Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time

"If that ever happens, the universe will need a true hero to stop it. Are you ready?"

- Alister Azimuth, commenting on evil individuals trying to control time for their benefit.

Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time (known as Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time in Europe and Ratchet & Clank Future 2 in Japan) is the final installment of the Future series and the 8th installment in the Ratchet & Clank series. It was released in 2009 on October 27 in North America, and was released on November 4 in Europe (excluding the United Kingdom), November 5 in Australia and November 6 in the United Kingdom. The game concluded the story that started in Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, finishing the Ratchet & Clank Future saga trilogy. A Crack in Time picks up where Quest for Booty left off: Ratchet has learned that Clank's disappearance was orchestrated by Dr. Nefarious, and he sets out to save his pal. Gameplay alternates between Ratchet as the searches for Clank, and Clank as he explores the Great Clock. Both learn about their pasts, and eventually have to decide whether their futures still lie together. This game is the third game to feature the Insomniac Museum along with Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando, Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, and followed by Ratchet & Clank (2016 game).

This game takes place in the year 5360.

Plot
The story focused on Ratchet, still searching for Clank while Clank himself came to terms with his own origins in the Great Clock.

The game began with Clank who had been in suspension inside the Great Clock for over a year in the custody of Nefarious and his butler, Lawrence. Nefarious suddenly discontinued his "partnership" with the Zoni after being denied access to a part of Clank's brain, which was the key to something called the Orvus Chamber. Nefarious then unleashed the Hypersonic Brainwave Scrambler and sent it to kill them. Dr. Nefarious proceeded to create chaos throughout the Great Clock with his Hypersonic Brainwave Scrambler, which the Zoni and Clock's equipment were vulnerable to. This event caused Clank to awaken and escape from Nefarious's clutches. After briefly escaping, Lawrence immobilised Clank with an orb of gratuitous immobilization. Nefarious and his troops then left the Great Clock which had later suffered heavy damage.

Meanwhile, Ratchet traveled into the Breegus System with Qwark in tow. Talwyn had warned that the sector was 'crawling' with mercenaries. Aphelion was suddenly hit with a strange wave of energy and promptly crashed into Zolar Forest on planet Quantos. Ratchet and Qwark were both saved from death by a strange anomaly that froze Aphelion wreckage in mid-air. As Ratchet and Qwark explored the jungle, they soon encountered a Fongoid mother, looking for her missing children. After saving her children, they both met the Fongoid Chief who knew of a way to fix Aphelion. He lead the two of them to the Temple of Zahn. Inside the temple, Ratchet found an item named the Zoni Vessel - a container used to capture lost Zoni. Ratchet collected three Zoni on the planet and the resulting energy created fixes and upgrades on the Aphelion for him.

Ratchet, Qwark and the Fongoid Chief then came back to the village to witness a mass kidnapping of their race by someone known as Lord Vorselon. Vorselon mistook Ratchet for someone called "Azimuth" and captured Qwark along with the Fongoids. Ratchet followed Vorselon's ship and released the captured Fongoids along with Qwark. After helping them escape by shuttle, Qwark directed Ratchet to Torren IV to locate the mysterious General Alister Azimuth that Vorselon had mistaken Ratchet for.

He finally met Azimuth who was in fact another Lombax on Torren IV in the Molonoth Fields. Azimuth initially thought Ratchet was an assassin in a Holo-Guise and attempted to flee, but after a brief chase, Alister recognised Ratchet's face and compared it to his father, Kaden. Alister later explained how Kaden was one of the first Lombaxes to theorize the Great Clock's existence and taught Ratchet how to use his father's Hoverboots. Azimuth told Ratchet to meet him in Axiom City on planet Terachnos in order to find a way to talk to Clank. The two of them infiltrated a Pollyx Industries building once on Terachnos and managed to locate another Obsidian Eye (which was abundant throughout the galaxy, built by the Zoni) on Lumos in the Korthos Sector, allowing them to communicate with Clank. They were forced to escape and destroy a VX-99 before leaving the planet.

