History VideoGame / RatchetAndClank2002

* KickTheSonOfABitch:
** Drek frequently verbally abuses and talks down to Qwark whenever he fails him. However, given what a low-life sell-out Qwark is, it's pretty satisfying to watch Drek do so.
** While his attitude to the situation was totally wrong, Ratchet mopping the floor with Qwark at Gemlik Base was a fate the captain long had coming to him and is quite gratifying to watch unfold as Qwark is pathetically reduced to begging Ratchet for mercy as his starfighter falls apart. Though Ratchet is somewhat nicer to Qwark when they meet on Oltanis and even buys a Gadgetron PDA from him, since he's moved on from his grudge against him and realizes Qwark has hit rock bottom as is.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: To say Captain Qwark's comeback plan was poorly thought out is like saying getting shot with the R.Y.N.O. is [[{{Understatement}} mildly hazardous to your health.]] Even ''if'' he had succeeded in killing Ratchet, he'd have to contend with the fact that he knowingly took sides with a genocidal warmonger who rendered billions homeless by destroying planets for the new blarg homeworld and possibly even killed countless people when everyone was expecting Qwark to defeat Drek, meaning that he'd be just as reviled as Drek himself once it'd inevitably come to light that he was in league with him. On top of that, it becomes clear that Qwark is completely in over his head, what with his dimwitted personality and being too washed up to even try fighting Ratchet on foot and being forced to cowtow to Drek in order to get sponsorship for his comeback, and the failure of his first attempt at killing Ratchet blows up in his face when it causes Drek to ream him out for [[IDontPayYouToThink not following his orders to the letter]] and causes a vengeful Ratchet to gun for him and eventually hand him his ass during the games second act, resulting in his comeback and reputation going down in flames.

** The weapons are much more simplistic and nowhere near as plentiful as they are in the sequels, and the enemies are likewise much less numerous and threatening. There are also unusual gimmick weapons like the Taunter, which on its own has no real offensive capabilities at all, something the series would never have again afterward.

* CompensatingForSomething: Drek's height is disproportionate to his ego, so he does this almost as much as [[WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}} Lord Farquaad.]] All of the rooms in his ships (heck, even the ships themselves) are huge, he proudly stands right next to the Planetbuster Maximus (tilted upward) and when he fights Ratchet and Clank one-on-one, he pilots a mech that's roughly as big as Giant Clank.

** The big one: Captain Qwark is actually working for Chairman Drek.
** Veldin is the planet Drek intends to destroy to make room for the new Blarg homeworld.
** Drek was the one who polluted Orxon in the first place and the whole thing was just a giant real estate scam that he plans on performing over and over again.

* TheNeedsOfTheMany: Averted; Clank naively assumes Drek really is doing all that he does because he sincerely wants to make a new home for the Blarg, but Drek spells out to him that he couldn't care less about his race or any of the planetary populations he renders homeless, having overpolluted Orxon on purpose and only caring about the cash he'll get from milking the real estate of his new franken-planet for all its worth and then pollute that world as well to repeat the scheme all over again, and so on. Clank is absolutely ''livid'' upon discovering this.

** Beating the game with ''only'' the Omniwrench, which was long thought to be impossible, even by ''the dev team themselves'' (who had purposefully designed the game to be impossible to beat with only the wrench), due to obstacles like the Towers on Gemlik Base and Rocket Tanks and Flying Transports on Veldin (which usually need the Devastator, Visibomb Gun [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers or Suck Cannon]] to be destroyed) until Tealgamemaster successfully completed the challenge, using tricks like a very difficult wall jump exploit to bypass the aforementioned towers on Gemlik Base.

** The good part of falling out between Clank and Ratchet is the latter doesn't prioritize chasing Drek and instead either chases new gadgets or [[spolier:later prioritizes revenge on Qwark]]. Gameplay-wise you can't ignore most of gadgets with exception of Metal Detector (which ironically get for one completing mission Clank ''pushes'' you into) - even Hoverboard is required to advance the story.

