Of course, there are some weapons that aren’t very good. You’ve got one that can launch Tornados, but the enemies will usually be okay and it tends to only KO one opponent at a time. You have a weapon that can fire goop and then creatures come out of it to attack, but there’s not much reason to use such an attack. We’ve got the classic grenades, but while they look impressive, their effects usually aren’t quite so good. The Mag-Net Launcher is also not that great since it traps enemies for a few seconds, but doesn’t finish the job against the tougher ones. The Razor Claws are cool though.
All right, I mentioned most of the gadgets, so that’s probably good enough in that area. This game has some Clank missions and while they are slightly better than his older ones, he’s still not very fun to play as. Slowing down time can be fun, but he’s just not as engaging. You can’t help, but miss Ratchet and his blasters when you’re in Clank mode. Still, Clank’s mode is an improvement over the older games so they are learning.
Ratchet is still a solid main character in this game. His new design may not be his best one and he may not be as intense as in Size Matters, but he’s still a good character. A good example of this is his attempt to save Clank at the end of the game. He can be a tough guy when he wants too and he put up a pretty good effort into accomplishing his mission. He’s pretty confident in his abilities and he knows when to throw in a solid line to ease the tension and make things dicey for Captain Qwark. In the end, he proves that he’s still a hero and goes to help the Captain despite all of the trouble that he puts them in.
Clank is Ratchet’s ever loyal sidekick and while he and Ratchet don’t get along for a while because of Clank’s talks with imaginary beings, they make up towards the end. The ending is pretty tragic for Clank and if not for the sequels, you would really feel bad for the guy. What a way to end the game series for him eh? As mentioned earlier, his levels aren’t the best, but he takes things in stride. It was a little disappointing that he was knocked out so easily by a computer virus, but you can’t win them all. He’s a decent character and better than Daxter, but I still prefer Bentley.
Talwyn ends up helping Ratchet and Clank throughout the game, which turns out to be pretty good for them. Her two sidekicks are pretty bad, but she’s tough enough as she manages to defeat several guards. She doesn’t really help against any of the big bosses, but she’s around. The only problem is that she didn’t really get much of a personality in this game. She was all right, but I look forward to seeing her get a bigger role in the future. She has potential to be a nice rival for Ratchet.
Captain Qwark is back and he’s as tough as ever! It’s intense how he’s always at the right place at the right time and how he always ignored Ratchet until things get too dangerous. He was pretty awesome in this game and a character to be feared. Nobody could stop him from taking the legendary device and he’s constantly mocking the heroes despite the fact that they are still winning. It takes guts to do what Captain Qwark does…and that’s why he’s so intense! He is a character that should get his own game someday. That would be pretty awesome!
Captain Slag is one of the big villains of this game, but he’s not very likable. The pirate levels were easily the worst part of the game and I don’t see the point of his character. We’ve already got enough villains as it is, and he just wasn’t entertaining. I’ll assume that he’s a one shot character who won’t be appearing again…or at least I can hope!
Tachyon is the main villain of this game and I can’t say that he was very good either. The game series seems to have a tough time cranking out cool villains to root for. This guy had a lot of plot twists and he talked a good game, but you can’t take him seriously. He just doesn’t look like the type of villain who can really fight and he has to rely on a robot. Ratchet would definitely defeat him mano a mano.
The Graphics are pretty good and the best in the series. We’re finally in the PS3 and the game makes the most of it. There aren’t any trophies, but since when has that affected graphics? I do miss them, but they’ll be ready for the next Ratchet game. The Soundtrack wasn’t quite as good as Size Matters since there weren’t any memorable tunes. That’s a little sad, but the gameplay is fun enough to negate that.
Overall, this was a pretty fun game. Ratchet and Clank took a pretty solid step into the next generation of games and it went smoothly. The game couldn’t match up to the older ones, but this is just the beginning of the Future saga. Things will likely heat up in the future games. After all, the ending was very intense and Ratchet’s going to be out for vengeance. I also hope that the plumber makes another appearance as well! It’ll be very fun to play the next game, although I hope that it’s a little longer than this one. I recommend checking the game out and you’re sure to find it fun and entertaining. The only negative that I would have is the Pirate Levels and that the story can maybe go a little slowly at times, but I wouldn’t take the latter complaint too seriously. It just dragged on for a small bit at times, but you’ll still breeze through it! It’s essentially the Sony version of Mario mixed with Star Fox.
Overall 7/10
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