Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (known as Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction in Europe) is an installment in the Ratchet & Clank series developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It is the first installment of the Future series, comprising it, Quest for Booty, and A Crack in Time, and the fifth installment released by Insomniac Games. It was initially released in October 2007 for the PlayStation 3, and was the first game in the series released on the system.
The game follows Ratchet and Clank as they travel to the Polaris Galaxy after Metropolis is invaded by Emperor Tachyon, a cragmite with a vendetta against lombaxes. Ratchet learns more about the lombaxes and his origins in the hopes of finding the "Lombax Secret" that may be used to defeat Tachyon, while Clank is aided by a mysterious, invisible alien race known as the Zoni who claim to be key to his past.
Tools of Destruction is a return to the third-person action adventure gameplay from the original three entries on the PlayStation 2, with elements of shooting, role-playing, platforming, puzzle-solving, and on-rails space combat. Ratchet collects all-new weapons which can be upgraded through use and now through raritanium, as well as gadgets to overcome obstacles. The game introduces devices, which are rarer, non-upgradable support weapons. Clank has his own gameplay sections that allow him to command the Zoni to complete stages. Tools of Destruction also introduces a few gameplay elements controlled by the PlayStation 3 SIXAXIS tilt functionality.
Gameplay[]
Overview[]
Tools of Destruction is a third-person three-dimensional action game building on Up Your Arsenal. It has elements of platforming, shooting, role playing, and puzzle solving. The player controls Ratchet, who wields an arsenal of weapons, gadgets, and devices, and carries his sidekick Clank as a backpack to provide the Heli-Pack and Thruster-Pack. Ratchet has access to his core moveset from previous titles, and obtains an entirely new set of weapons and gadgets, as well as devices, non-upgradable support weapons.
The duo travel between the planets of the Polaris Galaxy using the Aphelion, a sentient lombax ship, completing a set of objectives before obtaining coordinates for the next planet to progress through the story. Objectives normally require the player to control Ratchet and traverse through a linear section on a planet, fighting enemies on the way and using gadgets to complete puzzles.
Other objectives are varied. For some, the player controls Clank as he commands Zoni to complete a set of puzzles to traverse through a section. At other times, the player flies the Aphelion through an on-rails section to defeat space pirates, either piloting as Ratchet or controlling its turret as Clank, before defeating a boss at the end of the section. As a means of earning bolts on the side, Ratchet can participate in gladiatorial combat in the Imperial Fight Festival on planet Mukow, and collect leviathan souls from large monsters across three locations to sell to the Smuggler.
The player collects bolts to purchase weapons and armor, raritanium to purchase weapon upgrades, holo-plans to construct the RYNO IV weapon when traded with the Smuggler, and gold bolts to buy skins. After completing the game, the player can choose either to warp back before the final boss or replay the game in challenge mode, the latter of which allows the player to keep all of the weapons, devices, and armor they have collected so far and fight more powerful enemies. In this mode, Ratchet can purchase the Omega version of his weapons to upgrade them beyond their original maximum level. Challenge mode has a bolt multiplier, which increases as Ratchet defeats enemies without taking a hit.
Equipment[]
Ratchet begins with ten units of nanotech, representing his health. This can be increased by earning experience points from defeating enemies, up to 999. Ratchet can also purchase armor from a GrummelNet armor vendor which can reduce the amount of damage taken.
Tools of Destruction features fifteen completely new weapons. The Combuster and the Fusion Bomb are immediately available for free, while others are either purchased from vendors with bolts, discovered on planets, or in the case of the RYNO IV, obtained from the Smuggler once all holo-plans are acquired. Weapons can be upgraded from V1 up to V5, at which point its functionality changes, and in challenge mode, an Omega version of the weapon can be purchased, allowing it to be upgraded five more times to VX. Each weapon can also be upgraded using Raritanium from weapon vendors to improve it in areas such as rate of fire, ammunition, and damage, with each also including a special upgrade that, once unlocked, change the weapon significantly.
The eight combat devices include the Groovitron, Mr. Zurkon, Transmorpher and Visi-Copter. Devices cannot be upgraded (with the exception of the Groovitron, which can be upgraded to the Gold Groovitron when purchased), and ammunition is scarce, meaning these are mostly used in emergencies.
