Deadlocked
Deadlocked isn’t actually as bad of a game as it would’ve seemed at the time. At its core, it’s more or less the arena combat side missions of the previous two games stretched out into a full title. That’s fine, even though the story is incredibly simple and doesn’t have anything to it besides a subplot about the villain Gleeman Vox trying to turn Ratchet into another tool for his media empire. Clank’s diminished appearance doesn’t do the game any favors, and no, the addition of two trooper bots (or Alpha Clank in co-op) don’t really help, even if Merc and Green have an alright dynamic.
Where the story dims, the gameplay shines. Despite slimming down the weapon count to 10, the customization became deeper with the addition of mods. Want your Scorpion Flail to launch burn enemies each time you swing it? Decided that your rocket launcher needs some sticky bombs? Those are options Deadlocked provides, and the replayability the game provides lets you experiment. There could be more mission variety and better ways to scale the game accordingly with another player, but in the end, Deadlocked is a fun game to plow through on the weekend.
