Review of Ratchet and Clank: Into the Nexus

Where can I skip the queue again?

Reader,

I will not lie when I say that I’m exhausted up until this point. I mean I have no one to blame but myself for undertaking this series but as I’ve moved further and further down the series timeline, the changes and alterations made to the formula, for better or for worse, keep getting smaller and smaller.

And while I’m somewhat glad this is arguably the shortest game I have to look at for this series, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s quite possibly one of the most forgettable for a number of reasons.

Mainly because it was first announced in July of 2013 via a small trailer that was uploaded to YouTube. A small gameplay demo was shown that August at Gamescom in Germany and was eventually released in November that year. The same month as the PlayStation 4 was released.

And look, this is still a good game at the end of the day but… I mean being released in the shadow of a brand new console, barely received any marketing and it’s only real relevance to this review series is the story, can you really blame me for overlooking this entry for so long?

But we’ll get to that when we need to. So what’s the history with this game then?

Preproduction: Returning to familiar ground

Now as I discussed previously after A Crack in Time the team behind R&C at Insomniac worked on All 4 One as a co-op experience and then soon after worked on another smaller Ratchet game, Ratchet and Clank: Full Frontal Assault (the innuendos just keep coming) also known as Q-Force in Europe.

Yes, this is also another R&C title I’m skipping out on for this series alongside Deadlocked but it’s largely because, much like Deadlocked, it has no real significance on the overarching story of the series as both contain their own plots and ideas that make them separate from the main series.

And yes, All 4 One technically counts as one of them but seeing how it continues the story after A Crack in Time, my job as a chronicler of the main events of this series says otherwise.

Anyway, after experimenting with these two side installments Brian Allegier, still serving as the series director up until this point, wanted to reexamine what made the series so good from a platforming perspective.

But on top of that, the team wanted to try something different and decided to take influence from a cancelled Ratchet and Clank game from 2006 simply called NEXUS.

Not much is really known about this long forgotten concept minus a promotional teaser that must have been made early on, the story being about a war on a planet with our duo having different opinions on as well as the idea of it taking place on a large planet, similar to what All 4 One eventually did.

I think the main thing they took away from this scrapped idea though was the focus on a much darker narrative similar to what Deadlocked did. Not just in the narrative but also in the aesthetic of the game and how it is presented throughout the environment.

And just a small note as well, in promotional material, Algier mentioned repeatedly that this was meant as an epilogue to the events of the Future saga and I imagine also a swansong to the PS3 where more than six R&C games were made for it over the course of 7 years.

And much like before, them’s the breaks. Seriously at this point I’m more or less expecting every other time I do research for this series to go something among the lines of “Insominac wanted to make a brand new Ratchet and Clank game” and that’s it.

I mean it does make my college full life a bit easier to endure but there’s also not really much I can say, especially if we’re talking about the length of the game.

But we’ll get to that when we get to that but first, with the idea of making this an epilogue to the Future saga and the dark focus, how does that affect the story? Let’s break it down first.

Story: Lost in space… and the space between spaces…

Some time after the events for All 4 One, the Terachnoids (the brainy people from ACIT) find the leader of the large company Pollyx Industries named… um… Pollux seemingly abducted by Neftin and Vendra Prog.

Not too long after though the Polaris Defence Force (thanks to their new leader Talwyn Apogee) are able to capture Vendra but are unsuccessful in finding Pollyx or Neftin. But despite that, they contain Vendra in a private cell and put her in a Nebulox Seven Prison Ship to bring her to her new at the Vertex Detention Centre.

I’m not really sure why they didn’t bring an entire police convoy to counter any potential attacks but Ratchet and Clank are serving as guards of the prisoner alongside Cronk and Zephyr. And at this point Ratchet essentially has an arsenal to obliterate a entrie small country’s army so I think having him along makes sense.

During their trip however the ship is intercepted by the returning Thugs-4-Less mercenary group from Going Commando who were hired and joined by Neftin. The thugs also have a mix of thick boston and russian accents for some reason but I assume they’re like the Polaris galaxy branch of the company.