** The [[InfinityPlusOneSword R.Y.N.O.]] can become this [[SequenceBreaking if you exploit a specific glitch]]. While its available as early as Rilgar, you're obviously supposed to get it after a couple playthroughs due to its very high price and the games stingy bolt economy, but if you exploit the "Infinite Bolts" glitch on Rilgar (the one in the sewers, not the more famous one triggered by the Hologuise...or in the HD version where these have been patched out, the glitch to access the hoverboard track on foot) and are patient enough, you can buy the R.Y.N.O. on your first visit and then use it to cheese through the rest of the game (mitigating this just slightly is that ammo for it cant be found in crates and isnt very cheap to buy from vendors either)!

** Even if the Magneboots are strong enough to attach Ratchet to the right surfaces, Ratchet would need to be incredibly strong to be able to move with them at all (though this game does acknowledge how slow and plodding Ratchet is forced to move with them and can't jump with them, the sequels threw this aspect of weight out the window), and that's not taking into account that it would be extremely difficult if not impossible for Ratchet to move on a vertical or upside down surface without his body teetering over and snapping his heels (whereas he's able to stand perfectly upright the whole time as if gravity also conveniently changes for him) or a leg flailing loose.

* GameplayAndStorySegregation: When our heroes visit planet Novalis early in the game, it is already being torn apart by Drek's forces and the previous cutscene even has Drek himself stating that the damage done to the planet will cause it to go off-orbit and crash into its sun. Still, nothing prevents the player from going back to Novalis at any point, even just before the final battle with Drek, when a large chunk of the planet has already been cannibalized and its flora destroyed. Leaving Novalis accessible for the entire game was most likely an AntiFrustrationFeature to prevent the player from [[PermanentlyMissableContent missing out on secrets they could have overlooked]] on their first visit.

* {{Railroading}}: The game forces you to complete certain levels in order to finish others, and backtrack to finish previous levels. For example, in order for Ratchet to go outside on Orxon, he needs the [=O2=] Mask from Pokitaru. But in order to get the [=O2=] mask from Pokitaru, he has to complete a flight mission--but in order to pilot the ship, you need the Pilot's Helmet, which is located on Gaspar. And before ''that'', you're forced to get the Magneboots with Clank on your first visit to Orxon in order to complete Batalia, since the Anti-Air Defense Cannon is only accessible by a magneboot pathway.

The first game in the ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank'' series, and a modest hit for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Ratchet spends the majority of the game's story barefoot, unless he's in a situation that requires him to have special boots equipped.

* PollutedWasteland: Planet Orxon, to the point where it [[SurpriseCreepy has become horrifically mutated in numerous ways]], [[DeadlyGas requires the O2 Mask when playing as Ratchet]], and [[GrimyWater has flesh-melting toxic sludge wherever water should be]]. Worse yet, [[BigBad Chairman Drek]] is planning to turn who-knows-how-many ''more'' of the ''Ratchet & Clank'' universe's planets into what Orxon has become in this game.

* BareYourMidriff: The hoverboard race-hosting girl in Blackwater City.

* JerkToNiceGuyPlot: Ratchet's character arc is structured like this. While he's not that bad in the first act, he becomes a real jackass during the second act, and finally develops into a nicer person when he realizes and owes up to what a jerk he was at the start of the third act.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The original game is drastically different from its sequels in a plethora of ways. While its clearly aiming to be a third person shooter, its whole gameplay style can be summed up as "VideoGame/SpyroTheDragon [[RecycledInSpace with guns]]":

'''Drek:''' You think ''that's'' what this is about? Who do you think polluted the ''last'' world? ''I did''. This is about one thing and one thing only: ''cash'', and lots of it. See, I've been ''paid'' for every square inch of my new world. Once the new inhabitants move in, I'll begin polluting this world as well, and the whole thing starts ''all over again''. Ah...brilliant.
* MythologyGag: Some of the trees on planet Eudora are directly recycled from a previous Insomniac game, ''Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage''.