PS3-Spin-Offs Ratchet & Clank: The necessary oddities. History of the series, part 8

Blog Video version. Duration – 1 hour 22 minutes.

Traditionally: there are spoilers to Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, R& C: Full Frontal Assault, as well as to the comic book Ratchet & Clank 2010. Read/watch carefully if they did not play.

In the life of almost every long-playing franchise, sooner or later there should be a moment when she begins to do something strange and unusual in trying to maintain her relevance. For Ratchet & Clank This period fell on the beginning of the 2010s, when after an epic and tonally matured saga Future She plunged into small and experimental projects, which were planned, firstly, to breathe a new life into a series that had already begun to stagnate (and therefore, it was just the time to “adapt or die” for tactics again), and secondly, give it itself Insomniac Games recover after eight continuous years of more crazy processing. If you look at what came of this, today, then the first as if The series came out sideways, but the second helped the studio in the struggle for a healthy working culture.

How we are here

Ratchet & Clank Future: a Crack in Time in 2009 put both the series itself and Insomniac, for it responsible, in a very difficult position. On the one hand, that game turned out to be very good, many still think about it as one of the best in the franchise, but before its release, the studio has more than once gave hints that this game could be the last in the series. Which, in general, is fair, but its ending was open enough for any continuation, and in numbers the game showed itself very well, so the hope for at least some continuation did not leave.

On the other hand, the same game was a total nightmare in production, which became a gathering of all the problems that accumulated inside the studio for years: some of them were associated simply with a very rapid state growth, while others were the consequences of Napoleonic plans and immense ambitions that the studio loved to put in front of herself, but which seemed possible to realize as not always. And by 2009, these problems became so serious that it was already impossible to continue to run away from them.

The very first Ratchet & Clank, published in 2002, was made by a team of only 40 people. Only four years later, when PlayStation 3 came out in 2006, and on her own release day-and Resistance: Fall of Man, released by the same Insomniac Games, The studio increased four times in size and had already 160 employees. And with such a rapid growth, the studio barely coped even then, because she worked (and continues to work) with her own tools all her life, and she had to train new people right in the middle of the process.

Resistance for PS3 it was already in the preakshole, and for Up your Arsenal The studio still changed the tools, which everyone had to retrain for.

However, in the end, even this growth turned out to be few, because although the studio decided that now she had enough strength to work on two games at the same time (one of which was the starting exclusive for PS3, and the idea of ​​which began to work three years before the release of the new box, without its final iron), in fact it turned out that at least one of the projects in parallel work was always lacked by still still missing.

And if at the time of PlayStation 2, where the games were not so large-scale, and making them was easier, at least somehow it was possible to cope with this only with the help of a plentiful penny, then in the PS3 era, when the audience demanded much more from the games, one could no longer do it, and in order to make the game the game itself, it was already necessary to cut the projects themselves.

So far, the first Resistance The most studio was located in an active produced and on it, at the same time, at the initial stages of production, there was R& C Future: Tools of Destruption, to which the studio initially wanted to spin online multiplayer and cooperative, which were quite significant additions for the last two parts of the series, and which in marketing of the new consoliI focused on myself Sony. However, by the time when Insomniac I realized that because of Resistance Even for the solitary part of the game, people barely have enough people, not like a multiplayer, this function was already promised to the publisher, and the decision made by the studio subsequently disposed of to get rid of it meant that it would have to somehow compensate for.

In negotiations with Sony Everyone agreed that Insomniac make a small loaded game, a kind of independent addition to Tools of Destruption called Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty, and this game was released in 2008-less than a year after Tools. Okay, cool. Here are just a commercial and critical success Resistance meant that that game also needed a sequel, and he had to exit in the same 2008. And he went out, but somehow, because now he was missing people who were all busy at first Tools of Destruption, And then and Quest for Booty (even if the latter was made by a very small team), and the detachment Resistance 2 I had to actively pull people with R&C, to be in your release.