Meanwhile, Clank was reactivated by the Junior Caretaker of the Clock, Sigmund. After following Sigmund through the Clock to a mnemonic chamber, Clank discovered his father, Orvus. The Zoni leader then left the Great Clock to Clank as a sort of inheritance after giving Clank a Chronoscepter to help with his care-taking duties. Clank continued through the Clock, destroying the Hypersonic Brainwave Scrambler in the process and entered the Orientation Room with Sigmund. Inside, Clank learned that Orvus and the Zoni built the Great Clock to keep the balance of time in working order after a small rip in the time-space continuum, caused by the improper use of time travel by the Fongoids that destroyed over eighty-three celestial entities. Clank was also warned by Orvus that the Clock should not be used as a time machine under any circumstances as it was built to keep time, not alter it. He was then informed of how to fix temporal distortions located on various planets and proceeded to do so. Shortly afterwards, Clank secretly watched Sigmund viewing a message from Orvus, who apparently traveled to planet Zanifar to meet another scientist and would not be back until morning. As Orvus was nowhere to be seen and through observation of Sigmund's mournful warning to the recording, Clank knew something bad has happened to his father.

On his space station, Nefarious was furious with Vorselon for letting Ratchet, Qwark and the Fongoids escape. Claiming to be bringing in specialists, he opened his office door and bid the Valkyries to enter.

Ratchet and Azimuth arrived on Lumos and began to search for the Obsidian Eye. Part-way through their journey, Ratchet asked the General to stop and give him some straight answers about the Lombaxes, his father and why the General was not with them. Azimuth angrily replied that Ratchet asked too many questions and that his father would not be like this. Ratchet argued that he was not his father and asked Azimuth again. The General then finally answered Ratchet and said it was because he had failed his race.

Azimuth told the tale of an "inventor" who approached the Lombaxes with ideas for technology that was light years ahead of their own, years after the conclusion of the Great War. Kaden warned Azimuth not to trust the inventor, but Azimuth thought otherwise and allowed the inventor access to all of the Lombax's technology and secrets. The inventor, revealed to actually be Emperor Tachyon, then used this to form his own army (proving Aphelions' claim of Tachyon using stolen Lombax technology in Tools of Destruction).

The Lombaxes took refuge in the Court of Azimuth, but Kaden refused and went back home to save Ratchet's mother from the soldiers. By the time he arrived, Tachyon's forces had already murdered her. Azimuth said he was unsure of how long Kaden survived before being killed but claimed responsibility for his friend's death. Azimuth then told Ratchet that both of them could fix it together, using the Great Clock. The General said he could undo what was already done by using the Clock's abilities and promised Ratchet that if he stuck with the General, he would get his family back.

Ratchet and Azimuth found the Obsidian Eye on Lumos after fending off an Agorean invasion and Ratchet finally got to talk to Clank. Clank was surprised that Ratchet had found him and asked about who Azimuth was. Ratchet was unable to explain fully as the signal started to decrease in strength. Before the message cut out, Clank pleaded Ratchet to travel to Zanifar to help his father and told him to look for a time portal. Before Ratchet could ask about who Clank's father was, the signal stopped. Clank asked Sigmund to synthesize a time portal on Zanifar for Ratchet and Alister to use.

On the flight out of Lumos, Alister told Ratchet something about the Clock. If they succeeded in changing the past, the present as they knew it would no longer exist meaning that Ratchet would never meet Clank at all. Despite this, Ratchet knew this is his only chance to save his parents. Azimuth then split off from Ratchet to distract Nefarious's forces while Ratchet headed for Zanifar. After taking a side trip to rescue Qwark from the Agoreans (who had been paid by the Fongoids to take the superhero off their hands) and defeating a War Grok who Qwark called 'Snowball', Ratchet used the time portal on Zanifar to travel two years into the planet's past. He learned that Nefarious and Lawrence crashed their asteroid there and somehow appeared to brainwash the Fongoids inhabiting the planet to build an outpost. He sneaked into the base and saw Nefarious with a captured Orvus, who still refused to tell the Doctor how to get into the Orvus Chamber despite running out of strength to resist. Nefarious ordered the Hypersonic Brainwave Scrambler to attack Orvus who suddenly disappeared after saying that the one who would enter his Chamber was safe from the Doctor. A residual image left behind was tracked back to Clank. Ratchet exclaimed his confusion, alerting Nefarious to his position. The Lombax then tossed a bomb at Nefarious creating a large scar on his right eye before diving out of the window. When Ratchet returned to the present, this change to the past causes the scar to appear on the current Nefarious who then screamed in anger. Before leaving Zanifar, Ratchet received a message from Vorselon, who had managed to capture Azimuth. Ratchet then took off towards Vorselon's ship.