Fourteen gadgets are featured in the game, of which five are original. The Heli-Pack, Hydro-Pack and Thruster-Pack are automatically owned by Clank, while the Grind Boots and Swingshot are automatically owned by Ratchet. Other gadgets are earned by completing objectives and are required to progress further through the game. Two gadgets, Clank's Geo-Laser and Ratchet's Decryptor, are controlled using the SIXAXIS tilt controller (though this can be changed in the options menu).
Clank gameplay[]
In some sections, the player controls Clank as he commands the Zoni to complete puzzles and traverse areas. Zoni commands are similar to Gadgebot commands from previous games, with some differences. The Zoni automatically fire at nearby enemies and allow Clank to slow down time on his own, so he can bypass quickly-moving obstacles. Their commands include Levitate, allowing Clank to hover for a certain amount of time; Manipulate, allowing them to fix objects (provided he controls enough at a time); and Charge Up, energizing an object allowing Clank to proceed (consuming the Zoni in the process).
Space combat[]
The player sometimes flies the Aphelion, which can move and aim its weapons anywhere on the screen, but is confined to the set path on-rails. While the objective is to survive and defeat the boss at the end, along the path, the player should destroy ships and objects to earn bolts, with larger ships arriving with exposed weak points to take them down. During these sections, the player is sometimes given control of Clank, who pilots the turret on the back of the ship, and must destroy incoming enemies and projectiles to survive.
Synopsis[]
Setting[]
Tools of Destruction takes place in the Polaris Galaxy, which is ruled by Emperor Tachyon of the cragmites. After leaving planet Kerwan, Ratchet explores several sectors of the galaxy, as well as a few locations in space. The Polaris Galaxy was once home to the lombaxes after they had defeated the cragmites during the Great War, but Tachyon had since driven them out. Abandoned lombax technology can be found on many planets in Polaris, such as Fastoon, Sargasso, and Rykan V. Much of it has been found by Max Apogee, an explorer who kept his findings in the Apogee Space Station, now home to his daughter Talwyn. Much of the knowledge of the galaxy is contained within the IRIS Supercomputer.
Emperor Tachyon controls much of the galaxy, with his drophyd armies defending his own territory and searching the galaxy for lombax technology. There are several planets under Free Polaris not ruled by Tachyon, with Igliak as the capital. The galaxy is also home to space pirates led by Captain Slag, who attack and loot ships around the galaxy from their hideouts such as Ardolis. Several planets are territory of the kerchu, some of the galaxy's greatest architects but also fierce defenders of their territory and hostile to outsiders.
Plot[]
At the start of the game, Ratchet and Clank were on planet Kerwan trying to complete one of Ratchet's new vehicles, the nuclear-powered rocket sled. While Ratchet assured him that the vehicle would work fine, Clank received a distress call from Qwark, who was stationed at the Planetary Defense Center. Before Ratchet and Clank arrived at the Defense Center, Metropolis was attacked by the Imperial Army's drophyd forces, specifically looking for Ratchet. They eventually caught him, and that was when Emperor Tachyon introduced himself and tried to make a deal with the duo. He stated that if they both surrendered, the Drophyds would leave Metropolis unharmed. Ratchet and Clank tricked Tachyon, however, and fled into his warship. Having escaped from Kerwan in the warship, Ratchet and Clank were forced into Cryosleep by the ship's autopilot system.
Sometime later, they crash-landed on planet Cobalia in the Polaris Galaxy. While unconscious, Clank had a vision where he was flying in a strange city with a group of mysterious robots surrounding him, saying, "His past is inside." The vision ended when Ratchet woke him up. The duo made their way to a spaceport, where they met the Smuggler. The Smuggler told them that he would take them off Cobalia if they got the nearby gelatonium plant working again. After they agreed, he gave Ratchet the Gelanator. Ratchet and Clank were able to get the plant running again. The Smuggler gave them a ride as promised, but only took them as far as Stratus City on planet Kortog.
The Smuggler ejected Ratchet and Clank onto the surface of Stratus City after a lifeform scan detected a lombax signature on his ship. After fighting through the city, the Zoni upgraded Clank with the Robo-Wings. Using this new gadget, Ratchet and Clank flew to the Hall of Knowledge (with a Zoni's guidance). There they had to flee the planet via an escape pod to the nearest planet, Fastoon, revealed to be a lombax planet.
When the two landed on the devastated planet, Ratchet wondered where all the lombaxes were. Clank explained that the planet was deserted years ago. They found an old, destroyed ship named Aphelion. After finding five flight components scattered around the area, Clank made his way through a raritanium mine with the help of the Zoni and obtained the sixth and final one. The duo repaired Aphelion, who told them what happened on Fastoon. Upon Ratchet's request, Aphelion played a Holo-Vite that they had received, which told them about Qwark's presence at the Imperial Fight Festival on planet Mukow.
