Jeff Goldenberg > Games > Played

"While not completely un-enjoyable, this game is a technical embarrassment. Released in 2019, this game looks and plays like a (PC) game from the early 2000s. Terrible UI, unbearably long and frequent load times, few character models, no variety in gameplay. Obsidian just rehashed Fallout New Vegas and their other older games while somehow managing to make this game less than half as good as any of their previous ones."

"I didn't get to play this when it came out in 2001. I played the PS3 "HD remaster". I found the game to be decent in terms of design and gameplay, but the story is threadbare and the textures were pretty low quality for an "HD remaster". The camera and movement controls can be very annoying compared to newer games. The variety of game mechanics is very limited compared to more modern games. Still, it makes for an enjoyable 8-10 hours."

"This is a "reboot" of the original first Ratchet & Clank. All-around, it's a good game. Nothing bad about it, but not amazing either. Not very difficult. Good casual fun. The story and gameplay have been significantly changed from the original game, all for the better."

"Loved the first game but this one was really nothing special. Story makes no sense. A skilled player can probably finish the game in 5 hours."

"Gameplay is OK. Art style is nice but very repetitive. Same locales and enemies over and over again. Local multiplayer up to 4 players is nice."

"This game is far by the longest in the series, and it features most of the elements of all previous iterations. The new feature involves controlling time to solve puzzles. The puzzle elements in the Clank chapters are pretty cool and fun. There are a lot of boss battles. Too many, really. To fully beat the game there are 3 successive boss battles at the end, though the story is complete after taking out two. The final battle is optional (winning it gives a special reward). The weapons are not as interesting or as powerful as in previous titles. The story was OK, but a little thin and I just wasn't as interested as I was in previous games."

"This is a 4 player co-op game that can be played locally or online. It contains most of the elements of a typical R&C game, with many corners cut and some adjustments for multiplayer. The UI is not quite as good and there are many repeated elements where it seems you are doing the same action sequences against different backgrounds. All players appear on one screen, not split screen. Qwark is much larger than the other characters and can sometimes block out the other characters. Despite all of this, the game is still quite fun and extremely challenging towards the end. Story and voice acting are still top notch. Worth playing with friends and something different than the usual single player R&C."

"Much more polished than the first two games, it served as the template for most of the games in the series that followed. As usual, the story is decent, voice acting is very good. The best thing about this chapter is the introduction of the series best villain: Dr. Nefarious! Gameplay is simpler in this outing than most others in the series as there are no grind events, no hoverboard events, no vehicle races, no space fights. To compensate, there are more arena battles than ever before. Upgrading weapons in this one is pretty easy, and there is a big difference in power between weapons, as there should be. Before the final battles (there are two) make sure to grind and level up your highest powered weapons, have maximum health and the PDA."

"Pretty cool re-imagining of the original game. Cool art and music that evoke the original. Same type of gameplay, only much more-so. The game is as hard if not harder than the original. One way the game differs from the OG is that you can take different paths through the game to arrive at the end. Another difference is the game can be played two-player co-op. One player plays as the knight and plays the game the way its always been played. The second player controls 3 different magic characters that help the knight with various special abilities."

"This entry in the series is quite different. It is basically a base defense game. It has a very short 5 mission campaign and a few different multiplayer modes. While I normally do not care for this type of game at all, I found this to be pretty well put together and fun. The campaign can be played solo, local co-op or online co-op. The first 4 missions are base defense but the final one is a fairly typical R&C boss battle. The game features most of the common R&C weapons, hover boots, bolt collecting, etc. In campaign you can play as Ratchet, Clank or Qwark. In multiplayer, through rewards obtained in the campaign or by purchasing, you can play as virtually any character that ever appeared in a R&C game. One oddity about the game is the while the art style matches all other R&C games, the color palette is very washed out. Nowhere near as bright as in other games."

"This is an adventure/shooter which draws from games like Uncharted and Tomb Raider, but it's actually quite different. Meant to be played online co-op with upto 4 players, it can also be played solo. If you do play solo, it is extremely challenging. The campaign features 9 chapters, which all more or less follow the same pattern: Explore a bit, fight off undead enemies, look for collectibles, look for hidden vaults, solve puzzles to get in to the vaults to get more collectibles, fight 1 or 2 swarm battles, fight 1 or 2 big bosses, on to the next level. You can only carry one handgun, one rifle, one explosive, one magic weapon and one healing elixir at a time. However, throughout the levels there are chests that can be opened by paying some gold that contain very powerful rifles. These rifles come with limited ammo and cannot be reloaded. Once out of ammo, the gun disappears. In some levels, managing use of these super-guns is critical. All in all the game is mostly on rails and only the big boss fights are challenging. Still, the presentation is very well done and the challenge kept me interested until the end."

