Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal

Up Your Arsenal’s improvement and redirection for the franchise is subtle but an unmistakably bold move for Insomniac Games. Not only did it put the emphasis on shooting more than ever, the game now had a multiplayer mode that was surprisingly great with a Battlefield-esque capture the nodes mode called Siege, Team Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag. Throw in the gadgets from single-player and some vehicles and you have one of the best multiplayer modes of its era.

For most people, the single-player of UYA will be enough. It’s Ratchet & Clank at its most focused and fun. Every level is full of unique moments, compelling scenarios, and intense firefights to be had. Smart additions like blocks to take cover behind, a new control scheme that adds free aim, and a way to swap between weapons quickly make the already great gameplay of Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando into a thing bordering on perfection. Whether you are in a mech fight with Clank or bashing things with Ratchet’s wrench with the new Inferno ability, UYA is one of those rare games that makes me smile every minute of the way.

Up Your Arsenal isn’t just the high-water mark for the series’ PlayStation 2 days, it was the pinnacle of the 3D platformer in its generation. No other genre entry stood as tall until Super Mario Galaxy [スーパーマリオギャラクシー] and A Crack in Time.

mmm. christmas of 2004.

Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando was almost perfect. Insomniac found the perfect balance of shooting, platforming, exploration, and change-of-pace minigames. A weak final boss and an absolutely godawful turret-based boss fight mar it slightly, but Going Commando is about as close to perfect as a game can be.
Up Your Arsenal improves upon the shooting, at the expense of the platforming and exploration. Next year's Ratchet: Deadlocked would do the "all shooting" Ratchet game better than UYA, leaving this game as a bit of an awkward stepping-stone between the franchise's two best games.

The main problem with Up Your Arsenal, however, is in its change-of-pace minigames that break up the shooting, which drag on far too long and absolutely cripple the game's pace. The first of these is the 2D side-scrolling levels where you play as Captain Qwark. Despite some excellent framing cutscenes, these levels are a mediocre-at-best experience, and there are five of them sprinkled throughout the game. God help you if you mistakenly think the second and third are optional because of how nonchalantly the game throws them at you, because then you'll be stuck playing three in a row at a key point in the game's narrative.
These levels are very forgivable, however, in comparison to the true backbreaker for this game: the hacker. Up Your Arsenal loves to throw hacker puzzles at you in the middle of levels. Not just one per level, but usually three or four in the levels that feature them. The hacker puzzles take up what feels like ages as you monotonously spin a barrel to shoot red pieces and pick up green ones. And then you learn that these puzzles can and will have multiple layers. The late game features four-layer hacker puzzles that absolutely tank the levels' pace. You're having fun, then BAM you'd rather be doing your taxes. More often than not, I stop playing this game after its first act due to the introduction of the hacker.
When this game is hot, it's on fire. So much, in fact, that Insomniac calls the fire department to spray you down with a high-pressure hose of monotony.

O pessoal da Insomniac deve ter notado que o combate em terceira pessoa é o que torna a série verdadeiramente especial, e dessa constatação surgiu Up Your Arsenal.

Por mais variado que seja o antecessor, nada substitui essa espécie de run ‘n’ gun em terceira pessoa que caracteriza Ratchet & Clank, e o maior foco neste aspecto faz de UYA um absoluto deleite do começo ao fim.

Com uma narrativa bem construída e um ótimo clímax, o terceiro jogo da série supera Going Commando, que só é melhor na parte de coletáveis e recompensas.

Yes, I will stand by my claim that Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal is the best, most flawless game ever!

It's difficult to put into words just how much this one game has meant to me over the years, but I can tell you that there was one point where this was one of the only decent games that I owned and I played it over and over and over. Looking at my old save file of UYA, it shows that I had completed over 80 challenge playthroughs of this game, seriously, and I loved every single second of it.

Up Your Arsenal does absolutely everything right. Each of the game's planets (levels) are extremely varied and unique. The gameplay is as smooth as butter. The story as well as the cast of characters are all very engaging. The humor is top notch as always, and Insomniac also does a great job at presenting some of the more serious parts of the game's story. The entire game looks and feels great. I honestly can't think of a single thing that I would change in this game. It's just that good.

