One of the best PS3 games yet! Amazing graphics

Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction is the latest game to join my PS3 collection and I love it! It's also the first Ratchet and Clank game I've ever played, and I wish I had bought it sooner because it is one of the best games out on the PS3 and is graphically the best platformer (I guess that's what you'd call it) I've ever played. There were several times I felt a little lost as to what was going on story wise, simply because I haven't played any of the previous games (and I think there are 6 of them), but this was still a very enjoyable experience for me.

The first thing you'll notice are the amazing visuals. The worlds are massive and everything just looks great. The game is very colorful and the futuristic technology really dazzles in HD. I was surprised by how populated the worlds are. There are buildings, plants, animals, and ships all over the place and it all looks amazing. The animation is incredibly smooth and the whole experience is very cinematic. The PS3's future looks bright when the games coming along now look this good and the sky is the limit as far as capability. The graphics are so amazing that while grinding, I have to be careful to pay attention to what I am doing instead of watching the everything that is happening in the background.

I really enjoy the cut scenes with Ratchet and Clank. They are very well done and look just about as good as you'd get in a Pixar film. The character animation is spot on and the amount of expression they get from Ratchet and the other characters is amazing, again very Pixar-like in quality. The only downside to them is that the audio is, at times, poorly mastered and it's too loud and busy to hear what is being said (specifically the very first cutscene when Ratchet and Clank are falling down the side of the building) and the first meeting with Percival Tachyon. This is quite common in video games and by no means ruins the game, it's just something I noticed. Luckily an option for subtitles is provided, I haven't felt the need to use them yet, but they are there just in case.

Audio quality is great in the game. You'll truly get a surround sound experience and none of the sounds feel artificial or fake. Aside from the aforementioned loud & busy moments in the cutscenes, the audio is wonderful. The voice acting is all very good and is generally well written. Many video games suffer from wooden dialog, bad acting, and poor story telling, but Ratchet and Clank is not one of them. Very cinematic indeed!

The gameplay experience is fantastic! I never felt subjected to loading times or any lag when the game does its automatic saving. The only bad experience I've had on the PS3 thus far is Def Jam Icon, which has infuriatingly long load times just when selecting characters, furthered by actually loading a level. With Rachet and Clank though it is mostly a smooth transition when moving from level to level or when coming out of a cutscene. Good job developers!

The variety of weapons and gadgets you can use in the game is huge. In fact it's overkill. This isn't a bad thing but I do find myself ignoring many of the weapons because there are so many that get the job done. The weapons are all pretty fun though. My absolute favorite is the "Groovitron", which when fired, dispenses a disco ball that lights up and plays a few different kinds of music which causes all nearby enemies to break out and dance. It's funny, it's effective, and I love it! Another cool one is the Transmorpher which will turn enemies into cute and very harmless penguins. Another very useful one is a gas which causes your enemies to all begin fighting each other. I can't quite remember the name of this one (Confuserator?), but fire it and kick back and enjoy the show. There are probably 50 weapons in total, you'd need an entire review dedicated solely to weapons to cover them all.

Being a next gen game, Tools of Destruction makes use of the PS3's sixaxis controller. Most games feel like they shoehorned the usage of the sixaxis in at the last minute (Call of Duty 3 I am looking at you), but Ratchet and Clank makes some pretty good use of it. For example, at certain points in the game Ratchet will take a plunge and you use the motion sensors to steer him while he falls, you have to avoid buildings, vehicles, and other things, and it's fun. The sixaxis also comes into to play in puzzle solving and is well used throughout the game. Another bravo for the developers.

As far as difficulty goes the game isn't particularly challenging. I have died several times in the game, both due to falling and enemy attacks, but I never felt particularly frustrated. This isn't to say it's boring, just that the game isn't artificially made more difficult.

I find the game very addicting, and the replay value is quite good for a single player game. Thanks in part to the weapon upgrades and the items to collect. I will be playing this through several times to collect all the extras, and simply because the game is fun and very nice graphically. It would have been nice for some sort of multiplayer to be setup, even if it just meant running around shooting online players. And imagine the possibilities of co-op play (both online and offline), one player being Ratchet and the other being Clank. Maybe we'll see this in the next PS3 version?

Overall this is an amazing game, it's got great graphics, fun gameplay, good replay value, beautiful levels, and fun weapons. This is everything a game should be.