Phenomenal new entry to the series and it deeply saddens me to know we might not get a sequel for a VERY long time. This released at a time where I wasn't in a rush to play every game under the sun that was releasing immediately, and that makes the regret of not playing sooner even stronger.

My only true "complaint" for the game, aside from some minor visual bugs and audio glitches that would occur occasionally (that were easily fixed with a simple checkpoint restart) was the enemy variety was a bit lackluster. Paired with some phenomenal visuals, the soundtrack is nothing short of amazing, even to the point that I would sit on the PS5 app screen just to listen to the preview music on numerous occasions.

Kit and Rivet are great additions to the cast and it makes me hope that any sequel we do get, focuses on them for a change. I think if I did play this on release it would have been my GOTY.

Okay so good game, fun to play. In terms of gameplay I basically would only complain that sometimes the business of combat makes it hard to see what is actually shooting me and what I need to actually be shooting AT. Also I really like the hoverboots, made getting around really fun, the three-piece skate to get up to full-speed felt good every time I did it into the late game.

But man Ratchet is a boring protagonist, Dr. Nefarious is a boring "wacky" villain who I have never cared for and the competent Nefarious from the alternate dimension is also just a generic and boring dictator guy. It's just a lucky thing that this game is fun to play! I do like Kit and Clank however.

I've never played any of the original PlayStation games, so I can't say anything about how well this games does in comparison to any other in the series.

That aside, it's a nice game, but not really my cup of tea. Gameplay wise, the only thing I really enjoyed were the arena fights, as they were somewhat difficult and needed the player to figure out which weapons are best used in which waves and against which enemies. That need to learn patterns and stuff is missing in the mainline areas and kind of a miss from my point of view, considering this game has a sh*tload of weapons and is probably the most outstanding feature of the gameplay.

Aside from that, I only other have two big negatives:
- I really don't like the camera in the game. So often in the fights the FOV is just horrible.
- Compared to similar games in the genre this game is missing interesting bossfight. There like 4 bosses, repeated over and over again. Even the final boss fight is just a repetition of the mid game boss. Compare this to like Psychonauts 2, where each level has a super unique and memorable boss.

As a kid, I'd probably fell in love with all these characters. I wonder how fans of the series feel about Rivet. The game is beautiful, colorful, well animated. Good thing is that this game doesn't waste the players time with stupid sidequests. Just an single optional quest per planet, some stuff to collect. That's it. Just a lot of story. The story and writing of the game - well something something Multi-Verse save everything. Whatever.

As this game is marked as a 3D-Plattformer: It's a negligible feature of the game, which is kind of sad. The game introduces some mechanics, but never really tries to develop something with them.

I still recommend this game: Well: First it's a really good port. No issues while playing whatsoever. Please give us more ports. For fans of the genre (say: 3D Action Adventure) you just get what you want. Fans of the story probably like everything that's happening. And some people - unlike me - most definitely gonna like the story, so give it a try and be a hero and save everything.

I'm curious how the originals play. I'll probably check some of the out.

Finally, a true next-generation videogame experience.
After that disappointing "Remake" of 2016 I was honestly worried about the future of the series, I mean, I was excited for this game but I couldn't help but be sceptical about it.

Having played the game now I'm actually happy with how it turned out to be, the humor is decent, some jokes do land well even thought there are still many of them that are... childish, the gameplay is actually very enjoyable, the movement is improved from the previous games with some cool additional mechanics that make it very smooth and fun to play, and the characters are actually likeable!

There's way more exploration this time around, every planet has some secrets to find, and even pieces of gear to unlock which you can wear to change the way the character looks. There are also minigames as well which I tried out but they're just okay, nothing special.

Although the main story is not really memorable, it's just another adventure where you have to save the world, I did like how the rifts played a role in it, and the mechanic of how you can traverse the rifts is impressive, the way all various worlds load instantly and they also look gorgeous really shows the high quality of the game, and the effort that was put into making it.

The puzzles are alright but damn they really slow down the pacing, and there are actually many of them, not too many but more than enough.

And even with all the improvements on the movement, the additional quality of life mechanics and the brand new protagonist, at the end of the day it's still a Ratchet & Clank game and it plays very similarly to the previous games, the shooting doesn't feel fresh, and I honestly think this could've been fixed if Rivet had different weapons and play-style, it would make the game less repetitive and more rewarding.

This game is honestly a blast, it's not anything new but it does feel like a next-generation game in many ways, the haptic feedback and adaptive triggers enhance the gameplay, and the instant teleportation helps with the fast paced action and beautiful cinematic set-pieces.

It might be quite short but it's still very much worth trying out, it's just a fun little adventure, and most importantly, as of right now it's one of the very few games that actually showcases the technology of the PlayStation 5.

Final Rating: "Great" ~ 8/10.

What a frustrating mess of a game. On the surface this appears to be a nice modern version of Ratchet and Clank, but I think underneath the veneer you’ll find a husk of what it used to be. These games used to have an edge to them that’s all but lost in the modern iterations as it feels like everything has been filtered through a Marvel Lens. The combat is fine, although it’s weird to me that Ratchet and River share the same inventory. I think it would have been more interesting if they had access to unique equipment. However, the real issue I had with this game is how bugged it seems to be. So many times I would jump against something and get stuck in a wall having to reload a safe, or even worse were the times I would just fall through the map. I did not have fun with this game, which is a real disappointment since I was looking forward to it

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is breathtakingly gorgeous and has easily the best gameplay in the series to date.

