Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
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Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal<tr><td colspan="2" style="font-size: 100%; text-align: center;"> </td></tr>
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| Developer(s) | Insomniac Games
<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Publisher(s)</th><td>Sony Computer Entertainment</td></tr> |
| Release date(s) | NA November 2, 2004 EU November 12, 2004 AU November 18, 2004 JP November 25, 2004 |
| Genre(s) | Platformer, Action |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer (online)
<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Rating(s)</th><td>ESRB: Teen (13+) |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2
<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Media</th><td>DVD</td></tr> |
Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal (Ratchet & Clank 3 in Europe and Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal in Australia<ref name="gameFAQs">GameFAQs. Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal Info. Retrieved on 14 November, 2006.</ref>) is a platform/shooter video game developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony. It is the third game in the Ratchet & Clank and the sequel to Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando. It was released in North America on November 2, 2004 and was met with critical acclaim, earning an 92% average on Game Rankings.<ref name="GR">Game Rankings. Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal Reviews. Retrieved on 14 November, 2006.</ref>
Contents |
[edit] Gameplay
Insomniac expanded on the concept of upgradeable weapons based on usage, with five possible upgrades initially and another three in the "Challenge Mode" for a total of eight versions of each weapon. Rather significant additions (such as enabling a "lock-on" mode) can be added in certain levels in addition to the standard increase in range, power and ammo capacity; upgrading to the final level (both "Level 5" in the standard campaign and "Level 8 Omega" in the Challenge Mode). Another improvement from the previous game, Going Commando, is that imported weapons (the ones that continue from the previous game) can also enjoy the many levels of upgrades that the new weapons can earn.
Many of Ratchet's devices were carried over from Ratchet & Clank to Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando, but the alterations from Going Commando to Up Your Arsenal are much greater. The "Swingshot" idea has been combined with the "Dynamo", and the button-timing puzzles of the "Electrolyzer" or "Infiltrator" from Going Commando are replaced by the "Hacker" minigame in Up Your Arsenal.
[edit] Plot
Channel surfing past Clank's new TV show, "Secret Agent Clank", Ratchet stumbles across a news report about his home planet, Veldin, being under attack by an army of aliens named Tyhrranoids. The lead suspect is a robot by the name of Dr. Nefarious. After racing to Veldin and being crowned as the new sergeant for the Galactic Rangers, they are contacted by the President on the whereabouts of the only man who has ever defeated Nefarious. It turns out it was Captain Qwark, who apparently lost his memory while working to save the Florana Jungle's fauna. He now believes himself to be a monkey. After Qwark and his companion (a one-eyed monkey) are led to the ship, Sasha, captain of the Starship Phoenix, has been ordered to assist Ratchet and Clank.
Aboard the starship, they leave Captain Qwark in his new quarters. After leaving Qwark, they find Sasha listening to a transmission from the president on planet Marcadia, who turns out to be her father. After that, Nefarious intervenes the transmission and declares war on the "Squishies", or organic life forms. Ratchet and Clank then venture out to Marcadia's capital to assist the Galactic rangers and the president. After assisting the president, Ratchet and Clank return Qwark's memory by playing a video-comic (vid-comic), and is sent to Annihilation Nation to claim the Tyhrra-guise (a device which conceals the wearer as a Tyhrranoid) as prize. However, after claiming the Tyhrra-guise, Ratchet and Clank are informed that the president has laid the outcome of the war into Qwark's hands.
The "Q-Force" (Al, Helga, Skidd, Ratchet, Clank, Qwark, and Sasha) is assigned a new mission (rather Ratchet's new mission) to infiltrate Nefarious' base on Planet Aquatos to acquire as much information on Nefarious' plans as possible. They find that Dr. Nefarious is Clank's biggest fan, along with an encrypted star-map to the Tyhrranoids' home planet and base, Tyhrranosis. Nefarious and his butler Lawrence are shocked to see that their base has been infiltrated, and later find out Qwark is behind it. After Al decrypts the starmap, and the group (mainly Ratchet and Clank) infiltrate the base on Tyhrranosis and destroy it, Dr. Nefarious sends the Q-Force a transmission, still shocked that they actually infiltrated his base. Al traces the transmission to planet Daxx, and before leaving, Ratchet acquires a new gadget from Helga, the Hypershot, a combination of the Swingshot (from the previous Ratchet & Clank games and Ratchet: Deadlocked) and the Dynamo (from Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando).
When he lands, Ratchet is led by Al to a computer terminal that contains data on Nefarious' new secret weapon called the Biobliterator. Clank also finds that a transport ship had just left for the Obani Gemini moons the day before. Ratchet, Clank, and Skidd make their way through the first two moons only to find the third is protected by a "Omega Class Disintegration Shield". Ratchet then gets an urgent call from the Q-Force, who need his help on Blackwater City against the Tyhrranoids. Ratchet leaves to help them, but Skidd decides to stay and work on the force field. Ratchet and Clank arrive on planet Rilgar and help the Q-Force defend their base. The pair soon set out to find they need to find Courtney Gears, a pop-star singer they believe is working with Nefarious. Ratchet and Clank returns to the set of Annihilation Nation to find Courtney Gears, begging to be in one of Clank's movies. When Clank asks for info on Nefarious, she knocks him out and brings him to Nefarious herself. He gives Clank a choice: join him or die with the "Squishies". Back at Clank's trailer, Ratchet is ambushed by the Tyhrranoids. Fighting his way back to the ship, he finds Clank, who is acting very strange. Ratchet asks him about Courtney, but all Clank says is that Nefarious' star cruiser is named the Leviathan.