They attack the ship and after freeing Vendra blow up the Nebulox, leaving our duo having to stowaway on a Thugs supply ship. With Cronk and Zephyr unfortunately not faring so well by comparison.

Eventually though the pair land on Planet Yerek where they break the bad news to Talwyn over comms. And while she thankfully doesn’t trigger the “blame the MC for their faults” romantic subplot, she does ask both to come back to her, with Ratchet wanting to see the criminals behind bars first.

While exploring the planet both characters receive two useful tools for their journey. Ratchet receives the Grav-Tether allowing him to essentially travel along a stream created by two points and Clank gets an upgrade allowing him to travel to the Netherverse, a pocket universe that was created from the tear in reality that also sparked the Great Clock’s creation.

These improvements are tied together by the fact that the Prog Twins are actually from the Netherverse but were abandoned by their family to the main universe for some unexplained reason.

Both were left on Yerek and grew up being bullied by other kids in the planets orphan home until they came across a being from the Netherverse called Mr. Eye by Vendra. Eye stated that because of their long exposure to the real world their bodies won’t be able to survive the Netherverse’s unusual breathing environment. It then offers that the Eye can tell more about their parents’ heritage but only when it is brought over into the real universe.

And it’s that side project that the pair have been working towards for years, constructing homemade Dimensonator’s to bring the Nether’s across the plains and in the process, causing the entire evacuation of the sector from their ghostly tests.

After learning about this and getting the Alphaeon back from the returning Captain Qwark, they set off to the planet Silox and after attempting to reason with Neftin are unsuccessful in stopping Mr Eye from crossing dimensions.

As her eternal reward, Vendra is abducted by Eye and after being saved by Neftin, our duo agree to meet with him on the Planet Thram. Vendra, now needing their help to get his sister back, asks Ratchet to help him steal the real Dimensionator which is being housed on Planet Igliak’s Intergalactic History Museum in Meridian City. And as a compromise, Neftin agrees to turn him and his sister over to the Defence Force when Eye is done.

One quick reunion with Talwyn and securing the Dimensionator later, Mr. Eye and his forces are seen invading the planet with Neftin helping to get the device working in the midst of the chaos.

While that happens, Ratchet takes on both the Nether’s and Eye as Clank travels back to the Netherverse freeing Vendra from captivity.

And I’m not skimming over anything important when I say this but in the moment, Eye is forced back to his own dimension thanks to the Dimensonator, the Prog twins are reunited and Neftin agreeing to his end takes him and sister into the authorities.

Reflecting over the now busted interdimensional device Clank asks Ratchet if he’d still use it to find the Lombaxes if he could, with him saying that he has a lot more waiting for him here. And as Ratchet’s not looking Clank seemingly swipes the Dimensonator for himself while in a post credits scene the ghost versions of Cronk and Zephyr are seen messing around with each other in the afterlife before wanting to check out what the ladies are doing in the robot graveyard.

Well I guess I should be a bit grateful that I didn’t need an elaborate explanation of this game’s events, but call me greedy… I kind of wanted more.

No joke aside from a few minor distractions like having to do favours for the returning dubious Smuggler, the entire story is spread over 5 different locations and done in a moments notice.

Now personally I think the plot is serviceable as is but in something like Tools of Destruction both use three act structures to explain the story. The first involving Tacogyn’s power hunger and the Prog’s escape, the second being the securement of the Dimensonator and Mr. Eye crossing over while the final focuses on stopping the returning Cragmites and sending the Nethers back home.

The difference is in TOD’s case, the acts were spread across 4 separate planets each, 5 tops while Nexus has a planet or two at most dedicated to each act of the narrative. It does make longer than Quest for Booty by comparison but that’s not really saying much is it?

However for the plot itself, as a response to the ending of the Future trilogy, Nexus definitely reflects on many of the points about identity and place that the small series of events had.

