Review: Ratchet & Clank QForce

There’s a moment at QForce’s midpoint which sums up everything grossly wrong and right with this game all at once. Stuart Zurgo, antagonist and Incredibles villain Syndrome on a Skittle-infused sugar rush, attacks the ship holding series heroes Ratchet, Clank and Captain Qwark. Framing the politically disgraced Qwark with catastrophic manipulation of weather systems across the galaxy, Zurgo cackles and monologues after explaining his evil plan and promises further torture. It’s a lightweight plot, seemingly written around the action rather than for it, but it’s sufficient. And then the Trololo Internet meme plays over the doomed ship’s PA system.

All at once, several times throughout, QForce comes so close to impressing, and sinks itself on every occasion. It’s a title that plays like a fulfilment of a checklist, and seems to have been built as such too. Familiar characters? Check. MOBA-inspired tower defence elements? Check. The funny jokes from games gone before? Check. New ones to freshen up the script? Er.

Best played through rose-tinted specs, the action draws on the likes of League of Legends, Monday Night Combat and Awesomenauts. The name of the game is to destroy bases and take out key targets, all the while defending your own base from counter-strikes.

This happens in one of two flavours: the story campaign tasks one or two players, online or off, with destroying enemy bases before making a move for the planet’s downed defence systems and kickstarting them back to life again to claim the victory. The competitive multiplayer side is tailored to competitive play in 1v1 and 2v2 flavours and goes straight for the jugular – each team assaults the enemy base head-on, destroying the six generators within to win.

Each game, regardless of players, unfolds in a similar manner. Weapon stores across the map hold a variety of classic Ratchet and Clank weapons ranging from conventional blasters and flamethrowers to the megalomaniac escort Mr Zurkon and the Groovatron grenade, which entices all enemies into helpless fits of disco dancing. Unlocking as many of these nodes as possible before going for the bigger objectives is key to victory, and provide you with a surplus of Bolts with which to barricade and defend your base. Each generator and the entrances to the base can be safeguarded with barriers, automated turrets and mines, and can hold off enemies both on and offline when they come calling.

When playing competitively, the value of weapon pods and base defences multiplies, as it tends to take far less time for a friend to smash through turrets and barriers than it does a series of AI goons. Bolts are also used online to buy attacking forces which are sent to the enemy base as part of each phase of battle, which includes breathing time to scope out new weapon nodes and claim others back from the enemy.

All in all, QForce’s formula is a potent one. The amalgamation of shooting and platforming the series has made its own is a great fit for the tactics and on-the-ball resourcefulness of a MOBA and games are usually hectic, especially when playing competitively online. The campaign pales in comparison after a while, especially when you consider the dismal script seemingly written by Insomniac’s “internet savvy” teenage summer intern – Zurgo references, with every second quip, that he’s going to write up his victories on his blog – and the less intense pace. There are hidden weapon caches to find in between squads of AI drones, but it’s nothing compared to the thrill of running into your opponents and fighting over a node head-on instead of waiting back at base for the cavalry to arrive.

At the time of writing it’s usually easy enough to find a game to play online, and for £11.99 it’s a well-packaged value purchase despite the limited number of levels (five) – and that price tag includes a Vita version in January. Hopefully future DLC will introduce some variety to the mix but as it is QForce is an inventive addition to Insomniac’s decade-old PlayStation mainstay – and a better experiment in alternative gameplay than 2011’s dismal co-op adventure All4One. Series hardcores and those seeking an alternative to Awesomenauts on PS3 would do well to apply.

Official Game Site[/ilink]