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.

I've played a couple of other Ratchet games but none of them ever really hooked me to the point of wanting to beat them. Except for some reason this game did hook me. I couldn't even tell you why, it seems to still follow most of the formula from the other ones but maybe just more refined. I do really enjoy the loop of gathering bolts to buy stuff and using weapons to upgrade them, the weapon upgrades are really fun since they can end up doing crazy shit.

Wish I could say the exact reason this game resonated with me but at the end of the day at least I was able to enjoy it and beat it.

Platform: PlayStation 5
Date Started: March 3rd, 2024
Date Finished: March 6th, 2024
Time Played: 11 Hours

"You think a crushing defeat is all it takes to stop me?"

Ratchet & Clank must be one of the most consistently great and enjoyable franchises I have played (minus the PS4 reboot thing), and Rift Apart is no exception! Continuing on the story and introducing a couple excellent new characters, this adds a lot whilst still maintaining the feeling of those PS2 classics!

The story here is an engaging one, although I'm not the biggest fan of "multiverse" style stuff, with the cast being the main highlight carrying it through. It creates plenty of huge set piece scenarios that are always fun, however I think that the rifts were ultimately kind of a gimmick. They, most of the time, just act as fancy grappling hook points or story set pieces, so I think more could have possibly been done game-play wise with their implementation. Additionally, you end up fighting the same types of enemies and mini-bosses throughout the whole thing, but, ultimately this didn't really impact my enjoyment all too much.

With a vast array of great weapons, slick gunplay, lovely characters and genuinely amazing graphics, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is a worthy entry into the franchise, and a really great time from beginning to end!

I'm a childhood fan of the yellow lombax rat guy and I expected not to like this game simply because of how "clean" it must be (especially after ratchet 2016).

well. fuck me, it was REALLY damn good. probably the best gameplay in the series. the movement with the hoverboots gets particularly insane, I was flying through the game and skipping platforming or puzzles like it was nobody's business. the environments are drop dead gorgeous and give me enough of a reason to go back and immerse myself in this world. I always loved r&c world design and this entry does not let you down on that.

some negatives though: forgettable weapons, TERRIBLE sound effects, unremarkable soundtrack (david bergeaud my father I miss you so much), and that thing where characters respond all witty all the time like they're in a superhero movie.

Fun. Furry. Forgettable.

Okay, maybe that's a little harsh, but I've never been a huge Ratchet guy, and a lot of the rift technology that this game hangs its hat on was present in Insomniac's next game, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, that I just so happened to play the week before this one. It still has its moments, and was impressive at times to behold the sheer amount of enemies, bolts, and bullets on-screen, but this is a franchise that still feels somewhat disposable to me.

And, after this?

I'd just rather a Rivet game.

7/10

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

Not only is this an insanely gorgeous visual experience that takes full advantage of the PS5, but it is also one of the best games of it's genre that I ever had the pleasure of playing. Every single aspect of solid 2016 game is done so much better in every way possible. The gameplay is a pure joyful blast from start to finish, it never gets old and they always know how to keep things fresh and interesting. Both combat and platforming are in perfect sync to each other as a game like this should be.

But what really surprised me in all of this was just how lovable the characters are, both Ratchet and Clank have a lot more to work with which is great to see, bur Rivet and Rit are the absolute standouts and I loved them so much. I can't see a new game of the series without them now so don't you dare to do any stupid thing, make the four of them a team forever. I absolutely adore "Rift Apart", it is a must play in every way. A joy to play for every minute on screen and a powerhouse of what the PS5 can do. It doesn't matter if you're new to the series or not, just make sure to don't miss this one, and I'll be sure to revisit this more times despite already having the Platinum trophy.

mmm yes I love perpetually pressing jump and dash as I circlestrafe around and hot swap between all my guns, almost as much as the platforming sections I get to autopilot through inbetween even, puts me right into the FunZone™, but there's no Mick Gordon OST that sounds like someone ripping a fart so I'm afraid I can hardly recommend this GPU benchmark to my fellow topfragging fiends, letterboxd kino connoisseurs who enjoy works such as Into the Spider-Verse or Zootopia will find a lot to love here though.

Rift Apart provides a joyous arsenal of weapons and a story that combines non-stop spectacle with endearing characters.

As with any Ratchet and Clank game, combat plays a huge role. You are given tons of weapons to purchase and upgrade, along with countless opportunities to take them for a spin. The game does a great job of encouraging you to use it's spectacular arsenal of weapons by pretty drastically limiting the amount of ammo you get and carry. Particularly later on in the game, when the fights can get longer, you'll find yourself needing to use three or four weapons minimum. The difficulty in this game comes more from ammo management than tough fights. Many of the weapons work well to support other weapons, further encouraging weapon swapping. I often used the Topiary Sprinkler -- which turns enemies into plants that can't move, and followed up with the Headhunter (sniper) to pick away at the unmoving lawn ornaments. Overall my most used weapon was certainly the Executor (shotgun) as I found it a diabolically efficient way to mow down heaps of weak enemies or giant brutes.

You upgrade weapons by finding Raritanium throughout the environment. There's enough lying around that it rewards your exploration and it's addicting to click away at the upgrade screen to make all your favorite weapons even better. There are other collectables to find, like gold bolts that unlock armor, spybots that grant you a super weapon when you find them all, and each world contains a tiny, hard to find, stuffed animal for the completionists out there.

There's so much shooting in this game, and even with the extensive diversity of guns, I still found my enjoyment wearing thin in the second half especially as the frequency of long fights picked up. This game was at it's best when you are freely exploring interesting worlds, meeting new characters and completing a variety of quests to move the story forward, while shorter fights are constantly being mixed in. That is the flow for much of the first half of the game. The latter half of the game meanwhile, felt a bit more like one big shooting gallery after another, facing off against enemies I'd already taken down hundreds of times. Sure this was still fun, but less fun. Of course, even when the story had wrapped I wasn't exactly eager to put the game down. I ended up going back through nearly every level to pick up collectables I had missed and I even grabbed the platinum trophy.

Surprisingly the thing that really kept me going the most was the story and my investment in the characters. Rivet was a fantastic addition and even though her gameplay is basically just a palette swap from Ratchet, her personality and place in the story was quite enjoyable. There are so many fun and weird characters, and my limited experience with the previous entries in this franchise didn't hold back my enjoyment of them at all. Mort, Pierre and Gary were highlights and while some of the dialogue felt a bit stiff and awkward, particularly during action gameplay, the plot was roaring and I loved soaking up as much as I could from the world. It's hard to think of a game that packs so much story, fun gameplay, and breathtaking environments into a tight 10-hour package.

Ratchet and Clank is an absolute spectacle on the PS5 with beautiful colors and controller integration that brings you as close as possible to the arsenal of weapons. There was a bit too much shooting and not enough exploration and platforming for my taste but it's so rock solid at what it is trying to do that my annoyances were short-lived.