The game shows a lot of creativity, but there seems to be a feeling that they could have gone farther with it. The spy elements are the best parts of the game for me, as I’m a big fan of Clank and I’m glad to see he got his own chance at the limelight, but he doesn’t seem to have been accorded the show time he could have and, more to the point, should have gotten. The multi-round melee battles you fight with Ratchet in jail and the missions with Qwark, while often pretty funny, leave the game feeling disjointed. It’s as if they wanted to give time to all the characters and the result is a game that seems to be going off in several different directions at once.

That’s not to say it’s a bad game, though, because there is a lot that Ratchet and Clank fans will find fun here. Most of the cast from the first game, David Kaye as Clank and Jim Ward as Captain Qwark, return to reprise their roles with Ratchet being played by James Arnold Taylor, who has been the voice of the wrench-wielding Lombax since after the first series of the game. These actors, and the rest of the NPC voice talent, do their roles well, but Clank is often given the best lines (fitting since his picture is on the box). The music is well done, but it rarely stands out except in certain scenes, such as Clank’s death-defying ballroom dance sequence.

Secret Agent Clank is a good purchase for those who are already fans of the series or those who can appreciate the game for what is. For those who are new to the series, though, this is probably not the best introduction because not only are they missing out on a lot of the backstory of the individual characters, but Secret Agent Clank simply doesn’t stack up as high as the other games in the series.