Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault

Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault, called Ratchet & Clank: QForce in Europe and Australia (Japanese: ラチェット&クランク 銀河戦隊Qフォース Ratchet & Clank: Ginga Sentai QForce lit. Ratchet & Clank: QForce Squadron Galaxy), is an upcoming installment in the Ratchet &amp; Clank series set to be released on November 27, 2012. It will be a downloadable PlayStation Network title on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita and it will also be available on Blu-ray Disc for PlayStation 3 only. It will be a shorter adventure, but will boast online and offline two player co-operative mode and online competitive mutliplayer, as well as a significantly higher replay value than the previous short adventure, Quest for Booty. The game will return to the typical Ratchet & Clank classic style with a third-person camera, but will also feature a twist on tower-defense gameplay. The games was developed by Insomniac Games North Carolina studio and the PlayStation Vita combatability was created in collaboration with Tin Giant.

Overview
Full Frontal Assault will involve an intergalactic conflict, and revolves around the co-op mechanics of dropping into the battlefield, choosing your weapons and experiencing it with friends.

Ratchet & Clank 10th Anniversary
For Ratchet & Clank ' s tenth anniversary, a worldwide special surprise was announced to celebrate the anniversary along with The Ratchet & Clank Collection. This worldwide surprise was revealed to be Full Frontal Assault on May 30, 2012

Gameplay
Full Frontal Assault will feature three playable characters: Captain Qwark, Ratchet and Clank. Full Frontal Assault is designed to have more replayability than Quest for Booty. Medals are awarded based on the player's performance in the tower defense segments, encouraging the player to replay these as medals unlock new perks and armors for Ratchet, Clank and Qwark. Skill Points will be returning and unlock a variety of options. There are also other time-based challenges in the form of Insomniac Challenge Times for campaign mode.

Gameplay mechanics
Gameplay is returning to the traditional third-person camera in classic Ratchet & Clank style. The gameplay will be more classic action based Ratchet & Clank but relates more to the Siege gameplay in Ratchet & Clank:Up Your Arsenal and hoverboot action in Krell Canyon from Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time than corridor style gameplay. This is primarily due to the new tower-defense element involving building and defending a base. The game will feature a full arsenal of weapons. The weapons are primarily taken from previous games on the PlayStation 3 with some given a new twist to balance the game.

Levels in Full Frontal Assault are set up in an open fashion. Weapons are dotted around the level and are hidden in pods, with the stronger weapons being harder to find. During the level, the player has to kill enemies while he traverses the level to find weapons. Near the end of the level, the tower-defense aspect is brought in and a "major assault" is unleashed. The player has to set up defenses around the level to defend against the onslaught, and defenses are brought with bolts obtained from killing enemies before the major assault.

Each level is split into several stages. It begins with a Recon phase which is set aside for exploring the battlefield, obtaining weapons from QForce weapon pods and capturing nodes. The nodes produce a bolts-per-second income vital to later stages. This is followed by a Squad phase which is used to prepare for attacking and defending options such as purchasing defense barriers, turrets and weapon upgrades. Finally the Assault phase is the result of the ongoing preparations where bases are attacked and the player must defend their base.

Heads-up display
Various parts of the heads-up display can help the player such as the invasion detector. When the player's health is low the character will glow red until health is restored.

Multiplayer
There will be a competitive and co-operative multiplayer mode in Full Frontal Assault. The mode will work with two player splitscreen or on-line co-operative play in addition to a competitive online multiplayer mode. It will feature five levels set on three different planets.

The competitive multiplayer mode revolves around each player protecting their base and attacking the enemy base. The recon stage is used to compete against the opponent in a race to secure bolt-funding nodes and equipment. The squad phase then allows the player to chose what strategy to adopt - the balance between using resources to defend or attack. Finally the assault phase simultaneously begins the attacks forcing the player to stick with their strategy and attempt to defend their base while dealing as much damage to the enemy as possible. The competitive mode can be played with two players competing against each other or with two teams of two players against each other.

Graphics
Graphically the game uses the same engine as Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One.

Trophies


As with all PlayStation 3 releases the game will feature trophies. According to James Stevenson, Insomniac Games were trying to include a platinum trophy pre-release. They later announced the game would include a full set of trophies, including a platinum trophy. The game features 23 trophies including a platinum trophy and four hidden trophies.

