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| Multiplayer battles can take place online or in splitscreen mode. |
The levels in the game are so well-designed that you are never forced to put up
with the genre’s clichés such as long jump sequences included because the
developers needed to pad out a game thin on gameplay. In fact, you’d almost
hesitate to call the game a platformer at all because it doesn’t really feel
like a platform game … especially since you spend so much time blasting every
enemy in sight. You’d be hard pressed to name a game out there with the number
of weapons you find in Up Your Arsenal, or at least with ones as imaginative. In
addition to a variety of energy and particle weapons, you can slap enemies with
a plasma whip, fry them to a crisp with reflected laser beams, suck them into
black holes, send a flurry of little robots after them, and even turn them into
sheep. You gain experience with each weapon the more that you use it, which will
let you level-up the weapons to even more powerful versions. With four upgrade
levels for each weapon, you get an amazing variety of firepower at your
disposal. And when you find yourself in a crunch for ammo, Ratchet still has his
trusty wrench which you can use to smash enemies. The battles can be a bit
tricky and your opponents will not just let you waltz through the level blasting
everything in sight. You’ll need to be smart and no when to take cover if you’re
to succeed.
The multiplayer side of the game seems to have had some influence on the single
player portion. The battle arenas are back after taking a hiatus in the second
game, giving you some sections of play that are all about the shooting. Also,
you’ll find points at which you must defend an area or fend off a wave of
attackers, sometimes fighting alongside of the robotic soldiers of the Galactic
Rangers.
OK, so the single player half of Up Your Arsenal is great, but what about the
much hyped multiplayer? Well, it is a blast. You’ve got all of the modes that
you’d expect to find in a serious shooter including death match, capture the
flag, and siege mode in which one team must defend their base from the other
team. Maps include vehicles and plenty of weapons, but the games are so
configurable you can make the tools of war as plentiful or scarce as you’d like.
The play may not be top-tier action game material, but it is a lot better than
most action games out there and is a lot of fun to play. Who would have thought
that combining a platform game with an online shooter would have been so much
fun?
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
94%. Up Your Arsenal ups your fun with a great single player game
backed up with online mayhem.
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