Ratchet & Clank: Before the Nexus - Multiplayer.it

Ratchet and Clank make their debut on iOS and Android with an endless run that acts as a companion app for the latest episode

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Thomas Pugliese

Tested version: iOS (1.0)

terminal used: iPhone 5s

Price: Free

App Store Link:

Link

Google Play

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Free Game of the Week is the appointment of Multiplayer.it that, every Saturday, puts the spotlight app for iPhone downloaded at no cost. Not necessarily new titles or labels of the first floor but rather simply products that deserve to be taken into account. Even more so if you do not have to shell out a penny.

The experiment is not new, see Knack’s Quest last month, and could be repeated more often in support of new titles for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. We’re talking about the concept of “companion app”, a mobile application that interfaces in various ways with the game on which it is based, and allows its have fun in an alternative way, while gaining extra items that can then be synchronized. In the case of Knack was a puzzle game in style match-3, far from the wicked but decidedly short and facilotto, while for Ratchet & Clank: Nexus Sony has decided to explore a genre particularly difficult and inflated as that of the endless run , releasing on the App Store and Google Play Ratchet & Clank precisely this: Before the Nexus. References to the PS3 game are numerous, from the setting to the characters, but the mechanics are different: yes we will play as Ratchet, but instead of ourselves with a third-person action game our goal will be to cover the tracks, wide areas futuristic scenarios and trying to get as far away as possible and defending ourselves from the attack of various types of enemies.

runs, jumps, flies, that horse that has

mobile arena we have now seen all that the running game has to offer, including the securities in which you also have to run over to shoot. This type of solution has been adopted by Imangi Studios for Temple Run: Rebel, a spin-off based on the

Pixar animated film, however, did not constitute a pillar of the gameplay and indeed was a simple way, due to the need to include references to feature that, in that particular case, he saw the protagonist expert in archery. Shoot was significantly more frequent in Run’n'Gun, for one thing, but in Ratchet & Clank: Before the Nexus this interpretation is unfortunately gone butting with a series of problems not of little account. First, the developers have decided to opt for a display in landscape mode, with the device horizontally, which is really odd for an endless run where you have to avoid obstacles and thus be able to see as far as possible to prepare his maneuvers. Secondly, the touch control system is often confusion between change of “binary”, and will leap to open fire at a target. This means that during the most hectic, for example when the screen faces a boss, it becomes really difficult to coordinate actions and avoid accidentally move where instead is directed to the opponent’s attack. We add to this huge mess the “sudden death” typical of this kind of products and the pie is served. A little while interesting serve upgradeable weapons if the application does not reflect correctly the input, asking a precision impossible to provide in such a situation. It’s not over: the tracking system implemented in Ratchet & Clank: Before the Nexus works with the touch of the target that we want to hit. It goes without saying that if you have multiple opponents will be forced to take up with your fingers the top of the display, which will cover us with respect to the visual obstructions or to the same enemy fire. A disaster means, in short, that we do not doubt this will be fixed with some updating but, right now, seriously undermines the enjoyment of a title available free of charge, which for technical realization and structure could have his say in spite of the fierce competition.

Thomas Pugliese

Pro

• Great graphics, decent sound

• Beautiful

  the system to upgrade the weapons

• boss fight make it more varied action

Cons

• Extremely confusing when it comes to shoot

• control system touch unreliable

• The view does not lend itself to the type of game

Ratchet & Clank: Before the Nexus - Multiplayer.it