Ratchet arrived on Vorselon's ship and fought his way through the ship's forces, eventually coming into confrontation with Vorselon. The Terraklon assassin claimed he would tell Ratchet where Azimuth was if he was defeated. Ratchet did defeat him, but Vorselon retreated before he told of Azimuth's location. Ratchet searched the ship some more and eventually found Azimuth in a containment field. Azimuth ordered Ratchet to leave and forget about him, but Ratchet refused and lowered the containment field. After releasing the General, Azimuth was angry at Ratchet for not listening to him, until Ratchet mentioned that he traveled back in time. Azimuth became hopeful and inquired as to how far Ratchet traveled. Ratchet replied it was not far enough. Despite this, the pair managed to escape Vorselon's ship.

Back on the Great Clock, Clank took another trip into his subconscious and puzzlingly met The Plumber, who claimed he took a wrong turn into Clank's memory banks and was originally intending to head into Qwark's brain (which he thought he was in because of all the emptiness he saw). The Plumber then said that Clank must accept his new responsibilities, even though the first steps were the hardest. The Plumber then said "I would not risk any more than six minutes", before Clank abruptly awoke. Sigmund noted that he had some strange neural activity during Clank's brief trip, but dismissed it. Clank then traveled to the Orvus Chamber with Sigmund and proceeded inside. The two of them viewed a message left from Orvus for Clank, but it cut off before it finished. Lawrence had cut the power and immobilized both Clank and Sigmund with another orb of gratuitous immobilization. He informed Nefarious that Clank had lead them directly into the Orvus Chamber. Nefarious ordered Lawrence to initiate "Unnecessarily Evil Initiative Omega 91" just as Qwark arrived at the base in a nurse outfit.

Ratchet received a message from Azimuth who picked up a repeating distress call from planet Vapedia. Ratchet immediately recognised it as Clank's unique signature. After defeating one of the Valkyries in a space fight, Ratchet headed towards Vapedia to help Clank, unaware that the distress call had been faked by Nefarious. The leader of the Valkyries, Cassiopeia, was waiting for Ratchet and Azimuth, promising to kill both of them as well as Clank. Ratchet and Azimuth split up; the General going after Cassiopeia and Ratchet heading into the citadel. After surviving various death traps, Ratchet confronted Cassiopeia who taunted him by saying Clank wanted to leave him. Clank was revealed to be suspended in a container, unconscious. Cassiopeia fought with Ratchet and was ultimately defeated. Cassiopeia was sent tumbling downwards to her doom and ended up breaking Clank's container, sending him falling as well. Ratchet dived off the platform to grab him using his Hoverboots and narrowly avoided sending both of them falling to their deaths. The two of them finally re-united and headed back to Aphelion.

Clank forgave Ratchet for him not being able to help Orvus and swore to make Nefarious pay. Even though Azimuth said he would have the support of the Lombax Praetorian Guard once the past was changed, Clank explained that using the Clock improperly was too great a risk for the universe, despite Azimuth's solid reasoning that they had to save the Lombaxes. After realising that the risks involved were not worth taking, Ratchet agreed with Clank much to Azimuth's disappointment. The General then left them as Ratchet and Clank left together to stop Nefarious.

The duo traveled to Nefarious's base to stop his plans. However, their attempt to sneak aboard using Qwark's disguise as "Nurse Shannon" failed and the three of them were captured by Nefarious and his guards. Nefarious explained his plan to use the Clock so that he could undo his defeat at the hands of the duo and create winning streak in the present time where every villain won and every hero lost. He then sent Ratchet and Clank flying to the swamp ruins of Gimlick Valley on planet Morklon attached to an asteroid (which Nefarious created if he ever needed an "super-ironic death scenario").

