With the remake of the first game on the way, I figured I would review this R&C game because I consider it to be the best in the series. Out of the PS2 games, this one definitely sticks out the most.
The game: Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando or Ratchet and Clank 2: Locked and Loaded if you live in Europe or Australia, is the second installment of this franchise. The game was made by Insomniac Games. This game introduced many new features that has been with the series ever since and many, including myself, consider this to be the best Ratchet and Clank game.
The story: Ratchet and Clank defeated Chairman Drek and are now considered heroes around the Solana Galaxy. They are being interviewed about their adventure when they are suddenly teleported to an unknown location somewhere by Abercrombie Fizwidget, boss of the Megacorp Corporation in the Bogon Galaxy. Megacorp is the big corporation kinda like Gadgetron from the first game that creates literally everything from household appliances to super insane weapons like the Zodiac. Mr Fizwidget explains to Ratchet and Clank that a top-secret experiment was stolen from Megacorp by The Masked Thief and he wants our heroes to get it back for him.
Mr. Fizwidget before he lost the experiment
The Masked Thief who is one of the main antagonists
But what does the experiment do? Well, we don’t know what it is other than its a small, furry animal that Mr. Fizwidget wants back super bad. I like how they decided to keep its purpose a secret until about halfway through the game when you meet up with Angela Cross, who ends up being the Masked Thief, and she’s a Lombax like Ratchet. This is the first time in the whole series that we see another Lombax up until the PS3 Ratchet and Clank games I believe where they go into the Lombax backstories some more. Angela is a really cool character and fits in with the whole situation as she’s working behind-the-scenes, giving Ratchet and Clank any information she can about the experiment. She also reveals that she used to work for Megacorp and knows what the experiment’s purpose is. Angela tells you that Megacorp is cloning the experiment, calling it “The Protopet” and selling the clones to the public as pets and the Protopets are extremely aggressive and attack their owners. This means that R&C must shut down Megacorp's mass production of the Protopet at all costs before planets get overrun by them. I remember a Jimmy Neutron special called “Attack of the Twonkies” and that special episode immediately reminded me of the Protopet from this game. I wonder if this game inspired the idea behind that episode but who knows.
Planet Damosel is one of the planets that is being overrun by the Protopets.
This is Angela, the first time we see another Lombax in the series. She's much taller than Ratchet and doesn't have a tail. Ratchet shows feelings for her and is surprised that she's able to hold her own. Unfortunately, this is the only game that has Angela in it. She does make an extremely small cameo in Up Your Arsenal but not until the ending.
One thing that caught me as a surprise as a kid was when in this game, you defeat a boss that feels like a final boss because it takes forever to kill him. When you beat him, it feels like the game is over but nope, you get to go to a few more levels and get to blow more stuff up and explore. The way they did this was pretty neat and makes the game even longer.
The new characters that Ratchet and Clank encounter on their journey are all awesome and I’ve already talked about how Angela is a great character. My favorites have to be The Mathematician who talks in sentences using Math puns with words like reduce, divide, and subtract to describe how Ratchet will lose in a battle. Another is the Mystic who is a peculiar character that believes “Forces” are in all things. And last but not least, Slim Cognito is one of the coolest characters, mainly because he sells you weapon mods. Some characters from the first game like the RYNO guy and Plumber make an appearance that will sell you some important items. Meeting characters like these make me appreciate the development behind them. Insomniac has a great way to make characters that make short cameos last forever in your memory.
Skip to 5:15 to see the cutscene with the Plumber. He breaks the fourth wall by saying "See ya in another year or so!" and what do you know, Up Your Arsenal came out a year later and the Plumber is in that game too.
As for the humor in Going Commando, they made this game really funny. There's a scene where Angela says "Alright just what the fuck is going on? You can clearly tell she said "Fuck" but they censor it by putting a black bar over her mouth and bleep it out. That part makes me laugh every time and totally catches you by surprise the first time. Where as the first game had humor, it was also kind of a bit serious in my opinion but I guess it made sense because of the plot and character development. It was still great but I wish it was funnier. Going Commando has much more adult humor in it, there are a couple of fourth-wall breaks that always makes me laugh, and the various parodies of real-life companies and people is done so well. The commercials for the Arena Battles are probably some of the best cinematics that Insomniac has created. They’re over-the-top and ridiculous and I love them.
The Arena battle cutscene is at 5:30. Watch it, you won't regret it.
Gameplay: For the second installment of the series, Insomniac really went all out with this game by adding a TON of new gameplay features that weren’t present in the first game. Some of it was done really well like the Arena Battles and Hoverbike races. Others, like the space battle missions, weren’t done that great and could have been improved on. Some of these gameplay features are why Going Commando is my favorite because there’s just so much stuff to do in this game.
The HUD is more easily recognizable and looks overall better in this game than the first. The top left is your weapon and ammo, the top-middle is your Nanotech, and the top right is the amount of bolts you have. The Quick-Select menu is back and now the game pauses whenever you bring up the menu to select your weapon or gadget.
