Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One

"It's time to go back to the way things were, ya know? Leave that hero stuff to the other guys."

- Ratchet talking to an interviewer.

Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One is an upcoming game for the PlayStation 3 developed by Insomniac Games. It will be the next game installment in the Ratchet &amp; Clank series. The game is a platformer shooter, however, it relies on a four-player co-operative system where the players can choose to play as either Ratchet, Clank, Captain Qwark or Dr. Nefarious.

Plot
The game takes place two years after Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time. When Dr. Nefarious' latest plan to destroy Ratchet and Clank goes wrong and leads to the capture of Ratchet, Clank, Galactic President Qwark and Dr. Nefarious himself by the Creature Collector. The vast interstellar machine transports the foursome to Planet Magnus -- a planet far away from the Polaris Galaxy. But now, the galaxy's finest (and not quite so fine) heroes and its most evil villain are forced to work together to get back home safely.

Gameplay
Like previous games, All 4 One is a platformer loaded with over the top weapons, but a four-player drop in-drop-out co-op system has been added. The four players can be local, through the use of multiple controllers; online players, through the use of the Playstation Network; or AI, controlled by the CPU. If there is a single player, the game will give him or her one CPU controlled player. The game supports multiple PSN logins so each player is able to log into their own PSN while playing local multiplayer, allowing sync between any online stats and the game. Each character uses their own unique melee attack, which are all aptly named. Ratchet uses his wrench as usual, while Clank uses "Clank-Fu" which is a spinning attack. Qwark punches up enemies with his "Fists of Justice" and Nefarious uses the "Annhiliator Blades" which are like claws. At the start of any session, there is player select screen with four sections - one for each player. Each player has the ability to scroll through the characters, and if they have chosen one to use - they can lock it by pressing X. Once a character is locked, no other player can choose it. The player can unlock it by pressing O, to choose another character.

A ring is placed below each playable character that is currently assigned to a player to indicate they are currently being used. Whenever a character is blocked out of sight by another object, an icon above their head with a cartoon picture appears in the foreground to indicate the character's position. These pictures emphasize the new cartoon look of the characters, such as Captain Qwark's bigger chin being the centerpiece of his picture. The rings also indicate the health of each character. At the start of the game each player has only 4 bars of nanotech, much like in the original Ratchet & Clank.

The co-operative aspect on the game, and the many chances where you can ultimately control another character indirectly - such as with the Vac-U 4000, means there is a place for greifing in the game. Although it is not necessarily encouraged, Insomniac accept it as part of the game and not much harm can be done by griefing anyway as players spawn back soon after falling or dying.

It was revealed in the Insomniac Games PAX 2010 Q&A, ammo will not be the same from other games, or may even be removed completely. No ammo depletion was seen in the demo, however they have still to finalise on the ammo situation.

Cooperative gameplay mechanics
There are many new gameplay mechanics that require cooperation between players. An cannon-like machine with four barrels can be opened to reveal four buttons. If each player steps on a button, the machine will close. Then graphics will appear, indicating that the players must move the left analog stick in a circular motion to wind back each barrel. When all of the barrels are wound back, the cannon will shoot the team up to farther locations. There are often little contests such as with these mechanics, to be the first person to activate them or the first player to find a certain collectible. Despite the team play, there is a lot of individual reward to be found.

Some of the other multiplayer mechanics include turning a bolt crank with four handles, or plummeting down a wind tunnel and having to hold onto each other to get back out.

Whenever an enemy is killed or a task is completed through teamwork, the team gets points as well as bolts. A large rising number with a plus sign next to it appears to indicate the amount of points acquired. Insomniac says that this will "incentivize" cooperation, but won't say how the points will do this, though it is likely they are some form of currency or experience points.

The triangle button is used as an action button in this game and some objects have a triangle button icon floating over it whenever the characters are close. Whenever a player holds the triangle button, their character performs the action related to it.

Team gameplay remains a crucial aspect and whenever one player needs Nanotech, a red cross icon appears and the player flashes red to indicate they are low on health. Much like the Nano-Pak, extra nanotech can be stored and then passed onto a team mate. Points are gained when health is passed over.

The camera moves to capture all of the players due to the multiplayer platforming aspect of the game. During combat segments or boss fights, the camera always faces towards the enemies in hand and gives the optimal position for gameplay at all times, such as giving a side view when using the Swingshot.

Players can also choose to play competitively. The Vac-U 4000 can be used to suck up other players and shoot them down bottomless pits. The swingshot can also be used to pull other players into bottomless pits. To prevent players abusing these mechanics and acting like total "jerks", Insomniac has added a points system to "incentivize" cooperation. In addition, the competitive mechanics can be switched off if this becomes a problem.

