“Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando is an explosive game,” says Ted Price, President of Insomniac games. He is right. The weapons cause so much damage, your television will explode. Not really, but it will come close. This game is a huge step up from the original, which was really good. There is more variety thrown in. Different elements from different types of games make Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando electrifying.
Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando takes place in the Bogon Galaxy. The crazy Mr. Fizzwidget, who makes up his own words, sends Ratchet on a mission of “dire urgitude” to retrieve his stolen experiment. Clank meets up with him later. They fly from planet to planet in search of the thief. The story shifts and goals change throughout the journey.
I could not turn off the game when I played it first. I played it for over seven hours straight. Each objective takes place on another planet, so Ratchet and Clank are constantly exploring. You will be temped to keep playing because of the new worlds. Most planets contain new weapons in exchange for bolts. You keep playing because you want more weapons, more items, and more gadgets. There 
are minigames (called Maxi-games) along the trip to keep you occupied if, for some strange reason, you become uninterested in the game. They also allow you to earn items and bolts.
The metal noise produced from picking up the bolts is awesome. It makes the lovely sound of dropping screws on the floor. Sometimes Ratchet will pick up thousands of bolts at a time.
A gadget called the Therminator will freeze water and melt ice. My favorite sound in the whole game is when the ice freezes. It’s a sound like splitting on a lake.
The voice actors are really talented. James Arnold Taylor provides the voice of Ratchet. David Kaye does the voice for Clank; you might remember him as Megatron from Beast Wars. Look online to see the many other projects they were in.
The explosions get loud because of the potential to blast enemies with the huge arsenal of weapons. The Bouncer is a device that shoots out a large ball that splits into seven separate bombs or more. The explosion from one shot of the Bouncer is immense. When it is fully upgraded, say goodbye to everything on the screen.
The controls have not changed much from the original. They have just been touched up. Ratchet controls very well. He responds instantly to your commands. Clank seems to have awkward controls, but it could be from the familiarity of Ratchet. He is just smaller and has poor jumping ability due to the fact that he is a one foot tall robot. The space missions have a tunnel vision effect, but it’s not too bad. The hover bikes don’t turn very sharply, but you can slow down to avoid slamming into a wall. The controls are good for the most part.
All of the planets are well detailed. There are big cities, hilly tundras, and boggy swamps. Everything is blended smoothly. The weapons are well designed. The enemies are vicious. Some of my favorite parts in the game are the spherical worlds. They are small planets that take less than a minute to dash around. In one of them, you can launch off of jump pads and see the entire planet. In another, you can destroy every building. There are great futuristic visuals all around. It has great graphics for a cartoon game.
I played through the whole game three times before I could take it out of my system. The original weapons all upgrade, you can buy the mega version from a vendor on your second time through the game, and then those will advance to the ultimate version of the weapon. I finally was complete with the upgrades on the third time though, so I could just blow up everything in sight. The Maxi-games add a lot of replay also. The hover bike races, space missions, spherical worlds, and battle arenas add plenty of variety to the action-packed game. I am tempted to play through it for a fourth time, but I will beat the original instead.
With all of the genres Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando draws from, it expands outside of the action/adventure category. You run, fly, swim, swing, race, and much more. There is even a hidden first-person mode. There aren’t words to describe the power that Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando delivers. You will have to experience it for yourself.
