Ratchet and Clank is a true next gen experience. Insomniac by now are a guarantee for visually striking and wonderfully crafted action games. If you are into scripted action events, the first party Sony studios are the uncontested champions. May that be Naughty Dog‘s insane set pieces with Uncharted or the tense and raw moments of The Last of Us. Santa Monicas extended battle sequences in God of War and beautifully animated enemies in Guerilla Games‘ Horizon. While Ratchet and Clank is not on the same level story-wise, it sure knows how to up the ante with the action sequences and the visual fidelity of the worlds you visit. In the center of it all, are the rifts, that add layers of literal dimensions for you to explore. From the ability to teleport through rifts as shortcuts, within the area, to the ability to hit a crystal and change the entire world around you within a blink, to one of a kind scripted sequences that hurl you through a multitude of detailed surroundings in the shortest amount of time - it’s unbelievable that all of this happens with a steady 60fps on a 400 bucks console, considering it’s one of the most beautiful games that has ever been released.
Gameplay-wise it plays it safe, besides the aforementioned rift mechanics there is not much that differentiates it from its predecessors. It’s still full of wonderful environments, full of crazy characters, even crazier guns to use and a bunch of cool platforming mechanics. The moment to moment gameplay is pure joy, there is nothing that gets tedious because everything is polished to the maximum. It’s not as innovative as the best of Nintendo, not as wildly creative as ‚It takes two‘ was this year, but it’s still a showcase game for PlayStation in general, for the next generation of games and for a studio that’s at its prime.

This is nothing short of a showpiece for the PS5. The load times, ray-tracing and overall graphics are the best I've seen on the console to date. Even without that, the game is a joy to play. There's some good exploration and compulsion to collect all the side items as they either give you lore or powerups. The story is fairly well written and the locations you go to are very distinctive and fun to traverse through. Even though there are two main characters, and you find yourself switching between them frequently, they share resources so you don't have to buy/upgrade weapons twice. The only thing the game could do better is having it so those two characters actually feel different to play as, rather than just being carbon copies.

I’ve been a big fan of this series for almost two decades; and for me, this is a complete return to form for my favourite galactic duo.

Since A Crack in Time (one of the series’ best) , Ratchet & Clank has had a small number of average and underwhelming titles including spin offs that have left me longing for something like this, something that captured the witty charm, wonder and pure action packed joy that made the originals.

Rift Apart has stunning visuals, immense set pieces and locations teeming with life and discovery and in my opinion the strongest supporting cast of any game in the series. That’s not to mention that the series returns with all of its signatures in full form, like over-the-top weapons, awesome gadgets & unique puzzles.

The concept of travelling through dimensions via rifts is executed beautifully in both cutscenes and gameplay, showing off the potential of the PS5’s new ssd to instantly load entire worlds with effectively no trickery or loading screens.

Suffice it to say that this game was an absolute joy to play through and 100% complete, I had a grin on my face practically the entire time and not a single moment felt wasted. I wholeheartedly cannot wait to see where insomniac take this beloved series next!

I played Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart largely to see what the PS5 is capable of visually, and it very much delivered in this regard. The game is gorgeous, at times stunningly so, and is very adept at showing this off via its worldbuilding, various different visual tricks, and a host of exciting, inventive set-pieces. The opening shot as I landed on Blizar Prime was actually just breathtaking, and there are plenty of moments like this throughout; whilst I do have a lot of complaints with the game as a whole I can't deny that I got what I came here for.

A big problem is that for all its flashiness, Rift Apart also feels weirdly cheap in some ways too. Most notably the game was intensely buggy for me; during my playthrough I hit kill planes on level architecture that should have been traversable a handful of times (including dying from touching the edge of a platform you're literally required to jump on), was stuck in the falling animation on top of other characters a few times also (the game only knows how to terminate this by eventually realising what's happening and killing you, though in one instance it just had no idea and I was stuck there falling in place for a couple minutes), clipped through things multiple times (including getting stuck inside another character), had dialog accidentally start repeating in scenarios where it no longer made any sense. And look, I get, QA is really hard and some things are going to slip through, but wow was I left wishing some of the money that had gone into making the game look gorgeous had instead gone into making sure it wasn't constantly breaking its sense of immersion like this.

