Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time Offers New Gameplay Mechanic

Ars Technica has a great look at the latest installment in the Ratchet and Clank series, "A Crack in Time." Along with the great looking graphics and same great gameplay, A Crack in Time offers a brand new game mechanic: "time pads." Time pads allow you to make a copy of yourself and move through a series of action, then shift back to "real time" and interact with your past self. "It's a game mechanic that's hard to describe in words, and wrapping your head around it inside the game isn't much easier when it's first described with an example or two. You have to play with it and bend time to your will before you see just how ingenious the whole thing is. The puzzles begin simply and grow harder as the game moves on. The use of time is done very well and elevates what we've played of the game from another platforming experience to something truly special."

Comments

Braid & quick-save/quick-load

[sopssa]

I think the indie game Braid was the first game to make this approach of time in games great. And if you develop the game good around that, it's great.

I loved Braid for the fact that even if I made a mistake, I would push the go back in time button instead of repeating quick-save/quick-load all the time when I fail. The levels could be made harder and more unforgiving too because you could always go back in time. And on its philosophy side it made me want to do the same thing for my past relationships, which is part of the story. Great game.

Actually I would like to see this in more games. Just go back in time instead of the quick-save/load bashing. It's a lot more fun too.

Re:Braid & quick-save/quick-load

[Red Flayer]

Actually I would like to see this in more games. Just go back in time instead of the quick-save/load bashing. It's a lot more fun too.

That's weak.

I play every game in Rogue-mode. Die once, start over from the beginning.

This tempers a truly superior video-game warrior, one who laughs in the face of adversity and spits in the face of death.

But man, Oddworld games sure are a bitch.

Re:Braid & quick-save/quick-load

[BluePeppers]

Actually, there have been flash games based on this concept for ages. But apparently they aren't "proper" games...

See http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/439647 for a good example.

Re:Braid & quick-save/quick-load

[interkin3tic]

Where... where what? Oh. He went back in time to finish the post.

Anyway, GP I think was referring to different mechanics that braid had that were not in POP. The "rewind time from death" was in Prince of persia before Braid. But Braid had pads on which you could stand and be outside of time or the rewind/forward time controls. In a seperate mechanic, Braid had worlds where you would do one thing, say jump down to a lower platform and hit a switch to open the door on the upper level. You then rewound time, door goes back closed, but when you let time go forward, a shadow form of you would redo the action you just did, you'd see the shadow jump down and open the door. You could then move through the door.

I never played prince of persia, but I was under the impression neither mechanic was seen in it.

The new rachet and clank sounds like it has a more complicated combination of both of those mechanics seen in braid

Even better are the time pads. You stand on one and "record" your actions in time. Then you stand on the other and interact with your past self going through its actions. In the simplest puzzles you stand on a pressure-sensitive switch for yourself so you can walk through a door. In the more intricate puzzles you have to record sections of your performances multiple times in a type of choreographed dance to get to where you're going, often using the time explosives in multiple ways.

Re:Braid & quick-save/quick-load

[MaineCoon]

You fail at reading comprehension.

Braid did far more than just rewind - which was one of its constant mechanics. Other features include:

Some levels the direction of time of everything else in the world depends on the direction you walk.
Some levels featured entities that were 'immune' to time rewind
Some levels featured the interactive 'shadow'
Some levels combined multiple of the above

SPOILER:
An example of this is one level where you actually let an enemy fall onto you, so that you 'die' and the enemy bounces off your head, then you rewind and play it forwards, again, this time jumping on the head of the enemy as it bounces off your 'shadow' previous self, to reach a high platform.

Braid

[sqrt(2)]

I'm pretty sure this has already been done. It's the entire point of the game Braid, and was probably done even before that.

Chronotron.

[pushing-robot]

It's a game mechanic that's hard to describe in words, and wrapping your head around it inside the game isn't much easier when it's first described with an example or two.

Well, here's a handy tutorial then.

A brand new mechanic?

[JustinRLynn]

Does anyone remember Blinx: the timesweeper for XBox that was released at the beginning of the decade? If you're familiar with that game then this game mechanic seems not so new and maybe even a bit more limited (because of the pad requirement, if it is one). I hope it's well implemented because then it has the potential to make for some really awesome puzzles. I'm glad to see they're experimenting with higher dimensional puzzles again.

Re:A brand new mechanic?

[mrbene]

Blinx had several different ways of interacting with time (FF, REW, and so on) that could be used on demand. It's Achron that's really looking cool in the time-front.

Cursor*10?

[KingSkippus]

When I read the description, the first thing I thought was that it was the little Cursor*10 flash game. Very cleverly done, it kept me busy for a while.

http://www.nekogames.jp/mt/2008/01/cursor10.html