This may come as no surprise for people who’ve been paying attention but the Prog’s are meant to be seen as a parallel to our duo, particularly Ratchet. During their second encounter just before her escape, Vendra even calls Ratchet out for abandoning the search for his kind and the desire for the Prog’s to find their past clashes heavily with Ratchet’s previous hope to find the Lombaxes.

I think it’s leveled on a bit too much at times (like Neftin has two separate monologues on both Silox and Thram about how much it pains to be so close yet far from their heritage which gets a bit redundant because of how quickly they both follow each other in the narrative) but it’s a nice dynamic between the the separate pairings.

Especially since Vendra as the Brains of the operation is actually the coldest of the two and it’s shown several times in how she treats her brother when put into contrast with Clank who serves as the emotional core between him and Ratchet.

While in comparison, Neftin as the muscle of their scheme is meant to rival Ratchet doing most of the heavy lifting he’s the most supportive of his connection with his twin even after the treatment she gives him. I may think his need to team up with Ratchet was a bit rushed but it can also show how determined he is to look after his sister and matches the parallels I was talking about.

The rest of the plot is fine enough really, no real complaints aside from the fact that Quark could have been removed from the journey and no one would really miss him. He shows up to give Ratchet his ship back, gives him a bear hug after Cronk and Zephyr’s demise and then shows near the end to direct the evacuation of Meridian City.

I mean, his level of egotistical humor is always welcome but his involvement is still pretty insignificant overall for my liking.

All of the other returning characters are about the same as before, but weirdly, the character I don’t like the most of this adventure… is Ratchet.

You may remember in my ACIT review that I felt he was pretty humorless throughout the story but I largely brushed it off since he was determined to find Clank. And while a part of this less cocky attitude could be seen in All 4 One and even in Q-Force, it feels most prominent here as well.

To be fair as well, he does see himself responsible for the death of Talwyn’s guardians and wants the Prog’s to face justice for that but he rarely jokes beyond that. Nexus is one of the funniest games in the series for the spaced out use of gags in between plot development but most of the jokes made that included Ratchet are him reacting to stuff rather than him doing something himself.

It might also be because of him starting to become a bit jaded from hero life you could say but aside from his return to crime fighting in A4O, there’s no mention of him becoming tired of his life decisions in this entry.

I do see comments often enough about the most recent version of Ratchet with the 2016 remake and onwards that they prefer the more “badass” interpretation of the character and while that too has some of its own issues, I think they forget that we already made a sharp dip in that direction with the latter PS3 enteris from 2008 onwards. Different preferences but it still feels pretty brushed past when chronicling the series evolution if you ask me.

Okay, I’m done overexplaining the story now, let’s get onto the way the game is presented. And I think it’s fair to say that Insomniac lost themselves a bit too much in the new vibes.

Presentation: Living in a ghost town

So as we discussed in the preproduction section, the aim was to go for a more spooky direction with this new installment. And it does fulfill that desire perhaps a bit too well.

As stated by Talwyn once the journey begins, the Progs were actually responsible for getting all of the planets in the Zarkov sector (Yerek and Silox being two of the most populated) evacuated because of their transdimensional work. And boy does it show.

On both of those planets it highlights just how destered and hastily abandoned the planets are with old tables, luggage and working trams being dotted around

I do love the various pre recorded safety messages by Silox’s former mayor in the background but Yerek puts this into force the best with Ratchet exploring multiple small villages amidst random earthquakes caused by the Nethers crossing over and especially near the orphanage.

After defeating the first boss of the game, a random bomb throwing flame spouting robot (that unfortunately gets reused a bit too much for a short game), multiple walk paths emerge that look like small holographic picture books designed for children. They’re obviously damaged since the planet’s evacuation but it does lend into the horror like approach the studio wanted to explore here.

I think what also helps as well is that the game uses quite a lot of light purples for supernatural occurrences like the Nether beasts or when using the Grav-tether and light cyans for locations such as the water and buildings in Silox create a much more alien look for the series.

