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Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal is the third installment in the Ratchet & Clank series developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was initially released in November 2004 for the PlayStation 2, and was re-released for PlayStation 3 in June 2012 and PlayStation Vita in July 2014, both alone and as part of the Ratchet & Clank Collection.

The game follows Ratchet and Clank, who return from the Bogon Galaxy to the Solana Galaxy, after hearing it is has come under attack by a mad scientist known as Dr. Nefarious, a robot who wishes to wipe out organic life in favor of a purely robotic civilization with him as the leader. The two must then ally with the Galactic Rangers, teaming up with characters such as Sasha Phyronix, Big Al, Skidd McMarx, and even their former nemesis Captain Qwark, to fight Nefarious' army of robots and Tyhrranoids in a war against Nefarious.

Up Your Arsenal is a third person action adventure game with elements of shooting, role playing, puzzle solving, and vehicle driving. It is the first in the series to feature both single player and both offline and online multiplayer gameplay, in which the single player game gives the player control of Ratchet and Clank through the story mode in which they travel from planet to planet to stop Dr. Nefarious, while the multiplayer mode allows teams to compete on a map against one another to capture a base, a flag, or rack up enough kills against opponents. Both modes allow the player to collect a wide arsenal of upgradable weapons, use gadgets to traverse large environments, and drive ground and air vehicles.

The PlayStation 2 disc contains a demo for Sly 2: Band of Thieves. This can be accessed by holding +++ and pressing on the main menu.

Overview
Up Your Arsenal is a third person three dimensional action game with elements of platforming, shooting and role playing, in which the player controls Ratchet, a lombax mechanic, with a broad arsenal of weapons and gadgets, who carries his sidekick Clank as a backpack allowing him to make use of the Heli-Pack and Thruster Pack. For its control scheme, the player can choose the traditional controls under third person, or lock-strafe controls that play more similarly to a third person shooter. Ratchet's arsenal is now able to upgrade weapons up to four times, has expanded and numerated nanotech, and will often drive the Turbo Slider and the Hovership.

Ratchet and Clank travel between planets in Solana on their ship, and must complete a set of objectives to obtain co-ordinates to the next planet to progress the story. Unlike previous entries, not every planet necessarily has a cutscene when its co-ordinates are obtained. Objectives typically require the player to either complete a linear section of a planet, defeating enemies and traversing obstacles along the way, or to participate in a challenge that may involve a minigame.

There are several challenges outside of typical gameplay, which are both required to progress through the story, and provide bolts for completion, used to unlock more weapons. A recurring challenge is in the form of Galactic Ranger missions, in which Ratchet is transported to a map and must complete an objective, often defeating certain targets or capturing a base, with the help of the Galactic Rangers and sometimes by piloting a vehicle or gun turret. There are also the Annihilation Nation tournaments, which either require players to battle enemies in a gladiator arena under varying conditions, or reach the end of a linear gauntlet filled with traps along the way. On Aquatos, the player can search for Sewer Crystals, by traversing the sewer and opening the crystals and defeating Amoeboids. Finally, Qwark vid-comics, in which the player completes a side scroller as Captain Qwark, can be completed in which bolts and titanium bolts are rewarded based on the time and number of tokens collected.

After completing the main storyline, the player can choose to warp back to before defeating the final boss to complete remaining side objectives, or to proceed to challenge mode. Challenge mode allows the player to keep their weapons with the option to purchase Mega versions of their weapons, which are then upgradeable twice with use to Giga and Omega weapons, and wield them against much more powerful versions of enemies. As these weapons are much more expensive, challenge mode has a bolt multiplier for enemies that were destroyed before Ratchet takes a hit.

Equipment
Ratchet begins with ten units of nanotech, representing his health. This is can be increased by earning experience points from defeating enemies, up to 100. In challenge mode, it can be further increased to 200. Ratchet can also purchase armor from an armor vendor to reduce the damage taken from enemies. Additionally, Ratchet can acquire the Nano-pak, which allows him to store extra nanotech that will restore his health once it is low.

