Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One

Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One is an upcoming game for the PlayStation 3 developed by Insomniac Games. It will be the 10th 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
All 4 One takes place after the events of the comic series and two years after A Crack in Time. In Dr. Nefarious' latest plan, he holds a fake award ceremony for Captain Qwark. During the "ceremony" he unleashes a Light-Eating Z'Grute on the city of Luminopolis, which is eventually defeated by Ratchet and Clank, with help from Qwark and Nefarious. However, this rare creature attracts the attention of Ephemeris the Creature Collector, and the foursome are kidnapped and dumped on planet Magnus. Ephemeris has been using Magnus as an open-air reserve for the universe's most dangerous creatures, terrorizing the locals. The team is rescued by a little girl, and with that, Ratchet and Clank are forced to postpone their vacation and set off to stop Ephemeris. With no other way to get home, Qwark and Nefarious join the heroes—begrudgingly.

Multiplayer system
All 4 One adds a four-player drop-in drop-out co-op system to the classic Ratchet & Clank formula. The four players can be local, through the use of multiple controllers; online players, through the use of PlayStation Network; or AI, controlled by the CPU. Voice chat is supported. Players can drop in or out at any time during gameplay. If you play alone, you will play as Ratchet, and an AI-controlled Clank will hop off of Ratchet's back for parts of the game that require two players. As players progress through the game, they build up a profile associated with their PSN ID. When players join an online game hosted by another player's profile, they get to keep "some things" associated with their profile. Players can also login to their profile on another PS3 to keep those "things" when playing.

To accommodate inexperienced players, All 4 One uses alerts to keep online players on the same page and avoid the frustration of trying to tell your clueless team members what to do. In addition, each character has a appropriate color which is used to associate items and objects in the HUD with that player. To keep players aware of where their characters are, character-colored trails appear during longer jumps, and colored rings appear underneath characters in darker areas like Terawatt Forest. This is also used in more specific situations, for example, characters wakeboard in one gameplay sequence, connected to the boat with colored ropes. This allows players to quickly locate their relatively small characters on screen by looking for their character's color.

At the end of each level or section of a level, bonus bolts are awarded, players' bolt counts are compared, and players are given "awards" reflecting their approach on the level. Example awards are "Bolt Master" for collecting the most bolts and "Noob" for dying the most.

Gameplay


Gameplay consists of firefights with a varied arsenal of weapons like previous games, but it is largely centered around cooperative gameplay mechanics. Players will often have to cooperate and rely on each other to progress though a level, but Insomniac has been careful to keep All 4 One enjoyable at the same time. All co-op gameplay mechanics have to pass a test which Insomniac has dubbed "CAKE." This stands for:

Co-op

Active for all players

Kinetic

Easy to understand

"We found that if we can design something that satisfies CAKE, it has a really good chance of being fun before we put any work into it," said Mike McManus, a gameplay programmer at Insomniac. "We had gameplay mechanics where one player would do something and the other three were waiting for them to do it. It was just intensely boring. Waiting around is not a lot of fun."

Examples of this co-op gameplay are sections where players must launch each other onto buttons with the Vac-U 4000, or tilt their controllers in unison to move the team so that they can escape a wind tunnel by creating the most air resistance. Some platforms act like a seesaw and will topple over if too much weight is applied to one side of a center pivot point, so players must work together to balance their weight to prevent falling off. Teamwork is rewarded though a co-op points system. These points "are charging something up" and "make a very cool thing happen in the game." Some points go to players' individual profiles "when you work together very well." For example, co-op points are awarded when extra nanotech is passed onto a teammate who is low on nanotech.

Gameplay also involves what Insomniac calls "cinematic co-op," where the camera moves to create a cinematic view of the action. This cinematic experience can also be achieved in gameplay with larger-than-life sequences, like the robot Guardian battle in Terawatt Forest. These sequences occur in "almost every level." This is extended though the use of the camera in normal gameplay. It changes position to give the optimal view of points of interest, such as a 3/4 top view of a group of enemies or a side view of a platforming section.

While cooperative, gameplay can also be competitive. The bolt counter at the top right of the screen compares players' individual bolt counts, fueling friendly rivalries and races to become the first owner of a new weapon. The Vac-U 4000 can also be used to launch players into a bottomless pit in order to get a certain item first. The before-mentioned co-op points system is meant to discourage from players abusing these competitive mechanics and acting like total jerks by rewarding cooperation. In addition, the competitive mechanics can be switched off if this becomes a problem. Players can also be kicked or banned from a session. More casual competition exists in mechanics like Cluster Cannons, where the first player to activate the cannon gets a bonus.

Death is penalized only with a small bolt penalty (40 bolts in the Luminopolis demo) and having to wait a few seconds to respawn. If you die in combat, you can be revived with nanotech from other players. However, if the whole team dies, they have to go back to the last checkpoint.