- Ratchet plays very similar to how he did in the first game but the controls and the way he moves is vastly improved in this game so much. Ratchet runs faster, reacts faster, his double jump is much higher, and swings his wrench faster and harder too. Also we can strafe as Ratchet now which makes the gun play so much better.
- The weapons in Going Commando are my favorite from the whole series by far. All of them feel super powerful and deadly every time you pull the trigger. Where the first game focused more on the gadgets, this one definitely focused more on the weapons and they did an amazing job at designing them. Some notable favorites of mine were the Mini-Nuke, Plasma Coil, Lava Gun, Bouncer, and of course the RYNO II. This game is very generous when it comes to finding ammo too as the game will always replenish ammo for the weapons that need it most. The wrench gets some love too as Ratchet will find more powerful wrenches as the game goes on.
The Plasma Coil/Plasma Storm is one of the best weapons to be introduced to the series.
- Every weapon you get gains experience for every enemy you destroy. If you fill the experience bar for a weapon, it upgrades and becomes even more powerful than before. Also, you can visit Slim Cognito’s vendor to buy specific weapon modifications like a Shock Mod, Acid Mod, or Lock-On mod to make your weapons even better. This is a feature that was first introduced in this game and has remained in all future titles of the series.
For example, this is the Lancer. You start the game off with this gun.
When you upgrade it, it becomes the Heavy Lancer. It has a faster rate of fire and holds more ammo.
- The game has upgradable health too. Not only does your weapon gain experience but your Nanotech does too. If you fill the Nanotech experience bar, you gain 1 extra bar of health and everything explodes around you when that happens. There are Nanotech Boosts hidden around certain levels and when you find these, your Nanotech instantly gets 1 bar. This is also another feature that was introduced in this game and also remained in all future titles.
Nanotech Boosts will automatically increase your nanotech by 1 health bar.
- For the first time in the series, you can buy armor for Ratchet. Although not available until about half-way through the game, buying armor in this game is definitely a must as enemies will continue to get more powerful. The way of acquiring armor in Ratchet and Clank games has evolved over the years from simply buying it to searching for it on random planets. The best armor in the game, the Carbonox Armor, will resist 90% of incoming damage to Ratchet and that is insane.
The badass-looking Carbonox Armor and its yours for just the low price of 1,000,000 bolts.
- Ratchet’s ship is playable and upgradable too. Every once in a while, you’ll be thrown into a space battle mission, and some of them are okay I guess, they’re not the best. Some of these are mandatory and you must complete them in order to progress. Don’t expect Ace Combat level of controls here as it may take a few times to get used to them. The enemy ships are always on your ass its annoying. I hated these at first but once you upgrade the ship, you become unstoppable. The ship has missiles, torpedoes, mines, and a nuke device for the weapons. You can also upgrade the shields, engines, and add custom paintjobs to it. You can even change the design of the nose and wings too. You upgrade the ship with Raritanium you collect by blowing up asteroids and enemy ships.
Space Battles look something like this. Your ammo is in the top left of the screen. The ship's health is in the top-middle. The boost is in the top right and the bars under the ammo and boost are your shields.
- One of the most important features of this game is the Arena Battles. You pick the challenge you want to do and if you complete it, you’ll win the award of bolts or other equipment. Some Arena battles are story-driven so you have to do them. Once you finish, you can keep doing more battles or leave, its up to you to decide. You can always come back and do these later to get extra bolts. The arena battles consist of horde-mode style combat with waves of enemies and sometimes they’ll change it up like destroy 90 enemies in 90 seconds or beat a boss without taking a hit. Some of these are really fun and getting extra bolts is always nice. The Arena Battles was an excellent addition to this series and I’m glad they added these because it gives the player more stuff to do. The game Ratchet: Deadlocked was designed solely around Arena-Battle gameplay and objectives, that’s how much its had an impact on this series when it had a whole game made for it.
A picture of Ratchet fighting the B2 Brawler, a boss in one of the Arenas. Fighting the B2 Brawler and other Arena bosses are all optional and you can come back to do them whenever you like.
- This game has two-sandbox type levels where you explore and find crystals. I loved that they did this as you explore the level to find these crystals in a limited open world level, something that has probably never been done before in a game like this and the sense of scale really kicks in when you’re traversing these open maps. You collect these crystals and bring them back to the Mystic to earn bolts. There are 100 for each level and trust me, gathering all of them is totally worth it.
Finding crystals in the Tabora desert and finding moonstones in the frozen wastes on Grelbin is totally worth it. Just watch out for the monsters and other creatures that guard them.
- They brought back the hacking puzzles from the first game but made them so much more better. The Trespasser puzzle from the first game was monotonous and tedious. It took FOREVER to do those puzzles. Luckily in this game, the puzzles are much more quicker and won’t leave you vulnerable to enemy fire like the Trespasser did.