Beyond all of this, the game was a solid enough experience. The gunplay is good fun with a lot of varied and sweet weapon designs, and though I think the game both overuses the same small handful of enemy designs and leans a bit too hard on "clear every enemy in this room before you can proceed" being the most common progression gate, the frantic chaos of it all is very appealing and remained engaging throughout. The other game modes, notably Clank's possibilities puzzles and Glitch's hacking sections, landed less well for me, both having some cool ideas, but neither being given the space to breathe or develop properly. It's like you spend the whole game being tutorialised in bite-sized chunks on how to play these alternate modes, and then after all of this you're given maybe one good level for each before the game ends.

Overall the experience was enjoyable enough, I very much got what I came here for, and I devoured it over the course of a week, but there were enough problems present that it made it a hard game to really love. Beyond this the experience very much made it clear that there's a whole lot more to games than just looking pretty and that making aesthetics priority number one is a dangerous road to go down.

Rift Apart plays great, it got tight accurate platforming (that for some reason has always been underutilized), satisfying shooting with great effects as the enemies break apart, and some solid traversal mechanics. And technically it's a marvel, it's truly a sight to behold.

But it has struggled to retain the old charm and wit of the first games for over a decade now, and Rift Apart might be the most generic and safe writing this series has ever seen. Virtually every gag is a dud.

It's also clinging on to the same formula, and while the rifts add a unique touch, if you played the first game back on the PS2, you can already imagine how this game plays. I don't know why Insomniac is this insistent on being traditional considering how many Ratchet games there are.

But, the game looks so damn good and there are some incredible sequences in Rift Apart (that big fixer-robot battle was amazing), that I can forgive the problems I have. However, if the next Ratchet and Clank don't try something new, I'll be disappointed, the spectacular visuals won't carry a second game the way it carries Rift Apart.

The Ratchet & Clank series is one of my favorite in my lifetime. The only one that rivals it, is Kingdom Hearts. Rift Apart continues the glorious wonder of the series its had since the very beginning, but this time just bringing that glory to a whole other level, in the expanse of its planet designs such as Corson V and Cordelion. They all seem to feel heavily lived in and have their own atmosphere.

Along with the planets, adding great gameplay with various great weapons, like the Topiary Sprinkler, Mr. Fungi, and the Ricochet. One of the classic weapon lines has returned though with the RYNO 8. In all of its glory, its a beautiful weapon of mass dimensional destruction. When you get all 10 Spybots within the game, you get the RYNO 8, which makes it feel worth getting, and the traversal to get the Spybots is rewarding because it's making you feel like you are getting better in traversal in the game. The traversal feels like a great evolution from Insomniac's history with Sunset Overdrive and Spider-Man.

The story of Rift Apart was quite grand and enjoyable. Just pure Ratchet & Clank bliss. After a hiatus, Ratchet & Clank venture into their roles of being heroes again. It brings in a new dimension of where Ratchet is a lombax named Rivet. She is a really likable character that has had hardships that Ratchet hasn't really faced. That leads into various things of trust and doubt as themes of her arc, but also the arcs of Ratchet & Clank who have been on a heroic pause for awhile. The thought of "can they do this?" crosses their mind in various ways which brings an element of empathy to each main character.

Overall, Rift Apart is a fantastic entry into the Ratchet & Clank series. Right now it is tied with A Crack in Time. Both are equally peaks in the franchise, in various ways.

Roughly 2/3rds done with the story, meant to finish but I've got too many other things on my plate right now to do so. Did not enjoy my time with this as much as I expected.

To start positively, it is absolutely gorgeous. The sheer density of things and effects is mind-boggling. It looks incredible in motion and the cutscenes are movie quality. It runs like a treat on PS5, which is good because I couldn't play much of the previous reboot game on PS4 because it was the only game that's ever made me motion sick.

Everything else? Eh. The combat is sorta the central mechanic and I found it mostly just adequate at best and pretty boring at worst. Arena fights just don't offer much in the way of excitement. The gun variety is sort of neat but rarely did I feel like they did much to incentivize actual varied play or strategy, just that you have a bunch of weapons to cycle between when you run out of ammo. The dimensional portals were one of the big "ooh look what the PS5 can do" elements they talked a lot about, but they're just effectively grapple points. You can zip around during fights but only to specific locations, which limits the actual movement a bit. The enemy variety was a little lacking and the bosses were not exciting. Their setpieces aren't bad but actually fighting them was unengaging.