All this chaos not only meant a large amount of stress and incomprehensible situations for developers, but also violated the plans that Insomniac Building for future games. And in the end, this led to the fact that R& C: A Crack in Time, the idea of ​​which was actually laid down with Tools of Destruption, due to other projects, she lost half the planned production time. So after the rest of the studio, just finishing work on Resistance 2 And Quest for Booty (which, I remind you, initially should not have existed), came to see the fact that at the end of the new R&C Three people were able to literally do in the literal sense, she did not even have time to exhale before diving with her head in a crazy penny and mercilessly cut everything out of the game that has at least some chance to be unfinished to release. This game has lost not only half of its production time, but also half at all … the game, which was supposed to get out.

If all this sounds scary, then this is because it is, but this does not mean that the studio turned a blind eye to this. It’s just that it will not work out when the consequences become more and more serious not only for the games themselves, but also for the people who worked on them. AND Insomniac I always wanted to somehow improve this situation, but other circumstances regularly intervened in these plans, because of which everything became, on the contrary, only worse. In the early years of the series in the studio there were many people who literally just got out of the university, and during the treasury they could take the initiative themselves and purely for the idea of ​​days not to crawl out of the office, absorbing coffee liters and cold remnants of pizza (heh, rhyme). But now even these people had their own families and children, and there was no longer the opportunity, no desire, no strength to hunt. Not to mention the fact that such working conditions even clearly could not have a positive effect on their own health too.

And, coupled with the increased expectations of players from new games, demanding more work from developers, it became clear that it would no longer be possible to release every year on a blockbuster, as before. Therefore, even despite the fact that after the release A Crack in Time The studio still had two projects at once – Resistance 3 and Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, instead of, as usual, to immediately take up both of them in full force in attempts to manage for the next barely realistic deadline, Insomniac did two very important things.

First, the original release Resistance 3 She moved a whole year ahead (even before any date was first announced publicly), giving the team this game a lot of additional air. And secondly, the team Ratchet: All 4 One, which was formed in the new office of the studio in North Carolin, and which slowly worked on the game still from the moment the full production began A Crack in Time, She allowed to work at her own pace and her atmosphere of a small team.

These changes in the work of the studio made it possible to bring both projects to the finish line in a much more calm and measured environment, which the studio wanted to achieve all this time. Resistance 3 As a result, she spent almost three years in development, as well as All 4 One, which, in turn, interrupted the record Tools of Destruption and became a game that sat in production for the longest in the series at that time. And given that the teams managed to finish their games without special haste, chaos and without throwing half of all the ideas out of them, it became clear that the strategy was a surprise! – It works, and in the future Insomniac I tried my best to adhere to it. Even if some circumstances tried to return it to the old operating mode.

Kulstori from development, of course, will give us noticeably less than usual, but what the Games themselves eventually obtained will still provide an interesting discussion. Because both spin-offs- All 4 One and Full Frontal Assault (she QFORCE in Europe) – these are games that are very much departed from the classic formula of the series, and for many it was this moment that turned out to be decisive in the perception of these games. So much so that now both of these games are a large part of the community, let’s say, really does not like and considers them one of the worst parts of the series. What can be understood, but I brought counter-arguments with me.

And here are comics

So, All 4 One. The first bettingsitesnogamstop.co.uk/ attempt by the series to hit the cooperative since the time of DeadLocked, and this time much more focused. If in DeadLocked The cooperative game existed only in the form of a separate regime made on the basis of a single passage mechanic, then All 4 One From the very beginning, I thought first of all so that several people were playing it at once. For at that time there was just a trend for all sorts of cooperative Family-Friedly games, one of the vivid representatives of which (and, part-time, the source of inspiration for Insomniac) Littlebigplanet served .

From the very beginning, the studio wanted to realize the idea that both Ratchet and Klank were playable characters at the same time on the same screen, which would serve as a good contrast with A Crack in Time, where they spent the good three quarters of the game separately from each other. But even despite the fact that the development of this game was planned to be more calm than usual, without at least some ambitions could not do it anyway, and in the end when the guys thought to make both of our main characters with play characters at once, a completely reasonable question arose-why not increase the number of players at once to four? “Cool thought,” they thought, but this caused another dilemma: who will be two more playable characters?