- And the last new thing they added is the Hoverbike races. Like with the space battles, these take a couple tries to get used to. These can be fun to do when you master the controls and you get extra bolts by doing it too. There’s a bunch of different challenges for the Hoverbike races like the Arena battles. With these races and how they are, it kinda feels like Mario Kart sometimes because you can pick up turbos and weapon powerups to gain an edge over your opponents.
Graphics: The graphics for this game are surprisingly pretty damn good in my opinion. Ratchet is more fleshed out so is Clank. Levels and environments are much more beautiful and the artists did an excellent job at creating all kinds of places for you to explore and blow up. One thing I love that they did was that every time you arrive at a planet, you get a really big wideshot view of the level. It just makes the game much more atmospheric like that and its something I wish more games had.
These are the types of shots I'm talking about:
Also the level designers really made it seem like you really were in a different galaxy. I don’t know how to explain it but you definitely get a different feel with the Bogon Galaxy than you do with the Solana Galaxy. The planets in the Bogon Galaxy were darker and not as bright as the ones from the Solana Galaxy. Planets like Snivelak and Notak in this game especially are dark and gritty.
Soundtrack: This game has one of my favorite OSTs of all time. Every song is beautiful and fits every level perfectly, especially the Arena Boss music. Oh my god that tune man, there is literally no other song that fits a situation more perfectly than that piece. David Bergeaud is such an underrated composer. It’s a shame that he doesn’t do the music for these games anymore. I'll link the songs that stand out the most below.
This track is one of my favorites to listen to. Listening to this with headphones is truly an experience.
This is the Arena Boss music and its soooooo good.
Another great track to listen to.
This song is so epic.
Extra Content: Insomniac brought a ton of new gameplay features that were welcomed and to top that, they introduced even more bonus content than before.
- Challenge Mode is back and better than before. In Challenge Mode, you get a Bolt Multiplier in the top right of your screen. To increase the multiplier, you must destroy tons of enemies. The higher this multiplier is, the more bolts enemies drop. The max is x20 so you can become filthy rich very quick with this multiplier. Just make sure you don’t get hit because if you do, it gets reset back to x1. Also in Challenge Mode, you can re-buy your upgraded weapons and upgrade them again so they can become even more ridiculously powerful.
- Skill Points return and there’s more to get this time. Skill Points are used to a unlock cheats like all characters having big heads, Ratchet in a tuxedo, and playing as a Snowman. Skill Points also unlock different paintjobs to buy for Ratchet’s ship.
- One of my favorites is the Monsterpedia. When you kill an enemy, it is documented in the Monsterpedia and you can go to it any time and see the enemy’s stats and read their lore which will sometimes have some Insomniac humor in it. It also keeps track of how many of them you killed and trust me, the most you’re gonna kill are the Protopets and Y.E.T.I.s because they’re numbers are endless. This is the only Ratchet and Clank game that has this feature.
Some of the different types of enemies you encounter thanks to the Monsterpedia's information:
- There’s also other sections like the Monsterpedia that gives you information about your weapons, gadgets, and ship upgrades in almost the same way the Monsterpedia gives you information about enemies.
- There are posters of Jak and Daxter on Planet Damosel around the city and in Ratchet’s apartment on his TV there’s another picture of Jak and Daxter. I always thought that this was cool and showed how both Insomniac and Naughty Dog reference each other. Clank even does Daxter’s dance whenever you find this certain gadget in the game. It’s great.
Jak and Daxter on the TV in Ratchet's apartment
- The Insomniac Museum makes its debut in Going Commando and this has to be one of the coolest easter eggs in any game ever. You can only gain access to the Museum by finding a hidden teleporter at 3am on the PS2 clock on a certain date I think. You go through the actual offices of Insomniac and see all the content that was originally going to be in the game. You get to mess around with certain features like altering an explosion’s color and radius, drive around in vehicles that were cut, see enemies and environments that were gonna be in the game, and the developers even leave behind speech bubbles that tell you information about certain things in the game and tell you why they had to cut them. The only similar easter egg that I can think of that is like this is the Tribute Room from Reach. I wish more games had their own Insomniac Museum so you can see what the developers left behind for you to explore.
Final Verdict: 
Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando is easily one of my favorite games of all time. Everything about this game just feels right and has so much stuff to do in it its insane… and this is just the second game! A lot of people say out of all the PS2 Ratchet and Clank games, Up Your Arsenal is the best but no, Going Commando is superior to Up Your Arsenal in almost every single way. Up Your Arsenal has the better story and better villain (Dr. Nefarious) but Going Commando has the better weapons, better combat, much more side-missions to do, and of course has the better RYNO. Don’t get me wrong I still love Up Your Arsenal as its my second favorite, but Going Commando is the one I’m always coming back to. Like I said at the beginning, this is the most important game of the entire series and wouldn’t mind seeing a remaster. If they’re remastering/remaking the first game, why not remake this one too?
Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando, for me, is a 9.5/10. I just love this game so much man and have replayed through it about 12 times. There’s a certain feeling that this R&C game has that the others seem to lack.
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