Up Your Arsenal features a wide variety of weapons both original and returning from previous games, in both its single player and multiplayer, though its single and multiplayer arsenals are different. In single player, Ratchet can obtain 22 weapons, of which 5 return from Going Commando (and can be purchased on Aquatos from Slim Cognito or earned for free if the player has a Going Commando save file once available) and 2 return from Ratchet & Clank (as upgradable and more powerful versions obtained from Gadgetron vendors). The Shock Blaster and Nitro Launcher are obtained for free on Veldin, the first planet, while the rest of the weapons can be purchased from vendors. Every weapon in the game can be upgraded up to V5 with use, and in challenge mode, the V6 Mega version of each weapon can be purchased allowing them to be further upgraded to V8. In multiplayer, Ratchet features a different arsenal, and each weapon can be upgraded once, and obtained at points on the map rather than purchased.

Up Your Arsenal features 10 gadgets in singleplayer, of which 5 are original. The Heli-Pack, Hydro-Pack and Thruster Pack are automatically owned by Clank, and the Charge Boots and Gravity Boots can be obtained. The Hypershot is a new gadget but combines the functionality of the Swingshot and Dynamo from Going Commando, allowing Ratchet to swing across long distances and create platforms as necessary. The Tyhrra-Guise is also a new gadget, but functions very similarly to the Hologuise from Ratchet & Clank. In multiplayer, only the Swingshot (which uses the Hypershot's aesthetic, rather than that from Going Commando), Charge Boots and Gravity Boots can be obtained.

Clank gameplay
On three occasions, the player controls Clank, who has a more limited moveset and only four nanotech units. Clank can command Gadge-Bots to follow him, wait, attack enemies, or enter into terminals to solve various puzzles. Clank can also direct Skrunch with his Banana-Guided Autonomous Monkey Device, which can be used to fire bananas that lure Skrunch to them, which is useful for distracting enemies or directing him to activate switches.

On one occasion, Clank transforms into the larger Giant Clank, who can fire missiles and throw bombs at enemies. This features in a single boss battle.

Vehicles and minigames
In multiplayer and during several missions in the single player campaign, the player can operate vehicles. They can pilot the Turbo Slider and the Hovership. The Turbo Slider is a fast, four wheeled, buggy-like vehicle which can shoot in front of it, though on Tyhrranosis its back gun is instead operated by Skrunch and fires at nearby enemies automatically. The Hovership can fly around the map and fire at enemies.

Furthermore, in single player, there are other minigames that the player must complete to advance the story. The Qwark vid-comics are two dimensional side scrolling games in which the player plays as Qwark, who can punch enemies, jump short distances, and wield a weapon collected during the level. They must collect tokens, including larger tokens worth 10, and collecting all tokens can award the player a titanium bolt. Hidden throughout the levels are health boosts that can increase Qwark's health by a point. The levels are also timed, and completing them within a certain time awards a skill point.

Another minigame is played through the Hacker gadget. In order to unlock certain doors, Ratchet must complete a Hacker minigame, in which Ratchet must collect green code snippets using a tractor beam while destroying red defense programs to prevent them from reaching the edge. Indestructible blue defenses can also cover up both green snippets or red defense programs.

Multiplayer
Newly introduced is both online (up to eight players) and offline (up to four player split screen) multiplayer. Multiplayer is played on one of 10 maps based on planets in the single player, on which matches of one of 3 modes are played by players who can each use a skin based on characters from the Ratchet & Clank universe. The modes were Siege in which a team must destroy the enemy base, Capture the Flag in which a team must hold the flag for a long enough period of time, or Deathmatch in which teams must score enough kills against the enemy team to win. Multiplayer gives players access to an arsenal of weapons from Up Your Arsenal and previous games, as well as the same vehicles.

The Insomniac Games website featured a ranked online leaderboard for registered community members, until the servers were shut down on June 6, 2012. The new servers were back up on August 28, 2012 for the PlayStation 3 HD remaster, though no multiplayer was featured for PS Vita.

