My relationship with the Ratchet and Clank series has never been a particularly close one. As a child, I played a couple of the games, but they didn't stick with me as much as Jack and Daxter or Zelda. I played them, put them down, and didn't think much of them ever again. When I bought my PS5 bundle Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart was included in it, and I really didn't think too much of it. At first I didn't think I cared to play it, but after hearing some excellent reviews, and hearing it was only about 15 hours, I decided to give it a go before Jedi Survivor releases.
This game made me feel like I was a kid again playing my favorite platforming puzzle-solvers that I loved so much. It had the classic feel of the older games I cherish from the PS2, but they also brought in a level of quality that we haven't seen from this genre yet.
- The Gamemaking
The quality of this game shocked me. Truly a showcase for the PS5's power, this game displayed huge sweeping landscapes, immaculate character design, worlds that felt alive, and smooth 60fps. I'm still impressed by things the PS5 can do, and this game shows it off; no loading screens, cinematics that flow seamlessly into gameplay, handling seemingly almost a hundred NPCs on screen at once.
My biggest compliment about this game, though, and a primary reason it's ranked so high, is just how alive this game was. The cities felt bustling and lived in and the wildlands were breathing with the animals that lived there. My favorite example of this was going through Zurkies Gastropub. There were many different patrons doing their own things. I could watch the screen of the arcade game that two aliens were playing, or change the music on the jukebox, or watch out the window and see fighting happening in the Battleplex. These weren't just mindless NPCs that were scripted together; the devs made sure each character was doing something different than everyone else, and that they looked different. I was so captivated by this area that I found myself just walking around slowly taking it all in. That's one of the reasons I enjoy this game so much.
- The Story and Characters
The story doesn't necessarily reinvent the wheel in terms of depth; it was a rather simple tale of good guys stopping bad guys where the good guys are good and the bad guys are bad. The pacing I thought may've been a slight issue. Sometimes it felt like the story was going just a smidge too fast, but also I don't hold it against the game too much since I also appreciated it's tightly knit 10 hour story. I was able to follow everything and read in between the lines, but I'm not sure if kid me would've been able to keep up with this fast paced story.
It's fun to see Ratchet and Clank again! I really enjoy them as protagonists. They're rather uncomplicated characters with, quite frankly, little depth, but I felt Ratchet's personal struggle with deciding whether or not his long lost family would accept them.
Rivet and Kit I absolutely adored, and felt they had more depth than Ratchet and Clank did. Perhaps it's because I don't have the nostalgia for the original duo, or perhaps it's because the two of them were just so damn charming. It was also really sweet seeing Ratchet and Rivet meet each other for the first time.
The side characters were also fun. I especially loved the French pirate and his gang of French stereotypes, they had me chuckling throughout. Both Nerfarious's were cool in their own right as the meek, funny villain and as the capable and strong villain.
This game made me feel like I was a kid again playing my favorite platforming puzzle-solvers that I loved so much. It had the classic feel of the older games I cherish from the PS2, but they also brought in a level of quality that we haven't seen from this genre yet.
- The Gamemaking
The quality of this game shocked me. Truly a showcase for the PS5's power, this game displayed huge sweeping landscapes, immaculate character design, worlds that felt alive, and smooth 60fps. I'm still impressed by things the PS5 can do, and this game shows it off; no loading screens, cinematics that flow seamlessly into gameplay, handling seemingly almost a hundred NPCs on screen at once.
My biggest compliment about this game, though, and a primary reason it's ranked so high, is just how alive this game was. The cities felt bustling and lived in and the wildlands were breathing with the animals that lived there. My favorite example of this was going through Zurkies Gastropub. There were many different patrons doing their own things. I could watch the screen of the arcade game that two aliens were playing, or change the music on the jukebox, or watch out the window and see fighting happening in the Battleplex. These weren't just mindless NPCs that were scripted together; the devs made sure each character was doing something different than everyone else, and that they looked different. I was so captivated by this area that I found myself just walking around slowly taking it all in. That's one of the reasons I enjoy this game so much.
- The Story and Characters
The story doesn't necessarily reinvent the wheel in terms of depth; it was a rather simple tale of good guys stopping bad guys where the good guys are good and the bad guys are bad. The pacing I thought may've been a slight issue. Sometimes it felt like the story was going just a smidge too fast, but also I don't hold it against the game too much since I also appreciated it's tightly knit 10 hour story. I was able to follow everything and read in between the lines, but I'm not sure if kid me would've been able to keep up with this fast paced story.
It's fun to see Ratchet and Clank again! I really enjoy them as protagonists. They're rather uncomplicated characters with, quite frankly, little depth, but I felt Ratchet's personal struggle with deciding whether or not his long lost family would accept them.
Rivet and Kit I absolutely adored, and felt they had more depth than Ratchet and Clank did. Perhaps it's because I don't have the nostalgia for the original duo, or perhaps it's because the two of them were just so damn charming. It was also really sweet seeing Ratchet and Rivet meet each other for the first time.
The side characters were also fun. I especially loved the French pirate and his gang of French stereotypes, they had me chuckling throughout. Both Nerfarious's were cool in their own right as the meek, funny villain and as the capable and strong villain.