Gaming With Heather: 'Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus' Demo

I had the opportunity to attend The Escapist Expo in Durham, North Carolina this year. It was my first year attending so I wasn’t sure what to expect from the Expo or even what we would see. Insomniac Games was a sponsor of the convention and I was curious to see what kind of presence they would have since they have a studio located in Durham. If you are not familiar with Insomniac Games, the studio has produced some amazing PlayStation franchises like Ratchet & Clank, Resistance, and the original Spyro the Dragon. To my surprise, the studio had a large booth dedicated to their upcoming title Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus. At the booth they had several stations where you could play a demo of Into the Nexus. Being a fan of the series, I jumped at the opportunity to play the game before it is released and I even scored a really cool poster for completing the demo.

Everything I’ve heard about Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus mentions the game’s return to the classic gameplay that Ratchet & Clank fans know and love. It would seem that they pulled elements from previous games and the result is a ver story driven adventure. It is still packed with Into the Nexus is also packed with some new weapons, like the Winterizer, and some fantastic Clank specific trips into The Netherverse.

Although the demo didn’t dive too much into the story for obvious reasons, it gave us a pretty good glimpse as to what we can expect. What we do know is that the villains, Vendra Prog and her brother Neftin, escape while they are being transported to the Vartax Detention Facility and leave Ratchet and Clank stuck in an abandoned area of the galaxy.

The demo took me a little over twenty minutes and featured some of the newer aspects of the game along with some new weapons, and old favorites. Some of the weapons that made an appearance were Fusion Grenades and the Vortex Cannon. The Vortex Cannon is a new addition to the game, and does exactly what you would think. Another new gadget introduced in the demo is the Gravity Tether, which allows you to connect two points with a gravity beam that you use to travel across areas. The actual application of the Gravity Tether is a little more complicated, as it requires you to tether several points that are also connected to timed levers.

One of the more impressive and unique features of the game is The Netherverse, which can only be accessed with Clank through Rifts in the walls. The Netherverse transforms the game into a beautiful 2D side scroller. In these levels, Clank solves puzzles and manipulates gravity to lead Nethers, the indigenous creatures of the planet, back to the rifts to seal them shut. This section of the demo was easily my favorite and I thought The Netherverse was visually pretty stunning.

Overall, I thought the demo was fantastic and I was impressed with some of the new key features of the game. More specifically, I enjoyed the use of the Gravity Tether and The Netherverse levels. It only gave a small taste of the story to come, but I think fans of the series will be quite satisfied with Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus. The game will be released at a lower price point of $29.99 and will be perfect to hold gamers over until the new PlayStation 4 drops later in November.

Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus will release in stores and on the PlayStation Network on November 12th, exclusively for the PlayStation 3. All physical copies of the game will include a voucher code for the download of Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty.

Also check out the fantastic preview of Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus from PAX Prime: 2013 by Brien Bell here on SRN!