Dressed in a James Bond style tuxedo, Clank lands on a museum world. Where’s Ratchet? Clank has to save him from being accused of stealing the Eye of Infinity. Rushing into combat armed with a giant gun isn’t his style. Clank needs to use stealth because he has a limited supply of ranged weapons. His standard attack is a series of karate chops ending with a spinning kick, a suitable combo to fend off tiny robotic dogs, but rather useless against larger patrol robots. Early in the first stage Clank is presented with a briefcase containing a nifty gadget, the tiearang. The razor sharp projectile locks on to large guard robots and takes them down in a few hits. However, if Clank alerts one of the guard robots by stepping into their range of sight he can be taken down in a few hits.
To up the challenge Secret Agent Clank rewards players with stealth bonuses if they can pass through areas undetected. In one area of the museum there is a row of robot statues with a few empty pedestals. In classic cartoon fashion Clank can pretend to be one of the statues and the guard robots won’t notice. Alternatively, you can throw tiearangs from the corner and attack the wheeled sentries. I tried this, but with only a few tiearangs in my inventory I found my supply dwindling fast after a direct assault. If Clank can creep behind one of the large robots he can switch into stealth takedown mode. A multi-button combo flashes on the screen and inputting the correct sequence makes Clank unleash his martial arts fury on the unsuspecting metallic foe.
The second gadget Clank gets is the Blackout Pen. This device is useless in the heat of battle, but an invaluable tool when it comes to disarming lasers. The Blackout Pen shoots a burst of black ink that covers lasers and allows Clanks to pass through them. If Clank happens to trip a laser he loses a stealth bonus and occasionally extra enemies pop up. Once again, stealth seems to be the key. However, I suppose aggressive players haphazardly stepping in the path of lasers will have no problem facing challenges in Secret Agent Clank. You still level up Nanotech and weapons as you use them. Pretty quickly too, my tiearang got an upgrade before I could complete the entire first level.