Setting
Up Your Arsenal returns to the Solana galaxy from Ratchet & Clank, while it is fighting a losing war against Nefarious' army of Tyhrranoids. Many planets revisited from Ratchet & Clank are revisited as battlefields between the Tyhrranoids and the Galactic Rangers, such as Rilgar, Aridia and Kerwan, although they do not appear to be war torn. Many of the other planets visited are completely new, such as Florana, Daxx and Zeldrin, and the varying locations include urban planets, barren wastelands, space stations, and even the underwater base of Aquatos. Much of the game takes place aboard the Starship Phoenix, the base of operations often returned to to receive new missions, and the only place Ratchet can play VR Training or Qwark vid-comics.

More of the culture and politics of Solana are explored than in Ratchet & Clank, and while Gadgetron are still the main supplier of weapons and gadgets, they feature less in the game. Solana is headed by the galactic President Phyronix, who resides in the galactic capital of Marcadia and whom the Galactic Rangers led by his daughter Sasha Phyronix directly answer to. The Rangers are at war with Dr. Nefarious, a robotic scientist and long-time threat within the galaxy, who created the Tyhrranoid threat to serve as his army, and who aims to replace the population with robots. The war has some influence on galactic culture, seen when popular musician Courtney Gears released a music video that served as propaganda for Nefarious' cause.

Plot
After playing a game of Galactic Chess in Clank's apartment in Megapolis in the Bogon Galaxy, Ratchet and Clank argued about the rules before clank decided to turn on their Holo-Vision. While channel-surfing past Clank's new show, "Secret Agent Clank" (as Ratchet was portrayed as a clumsy chauffeur), Ratchet found a news report stating that his home planet in the Solana Galaxy, Veldin, was under attack by an army of Tyhrranoids. The duo immediately raced to Veldin, despite Clanks protests, and upon landing, Ratchet was confused to be the new sergeant for the Galactic Rangers and forced to lead the defense force. Upon clearing the Tyhrranoid threat, Ratchet was contacted by the Galactic President. The President explained that a mysterious supervillain known as Nefarious was the mastermind behind this attack. The President then asked Ratchet and Clank to find the only man to survive a fight with Nefarious, who was believed to be living on planet Florana. After watching an episode of "Nature's Mysteries" about this person, known as the "Florana Tree Beast," they flew to the Nabla Forest where the Tree Beast forced them to cross the Path of Death. Afterwards, Ratchet said, "you're dumb as…" Clank interrupted, "Captain Qwark!" Ratchet chuckled and agreed with him just before it kicked Ratchet and unmasked itself, revealing its true identity: Captain Qwark. Qwark somehow lost his memory and sanity, presumably while trying to save the plant life on Florana or while working as a MegaCorp test dummy, and now believed himself to be a monkey. After Qwark and his cyclops-monkey companion, Skrunch, were led to the ship, Sasha Phyronix, captain of the Starship Phoenix, was ordered by the President to assist Ratchet and Clank, she gave them the coordinates to her ship.

Aboard the Starship, the duo brought Captain Qwark to his new quarters, a cage with a tree. Upon entering the bridge, they found Sasha listening to a distress transmission from the President, now revealed to be Sasha's father, on the Galactic Capital of Marcadia. Nefarious interrupted this transmission and declared war on all organic life forms whom he called "Squishies", with fake sign language (possibly the Solana Galaxy's version) performed by Lawrence, Ratchet and Clank immediately flew to the capital city to assist the Galactic Rangers in defending the President. Once they cleared the Capitol Building's courtyard of all threats, Ratchet and Clank were sent to the Laser Defense Facility to help restore power to the defense grid. When they reached the facility, they encountered their old friend Big Al "fixing" defense grid. Al was actually playing a Qwark Vid-Comic, he gave the two his copy, which he told them to be careful with as it was a first edition. Upon return to the Phoenix, Ratchet played this Vid-Comic on his VG-9000 game system, and the completion of this Vid-Comic sparked Qwark's memory, flashing many images of his life from the previous two games. While Captain Qwark adjusted himself to his new surroundings and finished fully regaining his senses, Ratchet and Clank were sent to Annihilation Nation to attempt to win the Tyhrraguise, a gadget that transforms the user's appearance into that of a Tyhrranoid. When Ratchet and Clank returned to the Phoenix after winning the device, awarded to them by Courtney Gears, they learned that the President had placed Qwark in direct command of the war, and that Qwark had created the Q-Force in their absence.

