This is gonna be a rant. Sorry fellas, I don't mean to undermine anybody else's experience with Rift Apart, as I truly wish I could enjoy it right alongside you, but I'm too hung up on my shit, and really gotta get it out of the system.
I really, really hate to say this, but this was painfully average. If I haven't played the previous Ratchet & Clanks, it'd just be plain average, but with the prior experience, my disappointment for this game is almost bitter, having to witness a cool concept receive this milquetoast of an execution.
I know, I know, "oh boy, here comes another PS2 Ratchet & Clank fan to preach a point they should've let go of 15 years ago," but I'm actually speaking from the point of someone who hasn't played all that much PS2 Ratchet & Clank, of someone who didn't have any means to play the Future trilogy or anything else, and perhaps most importantly, of this being the only game ported to PC, which made it my entry point after many years of not playing R&C. And I know sure as shit that Sony won't port the original trilogy, as I hold the theory that they're only porting games that "hold up to modern-gen standards" (which is why I firmly believe The Last Of Us got that pointless remaster), so, this is it. As much as I'd like to be proven wrong, this is probably all we're getting.
So, anyway. I'm not about to say they should've brought back Ratchet exactly as he behaved in the PS2 era. I mean, he was a right unlikable asshole in the first game, even I couldn't jive with it. It makes full sense for Ratchet to mature over the course of several games, but since when does maturing mean scrapping all semblance of irony and sarcasm? Of wit? Wouldn't you actually become more jaded and sarcastic the older you got?
What actually happened here, is that Ratchet & Clank de-matured. Rather than making the wise choice to go from an edgy teen audience to an encapsulation of young and old audiences alike, they instead went for basically nobody else but children. The writing on display here is so overbearingly obnoxious, with the best form of comedy they could come up with being screams, annoyingly overexaggerated voices, and zany robots that make your protags go "uhhhh that was weird." There was only one joke that landed (the Ratchet sneaking up on Nefarious bit), and everything else completely bounced off, if not made me roll my eyes.
And my god, it never stops. They. Never. Stop. Talking. This is actually a trend I've noticed with a couple recent Sony games (such as God of War: Ragnarok), this almost innate fear of not allowing there to be more than 5 seconds of silence. There's always gotta be a partner character, they always have to say something for everything you do, and let's say you're alone, well, we gotta have the character start talking to themselves of course, while making sure they point out to the audience how silly it is that they're talking to themselves. I consider "atmosphere through isolation" an extremely important element of a game like this, but I will never be able to hear my own thoughts if the characters are always going to project them for me.
You've created this fuckin' phonebook-sized script, but how much of it actually adds to the experience? Were any cuts ever made to this script, or was everything submitted on the first try as is? I'm gonna go with the latter, because the game has so little to say of any inherent meaning, it devolves into this repetitious Canadian-like apologyfest, characters constantly feeling sorry for themselves and for each other, always anxious, always expressing their worries and sorrows and all this wishy-washy bullshit that should've been saved for one or two major important moments of the story, rather than being the entire pull of the writing when it's not busting out its Grade-A sense of humor.
And I mean, we're talking about a franchise with all of these crazy fucking guns, blackhole miniguns, water spewers that turn enemies into topiaries, or a shotgun that pixelizes things. All these fun weapons, all this high-intensity action happening on-screen, just pure stupid fun, and meanwhile everybody in the story is feeling sorry for themselves?? What is this contrast??? The game is at odds with itself, latching on to the old DNA of Ratchet & Clank through its wacky and outlandish arsenal of weaponry, meanwhile the story is way too polite, way too nice, it doesn't reflect the tone of the gameplay at all. It's not the type of fun story that would fire a rocket launcher to blow up a robot's face, it's the type of story that would look at a rocket launcher and go "my parents died because of a rocket launcher... it was all my fault....."
So, yeah, did I get this across yet? This writing sucks. There's a time and a place for emotional storytelling, and this game's unsubtle and constant attempts at one totally clash with each other. Again, if this was your first Ratchet & Clank, I don't think you'd care that much, but seeing how this series started and seeing where it is now, I struggle to fathom how'd we end up here. There were definitely rough edges with the PS2 series, but this was the most patronizing, soulless way they could've possibly ironed them out. And I care about all of this, because I see the potential for Ratchet & Clank, and it always hurts to see a franchise actively reject its potential in favor of safety.
