GAME CLEAR No. 34 -- Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time

Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time (2009, PS3)

Developer: Insomniac Games
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Clear Date: 6/9/2021

Full disclosure: I’m writing this after already having started Rift Apart. It’s tough to keep up with these GAMEs CLEAR sometimes.

Anyway, I beat this game and Into the Nexus in time for Rift Apart, and I’m definitely glad I did. Having said that, I don’t really take notes or anything for these posts, so some of these games have certainly started to bleed together. In any case, I’ll do my best to remember A Crack in Time specifically and what I liked and didn’t like about it.

I’ll start by saying that it does definitely address one of my only “complaints” about Tools of Destruction, which was that that game didn’t seem to take the franchise forward a great deal in terms of mechanics and feel. A Crack in Time seemed to have some of that extra polish that made it feel a bit more like a true PS3-generation game than a 720p PS2 game. I wish I could point out certain specific things to make a more concrete argument here, but again, I have since played through Into the Nexus, which further polishes things, and now I’m playing Rift Apart, which feels insanely good, so it’s hard to recall the differences. But I know they were there! Take my word for it. So basically what you’ve got in this game is the same old gameplay but it feels a good bit better in little ways that add up to a much more then-current gen feeling game.

A major mechanical improvement, though, is the addition of hoverboots. These things are great! They allow Ratchet to glide around maps at a considerably greater speed than before. In previous games, there were boots that allowed Ratchet to perform an unsteerable forward dash that sort of helped with navigational swiftness, but this is a dramatic upgrade. Levels also feature platforming segments specifically designed around the boots as well, which are fun to tackle.

On Clank’s side, things really improve. In previous games, I found Clank gameplay to often be boring, annoying, or both. This was usually okay since his segments tended to be very brief. Since Clank spends a lot of this game alone, his chapters are given greater attention, length, and care. The result is some pretty enjoyable puzzle platforming segments for the diminutive robot. I’d like to avoid spoiling much here, but suffice it to say this is by far the most fun it has been to play as Clank.

A final mechanical note is that as is so often the case with controller gimmicks, this game pretty much completely dispenses with any use of SixAxis features. If it did have any, I’ve already forgotten them. Personally, I at least enjoyed flying with the SixAxis in Tools of Destruction, but I also understand and recall that motion control was kind of derided by that point perhaps as a collective weariness of the Wii’s heavy leaning on it.

Anyway, the story is another solid chapter expanding directly on the events of the previous two PS3 entries. Again, I try to keep things spoiler free around here, but the major themes involve Ratchet learning more about the Lombaxes (including meeting one), Clank learning more about what he was actually created for, and how these interests conflict. It’s enjoyable and continues the trend among the Future games of having more mature and thoughtful themes than the PS2 series.

Overall, I’d say A Crack in Time was the best game in the series at the time of its release. It polished the classic gameplay, improved on some things that weren’t so great, and it delivered a fine story as well. No chance you’d dislike this one if you liked the others.