They found, after fighting in a tournament, that Qwark had sworn loyalty to Tachyon. Qwark gave Ratchet an Infobot as a prize for winning the tournament. The Infobot recording revealed that Tachyon was plotting to search the entire Polaris Galaxy to find the "Lombax Secret." Tachyon thought the secret was hidden in the Apogee Space Station in the Nundac Asteroid Ring.
Upon arriving at the Nundac Asteroid Ring, they found the Smuggler, who gave them the launch code to a pod that would take them to the Apogee Space Station. Ratchet and Clank rode the pod to the station's Maintenance Hub and traversed it to reach the station's interior. There they fought through the security system and almost made it to the final room's entrance to find the door locked. The Zoni upgraded Clank with the Geo-Laser, allowing them to cut the wall open. Two old robots, Cronk and Zephyr, tried to attack Ratchet, but ended up running into each other. Talwyn Apogee then appeared and threatened to send Ratchet through the airlock. Upon realizing that Ratchet was a lombax, she told Cronk and Zephyr to lower their guard. Talwyn then told Ratchet about her father, Max Apogee, and how space pirates had raided the station and stolen a pyramid-shaped artifact. Ratchet recalled the Smuggler mentioning space pirates that inhabited planet Ardolis, and on a hunch, the duo flew to the pirate base.
Ratchet and Clank made their way to the base's treasure room and recovered the artifact, but were forced to hide when Captain Slag and Rusty Pete flew to the room on a sail barge. Slag's sense of smell helped him determine that there was a lombax in the room. Talwyn then appeared and threw a smoke bomb when Ratchet and Clank dropped down a hole and made their way to the Blackstar Memorial Radio Tower. Outside the tower, they met up with Talwyn, Cronk, and Zephyr. Talwyn couldn't make the artifact work, and when she handed it to Ratchet, it hovered over his hands. When he pressed one of the sides, a 3D map of a planet appeared, which Talwyn recognized as Rykan V. They then flew to the planet but were forced to first fight through a fleet of Slag's ships in the Rakar Star Cluster.
Ratchet, Clank, Cronk, and Zephyr performed a HALO jump and fought through Tachyon's forces, arriving and separating at a spaceport. At the spaceport, Ratchet and Clank bought a modified Gyro-cycle from the Smuggler. They then made their way to a bunker with the Gyro-cycle, where they met up with Talwyn, Cronk, and Zephyr. Ratchet unlocked the door to the room, which was filled with nothing useful, except an ancient projector. The projector played a video that revealed to them that the Lombax Secret was a helmet called the Dimensionator and gave them their next lead on the Dimensionator's location.
They then traveled to planet Sargasso, where they tried to find the testing facility mentioned in the video. The Smuggler pointed out a destroyed launch pad for the Robo-Wings and sold them a Decryptor to fix it. Ratchet successfully got the pad working with the Decryptor, and the duo flew to the facility with the Zoni's guidance. Once at the testing facility, Ratchet and Clank encountered The Plumber once again. The Plumber gave them a 3 ¾ Centicubit Hexagonal Washer, and then left by flushing himself down a large toilet. Qwark contacted the heroes on their way back to Aphelion claiming that he may have found a clue.
After battling through another tournament on Mukow, Qwark showed them a video displaying the IRIS Supercomputer, the largest supercomputer in the Polaris galaxy, which he believed would know the Dimensionator's location. After downloading the coordinates to IRIS's location, Clank went inside the computer to repair it. The Zoni appeared yet again, and Clank had a vision of Talwyn being locked away in an unknown prison. Ratchet learned about Tachyon's origins. Tachyon was frozen as an egg and eventually found by lombax trillium miners on the Kreeli Comet who then raised him on Fastoon. However, once he learned of his Cragmite heritage and origins, he attacked the lombaxes.
The duo traveled to Zordoom and freed Talwyn from her cell. Once Ratchet and Clank got back to Aphelion, Talwyn contacted them and said she had found Cronk and Zephyr in the scrap compressor. They continued on towards planet Jasindu, first having to fight through Slag's fleet near the Verdigris Black Hole.