Now I’m aware that for a series involving walking cats and smack talking senteries that we already are discussing pretty alien by our normal boring real life standards, but I more so mean for the atmosphere created.

And the same also goes for the music too. Much like before I can’t really recall anything on the top of my head minus the main theme, the piece that plays during the Clank sections and smaller pieces like that but it does again aid to the ery direction being made here.

Although I will give a special highlight for the theme that plays during the opening tutorial on the Neublox. It’s a very short two minute piece but with enough of a foreboding but actually pretty wonderful showcase of the space environment around you as you see distant asteroids floating outside.

I’m actually kind of surprised the other games never aimed to explore the wonders of space with a sweeping score. But the emphasis on action and shooting could have made an impact on that feeling.

This was the first traditional Ratchet and Clank title in 4 years so I think it helps in easing older players back into their surroundings like trying on an old pair of shoes. It’s not really much and if you’re not just taking a moment to enjoy it like I was, you’d barely notice it but it’s still a nice piece.

Now I’ve never really had an issue with the way a game looks previously for this series but I think Nexus is a little harder to defend for given it’s short length.

Naturally by about the halfway point the Thugs end up being pushed to the side (or more rather completely scared shitless) because of the Nethers’ arrival but despite the change in minions, the Nethers themselves aren’t too different to the Thugs in actuality.

They may have different weapons and attack strategies, and especially much more resilient armour but they tend to have the same general body type as the thugs as well. Both sharing a kind medium-large body type and also having tails that are similar to the ones the Thugs’ have.

If you told me that the Nethers possessed the Thugs I would have taken your word for it given how similar they are in design. Except they’re wearing creepy light purple and also roaring at anyone who gets in their way.

Plus they also teleport around the field like the bigger Cragmites from TOD so I guess I can call them the most insignificant army the series has had so far.

Actually, why are only some Nethers like that big and others are as small as dogs? Is there an evolution chain? Hierarchy? Patriarchy- I’m sorry, I’m sorry, getting sidetracked here. Let’s just move onto the gameplay now, that’s certainly a bit more worthwhile.

Gameplay: Eh, a bit of everything why not?

Now I really don’t need to remind you of what the structure of each level for this series is like going forward so I’ll just cut to the most interesting stuff.

Due to the short length of the game, the team naturally had the ability to try out a handful of different gameplay styles that would probably need a bit more polish for a proper full length adventure.

First off are redesigned Mag-Boots sections. The Mag-Boots operate the same as they’ve always had with this franchise but in this game you are likely to come across several gaps in a walkway that you can’t get too naturally.

And how do you solve this? Why by leaping off of it Zero G style and landing onto it of course!

This feature is admittedly a very cool concept and just seeing Ratchet slowly drift towards a metal surface to walk over is actually pretty relaxing. But aside from the opening prologue, the feature is largely abandoned soon after with it propping up I believe on the final planet at the last minute. So not very fleshed out basically.

Then there’s the Grav-Tether, a device that allows for Ratchet to essentially make a bridge from two separate targets and magically float across them. It’s used for some interesting puzzles on Yerek when you first obtain it and it is pretty convenient that you just need to press Circle while pointing at a target to start the sequence.

But much like the gravity mechanics, it gets abandoned pretty quickly after the first planet and it does get a little bit confusing when trying to remember how to set it up. I always forget I’m supposed to launch my first target at the one nearest to me and the one I want to go to afterwards which was just very annoying for me especially when I’m timed in some sequences.

On top of that, through one of the branching paths of the story Ratchet becomes a contestant for the Thugs-4-Less’ Destructapalooza stadium (this game’s version of the arena battles) where he has to finish the bronze circuit to unlock a mandatory jetpack upgrade for Clank.

The jetpack is one of the best additions made to this game since at given moments, Ratchet can find fueling stations allowing him to soar above the opposition in a bit of aerial combat.

He can still use standard weapons like normal on the enemies from whatever height he’s at and there are some interesting ideas for exploration and sequences even if it’s just a much better version of Clank’s other jetpack sequences from Going Commando for as little as it’s used. See a pattern?