The first of them was invented quickly – they became the captain of the Quurk, because … well, obviously. But the second was pissed for a long time, until a blow came under the breath where they did not wait.

Never call the bell if there is at least the slightest chance that the publisher will want to call him. Because after we released A Crack in Time, CED denorn (Chad Dezern) and Sean McCab (Shaun McCabe) recording the new “Ratchet” Sony, And one of the key wishes for what they received was to make doctors of Nepharicius a playable character. And I remember how I heard this, and my jaw fell off – I was like that, “we just smeared this dude into the space station!”, A Greg Philips (Greg Philips) [from Sony] such, “maybe he was just scratched”.

Tija Fixman (TJ Fixman), screenwriter Insomniac (2006-2013)

Yes, in general, Dr. Nerfarius, whom at the end A Crack in Time specially made a quote, “super-thelarm”, in order to complete his story, completely suddenly for the very Insomniac I received a second life thanks to the desire of the publisher, who saw that people like the character.

Not a rhetkone one

However, in connection with my own cooperative nature (which I, of course, will tell you later) and the fact that only in the first half a year is the production Tija Fixman I already managed to write so much text that this would exceed the budget of the entire project, in the game itself, in order to explain the fact of the sudden return of our doctor after its such epic death, did not find.

This was one of the reasons why even despite the fact that in 2010 there were no new games in the series, she served the signs of life that year anyway. It is then Ratchet & Clank A whole comic book from six issues published, published Dk And written by ourselves Fixman, And in addition to the retarius’s death reticon in the form of at least a minimal explanation of how he survived (thanks to Lawrence’s magical teleport), he also faced the task of addressing the consequences A Crack in Time, First of all, personally for the Ratchet and the Clan, which herself All 4 One For the same above reasons, I could not fully do.

Therefore, even if there are not so many people about the existence of this comic book, it is still a very important part of the universe as a whole and its common history in particular. Since a comic book is not a video game, you don’t have to spend a lot of time, effort and money on animation, voice acting, katsen, engine and everything else – only the fantasy of the author and the number of pages are the only restriction here.

And among other things, it gave Fixman the ability to do what he wanted from the very beginning, when he first took his position of the screenwriter in Tools of Destruption -use characters from original games with PlayStation 2 and somehow make them significant in the new history. And at the same time, to make something like a link from this comic book that would smooth out the transition from a serious and dramatic A Crack in Time to more light and laid -back All 4 One.

For example, one of the main things that illuminates the comic – this is how the captain of the Quork has become … the president of the Galaxy Polaris.

. Because the idea of ​​a false, pathos and boastful celebrity who was elected president seemed ridiculous to me. This is a joke that Not Glorious well.

Tija Fixman

And paired with his ability to create no less problems than he can solve, this fact indirectly led to perhaps the biggest consequences. Victory over Dr. Nefarius at the end A Crack in Time Very non -huts raised Kvork popularity in this galaxy, and as a result, a year after those events, he managed to win the elections and become the president.

Its main competitor was Artemis Zogg (for friends – just art) – the Minister of Defense of the Galaxy, which has been very respected and beloved by many, who has always set the security of citizens for a long time. He even developed his own project called Helios, which was designed to protect the galaxy in the event of any extreme cataclysms and situations … simply moving it to another place.

Having first seen this project before the elections, Quurk was impressed with them, and was already ready to publicly support the candidacy of Zogg. But very on time his agent appeared, who took advantage of the egocentricity of our fool in green and convinced him to advance himself to the election of himself, to the great shock of the Zogg, who was also a fan of the quarrel and counted on him.

And after a while, when the latter had already put a business suit on top of his usual and began to fulfill his presidential tasks, he generally closed the Helios project, the work of the Zogg’s life, considering that such travels between measurements can turn into something very cool, and very unreasonably referring to the whole situation with the tachyon, in which he himself was partly guilty. This drove the Zogga crazy, and he decided to continue working on his project secret, so that later he would show everyone how wrong they were about him.

