The Ratchet & Clank games today stand on the shoulders of a giant, and that giant is Going Commando. So many of the features which we now consider standard in a Ratchet game originated here. Just to list off a bunch, Going Commando introduced all of these:

• Weapons upgrading through use
• Bolt multiplier in Challenge Mode
• Quick-select pausing the game
• Nanotech burst
• Spherical micro-planets
• Arena challenges
• Dedicated space combat levels
• Strafing!!

It isn’t until you go back to Ratchet 1 and 2 that you realize how many of these features were not in the original game. Even knowing the limited nature of the original, I thought that maybe each game in the series introduced some new mechanics and improvements gradually, but I was wrong. By and large, 90% of what mechanically makes a modern Ratchet & Clank game was introduced by Going Commando.

For all of these contributions, Going Commando deserves its praises. Fifteen years ago, when I first finished playing through all the Ratchet & Clank games, the common consensus among fans seemed to be that Ratchet & Clank 1 started it all and Going Commando set the template, but the “best” game in the series was either Up Your Arsenal or one of the Future games. These days, it seems the opinion has swung around, and there’s now a strong push that the true masterpiece is either Going Commando, or Deadlocked.

Dialectics of Design

What’s interesting is that those two games being the fan-favorites actually highlights the core dialectical conflict that seems to have pervaded the entire series. Is Ratchet & Clank a platformer with some shooting, or a third person shooter with some jumping?

In the original Ratchet & Clank, you had guns, but they didn’t upgrade, and mainly served as various tools you might use to handle particular enemy arrangements in specific level designs. With the lack of strafing, your limited ability to aim while also moving meant that you need to be very methodical in how you attack and how you avoid damage. The weapons were not an arsenal allowing you to switch to whatever you felt like using in the moment; rather, each weapon had a very specific use case, and you’d use the one that best suited that scenario. The Pyrocitor flamethrower could be used while spinning to quickly dispatch weak, swarming enemies. The Agents of Doom could be thrown into a room while you take cover and watch them thin the opposition, making it easier for you to storm in and pick off the rest. The Blaster was useless on any moving platform, but it let you handle the tougher flying enemies that your other weapons couldn’t target. It was a level-design first approach, where combat was more of a puzzle to be solved, and the planet itself was the challenge in front of you.

You can see an interplay between the weapons and the level design as a result. The limited effectiveness of the weapons meant that your positioning and dodging were always key, and this was usually accomplished with skillful movements and jumping. The weapons not being easy to use meant even the combat was testing your platforming ability.

From Up Your Arsenal onwards, the weapons were much stronger, and the physical terrain of the combat encounters become much simpler, usually just being one or two pieces of cover and not much platforming within the combat. The simpler layout of battle encounters meant it was essentially a shooting gallery, and the effectiveness of each weapon meant combat was no longer a lock-and-key puzzle but rather an expressive dance where you are dodging enemy attacks while firing back with whatever set of explosive weapons you feel like using in the moment. Where combat was an obstacle in the original to be reasoned about and solved, it instead became the meat-and-potatoes in UYA, the focus and spectacle of the game. Platforming starts to take a backseat to the destruction and mayhem. UYA doesn’t even have any grinding sections! One of the most identifiable Ratchet platforming components was entirely missing, and while that could be due to the rushed timeline for the game’s development, it ends up also being an interesting case study on how the games changed over time.

Going Commando finds itself at the meeting point of these two dialectical forces. For many, this is exactly why it is great. It has a much stronger set of weapons than the original, and introduces strafing, meaning it is much easier to enter a combat scenario, and reliably target enemies while also constantly avoiding damage by jumping. This game absolutely sets the template moving forward for how it should feel to fire a gun or throw a bomb in a Ratchet game. The absolute core gameplay loop of every subsequent Ratchet game to me is “holding strafe while firing a gun at the enemies, while side-jumping to avoid damage. Switch weapons when you run out.” We have reached that point, and we will not deviate much from it moving forward in the series.

At the same time, the layouts of environments still have that character and “belongingness” of the first game. The progression through each level feels natural and true to that planet. None of the combat room layouts feel purely utilitarian. When you are in a combat encounter, everything just unfolds so naturally, and GC puts you in that flow state of platforming and gunplay that we all expect from these games.

So, on this micro-level per-encounter basis, Going Commando is clearly this launching pad where the old Ratchet steps on, and is sent flying into his future iterations. The moment-to-moment combat gameplay has already reached its final form here. However, you can see these elements we’ve just discussed extend outwards and influence the design of the entire planets themselves. The shifting emphasis from platforming to combat as the series progresses causes a resultant shift from branching-path design to a much more linear planet design from here on.

