NOTs
Singleplayer
If you are a huge fan of Clank or the banter between Ratchet and Clank, the cutscenes are the only good thing about playing the game by yourself. Whilst I like a game with some challenges, I know plenty of Ratchet fans play the games for the banter between the characters and to have fun and enjoy them. The challenge might even frustrate some gamers as they find it’s a scrap to get and maintain the defences; distracting them from the fun Ratchet universe. It is nice that both co-op and singleplayer work well but they do seem to be rather different when it comes to ease of play.
Little Replay Value
Unless players have friends that want to play plenty of co-op over and over, I’m not confident in saying there will be huge replay value to the game. Despite it offering fresh new Ratchet themed gameplay, which is both difficult and fun, once the levels are complete as with many tower defence titles the urge to replay levels isn’t that high. If you have a group of friends that would like to play levels often, the gameplay is mildly different each time and is certainly fun enough to play to give endless hours of enjoyment. Although with plenty of other games out there with no major urge to replay levels once the game is complete, you probably won’t touch it again.
Verdict
Ratchet and Clank: Full Frontal Assault manages to pull off the third person tower defence genre with the same success as games developed solely for the genre, such as Orcs Must Die. This is only made more impressive by the fact there is a good proportion of platforming elements thrown into the mix to keep gameplay relatively fresh. With both attacking and defending to think about there is no such thing as just sitting back with Full Frontal Assault. You’ll be entertained from start to finish via enjoyable yet difficult singleplayer gameplay, less hectic co-op gameplayer and as always great cutscenes. The game may have come along mostly under the Radar but don’t write it off: it’s a great experience, especially if you are a fan of the franchise.
[Editor’s Note: Ratchet and Clank: Full Frontal Assault was reviewed on the PlayStation 3. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]