The "Q-Force", consisting of Big Al (recruited because of his "mastery of electronics"), Clank, Helga, recruited because of her "sensual powers of seduction", Qwark, Ratchet, Sasha, Skidd McMarx, recruited because of his "nerves of steel"(although Helga easily scared him), and Skrunch, was assigned a new mission, which Qwark drew out with in crayon, to infiltrate Nefarious's underwater base on Aquatos to acquire as much information on the villain's plans as possible, to which Ratchet said "What? That's crazy!" Qwark replied "But it just might work.." After fighting their way through the sewer with Skidd, Clank going through the ventilation shaft with Skrunch and Ratchet using his Tyhrraguise to infiltrate the centre of the base, they discovered that Nefarious was a huge "Secret Agent Clank" fan and Clank found an encrypted star-map to the Tyhrranoids' home planet, Tyhrranosis. Nefarious was shocked to see that his base had been infiltrated, and outraged to find that Qwark was behind it. After Al decrypted the starmap, Qwark drew another crayon plan to invade it. Ratchet, Clank and Scrunch destroyed the planetary defences, infiltrated the Control Room of the Tyhrranoid Base, and destroyed it, killing what seemed to be the Queen of the Tyhrranoids. Later Ratchet was telling the story of his battle, when Dr. Nefarious sent the Q-Force a transmission that Al soon traced to planet Daxx.

When the duo landed on Daxx, they explored the weapons facility, eventually coming across classified plans of a new superweapon capable of wiping out all organic life, known as the Biobliterator. Clank also found that a transport ship had just left for the Obani Moon System the day before, the duo also found a music video by Courtney Gears showing her support for Nefarious. Ratchet and Clank made their way through the first two moons, finding Skidd at the end of the level, only to find the third was protected by a "Omega Class Disintegration Shield." Ratchet received an urgent call from the Galactic Rangers begging for assistance against a Tyhrranoid invasion of Blackwater City. Ratchet was forced to leave to help them, but Skidd decided to stay and attempt to break the shield with a crowbar. Ratchet and Clank arrived on planet Rilgar and were able to help the Galactic Rangers defend their base. The pair soon discovered that they needed to find Courtney Gears. Ratchet and Clank returned to Annihilation Nation to receive a prize Courtney again. They were able to complete the challenge and meet Ms. Gears. When Clank asked her where Nefarious was, she said she would tell him if he got her a part on "Secret Agent Clank." Clank obliged and took her to Holostar Studios. Ratchet; however, was fired for accidentally pressing the ejector seat, and was forced to wait at Clank's trailer. When filming ended, Clank asked for information on Nefarious, but Gears knocked him out and brought him directly into the Nefarious's arms. He gave Clank two choices: to either join him in killing all squishies and ruling a galaxy full of robots, or to die with the "Squishies" and become a traitor to his own kind. Back at Clank's trailer, Ratchet was ambushed by the Tyhrranoids. After fighting his way back to the ship alone, he found Clank. When Ratchet asked him about the whereabouts of Nefarious, Clank said he found that Nefarious was on a star cruiser called the Leviathan, although when Ratchet entered his ship, Clank's eyes turned red.

The two landed on Obani Draco, the third moon, after Skidd revealed that he was able to bring the shield down, but while telling them he was kidnapped. This planet was revealed to be Courtney's hideout. The two also discovered that the Biobliterator was currently stationed there. They quickly traversed the moon and defeated Gears. Upon finishing her off, they received a transmission from Sasha, who tracked the Leviathan to the Zeldrin Starport. They left Skidd — who had been transformed into a robot by the Biobliterator — behind so that the Q-Force could retrieve him later, and headed for the starport to meet up with Qwark.

