Ratchet: Deadlocked, the newest chapter in the Ratchet
& Clank series will focus around the multiplayer
mode 1st introduced in Ratchet & Clank Up You
Arsenal. The game will feature 2 modes. Single player
story mode and the multiplayer mode.
The
story begins with Ratchet & Clank finding out
that many heroes have recently disappeared and one
of them Captain Starshield is dead. It appears that
he was killed while he was contending in a secretive
fighting tournament known as Dreadzone, which is owned
by Gleeman Vox. Gleeman Vox is the owner of an underground
media empire in Shadow Sector, an anarchic area of
space at the border of the universe. Ratchets
ship is taken over by a group of robot thugs and Ratchet
& Clank are taken into custody by order of Vox.
Because Rachet is also a kind of hero Vox wants him
to compete in Dreadzone to improve ratings and sell
merchandise. Fitted with a deadlock collar both Ratchet
& Clank dont have much of a choice since
the collar is programmed to deliver a powerful shock
if the wearer goes into forbidden areas and even detonate
if the combatant becomes stubborn or boring.
After
wearing a metallic battle suit you are sent off to
your first mission, which is essentially a tutorial
to help you familiarize with the controls. After completion
of the tutorial you will head to Dreadzone Station,
which is basically your base. During live combat missions
2 battle drones will provide firepower and support.
These drones will be assigned to you in Dreadzone
Station.
Clank
unfortunately wont be fighting alongside you
this time though he will act as the mission engineer
providing you with useful information and monitoring
your progress throughout the missions.
Completing
missions will earn you medals and dread points. Collect
enough of these and new planets will be unlocked.
Each planet will offer different missions, challenges
and enemies. The 1st planet you will fight on will
be Catacrom IV, which is a holy burial ground of robots.
This planet is filled with zombie robots that come
out of the ground to attack you and just like zombies
of the Resident Evil series theyll keep attacking
you even after they are torn apart. Nice!
The
1st mission is quite simple requiring you to get from
one point to another, but as you progress missions
will get complicated and tougher. Later on in the
game the missions will have you racing hoverbikes,
capturing control points, destroying key targets,
clearing areas of enemies, or activating switches
to open pathways. No two missions in the game are
similar in nature and the way they are strung together
keeps the action fresh. Missions in the game arent
very long usually lasting a few minutes each and every
planet has more than half-dozen missions. Many of
the missions are optional, but they are quite entertaining
plus the more missions you finish the more bolts you
earn.
Bolts
in the game will be used to purchase upgrades for
your bots and your weapons. For your bots you will
be able to change their color and their heads. Besides
customizing your bots you will be able to buy weapons,
ammo and weapon modifications from vendor stations
while in the combat zone. 2 types of mods are present
in the game; the alpha and the omega, which will provide
different modifiers for your weapons.
Omega
mods, which can be purchased, will add special attributes
to your ammo. For example, napalm will charge your
explosive rounds with lava, an acid mod that will
apply a corrosive chemical mixture to your ammo, ice
that will freeze enemies and electricity that will
shock an enemy and then shock other nearby enemies
through a chain attack. You will acquire alpha mods
by using weapons and earning experience. These mods
will affect weapon stats such as firing speed, knockback
and ammo capacity. You will be able to switch out
your mods any time you want.
In
Ratchet: Deadlocked the combat will be a lot like
an arena-style first person shooter. In the game you
will have the option to fight in either a first person
camera view with controls also like a first person
game or a third person camera mode for a more classic
Ratchet & Clank style gameplay. In the game you
will control Ratchets movement entirely with
the left analog stick and the camera with the right
analog stick. You wont be able reassign the
buttons as you like but the default controls work
very well. You will hardly need the face buttons because
you can do almost everything in the game using only
the analog sticks and shoulder buttons. Plus you will
be able to switch between your recently used weapons
by double tapping R2 or the triangle button.
Usually,
your bots will hover close to you and shoot at any
nearby enemies but you will be able to give your bots
orders by using the D pad. You can tap down on the
D pad to order them to regroup, in case you want to
defend from an attack plus if a bot dies during battle,
you can order the bot to revive itself by press down
on the D pad too. Besides that bots can hack computers
to gain entry into restricted areas. Plus they can
toss out EMT charges to disable enemy shields and
electric fields. Also they can generate grind beams
to allow you to move across large gaps between platforms.
Like
the previous games in the series the wrench will be
your melee weapon. Though the wrench wont be
quite effective against hordes of enemies. The wrench
will also be used for activating certain switches
or screwing in some bolt so a door or bridge can be
activated.
Ratchet:
Deadlocked will also feature vehicles. There will
be 4 vehicles in the game. The Puma is a fast and
heavily armed all-terrain vehicle for one person that
has machine guns and a high-powered cannon. The Land
Stalker, which seats two people, is a spider like
mech that has a machine gun and the ability to fire
mortar rounds. The Hoverbike is a light but quick
bike that is equipped with forward-facing machine
guns, but is really built for racing, rather than
combat. Finally you will also get to drive a Hovership
though not much is yet known about this vehicle.
Although
the main focus of the game will be combat there will
still be plenty of platforming. Platform challenges
will include rail grinding plus using your fire whip
to swing between platforms from time to time. Enemies
will come in all shapes and sizes like the previously
mentioned zombie robots to tiny jumping aliens and
huge scorpions etc. Besides the regular enemies there
will also be boss battles in the game.
Two
weapons that I know will be in the game are the Obliterator,
which is the grenade launcher of the game, and the
Magma Cannon which is the equivalent of the shotgun.
Ratchet:
Deadlocked looks pretty nice and runs smoothly even
when there are lots of enemies and explosions on screen.
The levels look good and stay true to their respective
varied themes. You will be fighting enemies high above
a city, on the remains of an ancient battleground,
in an indoor battle arena and in a swamp among many
others. The levels will also be full of destructible
items. The explosions and other special effects add
a fine visual flare to the battles, making the action
more thrilling.
The
sound of the game though still incomplete will be
exactly what you have come to expect from the Ratchet
& Clank series when it is completed.
You
will be able to play the story missions alone or with
a friend in co-op mode. You can also choose not play
the missions entirely and just destroy your friends
and enemies online. The multiplayer game will be as
much fun and feature-packed as the single player game
because they both are pretty much the same. All the
single-player levels will also available for multiplayer.
In
the end, while the game surely is a departure from
its platforming roots it seems like Ratchet: Deadlocked
will live up to its predecessors and expectations
of the fans when it ships.
Features:
- Ratchet:
Deadlocked features co-op gameplay both throughout
single-player and multiplayer story mode.
- Squad-based
gameplay allows players to demolish the competition
by commandeering their allied bots through critical
and strategic battles. Each allied bot will have
its own distinct personality, and a customization
feature allows players to change body parts and
textures.
- A
new weapons system provides players the ability
to choose the way their weapon powers up (effects
capabilities and functionality), allowing for thousands
of mod combinations.
- The
game features non-linear gameplay, allowing players
to not have to complete levels in chronological
order to achieve success.
- Featuring
a new mission-structure approach, players will be
rewarded with a constant progression of items such
as weapons, armor and health.
- With
much of the combat taking place in battlefields
and arenas, gameplay will be more tournament sports-oriented.
- All
single-player levels will also be available to players
for the multiplayer game.
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