Cross-Play, Cross-Buy, and Cross-Save support
Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault will feature Cross-Play and Cross-Save support allowing full compatibility between game saves and multiplayer with both the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita system. As part of Sony's new Cross-Buy program, this also means the PlayStation Vita version of the game will be available for free if the PlayStation 3 version is purchased. The Cross-Play feature will only work for online competitive play and not co-operative mode.

Development
The idea behind Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault was inspired by the hoverboot gameplay in Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time, in particular where the player moves freely around the Krell Canyon battlefield. Siege mode from the highly successful Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal multiplayer also heavily influenced the initial planning of Full Frontal Assault. A combination of these two concepts resulted in the Full Frontal Assault gameplay mechanics.

The name was changed to Ratchet & Clank: QForce in Europe as the "dirty hidden messages" in the North America released titles don't translate very well.

PlayStation Vita
While the game was produced and developed by Insomniac Games North Carolina studio, the PlayStation Vita compatibility was created in collaboration with Tin Giant. On 19 November 2012 Sony Computer Entertainment America announced that the PlayStation Vita version of the game would be delayed until January 2013 and that a free downloadable skin pack would come with every PlayStation 3 purchase.

Beta
A private-beta ran for PlayStation Network members who obtained a code from late August until September 9 2012. For North American members codes were given out in batches from the Insomniac Games website. European beta codes were given out through the PlayStation Network beta team for PlayStation Plus. The beta collected feedback from players, tested gameplay elements and also stress tested the game's servers. The beta featured a single level playable in competitive multiplayer mode.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack for the game was composed by Michael Bross.

Voice cast
The voice actors for Full Frontal Assault feature most actors reprising their roles from previous games in the series while some new character voices were also provided.


 * Nolan North
 * James Arnold Taylor
 * Jim Ward
 * David Kaye
 * Marc Graue
 * Robin Atkin Downes

Plot
The story involves Ratchet, Clank and Qwark confronting an alien army across three different planets in order to defend the network of Planetary Defense Centers. Captain Qwark reassembles the Q-Force in response to a villain from Ratchet and Clank's distant past threatening the Planetary Defense Centers by hiring an army of Grungoids to attack them.

Multiple sources are quoted stating there is a new nemesis for the heroes, while other sources including the debut trailer state an enemy from Ratchet and Clank's past has a nasty surprise planned for Qwark. According to a trailer and the trophy Zurgo's Revenge, Zurgo (or the Qwark Fan-Boy) will oppose the QForce.

Characters

 * Captain Qwark
 * Clank
 * Ratchet
 * The Plumber
 * Zurgo

Weapons

 * Buzz Blades
 * Combuster
 * Cryoshot
 * Doppelbanger
 * Groovitron
 * Mr. Zurkon
 * Omegatech Frost Cannon
 * OmniWrench Millennium 12
 * Plasmabomb Launcher
 * Pyro Blaster
 * Sonic Eruptor
 * Thundersmack
 * Transmorpher
 * Warmonger

Turrets

 * Turret
 * Combuster Turret
 * Pyro Turret
 * Warmonger Turret

Mines

 * Chrono-Mine
 * Plasma Mine
 * Groovitron Mine

Other defenses

 * Barrier

Gadgets

 * Hoverboots
 * Grind Boots
 * Swingshot
 * Hacker

Ratchet

 * Pilot Suit

Other

 * Generators
 * QForce Computer

Species

 * Anthropods
 * Grungarians
 * Lombax
 * Robot
 * Unnamed blue humanoid species
 * Markazian (skins only)

Enemies

 * Anthropod
 * Grungarian Brawler
 * Grungarian Engineer
 * Grungarian Demolitionist
 * Grungarian Bomber
 * Grungarian Tank
 * Grungoid
 * Grungoth
 * Grungarian Mech

Bosses

 * Zurgo piloting a Qwark Mech

Locations

 * Korgon Refinery
 * Lair of Doom

Planets

 * Ebaro

Structures

 * Planetary Defense Centers
 * Major Weapon Node
 * Nodes
 * QForce weapon pods

Bolts

 * Bolts
 * Gold bolts

Crates

 * Ammo crate
 * Crate
 * Nanotech crate

Organizations

 * QForce

Skins

 * Cronk
 * Talwyn Apogee
 * Zephyr
 * B2 Brawler
 * Chainblade
 * Tyhrranoid

Downloadable content
The first piece of the downloadable content, the Mini-Boss Skin Pack, was given as free downloadable content with the PlayStation 3 version of the game. This makes Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault the first game in the series to have game-related downloadable content.