It's also a much needed redemption after the embarrassment that was the 2016 reboot. It's the best game in the series since A Crack in Time, but that doesn't say much when it's hardly had any competition, between the 2016 reboot and experimental spinoff entries like All 4 One. The only decent game in that time was Into the Nexus, but that one was a DLC-sized game that couldn't really compare to full-sized entries like A Crack in Time.

Rift Apart finally continues the story from where Into the Nexus left off back in 2013. Which is good, because we've been waiting so long, but at the same time, it does bother me a bit that the story of the lombaxes and the dimensions started in 2007 with Tools of Destruction, and it still hasn't reached its conclusion. Yes, that's right, Rift Apart isn't the end of the story. It's a little exhausting at this point. I would honestly have been totally happy if it had ended with A Crack in Time because that game ended so nicely.

I did bristle a bit at Rivet's constant snark at first, but she began to grow on me. Ratchet, however, I found disappointingly flat, and Clank's severe self-doubt became very grating because if my memory serves me correctly, he already overcame his lack of confidence in one of the previous games. Writing has never been the strong suit of Ratchet & Clank, but I found the characters particularly dull in this game compared to others in the series. I also seriously wish Insomniac would finally put Dr Nefarious to rest. He was funny the first time. That was nearly 20 years ago. There's no depth to his character and his motivations are the same shit every time. Surely someone has enough imagination to come up with a new villain!

Aside from the story, though, everything about this game is immensely polished and it's an absolute blast to play. The graphics are jaw-dropping and I enjoyed the exploration that was built into the levels. The series' trademark combat is the smoothest it's ever been, but the new addition of the phase shift makes it even better. Being able to use the hoverboots at any time once you receive them is also a big upgrade over previous games. Rift Apart's weapon roster is refreshingly strong, introducing some cool new weapons while bringing back old favourites. I did find, though, that some weapons were redundant as they did basically the same job as something else, so I think a few could have been axed from the lineup and not missed.

In summary, Rift Apart is an essential Ratchet & Clank game, and I'm glad to see this series is still carrying the torch for PS2 style action games, even though its edges have been gradually rounded off over the years.

A great return to form for the series, easily the best since A Crack in Time on PS3.

Great hard hitting combat, striking art style with one of the best looking implementations of ray tracing I've ever seen, and a really propulsive main story campaign. It's really a great entry in the series.

The only thing this is lacking is a little more variety around the edges. The best games in the series are chock full of totally optional objectives, story bits, and minigames. Hell, Crack in Time has a whole wild space exploration bit at its top level.

Rift Apart, by contrast is really just the mainline. And that mainline is really polished and well-realized, but beyond it... there's really nothing to do other than the combat arena. The game needed a speedle racing minigame or something to liven it up a little bit. Just one or two more things to break up the story progression.

An unfortunate theme of the Ratchet & Clank franchise is that of wasted potential. Across the PS2 and PS3 Insomniac pumped out 10 R&C titles in just 11 years, an insane workload (even more insane when you realize they were working on the Resistance series concurrently) that meant the studio just never had the time to implement and refine the many ideas it had for the series over the years. Fortunately, Insomniac put in the work to finally curb its culture of crunch and it has paid dividends with Rift Apart, a game which shows that even after 20 years there’s still a spark of creativity in this series, even if it never erupts into a full-on blaze.

To start with the obvious, Rift Apart is an unbelievably gorgeous game with some of the strongest art direction in the series and a smooth framerate. This smoothness extends to the gameplay, featuring the best combat in series history. Very early into the game a dash ability is added to your moveset and this is a great addition that is a boon to both traversal and combat. Enemies are faster and more aggressive than ever and you’ll need to make liberal use of the dash if you want to survive. The old way of circle-strafing, side-jumping, and backpedaling isn’t enough to make it through each enemy encounter anymore, and the addition of the dash makes combat flow much better. The combat is also where the DualSense gets to shine, with most of the game’s weapons making use of the variable triggers, with a half or full press of the triggers doing different things. A half-press of the trigger on your shotgun will fire one barrel while a full-press will fire both, for example. It feels really good and makes me appreciate the DualSense a lot more than I initially did. A Rift Apart is just a really smooth experience overall, the excellent technical performance and lack of loading screens means there’s no significant breaks in the game’s flow, and Insomniac has also made sure you’re never too far from the next firefight or setpiece.

The biggest disappointment here has to do with the dimension hopping, the game’s central gimmick. It most commonly comes into play with these small dimensional rifts which you grapple onto to either gain positional advantage in combat or traverse areas outside of it, but all this really amounts to is a more visually impressive version of the Swingshot, a series staple gadget. There’s also these optional pocket dimensions, which are just small platforming challenges that have very little interesting going. Outside of two planets and few setpieces, Rift Apart doesn’t really do all that much with its central gimmick, and it’s a shame. Another disappointment is just how linear this game is. Previous R&C games had planets with multiple different pathways to explore and find secrets and optional objectives. Here though, with the exception of two planets, each planet as a very obvious main path with a few rooms or hallways off to the side. One planet is so small it makes me wonder why they even bothered with it in the first place.

As for the story, Rift Apart is serviceable. It’s nice to see both Ratchet and Clank have some semblance of a personality again after their 2016 outing, though they’re outshone by their alternate universe counterparts Rivet and Kit, who are both great additions to the cast and it would be an absolute bummer if they didn’t show up in the next game.

Rift Apart has easily and quickly become one of my favorite Ratchet & Clank games of all time, meaning it’s now one of my favorite first-party PlayStation games ever, but even now, with Insomniac working with more powerful hardware than ever before and more dev time than ever before, it’s still haunted by the specter of wasted potential, and that’s just a real shame.