Some platforms act like a seesaw and will topple over if too much weight is applied to one side of the centre pivot. Therefore, the players must work together to balance out their weight and space out.

There are sequences in the game called the Wind Turbines where the four characters fall into a wind tunnel and must hold hands together to gain enough wind resistance to get out the tunnel. There are four fans at the bottom of the tunnel and at one time there is only one that is turned on and the team need to co-ordinate to keep on the fans wind.

The bolt crank has now become a crank with four handles that each player needs to grab onto and turn it in synchronization.

Death in this game does not result in a penalty other than having to wait 5 seconds to respawn. However, unless you've fallen to your death, you can be revived with a new revive mechanic. However, if the whole team dies, they have to go back to the last chapter.

Weapons and gadgets
Due to the new four-player co-op gameplay, new weapons and gadgets have been added. An example is a gadget called the Vac-U 4000, which works in a manner similar to the Suck Cannon. It can be used to suck up items like the Boltergeist, or to suck up other characters. The Vac-U could then shoot the Boltergeist into a socket to active machinery. The Vac-U can shoot out players that it sucked up to cross gaps or to get them to previously unaccessible areas. The Vac-U could also be used to shoot other players into the air for a Mario-like stomp. This mechanic is used a boss battle where the Vac-U was used to shoot players into switches to beat the boss. Other items that could be sucked up were two weapon-like objects that were connected by electricity, similar to the electricity between two Tesla Spikes. Two players suck each of the objects, and the electricity between the two objects shocked enemies. This is an example of how weapons are especially powerful when used together with the other players.

The Swingshot returns with a co-op twist. The versa-targets are placed with a lot of space between them, which means a single character could not swing to the next versa-target. However, in All 4 One, a player can latch onto another player who is hanging from a versa-target. Each target had a number which indicates the amount of characters required to latch onto each other in order to reach the next target. The Swingshot can also be used to perform a move in which one character latches onto another character, and at the peak of the motion when latching on, they sling off and possibly dodge enemy fire or get to other places.

The Mortar Slam is a move that can be used after propelling off a swingshot latch or getting shot out of a Vac-U 4000, and the player presses a button to slam onto an enemy while in mid-air.

Weapon upgrades will return, Insomniac say the reason behind this is because it part of the series' "DNA".

Art style
The game has altered the art style from past PlayStation 3 titles. It has probably been based off the comic series, with Ratchet's face becoming wider, Qwark's facial features looking different and all the body to head ratios of the characters have been changed. The game takes place two years after A Crack in Time so it could signify how the characters have changed, but most of the characters have turned into a more cartoon style, evident with Ratchet's lack of visible fur, the head-to-body ratios and the paler skin colors.

Cell-shading returns with many of the characters being cell-shaded and explosions also taking on this cartoon style. The whole cartoon style, in fact, may be inspired by the Ratchet &amp; Clank comic series.

Characters

 * Ratchet
 * Clank
 * Commander Spog
 * Qwark
 * Dr. Nefarious
 * Creature Collector
 * Skrunch (cameo only)

Weapons

 * OmniWrench Millennium 12
 * Combuster
 * Warmonger
 * Thundersmack

Gadgets

 * Vac-U 4000
 * Swingshot

Armor

 * Pilot Suit

Planets

 * Magnus

Items

 * Bolts
 * Boltergeist
 * Gold bolts

Miscellaneous

 * Crates
 * Nanotech
 * Cluster Cannon

Behind the scenes

 * Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One was revealed to have not been the only title that was considered for the final product. The series has had a history of suggestive titles such as Up Your Arsenal and Size Matters, and Insomniac mentioned there was a spreadsheet that contained over 100 potential titles. The four most popular titles were revealed, that was not chosen for the final product, and they were: 4play, Multiple Organisms, Fiends with Benefits and Bros b4 Foes. Writer TJ Fixman, who is also working in the North Carolina studio said that they did not want to scare parents off with the title as the game itself is very family friendly.
 * Evident with the music in the game, All 4 One's music style is very similar to A Crack in Time. Synths have not returned and it is very orchestral, suggesting that Boris Salchow may stay as the composer for the game.
 * Insomniac Games confirmed that Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One is likely to include a replayable missions feature given the games co-op nature. Interestingly, replayable missions never appeared in any of the past Ratchet & Clank series games, except for Ratchet: Deadlocked.
 * Despite it's family friendly and cartoony look, All 4 One, as the demo has shown, has some swearing, sexual references and crude humor, likely based off of the Ratchet and Clank comic series' more mature theme to the series. This could be the reason for the game's T for Teen rating.
 * According to the trailer, this is the second game in which Ratchet was thrown into saving the galaxy despite wanting a break. The first was Size Matters.

Videos

 * All 4 One Gamescom trailer
 * Gameplay from Gamescom