In the first two games, as soon as you land on a planet, you’d be presented with 2 to 4 distinct paths to take, each having its own distinct set of challenges. Path 1 might be a combat-based gauntlet, Path 2 is a puzzle-solving path involving a gadget, Path 3 is a platforming course, and maybe Path 4 is for an optional item or side-quest. Of course, you won’t know which path is which until you follow them to the end. As an example, let’s take Planet Oozla from Going Commando.

One path takes you through a series of water bodies you need to cross by jumping on the backs of these Lapras-like swamp creatures and eventually gets you the Dynamo gadget and the Megacorp Outlet entrance. Another path involves fighting hostile swamp creatures on the way to a stranded Megacorp scientist who gives you the Tractor Beam. The third path then requires this Tractor Beam to gain entry into the Megacorp Outlet. Depending on the order you do them in, you might even need to backtrack once you have the necessary gadgets.

In the original game and in this game, this is the norm. Just about every level presents you with at least two paths, and you never know which one leads where until you traverse them. After Going Commando, the series took a much more linear approach to planet designs. You’d now head down a single path, where you’d be confronted with large cohorts of enemies, effectively a shooting gallery for you to cycle through your weapons, strafing and jumping along in a series of explosions. You go from Point A to Point B to Point C to the end of the level, exactly in that order.

Take a look at the map for Metropolis in UYA, a returning city from the first game which is now re-designed. In this new iteration, it’s a single path, thoroughly packed with tough enemies for you to unload your weapons on. I choose this level especially because it is one that previously had multiple paths in the original game.

Now, the point here is not to say one is better than the other. In fact, each style of level design reinforces the gameplay focus it is paired with. The branching path design accentuates the puzzle-platformer approach of its games by presenting the player with two or three different sets of platforming courses and enemy placements within the same planet’s aesthetic, testing how the player can adapt the skills they’ve practiced to these different looks. On Oozla, one path tests how well you’re able to jump across small streams to the next piece of solid land while fighting off the snail and crab enemies that jump out to surprise you. In another path, you are tested on jumping from one moving platform to another moving platform, all while keeping an eye out for hidden side paths with extra goodies to collect. Then, the last path tests your ability to do all those previous things, but now also combining them with the usage of the Dynamo and Tractor Beam devices to activate and position new platforms as you jump. By the end of Oozla, you’ve demonstrated your ability to string together at least three different platforming mechanics while still shifting smoothly into simple gunplay between each platforming challenge.

In contrast, UYA and Deadlocked want to test your combat abilities. How well can you bob and weave through incoming enemy projectiles and melee attacks, while also strategically deploying your own passive turret and minion weapons in conjunction with your active firing weapon? The individual combat “rooms” generally give you a flat terrain and basic cover, a blank canvas which gives you the freedom to choose how you want to set yourself up in that arena. The linear level design gives the designers a way to control your experience so they can present you with a meticulously-designed series of encounters in sequence. The developers know you will enter Encounter 1 first, then Encounter 2 and 3 and 4, in that order. You are not going to Path 1, then back to the hub to reload and regroup, then Path 2, etc. The linear level design enforces continuity. This means they can test how well you manage your ammo throughout the gauntlet, how well you choose which weapons to save for the end and which ones you use immediately, and how you manage your health throughout it all. The platforming now serves as a small respite between these encounters, allowing you to take stock of your health and ammo, or just admire the scenery for a second before jumping back into the action.

Once again, Going Commando finds itself in that comfortable meeting point of these two planet-design philosophies. Yes, Oozla has multiple paths testing different platforming abilities, but you still get these battle gauntlets in planets like Yeedil and Snivelak. Sometimes, even within the same path on a planet, you get both a battle gauntlet AND a platforming gauntlet (e.g. Planet Barlow). Both types of fans are able to get their fix here in spades.

And this point about linearity isn’t just in terms of “branching paths vs. single path” within a single planet — the same linearity presents itself across the planets as well. In GC and Ratchet 1, you might go down one path on a planet, and find out halfway through that you’re blocked because you don’t have a specific gadget which would allow you to continue. You would then leave and explore a different planet and acquire that gadget, and be sent on this mini-Metroidvania style backtracking side-quest, unlocking areas of planets you already visited. In later games, you’re given no real reason to revisit a prior planet beyond rounding up any collectibles you might’ve missed. Going Commando is the last game where we see this kind of pattern, again making it this transitory game where we see the franchise shifting from its initial form to its current one.

Truly, you can see inside Going Commando the refined DNA of the original, but also the seeds of what came after. The non-linear level design exists alongside the expanded arsenal and mechanical depth of the later games. So, the best of both worlds, right? Many would say so, and that’s pretty much why many position this game as the best in the series.

Bigger, and Better?