And on this we are transferred to the present, directly to Ratchet and Clan, who for the first time in years returned to their native Solana. After all that they had survived the recently, after what the things that were changing the consciousness they learned after the retail was in a step from meeting with his appearance and injured by the actions and death of Alister Azimuth, and Klank was forced to risk the whole world in order to save the lombaks, which became his family, the children needed rest. In the case of the Ratchet-apparently, generally permanent, because he, after all that happened, already wants to tie up and just stay on Veldin to repair the ships, and because of this he did not even say goodbye to anyone before returning home.

However, at about the same moment, the president, damn it, quork, just come to them for help, because the planets began to literally disappear from his galaxy. And no matter how the racetech is trying to get out, the reason for this problem comes to him with the Clangku itself, and they are forced to deal with her. Behind everything, of course, is our art, who uses Helios to abduct the planets, and from them he creates his own galaxy, named after himself. And being already heard about the successes of our duet, he is trying to do everything so that they do not interfere with him, then at first stole them and forcibly stuffed them into prison, when they could get out of there, having already made an assassination attempt on Veldin (which could end with only one).

Dedicated to fans

And this is far from the only thing that reminds of “old-good”. Since the crisis now affects not only Polaris, but also Solan, local forces also intervene in the person of galactic rangers, which is headed by Sasha Fireniks herself (have not seen for a long time, and?), and even her father, who is still the president here, appears for a moment. Even if he does not help our heroes, but hangs stuck on one of the stolen planets. What is there, here they even remember about the godon, because one of the planets and from there also fussed.

IN Going Commando We were given to see how cute clan looks wrapped in a towel. It’s nice to see that the comic continues this topic.

In the classic manner for the series, even here, even without the use of ideas that were worked out by the studio earlier, but were not realized. Specifically – the story itself about the abduction of planets was originally planned for A Crack in Time, And Insomniac I really wanted to realize it, but in the end it was decided to postpone it until better times, when it became clear that it was not combined with the whole venture about traveling in time. And the comic gave the perfect opportunity.

Even if it is very small-only about 140 pages, and you can read it in just an hour or two, how many connections with the Lor of the Universe, how many moments developing it, how many important for the characters it includes in itself, actually looks impressive. For example, he corrects the error A Crack in Time and restores justice for Talvin, making it one of the important parts of the plot and giving it to its own story almost as much additional depth as that game gave Ratchet.

Another confirmation that Angela Cross is a pawnshop. It seems to be the question and so settled, but I’m just in case.

All because Zogg is not just a representative of the same race as Talvin, but he also knew her father and was about him of high opinion. It was the research of the max of the Apgery who led Artemis to the thing, which formed the basis of the Helios project – the fragment of the Cometa Surins, which just allows you to make all these movements, and in this art max is very obliged. And he uses this connection against Talvin when she falls into his trap to morally break it with her plans to eliminate our duet, to which she, like her father, is very attached.

So, Artemis, in general, suddenly turns out one of the best villains in the franchise, as for me: he is a brilliant manipulator, which is good at his career in politics, and he believes in his idea so much that it simply does not exist for him not to realize it for him. Since they do not allow this to do this in a good way, now it will be so, and I don’t even know whether it is bad or not, that he himself is aware of this report, despite the fact that the rage, due to an attempt to deprive him of his whole life, naturally demolished his roof. This is an explosive mixture that can do very serious business.

Those fragments of the comet, by the way, are actually not only a key element in the Zogga project, but they are basically important for the universe itself. Because they can work differently, depending on what energy to apply to them: if it is positively charged, then the fragment will be able to teleport objects somewhere, for which Artemis uses them. But if the energy is charged negatively, then this will open the portal into another dimension. It was thanks to these crystals that the pawnshops at one time were able to invent the measurementist, which very much influenced a lot in this universe, and it was these crystals that were taken as the basis as a game and plot mechanics in Rift Apart, which came out after 11 years.

And in general, the comic strip perfectly tolerates a series from the video game format on paper, preserving almost all the things for which people have loved this universe: its signature humor remains in place (the names of each release, for example, always contain some cheerful puppeter type “multiple organisms” (one of the working names All 4 One, By the way!);

One of the claims to which we were not ready belonged to the name – the fans considered it too children. So you know the original name Cheed And Sean was 4play . When it did not roll, I tried to push Multiple Organisms. It seems to me that it was the fastest “no” what I got from Sony.