After dealing with the pirate fleet, Ratchet and Clank landed on Jasindu. They made their way to a grind rail and traversed it while a giant robot controlled by a Kerchu tried to kill them. Upon destroying the robot in an arena, Ratchet found the Dimensionator. However, Captain Slag and his pirate fleet arrived, stole the Dimensionator, and threatened to kill Ratchet and destroy Clank if they followed him. Aphelion tracked Slag's fleet to the Ublik Passage.
The heroes willfully followed the pirates and defeated Captain Slag. Ratchet was then given the "honor" of becoming the new captain of the space pirates by Rusty Pete. Ratchet refused, though, and said he just wanted the Dimensionator. Qwark popped out of a pirate crate, took the Dimensionator, and vowed to throw it into a black hole while fleeing in an escape pod. Rusty Pete, still claiming Ratchet to be the captain, revealed that the escape pod would land on the Cragmite homeworld on Reepor.
Ratchet, Clank, Cronk, and Zephyr performed a HALO jump and fought through Tachyon's forces. With Cronk and Zephyr in control of two large cannons, Ratchet, Clank, and Talwyn tried to find a way inside the stronghold. After splitting up, Ratchet and Clank made their way to a raised platform and found Tachyon wearing the Dimensionator with Qwark under his walking throne's leg. Tachyon summoned the Cragmites from exile, knocking Ratchet unconscious and separating him from Clank. Clank found his way back to Aphelion with the help of the Zoni, who showed him another vision of Ratchet standing in front of a portal on Fastoon before a muffled scream was heard.
Meanwhile, Ratchet traversed his way back to Aphelion and found Talwyn and Zephyr repairing a broken Cronk. Ratchet was devastated when he began thinking that Clank had perished. Clank flew down with the Robo-Wings, and the duo was reunited. Aphelion said that her sensors had picked up a Cragmite armada rapidly approaching Meridian City on planet Igliak. Talwyn told Ratchet that Meridian City was the capital of the Polaris Galaxy and that they needed to hurry while she and Zephyr repaired Cronk.
Ratchet and Clank then traveled to Meridian City and repelled the invading cragmites, and rescued Qwark, who was cowering in a closet. Clank believed that Tachyon may be headed for Fastoon, based on his vision from the Zoni. Ratchet agreed to go there, finally seeming to believe Clank about the Zoni.
Ratchet, Clank, Cronk, and Zephyr performed another HALO jump and destroyed five Magna-Cannons so Talwyn could land. Once they fought through Tachyon's Cragmite army, Ratchet, Clank, Talwyn, Cronk, and Zephyr arrived in the Court of Azimuth. Tachyon then revealed that the lombaxes had taken shelter behind the walls and used the Dimensionator to flee to another dimension when Tachyon initially invaded Fastoon in the Great War. Only two lombaxes stayed behind, the keeper of the Dimensionator and his infant son, Ratchet. Ratchet's father was revealed to have been killed by Tachyon, but not before sending Ratchet to Veldin. Tachyon opened a portal to the lombax dimension and gave Ratchet the chance to join them. Ratchet, however, realized that no one would be safe as long as Tachyon had the Dimensionator and vowed to destroy the gadget.
Ratchet and Clank battled Tachyon, and after injuring Tachyon, the Dimensionator opened and sucked all three into another dimension. After Ratchet and Clank defeated Tachyon, he declared that only he knew Ratchet's real name and his purpose before being sucked into a black hole after promising revenge. Ratchet attempted to use the Dimensionator to escape the crumbling dimension, but realized that the primary reflux coil for the device was missing. Clank used the 3 ¾ Centicubit Hexagonal Washer the Plumber had given them on Sargasso to repair the reflux coil. Ratchet and Clank used the now-working Dimensionator to return home. Ratchet awoke surrounded by Clank, Talwyn, Cronk, and Zephyr.
Back on Apogee Space Station, Rusty Pete tried to teach Qwark how to become a pirate, and Cronk and Zephyr reenacted the battle between Ratchet and Tachyon. Ratchet wondered if Tachyon told the truth about his purpose and father. Clank told Ratchet that Tachyon was telling the truth and that Ratchet had fulfilled his purpose by vanquishing Tachyon. The Zoni appeared once more, this time visible to everyone. They trapped Clank in a psychic field and took him into a dimensional portal. Ratchet tried to stop the Zoni, but the defensive field pushed him to the ground. As Clank disappeared in a burst of light, all Ratchet could do was stare helplessly at the last spot he saw his friend.