The Zoni Ratchet captured protected the two of them from the impact and they began to search for a way back to Nefarious's Space Station. After hearing about the Battle of Gimlick Valley from a local, the pair managed to alter the past of the planet using a time portal from Sigmund so that the inhabiting Fongoids gave them an Agorean ship to get back to Nefarious. They eventually traveled to the station and engaged the Doctor in combat. After a long confrontation ending on the top of one of Nefarious's ships, Nefarious suddenly froze and collapsed. Before the duo had a chance to escape, Lawrence took the escape pod, leaving Ratchet and Clank on a collision course with the base. Ratchet was ready to say his goodbyes, but Azimuth appeared in his ship and shouted for Ratchet to jump on. The duo did so as Nefarious's base exploded.

Ratchet, Clank and Alister arrived back on the Great Clock. Clank told Ratchet that the Clock needed him as it was what he was built for and extended a hand for him to shake. Ratchet took Clank's hand and hugged him close to him to say goodbye. Azimuth was confused as to why they haven't used the Clock to save the Lombaxes, to which Ratchet replied that the past should stay how it was. Ratchet walked with Clank inside the facility despite Azimuth's angry shouting at Ratchet to stop. Azimuth finally snapped, outraged that Ratchet no longer wanted what he did and was consumed by his desire to fix his error in the past. He fired a blast of energy from his wrench which hit Ratchet directly on his chest. The impact killed Ratchet, causing him to fall off the platform while Clank vainly tried to grab him. Azimuth then attacked Clank and started to head towards the Orvus Chamber. Clank gave chase to the General and managed to seal the chamber before Azimuth could get inside.

Clank approached the center of the Orvus Chamber, where the switch for the flow of time stood. He began to remember the words of Ratchet, Orvus and Sigmund before he suddenly remembered what The Plumber told him during his trip into his subconscious: "I would not risk any more than six minutes."

Clank realized that what The Plumber meant was the Great Clock's ability to control the time flow. Breaking Orvus's one rule of the Clock, Clank reversed the flow of time for six minutes to just before Ratchet's death. When the shift backwards stopped, the time remained frozen where Clank saw Azimuth in the process of firing the blast at his friend. Clank pushed Ratchet out of the way of the energy blast just as time resumed itself, saving his friend's life.

Ratchet and Clank then gave chase to Azimuth who tried to get into the Chamber again. The General managed to get inside and initiated a massive time shift to save the Lombaxes. The Clock could not take the strain and began to break apart. Ratchet and Clank managed to defeat Azimuth in a fight and attempted to stop the shift. Azimuth screamed at Ratchet to stop, but Ratchet argued the point of the Clock was only to keep time, not change it. Azimuth then realized the error of his ways and sacrificed himself to stop the shift, preventing the Clock destroying itself and the universe. Clank told Ratchet that he should be proud of Azimuth as he picked up the General's pocket watch as a memento.

Later, Ratchet helped the Zoni fix the Great Clock and told Clank to take care of himself before leaving sadly. Clank began to play Orvus's message again, but then stopped it. He realized that finding out about his own family meant that he could not leave Ratchet. He promoted Sigmund to Senior Caretaker of the Great Clock and left the chamber as Orvus's message started playing again. Clank jumped into Aphelion just as Ratchet was about to take off, much to the Lombax's delight. The duo took off into the stars as Orvus's message narrated over the scene.

Meanwhile, Qwark and Snowball remained trapped on an asteroid where Nefarious's station once was, with Qwark calling out for help to no avail. Snowball acted excited, with Qwark understanding he was hungry for blood. While panicking, Qwark ran around in circles to avoid getting eaten by Snowball. The screen turned black, with Qwark yelling at Snowball to go "easy on the goods."

Development
The beta version of A Crack In Time featured an unknown planet (possibly Zanifar), the may did not appear in-game. Additionally the Nefarious Space Station featured a darker, more intimidating design. Ratchet was intended to original wear the Scavenger Suit, and use the OmniWrench 3000.

