I'm so happy this game exists. It feels like it was made by a bunch of people who grew up on Ratchet & Clank and joined Insomniac specifically to work on the series. A fantastic love letter to the franchise as a whole, made me tear up a few times even. I'm too tired from heat exhaustion lately to write any smart thoughts about it (or even play games regularly, to be honest, which is why I didn't marathon this whole thing on release), so I'll just say: Rift Apart is wonderful and completely lived up to the hype for me despite a few nitpicks. Best $600 game I've ever played!

EDIT: Aside from the butter smooth controls and out of this world visuals, one thing that really impressed me about Rift Apart was its writing. Despite the story not being anything particularly special, I think the script isn't getting the credit it deserves. This game tackles mental health issues, particularly anxiety, in a superb manner that impressed me a lot as someone who struggles with similar problems in day to day life. It's not just a good message for the kids playing it, but a mature way to breathe life into these characters and connect them with the audience. Feeling seen like this by an entry in my favorite childhood series was incredible. The narrative is earnest to a fault and completely without cynicism, which is certainly a far cry from R&C's dark, satirical beginnings, but much like how that game's edginess felt fresh compared to other mascot platformers in 2002, the overt positivity on display here hits just right when so much of modern media is either painfully grim or engineered to be wholesome in an artificial way.