Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus

It’s a perfectly serviceable adventure that you’ll play through with few frustrations, but will likely have forgotten by the following morning. Ratchet and Clank’s story ends, then, not with a bang, but with a half-hearted shrug.

Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus represents a decent—though overpriced—sendoff for the second generation of R&C action-adventure titles. Into the Nexus mostly plays it safe by remaining largely familiar, introducing only a few new mechanics that, while not overtly bad, seem underdeveloped and are definitely underused.

It offers scant few new ideas, but it's a great balance of fighting and puzzling and its humorous story still offers a really breezy diversion for as long as it lasts.

Ratchet & Clank: Nexus keeps playing with the typical gameplay of the Insomniac Games' series. The new elements provided by the Nexus are quite interesting, but the smaller levels along with the short story may be a problem for people interested in longer experiences. This game does worth your money, but you should wait for a price cut before giving it a try.

Ratchet and Clank: Nexus is a kind of mini Tools of Destruction and A Crack in Time. As Quest for Booty, this is a smaller game with reduced price, trying to offer the same whole essence of the series with half of the time.

Nexus is a title designed for the die-hard fans, that will also keep thinking that Ratchet & Clank would have deserved a better farewell at the end of this generation.

To conclude their futuristic series, Ratchet & Clank focuses on gravity, in both senses of the word. It is applied not only to the tone through a desolate world, but also to the gameplay mechanics. Although such experiments give more freedom to explore the environment and develop new puzzles, they are too limited and, therefore, overshadowed by the unbridled evolution of the arsenal. This relentless quest for power takes the main role into the Nexus, making up for the briefness of the adventure. Let's hope that the next generation will help Insomniac Games to really move forward with this proven, yet aging formula.

It’s funwhile it lasts, has some good ideas and shows that the series’ formula is still compelling. But after a five-year hiatus, it feels way too short.

A fitting miniature to end this generation. [Issue#143, p.106]

Yeah, it’s pretty short, but those are some good five hours that’ll remind you of why you fell in love with Ratchet and Clank in the first place. Its $30 / £20 price tag makes it a great incentive to pick it up, and it delivers what you’d expect from the series.

As a game in its own right, it feels short-changed and recycled for the most part – Fans of the series will likely bask in the familiarity of it, but ultimately Nexus is a hollow offering.

Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus is a short epilogue that may leave dedicated fans of the franchise a bit disappointed. Those that look past its length, however, will find an adventure worth having. The writing, humor and beloved characters are all there along with addicting classic Ratchet & Clank gameplay. Even with its flaws, you can’t really go wrong with this finale considering its low price tag.

The final Ratchet & Clank game on the Playstation 3 offers a couple of evenings of good entertainment. But aside from some new ideas everything is the same. It’s a nice send off for the series as a whole but not one that stands on its own in any particular way.

A good epilogue to a great trilogy. If only it wasn't so short.

It undoes some of the damage of the last few games, but taking the series back to its roots is an admission that Ratchet & Clank has done nothing but go in circles all generation.

Nexus is not the ending we all were hoping for. It's just a more of the same way less inspired than its predecessors. Still enjoyable for the hardcore fans of the franchise.

The budget price may still be a teensy steep for the rather slender running time, but the focused campaign and enjoyable action mean that this is certainly worth a punt if you’ve got the bolts to spare.

The Ratchet & Clank series has seen several iterations over the years, but the core gameplay loop of constant progress and upgrades remains as fun as ever. Insomniac just had to strip out some of the extraneous bits and give us a condensed version to show off how well it stands up.