Development[]
Background[]
Beginning development, a visualization for what a PlayStation 3 Ratchet & Clank game would look like was made by recreating a diorama of Metropolis in the Resistance: Fall of Man engine, adding vehicles and sending a camera through it as well as audio effects. This was shown at the 2006 Game Developers Conference as Ratchet & Clank Future, with a blimp showing the logo.[1][2]
Every asset, from Ratchet's model to a basic crate, had to be remade for the game. The shapes of the characters were also refined to match the PlayStation 3's polygon count and higher resolution.[3][4] This also led to more details in character models and animation, as while the skeleton for Ratchet's model had 110 bones in the PlayStation 2 games, for Tools of Destruction it used 120 for his face alone.[5] T.J. Fixman was hired by Insomniac and worked on Tools of Destruction as his first project in the series, working with Insomniac CEO Ted Price and game director Brian Allgeier to develop a franchise bible to link together the lore of the games, tying up the previously loose mythology and giving the characters more backstory and depth.[6]
The team established the goal of creating one fully-realized and playable level by preproduction, to give them an understanding of what was needed to run the game and a set of benchmarks to plan content for the rest.[1] This level was Kerchu City on Jasindu, and though the level was functional, it was unstable.[7] When designing weapons for the game, the team established three criteria: "Comedic", "Strategic" and "Spectacle".[6]
One of the goals of development was to create a cohesive experience where the player can go from gameplay to cutscene quickly and seamlessly. To this end, Ratchet's model in cutscenes is the same as it is in gameplay.[8]
After pre-production, no work was ever discarded or cut during actual production.[7]
The game was made in memory of Dan Johnson, a former Insomniac employee who tragically died before release, with the credits dedicated to his memory.
Technology[]
A team of 70+ full-time employees worked on the game with numerous more shared resources between Ratchet & Clank and Resistance, developing things within eight-week block cycles of various teams creating components for the game and showcasing them, with over 150 developer kits in the studio.[1] Despite this, the team was understaffed and extra work needed to be done by other employees, leading to the game being rushed near the end of production.[9]
Despite planning for 25 planets, five space combat missions, an hour of cutscenes and both a co-operative and online mode, the game finished with sixteen planets, three space combat missions, 45 minutes of cutscenes and single-player only.[7] Difficulties working with the hardware and a new engine meant a smaller scope, fewer scenes (though with higher fidelity), no multiplayer or co-op, no spherical worlds, and no racing or similar special modes.[3]
Insomniac had also aimed to include procedurally generated planets and open space exploration, which were also cut,[6] although open space exploration was later included in A Crack in Time.
A new form of texture streaming was introduced, allowing them more variety and lushness to surfaces.[10] The team were able to stabilize their development techniques, and in a postmortem of the development for Game Developer, Insomniac employee John Fiorito concluded that while a lot of things did not work out for the team, a lot more of them did.[9] Additionally, the larger polygon counts for the PlayStation 3 allowed weapon designs to become more elaborate, making the art style more complex.[11]
Marketing[]
When marketing the game, it was shown on the TV show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, with a unique character named "Captain James" made to tie-in with the episode. This used up a week's time. A demo had also been made to showcase at E3, though it only ran at 30 frames per second and was therefore scrapped until a later one could be made.[9]
In September 27, 2007, Insomniac announced that the game had gone gold, meaning it had completed development, and that a demo would be released on PlayStation Store, with the game's full release coming the following month.[12] Due to quickness in the factory, some retailers obtained and sold copies earlier than the official October 30 release date.[13] Due to the difficulty translating "Future" in some languages, the game was released in Europe simply as Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction. The game had ultimately been localized for thirteen languages.[10]
Cut content[]
A pickup known as the Plasma Shield was intended to be included, and would be used by breaking shield crate. It would have function similarly to the Shield Charger from previous games and protect Ratchet from damage.
Soundtrack[]
The soundtrack was composed by David Bergeaud.