Gameplay



 * "A Crack in Time should feature a good balance of both platforming, puzzle gameplay, and shooting without leaning toward any one type too heavily."
 * &mdash;Bryan Bernal[src ]

Very similar to previous titles, gameplay is centered around a balance of shooting and platforming. However, players alternate between controlling Clank as the explores the Great Clock, and Ratchet as he looks for Clank. Ratchet's gameplay is centered on shooting and is divided up into the sectors of the Breegus System that he explores, while Clank's gameplay is centered on puzzles and platforming, and is divided up into the various sectors of the Great Clock. When Ratchet teleports to the next sector of the Breegus System, the game switches to Clank, and when Clank completes his sector of the Clock, the game switches to Ratchet, and so on.

Space exploration
Whereas in other games a cutscene of Ratchet and Clank's starship flying through space is shown, in A Crack in Time players can control the starship Aphelion, explore space, and land on planets and moons. These moons contain collectibles such as gold bolts or Zoni. Players can also meet characters in space and complete side-missions for them in exchange for bolts. Aphelion's path can be controlled in space combat sequences with this new mechanic, unlike in Tools of Destruction, where the ship flew a preset path. Aphelion can also be upgraded by collecting Zoni.

Weapons and gadgets
A new set of weapons called Constructo weapons appears in A Crack in Time. These weapons can be customized by collecting Constructo mods. Their color scheme could also be customized. There are three Constructo weapons: the Constructo Pistol, Constructo Bomb, and Constructo Shotgun. Other weapons cannot be modded, and can be upgraded only through use. Some weapons return from Tools of Destruction, including the Buzz Blades.

New gadgets include a pair of rocket-propelled boots called the hoverboots, which allow Ratchet to move quickly across a large planet. The wrench tether introduced in Quest for Booty is often used to move platforms and pull out versa-fuses to deactivate machinery. A new quick select menu for gadgets has also been added, which can be accessed via the directional buttons on the controller.

Clank gameplay
Players spend more time controlling Clank in A Crack in Time than in any other game, with the exception of Secret Agent Clank  and All 4 one. Clank's gameplay consists of short platforming sections and time puzzles. In these puzzles, Clank records himself doing something, and then plays back that recording, using it to complete a task. For example, you could record Clank stepping on a button that opens a door. You could then make an another recording of Clank that goes through that door, completing the puzzle. These puzzles increase in difficulty and complexity, and there are extra puzzles which can be completed for gold bolts in challenge mode. There are also some "fixing time" minigames used to repair time anomalies on certain planets. After Clank has fixed time on a certain planet, Ratchet can return to that planet and retrieve a collectible that the anomaly was blocking.

"My Blaster Runs Hot" weapon contest


A contest called "My Blaster Runs Hot" was held before the release of A Crack in Time, where fans could create weapons. The weapon that won was to be included in the game. Five finalists were chosen, and fans voted on the best weapon.

The finalists were:
 * Bubble Shot
 * Plasma Sprinkler Glove
 * Qwark Machine
 * Spiral of Death
 * Super-Sized Sticky Hand Toy

The winning weapon, announced at Comic-Con 2009, was the Spiral of Death. This weapon fires an energy blade that slices through enemies and then returns to the weapon like a boomerang. It upgrades to the Spiral of Carnage, which fires three blades at once.

PlayStation Network
Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time has a few connections with PlayStation Network. There are two demos: one for Ratchet and one for Clank, which are available for download on the PlayStation Store. There is no online multiplayer mode; however, players can compare stats from the game, such as "enemies destroyed" and "fastest playthrough," on online leaderboards.

PlayStation Home
A Crack in Time is involved with PlayStation Home. There is a Ratchet costume, Nefarious helmet and Slag gloves available for purchase. There is also a Ratchet & Clank PlayStation Home space. The Ratchet & Clank space was built with several casual mini-games, with background music similarly featured in the Ratchet & Clank series. There is also a firing range game that changes what kind of enemies you are shooting at, depending if you are playing the past, present, or future range. It has three levels. There is also a Ratchet & Clank personal space available for purchase.

Trophies
In accordance with Sony Computer Entertainment's announcement that all game releases for the PS3 in 2009 onwards will have trophies, A Crack in Time features PSN trophies. They are mostly earned by completing missions in the game. There is also a platinum trophy for gaining all trophies.

