The Biobliterator threat is still out there, but it needs to recharge before it can fire again. That means this is our chance to take it out of the picture before it turns any more people into robots. Even more fortunate for us, there happens to be a gun big enough to destroy the device on-site.
So let’s finish this fight!
As much as I prefer Going Commando over Up Your Arsenal, it’s hard to deny that it has a much stronger finale than Going Commando did. Even with the best armor we could realistically buy without going into New Game Plus, enemies still deal a respectable amount of damage, and create a reasonable challenge without feeling too overwhelming. It feels like an appropriately scaled final push.
It’s also fun to see all the gadgets (sans the one-time use Warp Pad) make their way into the final push too. This is more or less the final “hoo-rah” for gadgets in the series going forward. As the franchise doubles down on its more combat-focused direction, gadgets take less of the focus. Aside from the Swingshot and Grindboots, which have become standard tools in Ratchet’s arsenal, most of these tools are just minigames that serve as brief distractions before we return to the real platforming/combat hybrid action he’s known for.
Part of this is due to the shift in design. You’ll have noticed even in this game that levels are far more linear than they were back in Going Commando or the original game. Players may not know which path in a level was the “correct” path, but they knew each of those paths led to otherwise worthwhile on the other end. When levels become more linear, there’s less reason to use gadgets as gates than ensure players have completed certain objectives before they can continue their adventures.
It’s all part of the series’s growing pains. As it settles into its niche, it learns a lot from the early experimentation it did in this trilogy.
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