Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty

Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty, titled as Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty in Europe and Australia and Ratchet & Clank Future Gaiden: Kaizoku Dark Water no Hihou in Japan, is the 7th installment on the series. It was released worldwide on the PlayStation Network on August 21st, 2008 and was also released on Blu-Ray Disc in Europe, on September 12th, 2008, and in Asia on September 25th, 2008. It continues from where Tools of Destruction left off. Clank was kidnapped by the mysterious Zoni, and Ratchet is determined to get him back. Due to its length, approximately 3–4 hours of playtime, it was released at a lower price than most PlayStation 3 games.

The Blu-Ray Disc release in Europe was reported to not include the United Kingdom, however the game was released in the UK at the later date of November 14th, 2008.

In June 2011, after the PlayStation Network outage, the game was part of the European Welcome Back package, and was downloadable for free for one month.

Plot
The story of Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty is focused on Ratchet searching for Clank and continues one year after the story from Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction.

Ratchet and Talwyn arrived on a Pirate fleet on Planet Merdegraw. As revealed to by Rusty Pete in a prologue, the pair traveled to Merdegraw after learning from IRIS of a pirate named Captain Darkwater, who was an expert on Zoni culture. They encountered Rusty Pete holding the head of Captain Slag, who was apparently still not over his Captain's death. Pete's sudden outcry of surprise at seeing Ratchet and Talwyn attract the attention of the pirates. The leader of the pirates, Sprocket, told the pair that Captain Darkwater was dead and proceeded to shoot Ratchet out of a cannon, only to have him land on an adjacent pirate ship. Ratchet and Talwyn managed to fight their way through various ships but were inevitably captured and thrown into another cannon. Sprocket commanded the pirates to blast them towards Morrow Caverns before Rusty Pete intervened. Pete pretended to be Captain Slag by putting his head on and manages to fool the pirates into shooting Ratchet and Talwyn towards Hoolefar Island, where they 'would find exactly what they were looking for'. Sprocket agreed and the pirates blasted Ratchet and Talwyn towards the island.

Ratchet woke up on the shore of Hoolefar Island and saw Clank suspended in mid-air in a blue energy field, asking if he was alright. Before Ratchet could grab him, Clank disappeared just as Talwyn landed next to him. Ratchet was convinced Rusty Pete sent them to the island for a reason and traversed the wilderness before reaching another beach. The pair were greeted by Barnabus Worley, the Mayor of Hoolefar Island. Mayor Worley told them their supply beacon didn't work, meaning that communication with Pete (or anyone else for that matter) was impossible. Ratchet offered to fix the five wind turbines and managed to connect the power couplings by using a Versa bolt bought from the Smuggler. During the repairs, Talwyn told Ratchet that the villagers talked about a "curse" but did not give any more details.



After fixing the beacon, the Mayor showed Ratchet the Obsidian Eye, the most powerful lorernthzian telescope in the known universe. Darkwater apparently built it to keep in contact with the Zoni. Unfortunately, the Eye didn't work as its power source; the Fulcrum Star, was with Darkwater's body in Morrow Caverns. Darkwater wrote in his journal that he had cursed his body so that anyone who disturbed him would resurrect himself and his crew, explaining why Talwyn mentioned such a curse before. Rusty Pete arrived at the island and told them of Darkwater's ship, offering to take the pair there. Pete brought them to Morrow Caverns, where Talwyn accidentally became trapped behind an old door. Ratchet then had the choice of promising to save her or not, prompting a response from Pete.

After navigating through the caves and across the old shipping rails, Ratchet found Darkwater's dismembered head on the ship and picked up a map which fell out of it. Rusty Pete boarded the ship as well and offered to check for booby traps. He suddenly stuck the head of Captain Slag on Darkwater's body and an eerie green light was cast all over the caverns. Slag was now in control of the body and kicked Ratchet off of the ship, but true to his journal, Darkwater's cursed spirit also inhabited it, meaning the two enemy pirates had to share the body between each other. As Darkwater's crew begin to rise from the dead, Ratchet made his way back to the barge they came on and had a choice to free Talwyn or run from Morrow Caverns. Regardless of his choice, Ratchet returned to Hoolefar and had to defend the island from Slag/Darkwater.



If Ratchet rescued Talwyn, she aided him in the fight against the undead Pirates. If Talwyn was left behind, she returned to the island using her booster pack, angry at Ratchet for leaving her and claiming she knew how Clank must feel. Ratchet then approached the Smuggler to decipher the map he found in the caverns. The map lead to Darkwater Cove, an island where Darkwater hid all of his treasure. Ratchet and Talwyn were taken there by the Smuggler and managed to fool the many robotic security bots into thinking Ratchet was Darkwater. The pair managed to get to the treasure room where Ratchet noticed the Fulcrum Star and immediately ran towards it. Suddenly, a trap door opened up and he fell down into the Lythoin Caves. Slag/Darkwater appeared and took Talwyn as a prisoner before locking Ratchet inside.

