Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time moves genre to the future.
Playing the first sections of our preview disc of Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time, it was easy to become somewhat jaded. The platforming is, of course, wonderful. The graphics are attractive. The writing is well above average. We’ve long known that Insomniac knows how to create a strong 3D platformer, and for an hour or so, this feels like more of the same. The same is very, very good, mind you. But we’ve seen it before.
Then Clank, the robot sidekick, enters his own head, and the above-average takes a turn for the incredible.
In this short section inside the robot’s brain—don’t worry, it makes sense in terms of the story—we’re introduced to the new facets of the game. You’re given a weapon called the Chronosceptor, which allows you to whack broken objects back into working order—you actually move them backwards in time to before they were destroyed. You’re also given a kind of throwable bomb that slows time, allowing you to manipulate your surroundings and move forward. The graphical style of the robot’s psyche is utterly mesmerizing, and the time-based mechanics add a much-needed layer of complexity to the title.
Even better are the time pads. You stand on one and “record” your actions in time. Then you stand on the other and interact with your past self going through its actions. In the simplest puzzles you stand on a pressure-sensitive switch for yourself so you can walk through a door. In the more intricate puzzles you have to record sections of your performances multiple times in a type of choreographed dance to get to where you’re going, often using the time explosives in multiple ways.
It’s a game mechanic that’s hard to describe in words, and wrapping your head around it inside the game isn’t much easier when it’s first described with an example or two. You have to play with it and bend time to your will before you see just how ingenious the whole thing is. The puzzles begin simply and grow harder as the game moves on. The use of time is done very well and elevates what we’ve played of the game from another platforming experience to something truly special.
Rock. On. (Minor quibble: A Wrench in Time would be a better title.)
