Review: Secret Agent Clank

Secret Agent Clank is a platform game with stealth elements for the PlayStation Portable. It was developed by High Impact Games.

Clank getting through a series of security lasers with the help of a rhythm game.

Clank the robot is sent by the spy agency he works for to guard the Eye of Infinity. Clank arrives just in time to see the Eye stolen by his friend Ratchet. Knowing that his friend would never do such a thing, Clank decides to figure out who is really behind the theft.

Secret Agent Clank comes in three parts. The main portion of the game follows Clank as he goes to different planets to figure out who is behind the theft. On each planet Clank has to travel from one end of the level to the other. The player has two ways to handle a level; they can either fight the guards and death traps on each planet, or sneak past them.

For fighting, Clank has several weapons at his disposal, like a bomb launcher or a razor-blade tipped bow tie. Using these weapons nets the weapons themselves experience points, and eventually they level up and become stronger. But Clank’s health is really bad, so fighting enemies out in the open is a lot more dangerous.

For sneaking, Clank has a gadget that clan block lasers, can knock out enemies from behind if sneaks up on them, another gadget that can disguise Clank as an enemy, and some levels have costumes he can hide in. Whenever Clank sneak attacks a guard, fools a guard with his disguise, and if he makes it through an area undetected, he gets a long life bar. But sneaking takes longer than fighting and requires more patience.

It is interesting the way gives pros and cons for both options, and it is nice that the game gives the player and option, and makes a good argument for both options and does not favor one highly over the other. There is a problem though near the end of the game when the levels just have so many enemies that it is impossible to sneak past them, forcing the player to fight.

The second part follows Ratchet as he fights off enemies while in prison. This part is like previous Ratchet and Clank. The player selects an event that Ratchet has to fight in. The events are usually something like “Fight six rounds of enemies”, but almost always have an extra challenge, like fight enemies under a time limit or giant fireballs are flying around.

Like Clank, Ratchet has a several weapons he can use, like a bomb launcher or a shotgun. And like Clank if Ratchet uses the weapons enough they level up. It is not possible to just level up one weapon and rely on it, because there is not enough ammo scattered around the arenas.

These levels can be fun when using powerful explosive weapons to mow down waves of enemies, but it is a pain to level up the weapons evenly since several of the weapons are a pain to use.

Clank buys new weapons for himself and Ratchet with bolts. Bolts are found in boxes in Clank’s levels, or by completing arena challenges in Ratchet’s levels.

The third part follows Captain Quark as he goes to an area Clank has already been and tells his biographer made-up stories about fights he has been in. These are all boss fights or short levels with Quark shooting a blaster at enemies. These segments are oaky, but nothing would be lost if they were removed and just shown as cut scenes.

Clank has three additional level types. In one he controls a vehicle and races to the end of a level while smashing enemy vehicles with his car’s weapons. The second level has three robots which the player uses to activate switches. Levels like these have switches that one robot has to hold down, that create a platform for the other robots to cross to activate others switches, or some variation like that. Both have additional levels the player can participate in for more bolts. Bother are pretty easy, but the races can be fun while the robots are not that interesting.

There are also rhythm game segments where the player has to press buttons to a music beat. These are awful because they do not line up with the music and the indicator to press the square button looks like the indicator to press the circle button.

The story is a spy movie homage. It is okay, but not memorable. It probably will not make sense to anyone who has not played previous Ratchet and Clank games. At least the voice acting is decent, the cut scenes look good, and it can be funny at times.

Secret Agent Clank gets credit for doing something new with the Ratchet and Clank series, and making it fun. Anyone who enjoys the regular series should enjoy this too.