Insomniac took all the best elements from the previous two R&C games and flawlessly integrated them into UYA as well as adding even more great aspects to it. They took the great concept that really made the previous games what they were (blowing shit up) and maximized it here. While some opinions differ, I believe that UYA has the best selection of weapons and gadgets in the whole series. Every item in the game is just extremely fun to use and upgrade. Similar to an RPG, you upgrade weapons simply by using them. The more you use a certain weapon, the more EXP it gains. Each weapon starts at LV 1 and you can upgrade them up to LV 5 in a standard playthrough. Each time a weapon levels up, they usually gain more power as well as an increase in their ammo capacity. Some upgrades even add entirely new features to them, and this really helps keep the game interesting. Blasting your way throughout the game just never gets boring. Seriously, what could be more fun than using a flaming whip to slap enemies around or a ray gun that turns enemies into ducks?

Insomniac also brought back the health upgrade system from Going Commando and furthered it by allowing even higher upgrades during challenge mode playthroughs. Challenge Mode is essentially R&C's new-game-plus where you can double your health points, upgrade all your weapons up to LV 8, keep all your bolts (money), and equipment. The gameplay is also improved upon as you now have more accurate aiming options and strafe abilities. Insomniac also retained the great humor of the first game as well as the more story-focused moments of the second.

Up Your Arsenal is a flawless mix of an action-platformer, third-person shooter, and even a first-person shooter. Yes, you could actually play the entire game in first-person if you wanted to. Just go to the camera options menu - that's pretty awesome. There's a very nice variety to the game as well. There are parts of the game that consist of platforming, third-person action, puzzle solving, flying a ship, playing a side-scrolling mini- game, and fighting your way through arenas. There's something for everyone here.

The story and its presentation are fantastic as well. The game's cast of characters are great. Both old and new faces keep the overall story engaging throughout. Dr. Nefarious is easily the best and most memorable antagonist of the entire series! This is also the first R&C game where we see the legendary Captain Qwark turn out to be a not-so-bad guy after all, and his character development alone makes progressing through the story that much more impactful. The voice acting is fantastic all around, especially for Qwark (bless you, Jim Ward).

All of the different areas of the game are fantastic. You have the jungle-y planet of Florana, the cold and icy area of Qwark's Hideout, the fiery death course of Annihilation Nation, and so much more. The boss battles are amazing and so much better than the previous games, and I haven't even began to talk about the huge amount of content that this game offers. You can complete all the death course/arena stages in Annihilation Nation, you can assist the Galactic Rangers in all the battlefield stages, you can hang out in the sewers and try to collect all 100 hidden crystals, and you can perform various certain tasks to earn in-game skill points which can be used to unlock new skins for Ratchet. There's also plenty of collectables scattered throughout the game that you can find and use. However, this game would still be flawless even if you ignored all of the side-content and just played through the main story because it's all amazing and very well-paced. This game is non-stop fun from start to finish and I also always thought that this R&C game had a bit more challenge to it, especially in the later parts of the game, and while the game is still never extremely challenging, it helps to keep you on your toes the whole way through.

Another interesting thing about this game is that it had a full-on online multiplayer mode and although I personally never played it much, I do have fond memories of attempting the online mode and having my ass handed to me every single time. I don't think the multiplayer works anymore, but I was still able to get on it back in the late 2000s/early 2010s. The game also has a local multiplayer mode which I can't really comment on as I've never played it since no one ever wanted to play games with me as a kid (how sad), but I'm sure it's fun, too!

There are plenty of other great things about this game that I can talk about, but my eyes are starting to hurt. I feel confident in saying that Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal is my favorite game of all time. There's just so much to love about it. Give it a playthrough if you haven't already, because this is truly the GOAT!

Ratchet & Clank 3 found a magical balance between its gameplay/story/attitude trifecta, utilizing more heartfelt story tones while raising the bar for its upgrade system tenfold. This genre chameleon of 3d platforming and 3rd person shooter with puzzle, rail shooter and all sorts of creative moods that Insomniac introduced had found formal perfection.