The biggest sticking point for me was the story and its writing. Ratchet is downright dull, the jokes don't land, and the central idea of the dimensionator allowing access to new realities isn't as interesting as I'd hoped. Most scenes just felt a bit lifeless, which is disappointing. The only character that got consistent chuckles from me was Gary. Rivet is cool but, again, just fell flat for me.

Since R&C is one of the old pillars of platformer / collectathons, I was expecting better platforming, too. Most levels are relatively devoid of that sort of challenge and I was stunned at how often I would clip through / into things and go places the game clearly didn't want me to go.

Some positives though: there are more than a few cool worlds to explore and having optional side quests in unique locations is a good touch. This is one of the most option-heavy games I've ever played. You can essentially tailor the game to however you want to play, which is cool. Collectables are fun to get and I like the golden bolt fun options as well as the gear effects not being tied to actually equipping them. The thing I probably liked the most were the pocket dimension rooms. They always felt unique and different, which is cool. Gave a very Mario Sunshine Fludd-less levels vibe.

All in all, Rift Apart was kinda neat at times and relatively middle of the road other times. It's a tight romp in a short package, but I don't think it's really for me.

Back again with my problem with writing about 3D platformers for kids. Rift Apart is fun, it's cute. The use of the adaptive triggers is actually really amazing and is a standout quality of this game. The rest is... good? Gameplay has enough oomph to work, the platforming is fun enough. Only the story is frustrating, really. I wouldn't have minded if there was none, actually, but now there is one and it's really frustratingly written. The game also sometimes just flat out broke and I had to restart. Mostly lost around a minute of playtime so that's fine. I gotta say, other than the adaptive trigger thingy and the real beautiful graphics, I don't feel like there was much there that was really exceptional. It's all a lot of "good enough." Which is fine! I had a cute time.

Full Review + Trophy Review and Tips Below

If Insomniac does one thing well (and they do almost everything extremely well), is make fun video games. Rift Apart is fun from beginning to end as you seamlessly transition between worlds and dimensions, fighting your way through Nefarious army with creative weapons and abilities. You’ll be turning enemies into plants so you can pixelize them and then blow them into smithereens while dodging, jumping, grinding, rifting and ratcheting your way through levels.

The animation is beautiful, and the game truly feels like a next gen experience. If I had to nitpick, which I am about to do, I would have liked for Rivet and Kit to have their own set of abilities to differentiate themselves from Ratchet and Clank. Also, as fun as the weapons are, I miss some of the more comedic weapons like the disco gun or the sheepinator. Nitpicking aside, this is absolutely a game I recommend for gamers of all ages.

Trophies
Difficulty: 3/10
Time: 10 hours
Trophy Guide: Not needed
Trophy List Score: 9.5/10

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart continues the Sony First Party trend of having well thought out and engaging Trophy Lists. Highlights include no missable trophies, no difficulty related trophies and almost all the collectibles are easily tracked within the in-game menus. Late in the game you also discover a map that will help you mop up any last collectible you need.

Ratchet & Clank games are all about their insane weapons and you will easily be able to purchase them all. The game does a good job of incentivizing you to use different weapons to achieve some miscellaneous trophies.

As far as collectibles, you only need 5 Gold Bolts, one full armor set, all 12 Spy Bots (to earn a gun needed for the purchasing all weapons trophy) and in each of the 9 levels there is one CraiggerBear that you need to find that is unfortunately not trackable in any way. Most are easy to find but for a few I did have to look up a guide to see where I missed it, this is the one area, in my opinion, that kept this Trophy List from achieving the top score.