Collector's edittion
Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time Collector's Edition is the special edition of Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time. The collector's edition is exclusive to PAL regions including Europe and Oceania and was released on November 6, 2009. It features the same game as Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time with some added bonus content and packaging.

Appearance

 * 3D lenticular cover art.
 * The back has a different layout, along with a description of what the Special Edition contains.
 * Inside is a fold-out case, that includes the manual as well as a concept art book.
 * The fold-out case has concept art of the Great Clock.
 * There is a picture of Alister Azimuth's pocketwatch underneath the disc holder.
 * The manual and concept art books have a caricature front cover design.

Additions

 * Limited edition concept art book included, which has ten pages of concept art, from A Crack in Time.
 * There is also a code enclosed, that can unlock the discovery package for access to the Insomniac Moon through the PlayStation Network store.

Critical reception

 * "It's like Insomniac took everything that you thought made up the Ratchet franchise, refined it, and put it into this game – a game that looks like a Pixar movie at times. Brilliant."
 * &mdash;Greg Miller, IGN[src ]

Reviews of A Crack in Time have been generally positive. The platforming elements, balance between general gameplay and puzzles and the storyline in particular have been praised. Space battles have been criticized by several websites for being too repetitive. Destructoid gave the game a "Superb" score of 9 and a "Buy it!" rating. IGN gave the game an overall 9 out of 10, and while they did not criticize the game's graphics they did rate it 0.5 lower than the scores given in the other categories. G4 gave the game a 5 out of 5, specifically praising the storyline, platforming experience and controls. They criticized the repetitiveness of space battles, lack of enough top challenge platforming and the favourable bolt economy.

IGN included A Crack in Time in its countdown of the "Top 25 PlayStation 3 games." It ranked the game at number twenty three.

Awards

 * 6th Best Game of the Year, in Associated Press's Top 10
 * Best Platformer Award, given by GameSpot

Title

 * "I do not know if I should really explain the "Crack" part, although it does have something to do with the story…"
 * &mdash;Brian Allgeier[src ]

The title for the game was voted on by Insomniac employees after narrowing down the choices. As time travel is a part of the storyline, "A Crack in Time" was deemed an appropriate title. The original name for the game was "Clock Blockers," but Sony Computer Entertainment scrapped the idea.

Pre-order content
Special pre-order packages awarded bonus content to players who pre-ordered A Crack in Time. The four packages available were the[power package, space package, discovery package, and bolt package. Each of these packages were specific to a specific retailer. The packages did not add exclusive content, rather, they unlocked it earlier in the game.

Audio
The same core voice cast from Tools of Destruction returned for A Crack in Time with the addition of Armin Shimerman, who voiced of Dr. Nefarious in previous games. Charles Martinet, who is widely known as the voice of Mario, voiced Orvus.

The game's score was composed by Boris Salchow, who also wrote the score for Resistance 2. He also composed the music for the teaser trailer. A Crack in Time's soundtrack is more film-like and orchestral than previous soundtracks to add more emotion. However, the music still shares similarities with previous games.

Trivia

 * The cutscenes for the game were apparently modified from their original versions. Insomniac said via Twitter: "Just returned from RCF: A Crack in Time studio show-n-tell. Cutscenes = hilarity. If legal doesn't make cuts it will be a miracle."
 * Swimming was not a gameplay element in this game. Ratchet could still walk in water up to his knees; however, any deeper and he would drown.
 * Some space radio advertisements like the re-opening of Big Al's Roboshack and Gaming Superstore and the trailer for an upcoming movie named A Boy and his War Grok were released and have references to Ratchet's adventures like Veldin and Kerwan, both of them are in the Solana Galaxy.
 * In the American box art of the game Ratchet's face is shown, actually he is standing on Planet Torren IV and Clank is standing on the Great Clock.
 * The game took place in the year of 5360.
 * This is one of few features to have multiple actors who provided Mario's voice: Marc Graue as Mr. Zurkon, and Charles Martinet as Orvus.
 * Cinematic cut-scenes will always show Ratchet in his standard armor, regardless of which armor he is currently wearing.

Notes and references
pt:Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time