The two land on Obani Draco, the third moon, where Skidd was able to bring the shield down. As it turns out, it is Courtney's hideout. The two discover the Biobliterator there, a machine that changes organic life forms into brainwashed robots bent on destroying the "Squishies". After that, they confront and defeat Courtney Gears. Upon finishing her off, they receive a transmission from Sasha, who tracked the Leviathan to the Zeldrin Starport. Leaving Skidd, who has been transformed by a test of the Biobliterator, they head for the starport to meet up with Qwark.
The Q-Force reach the Leviathan and fight their way through hordes of enemies until they find Nefarious waiting. It turns out that it was a trap, as he activates the self-destruct system and warps out of there. All of the Q-Force returns to the Phoenix, except for Qwark, who stays behind, saying he thought he saw something. Ratchet and Clank fly off just as the Leviathan explodes, still debating whether to leave Qwark behind.
After a funeral for Qwark on the Phoenix, Ratchet flies to the city of Metropolis, which is under attack by Tyhrranoids. During the battle, Nefarious uses the Biobliterator to turn hapless citizens and Tyhrranoid invaders alike into robotic zombies. Ratchet battles his way to a hovering train, where it is revealed that Clank has been the prisoner of Doctor Nefarious ever since their encounter at Holostar Studios. An evil copy known as Klunk has replaced him. After defeating Klunk, Ratchet and Clank are reunited, and they fly to the planet Zeldrin to investigate the wreckage of the Leviathan.
On Zeldrin, they discover an encrypted data disc, and a recording that reveals that Qwark was alive when the cruiser went down. They resolve not to tell the crew that Qwark is alive until they find out why he didn't report to the Phoenix. After playing a video game that contains information as to the whereabouts of the superhero's hideout, they fly there and battle past security robots and garden gnomes until they find Captain Qwark himself, who has abandoned his fight against Nefarious in favor of the comfort and safety of his hideout. Ratchet leaves in disgust, but Clank makes one last appeal to Qwark, stating that he had an opportunity to "become the hero you have always wanted to be".
When they return to their ship, they receive a garbled transmission from Sasha, who tells them that the Phoenix is under attack. Ratchet helps the Galactic Rangers regain control of the ship and free the captured Q-Force members. Al tells Ratchet that he has finally cracked the encryption on the data disc, which contains a complete copy of Nefarious' battle plans. Ratchet must fly to the planet Koros to destroy the Biobliterator before it is unleashed on his beloved home, Veldin.
Ratchet and Clank reach Koros, and after battling hordes of Nefarious' troops, Clank uses the ion cannon there to destroy the Biobliterator. However, Sasha soon reports that a second Biobliterator is housed at a command center on planet Mylon, guarded by an army of robot Tyhrranoids. Ratchet and Clank fly to Mylon, fight through the command center, and reach the Biobliterator, just in time for Dr. Nefarious and Lawrence to escape. Luckily, a dropship arrives for Ratchet and Clank to pursue Nefarious to his launch site.
At the launch site, Ratchet and Clank battle Dr. Nefarious once and for all. After a short while, he falls down and begs for mercy, fooling Ratchet into a false sense of victory before running away. Ratchet chases after Nefarious, and, with the help of the Galactic Rangers, defeats him. Nefarious and Lawrence then warp into the Biobliterator, which transforms into a giant robot. Ratchet and Clank look utterly doomed- when Captain Qwark flies in to fight alongside them. Ratchet and Captain Qwark engage in aerial combat against Nefarious and the Biobliterator, and destroy it. The Biobliterator self-destructs, and Nefarious and Lawrence are warped away to an unknown location.
Cut to the premiere of the latest Secret Agent Clank episode, where Clank and Skrunch face off against Maximilian's forces on a snowy world. The premiere is a huge success, and Ratchet even gets a kiss from Sasha.
The last scene is of Dr. Nefarious and Lawrence, sitting on an isolated asteroid, out of range to teleport to escape for the next several thousand years. Lawrence suggests some music to help pass the time.
[edit] Setting and characters
AL: Fat man. In every R&C game, he either gives Ratchet (or others, as known in Deadlocked) upgrades, objectives, or hints. He is mostly a computer whiz.
RANGERS: Cowardly bots that serve under the Galactic alliance. Just some soldiers that barely hurt anyone in gameplay.
GALACTIC PRESIDENT I've already explained everything. President of the Solana galaxy. In a cinematic in the game, He states that he is half robot.
CAPTAIN QWARK: A wannabe famous hero that seems to get the fame every time Ratchet saves the day. Chickens out on Mylon, making everyone think he's dead, but comes back at the end of the game trying to be a hero, but he doesn't even help you defeat Nefarious...
SASHA: Captain of the Starship Phoenix. The galactic prez is her dad, & becomes Ratchet's (I think his 3rd) GF.
DR. NEFARIOUS: Villian of the game, obsessed with turning everyone into robots. Every time he yells a name in anger, he seems to get a "malfunction", in which his head starts playing a live soap opera.
LAWRENCE: Nefarious's butler. He seems to start a band at the end. He & Nefarious make a "guest appearence" in Deadlocked.
TYHRRANOID COLONY: The enemies of the game. The more eyes they have, the tougher they are. They're one of the 1st "victims" of Nefrarious's robo project.
HELGA: Qwark's trainer. VERY fat.
SKRUNCH: Quark's monkey/brother-in-law. Quark brang him from Florana to stay with him.
I don't mind if anyone adds on to this, but be reasonable with deleting my stuff.
[edit] Online multiplayer
[edit] Reception
[edit] References
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[edit] External links