Then finally on the subject of him, Clank also has his Nether traversal gimmicks included too. These are the most interesting out of the new mechanics discussed so far as it brings back the gravity gimmick mentioned earlier to allow Clank to swap the direction of gravity using the right stick in some side scrolling setpieces.

I actually think this gimmick is a bit more interesting as it’s spaced out a lot between the different worlds compared to the other methods of breaking up the game on occasion but they do become very formaleic pretty soon.

First finding a rift, jumping into the rift to the Netherverse, finding a Nether in a cute little dog kennel, waking it up and finally leading it back to the real world and destroying the barrier in the way.

I mean they’re still interesting but they do get very tedious especially on the chase back where you’re trying to be mindful of the various hazards around you while a Nether is trying to bite your head off.

So combined all of these little gimmicks I couldn’t help but feel a sense of experimentation with them. I mean it helps that Nexus is a inherently smaller game but because of that, most of these ideas never grow beyond the basics once you’re done using them on the planet you find them on.

We do get some returning elements as always like the hunting missions where the dubious Smuggler character asks us to find some Gargathon horns for him to retrieve both our hoverboots from him and later access the section of the map we need to progress the story.

And yes I do mean retrieve because despite his word that he just so happened to have found a pair himself, really, he just has our original pair that were lost during the Nebulox explosion. Even the pair think so too.

But hey, what’s the point of hunting if we don’t have any guns for the occasion? And that’s as good of a segway as I can make to talk about the weapons.

As usual, we have a mixture of brand new and old weapons to mess around with like Mr. Zurkon and the Warmonger rocket launcher.. But we do largely get more new weapons this time around.

Like the Winterizer, a cryogenic weapon that not only freezes enemies after enough power but in the process, turns them into adorable little Snowmen as well. And the fact that this works on almost every grunt, seeing blades or rifles being turned into candy canes is just so adorable. Even if it clashes with the game tonally speaking.

By comparison, keeping in tone is the Nightmare Box. A distraction weapon similar to the Dopplebanger but with a monster inside. Like a mix between a jack-in-a-box, a Bogot from Harry Potter and evil clowns.

These additions on top of a small handful of other new weapons are all very exciting but again, because of the short length, you’re unlikely to get the most out of them in the long run.

Plus as well, likely because of the game’s length, all of the weapons can only be upgraded to level 3 while in a normal playthrough and no higher. And I would complain about this, but we do get the best usage of this scenario for the returning Mr. Zurkon.

At level 1, he still operates as normal, his trash talking and body protecting duties as standard. At level 2 though he gets his son Zurkon Jr. into the mix as help, while he talks about being given a “allowance of carnage” from his da and at level 3, Mrs. Zurkon joins in too! And she talks about how great it is for the family unit to be working together!

Without going on too much of a tangent, whoever came up with that idea, Nobel Prize winner I’m telling you.

Conclusion: Started with a bang, ended with a whimper

So, how do I overall find this outing in the series?

Well, if I had to be brutally honest, very forgettable.

At the time, reviewers of the game praised it for being a proper return to form for the series after some experimentation in co-op and tower defence aspects for the past two games but… did anyone not play far into the game?

There are a lot of ideas in this game that all feel undercooked in their own way, especially with some of the new additions like the Grav-Tether and Zero-g setpieces that quickly get brushed over like discarded tissue.

And I think before I make my final conclusion, I should probably say this:

At launch for the physical editions and a feature if you still buy digital, Nexus came with a bonus in the form of the entirety of Quest for Booty free of charge (it’s how I was able to play it for this review).

This game originally cost €30 when it was first published. And with that in mind, for €15, it’s definitely worth its price tag.

If you’re new to the series, the story might turn you off but if you say buy it preowned at a game shop, I think you’re likely to find some enjoyment out of it.

But in comparison to the other games in this series, no. It’s not worth it.

Watch the cutscenes online for the story of this game but everything else you can skip out on. I wouldn’t blame you.

First drafted May 1st 2021