In previous games, Ratchet and Clank were on their own, doing things for the benefit of the universe, but still all by their lonesome. Competing in another hoverboard race, or an arena match to get some extra scratch and maybe buy a nice weapon upgrade made sense. In this game, if I just completed a vehicle section to escape the clutches of some evil robot, why would I want to do it again, even if I was rewarded with more money? If Ratchet just had to go through eight rounds of every convict in prison trying to tear him a new one, why would I want to subject him to further abuse just for more cash? Isn't that kind of mean? And if Clank runs the Agency, and the Agency can drop him new gadgets and weapons whenever the plot requires it, why does he need to buy ammo at all? Why not just get an ammo drop and be on his way?

Ok, so maybe I'm nitpicking. Maybe I'm overanalyzing things. I'll cop to that, but all I know is that by the time I got to the multi-stage boss battles with no continue points in between, and I had to full out blast my nemesis with weak weaponry when all game long I'd been encouraged to sneak around foes, I was ready for the game to be over. Call it what you want, but that's never a good sign.

You know…this talk has really helped me figure out just why this game didn't do it for me. Maybe you won't be bothered by the same things that bothered me. Maybe Secret Agent Clank scratches that Ratchet and Clank humorous blasting itch for you. For me it didn't. Too much repetition, too much stealth and too little story flow left me cold.

In short, the game bugs me, but at least now I know why.

Questions or comments? We'd love to hear from you .