"Really beautiful action-puzzle game with a side of philosophy thrown in. When I first tried this game when it came out back in 2014/15, I wasn't that into it. Picked it up again in 2022 and this time I couldn't stop playing. I actually put in the effort to finish it with 100% completion. It was worth it. Aside from about 100 puzzles, there are tons, and I mean tons of hidden secrets and Easter eggs. There are also 3 different endings. I definitely recommend doing them all. One of them is way, way more difficult than the others but the payoff is worth it."

"Fun game, and the first in the superb long-running series, but compared to all the ones that came after it, it is clearly very rough around the edges. If you haven't played it yet but are interested in the series, skip this one and play the PS4 remake instead. All of the other PS2/3 Ratchets are still worth playing, but not this one."

"Pretty fun 3D block puzzle game where you are shown an object and given a bunch of differently shaped blocks you need to use to build the object. I actually played this on Xbox One and unfortunately this was just a straight cross-build of the iOS game, so the controls and UI are clearly designed for touch control and not really a game console. You'll feel like you're using your gamepad as a mouse."

"Games like this are more interactive movie than game, where you spend a lot of time just watching instead of playing, but there is usually still a decent amount of gameplay. This game overdoes it on the passive watching. There is barely any interactive play. As is typical with games of this type, the creative aspects are generally very good: great graphics, mostly great voice acting, nice soundtrack, and decent story. What little technical gameplay there is however is annoying in the typical horror game manner: forced camera angles, sometimes sluggish reaction times and very little free roaming. All in all I was disappointed by this game, and really glad I only paid $20 instead of full price. The first playthrough took only 9 hours and I don't intend on playing again."

"This game is terrible. If you actually like or know anything about actual bowling, avoid this game at all costs. The same developers went on to make PBA Bowling on other platforms, which is a much better game in all regards."

"Fairly decent modern take on the original game. Not too difficult and not too long. The gameplay is ok but the cut scenes are horrible."

"Knowing that this game was a low budget ripoff of games like Tomb Raider, Uncharted and Strange Brigade, I wasn’t expecting much. The game is decent. Not too hard, not too easy both on the puzzles and the combat. There is absolutely no originality to the story, gameplay or some of the puzzles. But that’s ok if you like these kinds of games. I thoroughly enjoyed it even if it was all deja vu. The game is mostly on rails. Note: This was a port from PC where the game runs in much higher resolution than the PS3’s sad 720p. Many of the puzzles require making out glyphs in the game scenery and in the notebook. These are impossible to make out on the PS3 version. You will have to look at gameplay/walkthrough videos recorded from the PC version to be able to clearly make out what you need to find and do in some places."

"Very decent puzzle game with a very common threadbare sci-fi story thrown in. For an indie game, I found the production value to be very high. My only complaint is this: there are 8 unique puzzle mechanics. There are 50 puzzles. Two of the mechanics are only used in 4 puzzles, and those are optional hidden ones! I wish they would have done more with those mechanics."

"This is an extremely overrated game that seems to appear on all of the “best PS3 games ever” and “best hidden gems of all time” lists. The only positives I could find are the nice graphics, great voice acting and somewhat decent story. The negatives are all the common issues I have with most Japanese games: Long un-skippable cutscenes, terrible hijacked camera angles at exactly the right/wrong moment to hinder your combat/action, very little variance in game play. The formula is: long cut scene, walk around a little bit, separate the characters, swarm battle, walk around a bit, swarm battle, boss battle, reunite the characters, next locale/chapter. The platforming in the game is a joke because you cannot fail. Just follow the path to get to the next swarm battle. My 3 star rating is generous, it’s really a 2.5 star game."

"The overall premise of the game is nothing new. Make your way through a ridiculously huge mansion by solving physics-based and platforming puzzles. Each wing of the mansion exists in a dimension where certain physical aspects work differently than in the real world and can be controlled. For example, you can alter the weight and density of objects as well as slow time. The puzzles are quite good, escalating smoothly in difficulty. The story is related by an unseen character, your uncle who is trapped in one of the dimensions, fantastically voiced by John DeLancie. Through DLC, collectibles and time challenges, the game actually has significant replay value once you’ve solved all the puzzles in the main game."

"The game presentation is excellent but this is by far the least compelling entry in the series. The characters are just uninteresting."

"This is a low effort ripoff of Burnout and nowhere near as good. That being said, it isn’t completely terrible and if you can’t play Burnout Takedown or Burnout Revenge, this game will do."