I Got Ratchet & Clank: Nexus! And it's amazing!

I haven't posted for "a little while", so it may seem a tad strange that the first post I make in quite a long time on my Mario fan blog is actually not about a Mario game... nup, it's about Ratchet & Clank!

See, as I live in Australia, I have to put up with games costing $80+, poor internet connection speeds, late localizations etc. Except, then every once in a while, a perk of being an Australian gamer turns up. And, in this case, it is getting Ratchet & Clank: Nexus a week ahead of everyone else.

In other words, I get to talk about the game before even the game's reviews come out!

Anyway, my initial thoughts on this game are that it is definitely a return to the original Ratchet & Clank formula and it features production values similar to that of A Crack in Time (which is always a good sign!)

The game itself is extremely fun and well designed, though it doesn't stray very far from the original Ratchet & Clank formula. What it does do, however, is add a whole load of things to do with gravity. For instance, the beginning features a load of zero-gravity segments with Ratchet, which looks stunning in HD! Also, you have the new Portal-esque segments with the new gravity gun thingy (I forgot what it's called). While these segments haven't offered very complex puzzles yet, what they have done is add a bucket full of awesomeness! As soon as you step into a Gravity Stream Thingy (the purple thing that I have highlighted below) you'll hear calming elevator music as you float around helplessly getting shot at by enemies. Even better though is that as enemies approach the Gravity Stream Thingy to get to you, they get sucked in and also float around helplessly!

Additionally on the gravity side of things, you have the new Clank side-scrolling platformer parts. The complete freedom to change the direction of gravity at any point in these levels gives a nice sense of freedom and the levels are quite well designed. The new weapon upgrade system is also very effective, taking an approach very similar to Tales of Xillia's leveling system (you HAVE played ToX, haven't you?)

Overall, there are only a couple of issues that I have had with Nexus so far. One is that I have encountered a couple of times where the frame rate has dropped low enough to distract me from the action. Another is the compulsory day 1 update (18 whole megabytes!) and the compulsory install, which while quite short in length still gave me enough time to think "maybe I should've just got that Batman game..." Additionally, the first boss took me all of one minute to beat because it had next to no health! Still, it took me three times to beat him because I kept falling off the map due to some inconveniently placed ledges. I hate that boss!

Overall though, it's an amazing game, and I would totally recommend it over Arkham Origins and probably a social life as well!