Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One
Overview
Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One is the first four-player cooperative game in the Ratchet & Clank franchise. All 4 One will on drop-in drop-out online play and will need to work together to use weapons and solve puzzles in the game. Characters that will be playable are protagonist Ratchet, Deuteragonist Clank, Tritagonist Captain Qwark and even Antagonist Doctor Nefarious.
Development
A rumor of a new Ratchet & Clank game was started when the voice actor of Clank, David Kaye revealed in August of 2010 that Insomniac Games had hired him to do some voice work for a new Ratchet & Clank. Later, during Sony's press conference at Gamescom, president and CEO of Insomniac Ted Price officially announced the game. The game is being developed by Insomniac's new studio in North Carolina.
September 14, 2011 saw the launch of a limited beta which featured two levels and number of new weapons like the Frost Cannon, Plasma Bomb Launcher and Warmonger. It allowed up to four players supporting offline and online and closed on September 27, 2011.
Gameplay
In teams of four or less players will work to overcome enemies and solve various puzzles throughout the level. They have a drop-in/drop-out system similar to the Guitar Hero series. A weapon every player has access to is called the "Vac-U" which allows players to launch each other into different puzzles and thus solving them. Aside from being co-operative there is also a competitive aspect in the forms of bolts and enemies defeated. By collecting the most bolts and defeating the most enemies the player can try to get a higher score then their peers.
If players die they receive a 40 bolt penalty and be revived in a few seconds but have a chance to be revived by a partner before passing on. If all players are eliminated though, they will all be respawned at the last checkpoint.
Story
All 4 One takes place during the original series and not the Future series. Problems arise when Dr. Nefarious conjures up an evil plan that goes horribly wrong. The resulting chaos causes our heroes Ratchet and Clank to be trapped in a strange machine along with Captain Qwark and Dr. Nefarious himself. As a result, the four characters are forced to work together in order to figure out what's going on and how to escape from the machine.
Special Edition
In the UK Ratchet & Clank All 4 One received a Special Edition which includes a 3D lenticular cover and bonus content that are 4 extra skins for each character, 4 weapons called "Mr. Zurkon", "Pyro Blaster", "T-Rex Morph" and "Sheepinator Morph" and also 4 PSN Avatars and a dynamic theme.