However, unfortunately, I think this hybrid state is a gift and a curse for Going Commando. When it came out, it was absolutely “bigger and better” in every single way. The worlds were larger and more complex, and the weapons arsenal was more expansive and varied, and can now be upgraded into mega versions through use. All the weapons from the original game return alongside the new ones. There’s two battle arenas, multiple space ship combat sections, and you can even upgrade your ship now. Awesome!

But that’s looking at it solely from what it was when it came out. The problem with playing it now is that every single thing it introduced has become so thoroughly part of Ratchet & Clank as a series, and this game can’t be said to do any of those things better than other games. If you want a breadth of weapons and a depth in mechanics, UYA has an upgrade system that modifies the weapon at every single level, and Deadlocked has a weapon mod system introducing more customization than any other game in the series. If you want the non-linear levels with puzzle-like weapons and anti-capitalist satire, the original is your best bet. If you want story-telling, the Future series easily clears this one.

Going Commando is truly a jack of all trades, master of none. Which is a very sad and unfair thing to say, because it pretty much invented most of those trades. It laid something like 80% of the groundwork for the whole series, to the point where every game after can just be viewed as fine-tuning one thing or another. But ultimately, everything that could make GC special is now done better in another game, leaving GC as just a very good Ratchet game. It’s quite complete, but it lacks a differentiating factor for me. 

The levels here are well-designed but aesthetically I find them very unmemorable. There are too many levels here that are heavily factory/city themed and they all blend together in my memory as one uniform grey-blue metallic blur. Snivelak, Boldan, Yeedil, Canal City, Endako all feel like riffs on the same industrial setting that lack their own unique character.

There are TWO snow planets, and two “collect crystals” levels. The ship segments all suck IMO and when paired with the “collect crystals” levels, they are just padding and always ruin the vibe for me, even though they might be useful for farming and leveling up weapons. It’s a shift in pacing that sometimes feels good before going back to plot, but most often I just want to skip them. I ALWAYS go “aw man” when the game decides to break my forward momentum with one of these forced diversions — I just want to get to the next planet and explore.

The levels which do stick in my memory are Joba, Dobbo, and Oozla, mainly because they have a splash of color by comparison. That being said, Oozla is like Aridia and Joba/Dobbo are like Eudora aesthetically. All in all, I think GC might have the worst selection of levels aesthetically, just largely forgettable. A lot of these were like “OH YEAH this planet, it’s coming back to me” but then I’ll forget them in a year. In contrast, I feel Ratchet 1 has iconic level after iconic level, all with such lush aesthetic design, making them each distinct and personable.

I do like how you can carry over the weapons from the previous game, but those are almost entirely useless because they are weak and you can’t upgrade them. I do feel this was an intentional commentary on how outdated Gadgetron devices are in the world of Megacorp, but it doesn’t do much to salvage the actual disappointment of using these weapons. They are pretty much a novelty that you’ll never really make use of (save for the Visibomb gun). The new weapons are effective and fun, yes, but not many were very interesting. Beyond the Bouncer, I don’t think this game particularly has any “awesome” weapons creativity-wise. Usefulness is not awesomeness. Mini-turrets and mini-rockets are very useful, powerful weapons, but at the end of the day they’re just turrets and rockets. They can’t compare to something like the Rift Inducer or Plasma Whip in UYA, which feel unique either mechanically or aesthetically.

Additionally, I did notice that this game is pretty stingy with XP — I always felt pressure to use a weapon only enough to upgrade then pretty much bounce off and switch to another weapon to ensure I get the XP on it. This meant my combat was less expressive and more utilitarian and restricted. But this stinginess in XP does make the game more challenging. The game shines in this challenge, it makes it so there are sections where you genuinely need to use all your weapons, even the upgraded ones. At times, it gets frustrating, but I’d mainly chalk that up to me going for the 100% and trying to optimize my weapon-leveling.

The plot is meh and insignificant. But I do mean the PLOT, meaning the story and the characters involved. Angela is cool but pretty much gets dumped after this game. The whole protopet and Qwark story pretty much has no impact on the rest of the series and is never mentioned again really. But I do LOVE the theming: corporations suck, and the game is directly vocal about capitalism, even calling Megacorp “imperialistic eco-fascism” which is a W in my book for any game. The themes are fire, the actual plot is just very inconsequential.

However, in comparison to the rest of the series, I just feel like this game aesthetically falls short. It invested a lot in mechanics and that paid off, but I’d describe Going Commando as doing all the ground-work but being out-shined in each aspect by other games. The skeleton is fully functional, but the later games have better outfits on. This game’s palette is just very grey and brown, which isn’t what I want in a platformer, and especially not for Ratchet.

As a Ratchet game: 7/10.

–Find a spot to say that ratchet 2 strikes the balance between platforming and gunplay