Reception[]
Aggregator | Score |
---|---|
GameRankings | 88.74% (based on 76 reviews)[14] |
Metacritic | 89 (based on 70 reviews)[15] |
Publication | Score |
Eurogamer | 8/10[16] |
GamePro | 5/5[17] |
GameSpot | 7.5/10[18] |
GameSpy | 4/5[19] |
IGN | 9.4/10[20] |
Tools of Destruction received positive reviews from critics. Reviews praised the lush visuals and gameplay, and compared the game to previous entries in the series.[16][18][20]
Reviewers mostly praised the story, with Eurogamer calling the storyling "excellent"[16] while IGN praised the story for having Insomniac's "most intriguing and diverse universe yet".[20] However, GameSpot was more critical, saying that the story "falls flat" and "isn't very interesting".[18]
Critics praised the gameplay and the variety of weapons, but criticized the easy difficulty. IGN concluded that the gameplay of previous games had been "refined to award winning levels", but says that gamers "may be disappointed in Future's difficulty".[20] Eurogamer noted that the enjoyment players will have depends on "if you got on with the previous Ratchet & Clank games", but claimed that it "isn't ever an especially challenging game" and that the developers did "little to innovate the gameplay in any meaningful sense".[16] GameSpot called the game "extremely easy" and claimed it gets "remotely difficult only in the last hour or so", and praised the shooting and platforming gameplay while criticizing the variety of mechanics in the game, claiming that it "takes too much of the focus off the tight platforming and and fun combat".[18]
IGN claimed that the game had "surpassed Going Commando as the best game in the series", and was the "best game of any series on the PlayStation 3 thus far".[20]
Secret Agent Clank skin[]
In Tools of Destruction, players can find a code to be used to unlock the Zoni skin in Secret Agent Clank in the IRIS Supercomputer. The code is , , , , , , , , . Likewise, a code for the Convict Ratchet skin in Tools of Destruction can be found in Secret Agent Clank in the High Impact Games Treehouse.
Gallery[]
Citations[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Game Developer 2008, p. 34
- ↑ Insomniac Games 2006
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Allgeier, Fixman 2018, 19:35
- ↑ The Art of Ratchet & Clank, p. 141
- ↑ McGarvey 2007
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Dawkins 2018
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Game Developer 2008, p.38
- ↑ Heir 2019, 3:02
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Game Developer 2008, p. 40
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Game Developer 2008, p. 36
- ↑ The Art of Ratchet & Clank, p. 34
- ↑ Phillips September 2007
- ↑ Phillips October 2007
- ↑ GameRankings 2019
- ↑ Metacritic 2023
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 Reed 2007
- ↑ Melick 2007
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 Thomas 2007
- ↑ Graziani 2007
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 Dunham 2007
References[]
- Books
- Miller, Patrick (2008). Game Developer. . Link UBM Tech.
- Sony Interactive Entertainment (2018). The Art of Ratchet & Clank [Book]. Dark Horse Comics. ISBN 978-1506705729.
- Websites
- McGarvey, Sterling (2007, May 17). "Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction". From GameSpy. Archived from the original on March 26, 2018.
- Phillips, Greg (2007, September 27). "Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction Goes Gold, Demo Coming!". From PlayStation Blog. Archived from the original on August 4, 2023.
- Phillips, Greg (2007). "Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction Coming Soon(er)". From PlayStation Blog.
- Dunham, Jeremy (2007, October 23). "Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction Review". From IGN. Archived from the original on January 9, 2018.
- Thomas, Aaron (2007, October 23). "Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction Review". From GameSpot. Archived from the original on January 9, 2018.
- Melick, Todd (2007, October 23). "Review: Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction". From GamePro. Accessed August 4, 2023. Archived from the original on September 23, 2008.
- Graziani, Gabe (2007, October 23). "Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction". From GameSpy. Archived from the original on January 9, 2018.
- Reed, Kristan (2007). "Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction". From Eurogamer.
- Fiorito, John (2008, December 22). "Postmortem: Insomniac's Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction". From Game Developer. Archived from the original on August 6, 2023.
- Dawkins, Dan (2018, March 26). "“We made a four-page manual on crate stacking”: Ratchet and Clank’s creators on the lessons of their 15-year success story". From GamesRadar. Archived from the original on March 27, 2018.
- Heir, Janmeja (2019, October 17). "Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction Interview 3". From GameSpot. Archived from the original on August 6, 2023.
- (n.d.) . "Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction for PlayStation 3". From GameRankings. Accessed August 4, 2023. Archived from the original on December 5, 2019.
- (n.d.) . "Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction for PlayStation 3". From Metacritic. Accessed August 4, 2023. Archived from the original on August 4, 2023.
- Videos
- Insomniac Games [Games @Insomniac Games] (2006). GDC 2006 Ratchet & Clank Future teaser trailer [Video]. YouTube.
- Allgeier, Brian; Fixman, TJ [@GDC] (2018, June 26). 15 Years of Ratchet & Clank: A Lombax Story [Video]. YouTube.