One of the key ideas behind the E3 trade show is the betterment of past ideas from year to year. Pretty much exemplifying this notion is the Ratchet & Clank series from Insomniac games on the Playstation 2. Since the release of Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando last year, Insomniac Games has been hard at work on the next installment in the franchise, Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, and as hard as it may be to believe, Arsenal is looking to improve upon the formula in ways many players couldn't even begin to fathom. Gaming Age had a chance to catch up with Ryan Schneider of Insomniac to discuss the new game.
Gaming Age: How is it that you guys can put so much work into these games each year? Are you literally insomniacs?
Ryan Schneider: There's a lot of passion at Insomniac Games, we work really hard on our games, which we really enjoy a lot. We also have a really large team. We are at about 115 people.
GA: Are all 115 people working on Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal (R&C: UYA) or is there another secret game in the works?
RS: Right now that's all we are really focusing on. What you have with R&C: UYA is essentially two games in one. We've got a really strong online experience and the award winning single player experience is as large as ever.
GA: In regards to the multiplayer, how many different multiplayer modes are there?
RS: We have three modes of online game-play; there's Capture The Flag, there's Siege, which is what you are seeing on the show floor now, and there's Deathmatch, which is the classic death-match.
GA: How challenging was it to implement the online play into R&C: UYA? Were the hooks already there from Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando (R&C: GC) or did you have to come up with this from scratch?
RS: You know that's a really good question. This is the first online game for Insomniac Games, so for us that really was the biggest challenge - making a strong online component the first time out of the gate. We're really proud of it and in fact we just got the 1up.com award for best action game at E3 and we are really happy about that.
GA: Will gamers on 56K connections also be able to play?
RS: No, actually, it will be broadband only. We just thought that the best game-play experience for us would be on broadband.
GA: In terms of single player, how big will the adventure be in comparison to R&C: GC or the original game?
RS: We expect R&C: UYA to have a comparable game-play experience, but it's really early right now to be saying how big or how small the game is going to be. We expect to make it as big as ever.
GA: In relation to the weapons and gaining experience on the weapons, how will it work in this game as compared to the last game?
RS: One big difference between R&C: UYA and R&C: GC is that there are four levels of upgrades for the weapons. That's really a great thing for us because there will be more dense enemy encounters, there will be more enemies than ever before, and they're going to be smarter than before. So, in order to make sure that our game-play compensates for that, it's important that we have upgradeable weapons. There are 15 new weapons in the game each with four levels of upgrades.
GA: How do you guys work to balance these weapons so that they don't get too powerful or too weak since they are intended to have four separate power levels?
RS: We do a lot of play testing, and that's really a key for us. We work with Sony closely on play testing, we do our own play testing, we really listen to our fans very - very carefully and we get a lot of great feedback. We play a lot of games, and when you play a lot of games you know what feels good, we're going to make fun games.
GA: Would you call this more of an action game, or a platforming game? We've noticed that you do have a lot more enemies in there and that they are a lot smarter.
RS: We have so many different types of genres that it's really unfortunate that we have to get pigeonholed into one place or another. We really bring so much to the table whether it's a racing component or an action component or even a classic platforming component. Actually one thing that is kind of new in R&C: UYA is that you are going to be able to play as Captain Quark, and we're bringing some classic 2D side-scrolling with him. So really, there's a little bit of everything for every type of gamer
GA: So Captain Quark will indeed be back?
RS: Absolutely, he will be as bizarre as ever.
GA: What do you think of your competition this year; say from Jak 3, and other action platformers being shown here at the show?
RS: I think at this year's show, it's obviously about hardware with the PSP and some of the other exciting things that Sony has going on, but software is really important too. Jak 3 is a great game, it's gorgeous, and it's very different from R&C: UYA. We're really proud of what we're doing. The analogy that I like to use is that at Insomniac we like to look at it as how Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant act when it comes to their professions. We don't really look at it as how we compare to other athletes or other games, we just try to do the best that we can and elevate the sport.
GA: If you could do one thing differently from R&C: GC, what would you implement to completely change the face of the game and make is so much more enjoyable for everyone?
RS: Well that's a really easy answer for us; it's online play. Being the Playstation 2's first online-action-platform game, that's really exciting for Insomniac, that's really exciting for Sony, and it's exciting for R&C: UYA.
We were able to spend a great amount of time with the E3 iteration of Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, and walked away impressed. Both the single player and multi-player aspects of the game were available for play on the show floor and were both very polished even at this early stage of development.
The multi-player mode that was playable at the show is titled "Siege". The idea of the game is similar to that of Unreal Tournament 2004's Onslaught, or the traditional Battlefield style of game play in which both teams have to move throughout the map from point to point capturing strategic locations. Once a team has captured enough points to create a chain from their base to the opponent's, the attacking team can begin waging war on the opposition's base. Sounds simple enough, but the execution of such a plan is as involving as any stand-alone game out there. At each strategic point is a set of turrets waiting to vaporize the intruders, and that is assuming that the player can get passed the other human controlled combatants to begin with. If the attacker is lucky enough to push through, he must then take out his wrench and wind down the bolt in the center of the strategic point, thus giving control over to his team. Once a long link of points is established to the enemy's base, the player then has to contend with all of the other opposing players, automated robot sentries, more turrets, and floating bombs. It truly takes a coordinated effort to successfully storm a base.
Much like in UT2K4, Insomniac decided to mix things up even more by including vehicles in this mode. Such vehicles not only provide a means of transportation from base to individual points on the map, but they raise the bar on the mayhem just that much more. The versus style melded quite well with existing game play. It's easy to find an enemy target and attack it as necessary. Strafing, jumping, and all sorts of makeshift dodging techniques come into play, as it's a battle to the finish against enemy that is just as smart, crafty, and desperate to win as any player out there can be.
The single player aspect was pretty much more of the same, but in a bit tighter of a package than ever before. There were a lot more enemies to blast than ever before, and they were of varying types. The AI was improved overall and it seems like the enemy characters work better together. The melee type monsters would charge Ratchet and try to flush him out of a tight corner, at which point the long range enemies would aim and take fire. The monsters also cleverly hid behind crates when the player would bring out particularly heavy firepower that they could not hope to match.
Also of note is the return of the leveling system that was seen in Going Commando. The weapons and Ratchet himself continue to grow as the player progresses through the game, and becomes better equipped to handle the upcoming blitz. Each weapon will feature the four separate levels of power throughout the game, and will only reach the next level through use. The plasma whip weapon alone would pretty much be worth the price of admission. Also returning will be the fan favorite Giant Clank and the technically impressive spherical worlds.
Ratchet & Clank: Up your Arsenal is certainly a game to look out for in the near future. One portion of the game alone would be great enough, but with such a strong single player component now being joined by an extremely promising online feature, R&C: UYA is looking to take this fall by storm.
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