Oozla is a planet in the Bogon Galaxy featured in Going Commando and mentioned in All 4 One. It is a wild, swampy planet, home to a Megacorp Outlet. The planet's swamps are overgrown with weeds and swampland, home to hostile, indigenous, mutated swamp life.
History[]
Going Commando[]
Angela robbing the Megacorp store with two thugs.
After Angela fled her flying lab on Aranos due to Ratchet's infiltration, she requested the Thugs-4-Less, who she had recently hired, to meet her on Oozla.[1] When she arrived with the Thugs, searching for a map of the current quadrant of the galaxy, she instead robbed the store and took one to her liking, throwing the clerk against the wall and deactivating the outer perimeter defenses on the way out.[2] This allowed the mutant swamp life to overrun the outlet and the surrounding area.
Abercrombie Fizzwidget sent Ratchet the footage of the robbery and assigned him the mission "Find the store entrance" to search for signs of Angela, Megacorp employees, or any store items on sale.[3] Ratchet explored the swamp and encountered swamp monster I, a large monster with enormous tentacles that preyed on the remaining Megacorp employees.[4] Swamp monster I only attacked with its eye stalk and two tentacles, but Ratchet was able to defeat it and reach the outlet. He obtained the Dynamo, which he needed to use to explore the store interior. After reaching further inwards, he received a transmission from Fizzwidget, informing him that Angela had been sighted at the Maktar Resort, and that the Thugs-4-Less had towed a moon-sized jamming array into the resort's orbit, interrupting the Galactic Gladiators broadcasts.[5] Ratchet was intrigued by the gladiator sport and traveled in order to disable the jamming array.
In "Explore the swamp ruins", Ratchet also searched the swamp, looking for ruins of previous inhabitants left behind in case anything was still operational.[6] While exploring the ruins, he found a Megacorp employee still alive: the Megacorp Scientist. The scientist put on a demonstration for his new device, the Tractor Beam. As he was the only one to witness, Ratchet volunteered, only to be thrown around as the gadget moved the platform he was standing on. He then purchased the Tractor Beam for 1,000 bolts.
After obtaining the Gravity Boots, Ratchet used a grav-ramp in the Megacorp Outlet to confront swamp monster II, the "Mother Beast" that had spawned the other mutant swamp beasts in the area.[4] After defeating it, he obtained the Box Breaker.
All 4 One[]
A few critters on Magnus were mentioned as hailing from Oozla. These included the Fire Red Slugnarg, Coastal Slugnarg, Dry Gulch Slugnarg, Purple Menace Vroktopod, Briny Vroktopod, and Infected Vroktopod.
Geography[]
Overview[]
Map layout of the Megacorp Outlet.
Oozla is a swamp world which, aside from the Megacorp Outlet, appears to be completely wild. It is overrun with swampland and weeds, surrounded by green swamp water that devours those who fall inside. Several islands are scattered over the swamp water, with tall trees scattered around them, green plants with large leaves, spiked weeds growing along the hills, breakable brown-colored plants with spiny offshoots on tall, purple stalks, and algae growing thick over the dark brown rocks. A few of the local flora are large, carnivorous plants reminiscent of venus flytraps, and after being stood on, they will close their mouths to bite.
In between the swamp water, several small rock plateaus and lily pads can be found floating above, providing a surface that can be hopped over to traverse the otherwise impassable waters (though the lily pads will sink if stood on for too long). A few ruins of old buildings left behind by previous inhabitants[6] can be found, mostly sunk in the swamp. It also rains heavily throughout the swamp.
The ship landing pad at the Megacorp Outlet.
The known wildlife consists of aquatic, semiaquatic, and airborne life forms, much of which is mutant and hostile to Ratchet and the Megacorp employees. There are two notable non-hostile wildlife: pterodactyls flying through the skies, and dragon boats in the swamp water.[7] The latter are aquatic, medium-sized dragon-like reptiles with a large and flat back. Hopping on their back will cause them to move to a new position, before sinking into the swamp water below. This allowed Ratchet to use them to traverse the water.
Megacorp Outlet[]
The Megacorp Outlet.
The Megacorp Outlet is the main attraction in Oozla, and was visited in "Investigate the Megacorp store". It was robbed by Angela Cross while looking for a quadrant map and was shut down by the time Ratchet arrived.[8]
On the way to the Megacorp Outlet is a swamp path (taken during the mission "Find the store entrance") marked by a Megacorp vendor. The path begins with a downwards slope into a small swamp lake, across which is a narrow, bending path to the swamp. Lily pads and glass platforms form a path between the islands, and along the second island, a fallen tree blocks a path to a small alcove on the left. At the very end, closer to the Megacorp Outlet, a large open metal gate and plateau are found directly in front of the last island in front of the store. This is also where swamp monster I appeared from the lake.
