Real talk: I'm high af at the time of writing this so I'm just gonna copy and paste my Twitter review.

I will preface this by saying: I will sound incredibly negative but my overall feelings on the game can be summed up with one sentence: I had a very fun experience but it was not worth the price of admission. My previous experience with the series is as follows: all the PS2 games, the movie, and the movie game. Haven't played/watched those in a long while but I do remember loving them all, less so the first game, movie, and the movie game. Anyway, so Rift Apart... Great game. Gun play is frantic and the enemies put up a decent challenge. I even felt the need to bump up the difficulty because I felt like the default a bit too easy. That's extremely rare for me to do. I want to have a smooth/simple experience but the default was a bit too smooth. Collectibles are also really fun. I got most of them on my first playthrough so I didn't feel stressed on getting upgrades or Gold Bolts for those extras. That's another thing: Thank you game designer who said costumes and perks are separate but simultaneous unlocks. Nice QOL. That's another great thing about this game: so many goddamn accessibility options. Bigger/Smaller text? Got it. Bigger/Smaller UI elements? Got it. Color options? Got it. Don't want adaptive triggers? Got it. Miles had a lot of this too but the more games that do, the better. That all being said, here's the part where I sound negative. This game is so "Disney safe" when it comes to the writing. I'm not asking a ton of swearing or constant one liners, but this writing is so... sterile. I literally only laughed twice and that was two end-game jokes. As an RPG guy, I can stomach constant speeches about friendship. But I kid you not, if the characters aren't yelling "WHOOOOAAAA" while in one of the seemingly thousands of scripted action sequences, they're talking about how good of friends they are. It's A LOT. But, to end on a somewhat sour note: as far as I know, there's been no known changes at Insomniac since the harassment allegations came out. I only own R&C because my roommate bought it with no input from me but going forward, I'll refrain from Insomniac game purchases.

Als großer Fan des Ratchet & Clank Franchise habe ich mich sehr auf das neueste Abenteuer der beiden Helden auf der PS5 gefreut. Und ich muss sagen, ich wurde nicht enttäuscht! Das Spiel bietet nicht nur eine fantastische Grafik, sondern auch eine großartige Umsetzung des neuen DualSense-Controllers im Zusammenhang mit den vielen verschiedenen Waffen. Ich hatte das Gefühl, dass ich durch den Controller direkt in das Spiel eingebunden war. Ein weiteres Highlight waren die Hoverstiefel, die endlich wieder zurückgekehrt sind. Die schnelle Fortbewegung hat mir schon in früheren Teilen gefehlt.

Auch der neue Charakter Schrottbot hat mir sehr gut gefallen. Er fügt sich Szenerie ein. Eine Szene war besonders witzig, da ich von einem Gegner getroffen wurde und dieser anschließend gedabbte hatte. Dies hat mich zum Lachen gebracht.

Die Story von Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart war solide und hat mich an manchen Stellen überrascht. Ich fand es auch toll, dass sie in der Handlung auf altbekannte Elemente zurückgegriffen haben, und gleichzeitig viele neue Dinge eingebaut haben (Stichwort: verschiedene Dimensionen). Ein kleiner Bug hat leider den Spielspaß ein wenig getrübt, als der Controller nach der Arena nicht mehr aufgehört hat zu vibrieren.

Abschließend möchte ich noch auf die Charaktere Rivet & Kit eingehen, die einen hohen Fokus in der Geschichte haben. Ich fand es super, dass die Entwickler neue Charaktere eingeführt haben, die einen eigenen Charme und Persönlichkeit haben. Ich hoffe, dass sie in zukünftigen Spielen wieder auftauchen und ihre Abenteuer weitergehen können. Insgesamt hat mir Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart sehr gut gefallen und ich kann es jedem empfehlen, der Fan des Franchise ist oder einfach ein tolles Action-Adventure auf der PS5 spielen möchte.

Rift Apart is primarily remarkable for two main traits, the first being the level of detail on display and the second being how quickly you blaze through it. You might notice that these strengths don't exactly complement each other. Whether you are zooming along on hoverboots, grinding on rails, or riding on an alien snail or dragon, you're always blazing past the environment at a clip that implies that all of the money on screen doesn't actually matter. Combined with the fact that game doles out weapons faster than one can become accustomed to them and it starts to feel as though Rift Apart is a Dudley Dursley simulator, and the player is a meant to become so spoiled that no individual gift feels particularly special.

Still, despite this being my first Ratchet & Clank game, I've long known that the weapons are a core part of the series identity, so I was rather disappointed to find that said weapons aren't about creating or exploiting systemic interactions or countering specific enemy types. Instead, the fun comes from choosing what type of cacophony you want to create at any particular moment and watching it play out. Unfortunately Rift Apart wastes a lot of its premise as an individual entry in the franchise as well. The SSD is only fully brought to use in one planet, it doesn't feel like Ratchet and Clank are truly tested by their separation, and Rivet doesn't have a distinct mechanical identity but instead has just a truncated character arc. Put together, the game makes for a very digestible experience, but not an especially memorable one.

A short but fun and enjoyable shooter with some platforming.

A cute little story between two lombaxes that served its purpose to give the gameplay purpose.

Loading between rifts was an impressive use of the PS5.

Staggering to think of the shift in quality from this versus its 2016 predecessor - if the latter felt like a deeply bland, shitty licensed movie game from the mid/late 2000s then this is beyond a breath of fresh air. Still doesn't quite match the cartoony playfulness of the originals due to suffering from the current-gen problem of straining too hard for prestige seriousness to the point of cutting down gameplay (if I have to play one more tiring tutorial section where you go on a loop of playing for like 2 seconds before getting bombarded with 16 cutscenes I'm going to lose it). But the fact that this even feels like a Ratchet & Clank game again is more than I could have ever hoped for - there's tons of visually smashing planets, fun gadgets, and a decent story. I love Rivet & Kit as additions, and the weapons are as reliably fun to smash through and level up as always. Really good.

Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart is a very solid game. I remember playing several titles of this franchise like Going Commando, Deadlocked, and the 2016 remake of the series. The 2016 was alright and I was worried that this one might be the same. I actually like this one a lot. However, I personally believe the story could of have dive deeper into Ratchet's character and make the player see more about Ratchet dealing with his doubts and fears. Or let the player see more about Rivet's trust issues and wanting to work solo. Anyways, I like the idea of creating Rivet. It felt like a way for Insomniac to bring old players back and new players in too.
Gameplay was clean and smooth. The old and new weapons in the game were fun to use. Enemy variety lack greatly at some point. Near the end of the game, enemies are still all the same and the mini bosses were all recycled. To me, that is the most surprising because the game makes the player travel to multiple planets so you expect to encounter different types of enemies that are unique with their abilities.
At the end of it all, Rift Apart is a good game and cannot wait for Insomniac's next project.

Oh boy this is s worthy sequel of the previous game.

Storywise we have a lot of new characters. All of them are quite fun and well developed throughout the story. I really enjoyed it, specially because of the gorgeouses planets that we get to visit.

The gameplay is truly addictive. There are a lot of goofy weapons (some classics from the old games and some new ones). There is a lot of chaos during the most heated battles and coming up victorious gives a feeling of accomplishment.

I've seen some people complaining about the length of the game compared with the pricetag. Quite honestly, I would much rather play a 15h game in which I'm having fun all the time that a 100h game booted and with meaningless content (AC Valhalla I'm looking at you)

Finally, this is the first PS5 to take full advantage of the new functionallitys of the dual sense. All the vibrations with the sound really helps to keep you inmersed and focused.

Give it a try, you will have an amazing time