The trophy list was designed for you to play the game at your pace, dabble in collecting and having a lot of fun with all the weapons at your disposal. No need for guides or videos as you will earn most of the trophies just by playing the game through the end. For some tips on things to keep an eye out for, check out below:

Tips:
- You will find more than enough resources to full upgrade most of your weapons on the first run however you only need to fully upgrade ONE weapon and only reach level 5 with ONE weapon. Both will be easily attainable early in the game.
- “Return Policy” requires you to kill 10 enemies by returning shots with the Void Reactor. This is a weapon you get late in the game and requires you to get it to level 5 so you can return shots. Buy this weapon as soon as it is available and level it up as soon as you can. To earn this trophy, hold the shield up as enemies are firing at you and you will see the shield go from blue to purple with little purple shots floating. You must be a good distance away so that it is the returning shot that kill the enemy and not the blast from the weapon. If you have the gold bolt for it, you can also turn on infinite ammo to make this easier.
- Grunthors are big dinosaur like enemies, you must kill 5 of them for a trophy and if you want to avoid a new game + run, kill all of them as soon as you see them. There aren’t many in the game so don’t miss it.

Happy Trophy Hunting!

It's a Ratchet and Clank game so of course it plays well, although I do have to express disappointment with the level design and story. The level design is really basic with really easy exploratory puzzles for optional collectibles, there really isn't anything challenging to do in the game optionally. The arena is also boring, as its straight arena wave challenges with minor permutations with not much variation.

The story and writing is definitely a step down from the original trilogy, and A Crack in Time, I'm not really sure what the intention of the story really is here to begin with, it's all rather basic with not much going on for it. At first it seems like a celebration of Ratchet and Clank, but it really isn't, it ends up being just a basic underdogs against the villain story, but the villains here are pretty awful too. The main villain this time around is set up really well, and I assume the intention was that they were actually pathetic, but there really wasn't anything too threatening about them in the end anyway, even with an all powerful weapon.

It's still a good game, and a very impressive technical achievement but where's this games legacy once that technical achievement wears off? In the end, that's definitely my biggest issue with this entry, there's not much going on for it. It doesn't have the sharp writing of the original trilogy, but it doesn't have much character exploration like the future trilogy either.

A fascinating interdimensional journey, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart offers players a superb gaming experience with engaging action, lovable characters, and top-notch humorous writing. I had only played A Crack in Time before to this, so I am now excited to play more of the series after finishing it.

Rift Apart's extensive arsenal of weaponry is one of the game's most notable qualities. The sheer range and creativity of the weaponry at my disposal attracted me as soon as I began my adventure. I found myself using every weapon in my armory since each one seemed distinct and had a distinct function. The Lightning Rod stood out as my particular favorite among all. It was easy to make foes and bosses submit to my will due to to its powerful rate of fire and ability to obstruct enemy movements.

Speaking of combat, Rift Apart has excellent level design. The game successfully balances difficult confrontations with expertly designed locations. Combat is given an additional degree of strategy by the placement of objects like the red boxes that explode, keeping confrontations from getting simple and dull. Since it enables players to approach each encounter in their own special way, the game is kept engaging and fresh throughout.

One of the game's biggest highlights is the introduction of Rivet, a fascinating and lovable character who serves as a parallel version of Ratchet. It was a lot of fun exploring her character. A unique dynamic between the two playable characters was formed and gave the story more depth by allowing viewers to see this other version of Ratchet with plenty of screentime together. Kit's presence as Clank's counterpart also enhanced the added depth and comedy, all in all making for an excellent cast of characters that kept me interested in their journey.

Rift Apart's narrative may not be ground-breaking, but it still succeeds in engrossing players in an exciting multiverse adventure. The game tackles the idea of numerous realities effectively and weaves it into an exciting narrative. It provides a far more enjoyable and interesting experience than most multiverse stories in media, more specifically with MCU movies. The ideal duration of the narrative ensures that it doesn't drag on unnecessarily while yet providing a rewarding and pleasant experience.

Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart is a game that shines in its focus on detail and capacity to build an engrossing universe. An excellent gameplay experience is provided by its enormous selection of weaponry, memorable characters like Rivet and Kit, and skillfully designed level layout. The graphics are also absolutely riveting. It definitely takes advantage of PS5 hardware, and it makes me happy that Insomniac didn't settle for a cross-gen game. It is also worth praising how this game is understandable to newcomers like me, as I wasn't confused about anything happening. Rift Apart is a must-play that will leave you itching for more adventures in the Ratchet & Clank universe, whether you've been a longtime fan of the series or a beginner like myself.

