Sujet : Reaction to Deadlocked/Gladiator's Storyline/Gameplay?

Today I played through the entire story of Ratchet Gladiator, I had the game back on the original Playstation 2 but for some reason never got around to playing it.I inevitably heard bad things about over the years however about how terrible the story was and how it swayed too much from the core game play and level design from the first three titles.As a result of this I wasn't expecting much off this game, however after playing through the game I can see some positives to be taken from it.

Personally I really enjoyed the combat in this game with the strafe feature and I felt like it made the game much more smoother and the weapons seemed to suit this style as well.The funny,crude and mature humor that was seen in UYA and GC is also seen in this game, and I really do miss the classic funny stories of the original games which have been replaced by a much more child-friendly and passive humor.

I can honestly see what Insomniac where trying to pull of with this game and I feel like if they had added more features such as more weapons/characters/levels/progression system that this game could have been something better.(ALSO IF IT DID NOT SAY CHALLENGE COMPLETED EVERY TWO STEPS OF EACH MISSION THAT WOULD BE PRETTY GREAT!)

What did you guys think of this game overall and what would you have done to improve it?