Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault Competitive Mode Detailed

Detailed in a post on the PlayStation Blog recently was the newest and previously unrevealed online competitive mode for Insomniac Games’ Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault. This mode is regarded as a return to familiar form in lieu of past competitive modes found in Up Your Arsenal and Deadlocked. This time, however, Full Frontal Assault will feature traditional competitive play between players, but with Tower Defense-style tactics layered in-between.

As Insomniac puts it, this so far unnamed competitive mode “combines classic Ratchet & Clank mechanics with MOBA-style head-to-head action”, and will support 2-4 players in both ranked and custom matches.

From a very top-level perspective, the matches will play out similar to how objective-based titles like Team Fortress 2 tend to play — with teams or players focusing on a particular goal, but also mercilessly murdering each other along the path to that goal. And if the R&C franchise has shown us anything, it’s that you’ll be doing that murdering of one another with powerful, wacky, and oftentimes comically absurd weapons.

There are three phases in each match of FFA’s competitive mode: Recon, Squad, and Assault. In Recon phase, you’ll need to capture nodes (points) on the battlefield that can be taken by any team. In the next phase, Squad, you’ll focus on building up your base and defenses with weapons and minion squads (mostly in an attempt to protect your generators). In the third and final phase, Assault, you’ll focus entirely on decimating the other team (or potentially getting decimated yourself) and attacking your opponent and their base. When one team destroys all the generators in the opposing team’s base, the curtain falls and the game concludes.

While more is yet to come in terms of news for Ratchet & Clank’s newest outing, one thing is for sure — it certainly looks like a heck of a lot of fun. The game hits digital shelves via the PSN for the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita later this year. And, if you buy the game on PS3, you also get it free on Vita.

And while pricing has yet to be determined, the developer did say that, when inquired about the consumer cost:

“Still TBD, but it’s more in the range of Quest For Booty than Tools of Destruction.”

[via PS Blog]