Esse jogo foi muito especial pra mim por que fui presenteado por alguém especial também, eu amei de verdade e foi minha primeira experiência com a franquia, pretendo visitar outros títulos da mesma. O jogo tem gráficos excelentes, trilha sonora emocionante, combate e sistema de armas FENOMENAL, dentre outros vários pontos extremamente positivos. Eu infelizmente sofri com alguns problemas, incluindo crash e problemas com meu save (bug em Blizar Prime e problema com colecionáveis coletados, porém não constavam como pegos), mas acontece, apenas citando algo que me frustrou um pouquinho! O jogo é realmente muito bom, recomendo! :DDD

O primeiro jogo que joguei até hoje que realmente tira todo o proveito possível do SSD, foi bem interessante ver essa abordagem. Nunca tinha jogado nenhum jogo da franquia até hoje, então não tenho parâmetros para julgar se é um "bom jogo de Ratchet and Clank", mas parando pra analisar esse isoladamente, consegui ter um saldo bem positivo ao final da experiência.

Vou começar falando do que citei no início, que é o bom proveito de SSD. É óbvio que um SSD melhora qualquer experiência em jogo, mas até esse jogo eu nunca tinha considerado ter um SSD realmente NECESSÁRIO, no sentido literal da palavra, pra se zerar algum jogo. Aqui é, de fato, necessário. Ele depende da velocidade de leitura do disco para conseguir fazer carregamento de muitas coisas quase que de maneira instantânea, e faz que a dinâmica de atravessar portais para ambientes totalmente diferentes seja muito divertida!

Outra coisa que achei incrível foi o sistema de aprimoramento das armas! Não sei se outros jogos da franquia também têm esse sistema, mas é muito recompensador utilizar diversas armas e melhorá-las ao máximo para destruir os inimigos. Lembra muito a mecânica de alternar formas do Nobody Saves the World, claro que é um estilo de jogo totalmente diferente, mas em ambos é necessário diversificar seu estilo de jogo para conseguir progredir na campanha.

Agora pontos negativos... Não gostei do fato de Ratchet/Clank e Rivet/Kit terem a EXATA MESMA jogabilidade. Poderiam fazer a mesma paralelização entre os dois para a progressão da história, mas talvez pudessem ter pensado mais em alguma forma que a jogabilidade de cada um fosse mais característica. Não precisaria nem mexer no sistema de armas, mas ter alguma coisa em cada um que fosse específica de cada personagem.

Fora isso, também percebi alguns bugs chatinhos e movimentação confusa em poucos momentos. Mas nada que atrapalhasse tanto assim a experiência. No fim, achei uma experiência bem divertida, não estava esperando tanto do jogo e acabei surpreendido!

Great entry in the Ratchet & Clank series. Great platforming for the most part, excellent weapons, good story. Amazing visuals. It's basically the whole package. My main critique concerned some bugs that made progression a little janky - a couple story triggers weren't triggering and I had to reload a few times to get them to work.

Ratchet and the others are much more expressive this time and I think the effort was well placed. His ears will wiggle or downturn when he's sad and their eyes will widen and contract naturally - it feels very cartoon-like in a great way.

Most weapons work well with some occasional weirdness. Some platforming stages also require some specificity - places will look accessible but actually lock you out of continuing which was sometimes a drag.

I'm not gonna go ahead and say that Rift Apart is without issue or anything. Playing for too long in one session can cause weird visual glitches - hell, I ran into my fair share of collision glitches. Those are easy fixes. My main gripe is the reliance on enemy hordes in the middle of boss battles - it's either a great way to spice things up, or it makes certain segments more cumbersome than they should be.

For every part of Rift Apart I didn't enjoy, however, there's about 10 other parts that hit it right out of the park. The healthy weapon variety, and how fun they are to use, will have you switching for your life and improvising strategies on the fly. Your movement/combat options and the feel of the controls are spot-on - Phantom Dash is one of my new favorite moves in any game. Every planet is visually distinct and well-built in lore, and there's a myriad of cool setpieces.

I mean, what can I even say? This is peak action gaming. I'm floored by how every character has a complete arc - even the scrunkly little robot used for twin-stick shooter levels. I'm floored by what is now possible in video games. God.