Tija Fixman

. Here are full of references to the past events of the series, cameo of old characters (we have not seen a large ela for a long time, and we will be happy to continue not to see it further!), even gaming mechanics are used to promote the plot – Clack, for example, uses the kinetic capture of the Ratchet Key to get out of the conclusion chamber (and it is a pity that here we see this thing for the last time – her potential was huge). Well, there is also a social satire here, primarily in relation to all politicians and presidents.

And in the middle of all this, the story still does not forget to show how all these events affect Ratchet. How his attempts to cope with the death of Alister and other personal injuries are faced with situations in which his close friends themselves find themselves in mortal danger, and he has to overcome himself and, in fact, learn to trust them, so as not to make himself even worse. The desire to tie with all this shit, of course, does not beat him off, but to get out of depression at the end – please.

This is a really very cool comic, and if you are a fan of the series, but before that they have not read it so far (and I understand you – it was not that it was very advertised), then I strongly recommend that you familiarize yourself with it. This is a great attempt to compensate, if not everything, then many topics thrown halfway, started in Tools of Destruption, and he gives many things in this series to look at a slightly different angle. Even if his plot is just as simply the sequence of events, not that much affects a lot in the overall picture, because, again, it was already clear in advance that not everyone would read it.

All 4 One: What are you

Therefore, for the sake of maintaining at least some connection between games All 4 One She himself takes some things from the comic book, showing that Quurk became president, and Nefarius was not as dead as we thought, and occasionally pouring still small references to the events of the comic book. This time, fortunately (or not), the problems that we will have to rake the whole game is not a quarry, even if it appears in the very first frames.

He just flew to receive his “Intergalactic instrument of justice”, which they want to give for what the Quork himself did not even do, and which, in fact, does not exist (it seems to me that even the locals would not have been called that)-this is another trap arranged by the doctor Neparius to bring his next villainous plan. Only after his almost death, he apparently finally moved by Kukuha and did not finish this plan to the end, so everything went awry at the very beginning, and this time even from Lawrence there was no need to wait for help, because he just quit here, because it is impossible to work with such a loser, or something like a type.

Therefore, now all four – Ratchet, Clack, Quurk and Nefarius – are forced to work together to stop this huge light -absorbing monster until he destroyed the whole city of Luminopolis, which just lives at the expense of any biolulemes -central creatures.

You look good

And in the first seconds, not only gameplay, but in general at least some image on the screen, your eyes will immediately hook for how much this game does not look like all other parts of the series-first of all the characters. For some reason, many do not like it, although this has their own very good reason. Once All 4 One – This is a cooperative on four (not in that sense) on one screen, the camera should be fixed so that all players can always see everything. But this means that it needs to be trooped strongly, and this will make the characters on the screen very small. And so that they would not be visually lost against the background of everything else, they all needed to change the proportions, adjusting them to approximately the same growth and brighter the most significant external features.

It seems to me that it turned out quite well, and in general, I like this updated design of characters, as a kind of branch. Although, of course, Rome was not built in a day, and some trifles in All 4 One Nevertheless, they missed: Ratchet, for example, again lost half of his wool somewhere, Klenk in Gameplay could have been a larger bit, well, and the worst thing-Captain Quark lost his famous fossa on his chin. And if the lombaksa was returned back after this game, then this crime remained inexceptions until the very end of the PS3 era.

But the game exaggerates not only the visual proportions of the characters, but also another of the branded chips of the series, where in each game every time upon arrival at any level you are opened with a wide panorama of almost the entire location. All 4 One This is almost entirely: here each frame is its own separate panorama due to the fact that the camera throughout the game is set and directed manually. This is also helped by the fact that, unlike its predecessors, this game is completely linear, and as such a study of levels is not here. This takes away the gameplay depth, but this allows you to make each location much more visually saturated, and let me bit me a plumber if this game does not look damn beautiful.