With nine titles to their names, this now classic PlayStation duo have managed to go on many adventures. Now we have Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time. After so many games, the basic formula may be starting to get stale, but this game is still a lot of fun.

Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time finishes the story that was started with Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction, and continued with Quest for Booty. For those not caught up on the story, series comic relief, Captain Qwark gives you a great rundown of the events prior to this game as the game installs to your hard drive, so even if you've not played the last two titles you'll soon be caught up and ready to go.

A Crack in Time plays a little differently to what you might remember from previous games. This is mainly due to the fact that Ratchet and Clank are separated for the vast majority of the game.

Playing as Ratchet himself is quite similar to previous games, especially if you played the downloadable Quest for Booty last year. His levels are a very action oriented, and while it takes some time to get used to not having Clank on your back helping you out, you eventually get new equipment that ultimately replace Clank's usefulness, making it somewhat jarring when the two inevitably reunite.

Clank's levels are the biggest change to the gameplay, as action is very much pushed to the background. Instead, Clank focuses on time puzzles to help him make his way through the Great Clock, a place in the very center of space that keeps the universe's time. These puzzles start out quite easy, but can become quite mind-bending later on, forcing you to really push your logical thinking. It's actually quite a nice change to see some challenging puzzles in a game, instead of puzzles that ultimately consist of "move block X to spot Y to open secret." The game does a good job of teaching you the mechanics of these sections.

Basically you're made to stand on a pad and start recording your actions. Once you're done, stop the recording, stand on the next time-pad and start recording again. This will make a copy of Clank replicate your previous movements, essentially allowing you to do two things at once. The most basic example of this will have one version of Clank stand on a switch, while the other Clank walks through the door it opens. However when you've got four time-pads, and are required to re-record them several times, things get a little trickier.

The difference between Ratchet's action-oriented levels and Clank's puzzle-oriented levels give a good balance to the game. Once you start to feel tired of one, you'll move over to the other. This can be quite refreshing, particularly for this series, which has typically led you through level to level, doing much the same thing, with an occasional arena battle thrown in for good measure (which do return again here by the way).

Another new element that helps break up the game is the space exploration sequences. Some previous games have had space shooter segments which were about as much fun as the Gummi Ship segments in the Kingdom Hearts series (for those who enjoyed their PlayStation 2 JRPG's). Here, you're given free reign of several different areas of space, which offer an open-world exploration, giving you a handful of collectables to find and jobs to do for various bonuses.

Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time does make a graphical improvement over both Tools of Destruction and Quest for Booty before it, but it's only marginal. You can't help but feel that Insomniac's annual release structure of Ratchet and Clank then Resistance is hindering their progress on the engine they use. With this said, it's not like that engine was bad in the beginning, so the game does look better than many other games on the market, but those who have been following the series may be getting a little bored with the style.

The Ratchet and Clank series has always been a fairly light-hearted one. While this latest addition is still in that same vein, it's got some more serious undertones that run throughout. It's as well written as the series has ever been and all dialogue is excellently done. Insomniac clearly take great pride in crafting a quality story and presenting it well, and this time they've done exactly that.

Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time is a very solid game. It's additions from previous games are welcome, and help prevent you from getting tired of any one particular play-style. While the basic gameplay in A Crack in Time is getting old, it is still very fun. Ultimately it's a great game that gives players a satisfying ending, especially if you've played the previous two games, and it's also a breath of fresh air from all the realistic and gritty games released these days.