Things start off with Ratchet and Clank lamenting their heroic lifestyle. Both wish for a more relaxed existence away from the death-defying stunts of their youth. But when their foil Dr. Nefarious shows up, the plot takes an unusual turn. Ratchet, Clank, Qwark, and Dr. Nefarious himself come face-to-face with a mysterious new threat, and soon they find themselves trapped on an alien world filled with some of the galaxy's most savage predators. They say desperate times call for desperate measures, so the three heroes (and villain) team up to save the universe.
Like the Ratchet & Clank games before it, All 4 One fuses a number of gaming traditions together and strings everything along with a comedic story. Throughout your quest, you'll leap across dangerous ravines, battle robo-minions, and solve puzzles. This time, however, you can do it all with up to three other friends, both online and locally.
Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One shines when its multiplayer components bubble to the surface. Some puzzles demand specific cooperation from the players, and some enemies can only be defeated with a united effort. These moments stand out and remind me that All 4 One is best experienced with a friend at your side.
This cooperative design explodes to the forefront during the optional side puzzles, which unlock based on the number of adorable critters you rescue throughout the story. These Portal-esque sequences require precise coordination and reward you with RYNO parts (the ultimate weapon in the franchise). I only wish more of these came packed into the experience, because they provided some of the most satisfying gameplay in the whole package.
Outside of these puzzles, the usual Ratchet traditions fuelled most of my addictive tendencies. Collecting bolts still drives me to destroy every crate and search around every corner. Finding bolts enables you to upgrade your arsenal of creative (and occasionally absurd) weapons, and it dictates the subtle, competitive element behind All 4 One.
During your quest, you'll be competing just as much as cooperating with your friends. Statistics such as bolts collected and enemies destroyed factor into each player's performance. At each checkpoint, you'll be graded based on these statistics and rewarded with additional bolts.
Going toe-to-toe with your best buddies provides its own sense of excitement, but the real fun of Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One comes from true cooperative play. Use the same weapon on the same target as your buddy and you'll build up an overload attack. These attacks decimate your enemies and dominate both screen and speakers with strong, satisfying cues. There's nothing quite as delicious as launching a series of missiles at your enemy with support from a friend and watching the results in slow-motion. Beautiful chaos, indeed.
Even though All 4 One provides four-player support from start to finish, I found my two-player sessions most enjoyable. When four people fill the screen with swarms of bullets and bombs, it's almost impossible to keep track of the mayhem. Two-player action, however, keeps the confusion to a minimum but retains the satisfaction of playing with a friend. Those of you that have a friend interested in playing All 4 One all the way through will likely have the best experience, especially if you're sharing a couch. And you'll have fewer people to compete with for bolts!
If you happen to play Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One solo, fear not: the AI-powered Clank keeps up well through thick and thin, and even helps solve puzzles with very little frustration. If I could hug this digital companion, I would.
Of course, adding in multiplayer to a formula optimized for single-player inevitably leads to a few hiccups, which you'll find in All 4 One. In order to facilitate four-player simultaneous co-op, Insomniac locked the camera into fixed positions, which suffocates compared to A Crack in Time. There's much less exploration here and even the combat loses some of the luster it had in Ratchet's previous adventure.
The lock-on system also aggravates from time-to-time, as there's no easy way to reset your weapon lock to match targets with your allies. Most of the time this isn't an issue, but a few frantic battles left my blood pressure running high as opposed to a smile on my face.
Read more on how I reviewed Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One.
