I wanna be inverted!

I’ve finally had some time to try out the Ratched & Clank: Tools of Destruction demo on the Playstation 3, and it’s exactly what I expected. And hoped for: a great-looking iteration of the established franchise for the PS3. Not much more I can say about it that hasn’t already been said – Ratchet & Clank has always been great, and the new game is no exception. It’s fun. It’s addictive. It works. Well done, Insomniac!

Except…

Where in Quark’s name is the option to invert the camera’s Y axis? I can’t believe that this isn’t included in the demo! If you’ve worked on a 3rd person control schemes (and who in this industry hasn’t?) you know that this issue splits games right down the middle: 50% of the development staff wants to push the stick forward to look up, 50% wants to pull the stick backward. So where in this demo is the option? Unfortunately Ratchet does exactly the opposite of my preference (I’m a “stick-puller”), and it’s screwing with my head big time. I keep looking down instead of up.

This isn’t the first high-profile title that does this kind of stuff. I remember almost quitting KOTOR because the camera controls were backwards for me. My brain/hands just couldn’t grok the controls, and the fact that the inversion option seemed like such an easy thing to do only made matters worse. I’m hoping this this was just an oversight for the Ratched Demo – and that the final game will fix the problem. It would be a shame if it didn’t.