Weapons and gadgets


Weapons are more powerful when used cooperatively. The Combuster, for example, adapts to All 4 One's cooperative nature by multiplying damage as more players fire at an enemy. New weapons like the Darkstar Fission Rifle and Thundersmack are made for multiplayer. Electric energy beams connect player's Darkstar rifles together, creating a web of electricity which can be moved around of slice through groups of enemies or damage a larger enemy. Weapon upgrades can be purchased with bolts.

Each character uses their own unique melee attack, which are all aptly named. Ratchet uses his wrench, Clank uses Clank Fu, Qwark punches enemies with his "Fists of Justice," and Nefarious uses his claws, named "Annihilator Blades." In addition, each player can perform a slam move that acts like a OmniWrench Hyper-strike. Each character also has a boomerang-like weapon which acts like a OmniWrench Comet-strike.

The Swingshot from previous games also gets a co-op revamp. Players can now latch onto each other with the Swingshot's grapple. Versa-targets are placed with a lot of space between them, so players must latch onto each other to reach the next vera-target. The Swingshot can also be used to pull a player falling to their death back up, or to perform a Mortar Slam to stomp enemies.

Each character also has an appropriate special weapon. Ratchet has the Doppelbanger, a decoy; Clank has Time Bombs; Qwark has the Quantum Deflector shield, highlighting his "not a fighter" personality; and Nefarious has a cloaking device, highlighting his sneakiness and treachery. These weapons can be used cooperatively to help other team members. For example, you can draw enemy fire with a Doppelbanger decoy, taking the pressure off of other team members.

Same

 * Weapon upgrades (Weapon upgrades can be purchased at vendors. Some are basic "more damage", but some enhance functionality. Only basic upgrades have been seen in vendors.)
 * Strafing
 * Can be played with one player (Play as Ratchet with an AI Clank who jumps off your back to help for co-op segments)

Different

 * Four player co-op; gameplay centered on this
 * There does not seem to be ammo, at least in the demo shown at E3 2011. (No ammo counter, no ammo at vendor)
 * No pause for Quick Select
 * Different controls
 * Most of the game (or nearly all of it) seems to take place on one planet, Magnus.
 * 30 FPS (A Crack in Time is 60 FPS, but all other games are 30)

Controls
is used as an action button in All 4 One. Some objects have a icon floating over them whenever the characters are close. Whenever a player holds, their character performs the action related to it. If there is no object such object near, is used for the Swingshot. The Quick Select can be accessed by moving the right stick. Melee attacks can be performed with. L3 is used for sprinting.

Art style
All 4 One uses a different art style than previous PlayStation 3 titles. Objects and scenery take on a cartooned appearance, and the sizes of characters have been distorted. Clank for example, was the size of a backpack in previous titles, but is now taller and closer to Ratchet's height. In addition, Ratchet lacks visible fur and Qwark's head has shrunk considerably. The HUD uses even more cartooned versions of the characters. In the HUD, Qwark's chin is exaggerated, and Nefarious' head is taller.

Characters

 * Ratchet
 * Clank
 * Commander Spog
 * Qwark
 * Dr. Nefarious
 * Lawrence
 * Dr. Croid
 * Scamp
 * Cronk
 * Zephyr
 * Ephemeris (The Creature Collector)
 * Skrunch (cameo only)

Weapons

 * OmniWrench Millennium 12
 * Combuster
 * Warmonger
 * Omegatech Frost Cannon
 * Thundersmack
 * Critter Ray
 * Pyro Blaster
 * Mr. Zurkon
 * Arc Lasher
 * Darkstar Fission Rifle

Special weapons

 * Doppelbanger (Ratchet only)
 * Quantum Deflector (Qwark only)
 * Time Bomb (Clank only)
 * Cloaking device (Nefarious only)

Mods

 * Sheepinator Mod
 * T-Rex Morph Mod

Gadgets

 * Vac-U 4000
 * Swingshot
 * Orb-o-Matic

Armor

 * Pilot Suit

Polaris Galaxy

 * Luminopolis

Planet Magnus

 * High Cliffs
 * Terawatt Forest
 * Seaside Village
 * Oktonok Reef

Items

 * Bolts
 * Boltergeist
 * Gold bolts
 * Elasta-Shock

Miscellaneous

 * Crates
 * Nanotech
 * Cluster Cannon

Behind the scenes

 * Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One was not the only title that was considered for the final product. Insomniac has mentioned there was a spreadsheet that contained over 100 potential titles. The four most popular unused titles were revealed, 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. However, several titles were used in the Ratchet &amp; Clank comic series.
 * Michael Bross, who has never composed music for a Ratchet & Clank game before, will be composing music for All 4 One.
 * Insomniac Games confirmed that Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One is likely to include replayable missions given its co-op nature. Interestingly, replayable missions never appeared in any of the past Ratchet & Clank series games, except for Ratchet: Deadlocked.
 * Gameplay has shown that All 4 One contains suggested swearing and sexual references, similar to past Ratchet & Clank games.

Videos

 * All 4 One Gamescom trailer
 * Gameplay from Gamescom