The three members of the Q-Force reached the Leviathan and fought their way through hordes of enemies until they found Nefarious waiting. Nefarious revealed that the Leviathan was placed as part of a trap before he activated the self-destruct system and teleported away. Ratchet & Clank escaped to the Phoenix, but Qwark stayed behind, claiming he saw something important. Ratchet and Clank flew off just as the Leviathan exploded, still debating whether to leave Qwark behind.

After an impromptu funeral for Qwark on the Phoenix, Ratchet and Clank flew to the city of Metropolis, the next city that the Tyhrranoids attacked. During the battle, Nefarious used the Biobliterator to turn helpless citizens and Tyhrranoid invaders alike into robots. Ratchet battled his way to a hovering train, where it was revealed that the real Clank had been the prisoner of Dr. Nefarious since the filming of Secret Agent Clank at Holostar Studios. Clank had been replaced by a clone made by Nefarious named Klunk. After defeating Klunk, Ratchet and Clank were reunited and flew to planet Zeldrin to investigate the wreckage of the Leviathan, hoping to find what Qwark was looking for.



On Zeldrin, they discovered an encrypted data disc (The Master Plan), and a recording that revealed that Qwark had escaped when the cruiser went down. They resolved not to tell the crew that Qwark was alive until they found out why he had faked his death. After playing a Vid-Comic that contained possible information as to the whereabouts of Qwark's hideout, they flew to the Thran Asteroid Belt and battled past security robots and hostile MegaCorp Lawn Ninjas until they found Captain Qwark himself, who had abandoned his fight against Nefarious in favor of the comfort and safety of his hideout. Ratchet left in disgust, but Clank made one last appeal to Qwark, claiming that he had the chance "to become the hero [Qwark] had always wanted to be."

When they returned to their ship, they received a garbled transmission from Sasha, warning them that the Phoenix was under attack. Ratchet and Clank sped to the Starship and helped the Galactic Rangers regain control of the ship and free the captured Q-Force members. After being rescued, Al told Ratchet that he had finally cracked the encryption on the data disc, which contained a complete copy of Nefarious's battle plans. Ratchet had to fly to the planet Koros to destroy the Biobliterator before it was unleashed on his beloved home, Veldin.

Ratchet and Clank reached Koros, and after battling hordes of Nefarious's troops, Clank used the Ion Cannon there to destroy the Biobliterator. However, Sasha soon reported that a second Biobliterator was housed at a command center on planet Mylon, guarded by an entire army of robot Tyhrranoids. Ratchet and Clank flew to Mylon, fought through the Command Center, and reached the Biobliterator, just in time for Dr. Nefarious and Lawrence to escape. Luckily, a Galactic Ranger dropship arrived for Ratchet and Clank to pursue Nefarious to his launch site.

At the launch site, Ratchet and Clank battled Dr. Nefarious. After a short duel, he fell down and begged for mercy, fooling Ratchet into a false sense of victory before escaping. Ratchet chased after Nefarious, and defeated him with the help of the Galactic Rangers. Nefarious and Lawrence then warped into the Biobliterator, which transformed into a Giant Mech. When the battle seemed lost, Captain Qwark flew in to help fight alongside them. Ratchet and Captain Qwark engaged in aerial combat against Nefarious and the Biobliterator and eventually destroyed it. The Biobliterator entered a sixty-second self-destruct mode, which Nefarious complained "was nowhere near sixty seconds!" and forced Nefarious and Lawrence to teleport into the depths of space on an asteroid. The ending fades to the premiere of the latest Secret Agent Clank holofilm, where Clank and Skrunch faced off against arch-enemy Maximillian's forces on a snowy world.

The last scene depicts of Dr. Nefarious and Lawrence sitting on an isolated asteroid with no escape in sight.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack was composed by David Bergeaud.