The entrance to the store.
The Megacorp Outlet is situated on a swamp island at the end of this path. As well as being overrun by mutant swamp beasts as a result, there are also growths on the walls of the store, with vines found on the walls and some plants in the ground. Many of the areas are unreachable without the use of the Dynamo to activate green platforms to move across. Despite the store being out of business, pre-recorded messages on a loudspeaker still played. The store appeared to have specialized in clothing retail, as it contained a wide variety of clothes fitted on mannequins inside glass showcases and on shelves. There were also light bulbs and other devices found on shelves.
The interior of the outlet.
The store comprises two floors, where the first floor is merely the store entrance, a fairly large, empty room. The upper floor, reached only by a holographic elevator activated with the Dynamo, comprises the main portion of the store. Here, several glass showcases of mannequins are found, and a door leads to a small balcony outside. Past the balcony is a section of the store with Dynamo machinery, a conveyor belt to a small room resembling a staff room, and a large grav-ramp up to a tube down to swamp monster II's lair beneath the store.
Swamp monster II's lair[]
The lair, with the beast swimming around.
Swamp monster II's lair is a large, green-tinted, underground cavern located beneath the Megacorp Outlet. It is filled with green swamp water, with lily pads being the only way to traverse it. The entire cavern is mostly circular, with lily pads and swamp water surrounding the rocky island in the center.
Swamp ruin path[]
A group of dragon boats near the ruins.
A path through swamp ruins (visited in the mission "Explore the swamp ruins") leads around the ruins of buildings abandoned by the planet's previous inhabitants,[6] located a small distance out from the Megacorp Outlet. The path is home to the dragon boat creatures,[7] necessary for travelers to pass between the different ruined buildings. The area has very few natural swamp islands.
The area with carnivorous plants.
The path to the ruins is marked by a metal gate from where the ship lands. Past this is a downwards slope to an empty swamp, with only a few rock plateaus to reach the island across. A swamp lake separates this island from another island, with a large stone wall, part of an abandoned building, and a cave containing a small plateau and large carnivorous plants. At the end of the cave are more ruins, many of which are half-sunk, while a ruined house sits above the swamp water as does an abandoned radio tower. The largest abandoned building is found atop a hill, and a tube leads down a plaza with street lights in between two ruined towers, one of which is on the side of a hill connected back to the ship's landing pad. This plaza is where the Megacorp Scientist demonstrated his Tractor Beam.
Distant cave[]
A small cave, empty aside from a platinum bolt, is located opposite the Megacorp Outlet. This is seen docked by the first island at the beginning of the swamp ruins path. It is entirely by swamp, and can only be reached by dragon boat (which appeared before Ratchet after all missions on the planet were completed).
Behind the scenes[]
The level was designed by Lesley Matthieson, with a few platforming challenges designed by Mike Stout.[9] For the dragon boat segment, playtesters had a difficult time figuring it out, meaning that the segment had to go through a lot of revisions to make it easier.[10]
The Megacorp Outlet interior section had a few changes before the final release. The platforms activated by the Dynamo were not originally green holograms generated by the Dynamo but were instead solid objects that would be moved when the Dynamo activated.[11] Additionally, Oozla originally had a different soundtrack for inside the Megacorp Outlet, which sounded more intense than the elevator music sound of the final game.[12] This was present as far back as the September 4, 2003 build of the game.[13]
Citations[]
- ↑ Going Commando script § "Thief hires Thugs-4-Less"
- ↑ Going Commando script § "Shopping Spree"
- ↑ Going Commando menu § "Find the store entrance"
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Going Commando, Monsterpedia
- ↑ Going Commando script § "Investigate the Megacorp store (gameplay)"
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Going Commando menu § "Explore the swamp ruins"
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Off 2003, p. 12
- ↑ Going Commando menu § "Investigate the Megacorp store"
- ↑ Stout, Garcia 2011 1:12
- ↑ Stout, Garcia June 16 2011 p1 3:05
- ↑ Going Commando
- ↑ Going Commando, alpha differences
- ↑ Going Commando, September 4, 2003 build on The Cutting Room Floor
References[]
- Insomniac Games (2003). Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando [Game]. Sony Computer Entertainment. PlayStation 2.
- Greg Off, Linda Wanczyk (2003). Ratchet & Clank Going Commando Official Strategy Guide [Book]. BradyGames. ISBN 0744003288.
- Stout, Mike; Garcia, Tony [@uselesspodcasts] (2011, June 16). Ratchet & Clank 2 Dev Commentary: 2A - Oozla [Video]. YouTube.