Ratchet escaped from the caves and with the Smuggler's help, flew to Slag/Darkwater's fleet in Azorean Sea. He freed Talwyn from her cell and the pair confronted Slag/Darkwater. After a long battle spanning across many ships in the fleet, Slag/Darkwater was defeated, breaking the curse that brought the pirates back to life. Slag's head fell into the sea and Rusty Pete dropped the Fulcrum Star to jump in after him. Ratchet grabbed the Star and headed back to Hoolefar Island to power up the Obsidian Eye.

The Eye showed Clank surrounded by three Zoni floating in a beam of light. Clank woke for a brief moment and began to talk gibberish, indicating something bad had happened to him. The Zoni told Clank "The Doctor" was coming to fix him just as a door opened and a figure descended down the stairs. The figure suddenly slipped on a misplaced feather-duster and fell down before gathering himself up. The figure was revealed to be Dr. Nefarious, who proceeded to shout for his butler, Lawrence. The coordinates lead to the Breegus Nebula and Ratchet vowed to rescue Clank from Nefarious and the Zoni.

Meanwhile out in the Azorean Sea, Pete had just finished telling the story of the game to Captain Slag's head whilst the two of them drifted aimlessly on a wooden crate. Slag got angry and ordered Pete to start rowing to the nearest island.

Gameplay
Gameplay was first shown at E3 2008. This game features more puzzle solving and platforming than previous games in the series and also introduces some new features, such as the ability to pick things up with the new OmniWrench Millennium 12. There is also Light/Dark gameplay where Ratchet must pick up creatures called Heliogrubs with the OmniWrench, in order to light up a dark area. The Omniwrench also has a kinetic tether gadget, where the top of the wrench comes off and an energy tether beams out. It can be used to manipulate objects and move obstacles. The game features 5 levels, starting and ending above the Azorean Sea, providing 3–4 hours of gameplay. You can't return to locations for fun; instead you can play only missions. There is also no challenge mode. For the first time in the game series, Captain Qwark and the Plumber were neither seen nor mentioned in the game, though a statue of Qwark and several copies of his book Body By Qwark can be found in the at the bottom of the lake on Hoolefar island. It is shiny silver and is buried from the waist down. Ratchet starts off with the Combuster, Fusion Grenade, Tornado Launcher, Shock Ravager, Predator Launcher and Nano-Swarmers all at V3. The Alpha Cannon is brought from the Smuggler and is already fully upgraded.

Characters



 * Apogee, Talwyn
 * Beacon Operator
 * Clank (Cameo)
 * Darkwater, Angstrom
 * Lawrence
 * Nefarious (Cameo)
 * Ratchet
 * Rusty Pete
 * Slag, Romulus
 * Smuggler
 * Wind Turbine Operator
 * Worley, Barnabus
 * Zoni (Cameo)

Weapons



 * OmniWrench Millennium 12
 * Combuster
 * Fusion Grenade
 * Nano Swarmers
 * Predator Launcher
 * Shock Ravager
 * Tornado Launcher
 * Alpha Disruptor

Note: All weapons in this game started at V3, because it was so short and was the sequel to the events of Tools of Destruction.

Gadgets



 * Gravity Boots
 * Grind Boots
 * Kinetic Tether
 * Swingshot

Items

 * VersaBolt
 * Darkwater's Treasure Map

Armor

 * Scavenger Suit

Planets & locations

 * Merdegraw - Azorean Sea
 * Merdegraw - Hoolefar Island
 * Merdegraw - Morrow Caverns
 * Merdegraw - Darkwater Cove

Audio
The game's soundtrack was produced by David Bergeaud.

Reception
Nick Suttner from 1UP.com described the game as "a rollicking few hours, polished to a sheen and even better-paced than its full-length predecessors." He also praised the game's graphics, crediting improved lighting and better textures. IGN reviewer Jeremy Dunham said that the shortness of the game can leave players feeling "shortchanged". He also stated that the gameplay is fun and "of high-production" but that there was something missing, his review had an overall rating of 7.4 out of 10. It received an overall score of 76/100 "generally favorable reviews" from Metacritic.

Download Space
Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty needs 3181 MB download space and 3789 Kb free save space is recommended.

Trivia

 * The game is called Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty, yet Clank only appears twice in the game, both times in cutscenes.
 * The full moon behind Rusty Pete is the Insomniac Games' moon logo.
 * In a few brief shots, Ratchet's eyes were aqua.
 * Just like in previous games there is a Dan easter egg - an action figure in a plastic packaging found in the secret area in the cave under Hoolefar Island.
 * Another easter egg, also located in Hoolefar Island was a sunken Qwark statue surrounded by some copies of the book, Body By Qwark, some meters away from the coast.
 * The end credits finished by leaving the message "The quest continues in fall 2009", a teaser for the next game in the series, "Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time".