Alright, enough of that. What else? Hey, the gameplay's alright! Kinda. It's pretty mindless, actually, I mean, you really don't do much else in the combat other than strafe in one direction and jump over some enemy shots, there's little thought required. But damn, it does really feel good. Those guns of yours pack a serious punch, and upgrading them to Level 5 really brings out that oomph. Experimenting and finding the right series of weapons for you is encouraged, and serves as some pretty decent popcorn gameplay. It does, unfortunately, get pretty stale after the first couple hours when they start reusing mini-bosses, and the enemy variety just. Runs out. At that point, I started caring less.
More than the combat, I really enjoyed the movement, especially once you get those jet-shoes that allow you to blast off at high speeds. I've found a couple spots during gameplay where I could make some jumps that the devs probably did not intend me to do. Some of them led into invisible walls, but others were rewarding enough as actual shortcuts towards hidden collectibles. It's a pretty broken ability, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
This game has some real pretty graphics, and the gameplay has been refined quite nicely. I wouldn't know if this is the best that Ratchet has ever controlled, but I can't imagine it getting any better than this. Coming back to my rant briefly, it's just... a shame that all of these systems were wasted on a setting I couldn't care less about, and writing that bordered on sensory overload, and led me to turning down the speech volume to 0, something I've never done before.
To imagine a Ratchet & Clank game that plays like this, but under a passionate team that have full creative control to do what they want, rather than what feels the most "safe" to do, would be a dream. But, perhaps I should fuck off instead, and join the rank of R&C fans who have accepted long ago that this is just what the franchise is now. I've made my rant. I've calmed down. It's time to move on with my life.
I really, really hate to say this, but this was painfully average. If I haven't played the previous Ratchet & Clanks, it'd just be plain average, but with the prior experience, my disappointment for this game is almost bitter, having to witness a cool concept receive this milquetoast of an execution.
I know, I know, "oh boy, here comes another PS2 Ratchet & Clank fan to preach a point they should've let go of 15 years ago," but I'm actually speaking from the point of someone who hasn't played all that much PS2 Ratchet & Clank, of someone who didn't have any means to play the Future trilogy or anything else, and perhaps most importantly, of this being the only game ported to PC, which made it my entry point after many years of not playing R&C. And I know sure as shit that Sony won't port the original trilogy, as I hold the theory that they're only porting games that "hold up to modern-gen standards" (which is why I firmly believe The Last Of Us got that pointless remaster), so, this is it. As much as I'd like to be proven wrong, this is probably all we're getting.
So, anyway. I'm not about to say they should've brought back Ratchet exactly as he behaved in the PS2 era. I mean, he was a right unlikable asshole in the first game, even I couldn't jive with it. It makes full sense for Ratchet to mature over the course of several games, but since when does maturing mean scrapping all semblance of irony and sarcasm? Of wit? Wouldn't you actually become more jaded and sarcastic the older you got?
What actually happened here, is that Ratchet & Clank de-matured. Rather than making the wise choice to go from an edgy teen audience to an encapsulation of young and old audiences alike, they instead went for basically nobody else but children. The writing on display here is so overbearingly obnoxious, with the best form of comedy they could come up with being screams, annoyingly overexaggerated voices, and zany robots that make your protags go "uhhhh that was weird." There was only one joke that landed (the Ratchet sneaking up on Nefarious bit), and everything else completely bounced off, if not made me roll my eyes.
And my god, it never stops. They. Never. Stop. Talking. This is actually a trend I've noticed with a couple recent Sony games (such as God of War: Ragnarok), this almost innate fear of not allowing there to be more than 5 seconds of silence. There's always gotta be a partner character, they always have to say something for everything you do, and let's say you're alone, well, we gotta have the character start talking to themselves of course, while making sure they point out to the audience how silly it is that they're talking to themselves. I consider "atmosphere through isolation" an extremely important element of a game like this, but I will never be able to hear my own thoughts if the characters are always going to project them for me.
You've created this fuckin' phonebook-sized script, but how much of it actually adds to the experience? Were any cuts ever made to this script, or was everything submitted on the first try as is? I'm gonna go with the latter, because the game has so little to say of any inherent meaning, it devolves into this repetitious Canadian-like apologyfest, characters constantly feeling sorry for themselves and for each other, always anxious, always expressing their worries and sorrows and all this wishy-washy bullshit that should've been saved for one or two major important moments of the story, rather than being the entire pull of the writing when it's not busting out its Grade-A sense of humor.
And I mean, we're talking about a franchise with all of these crazy fucking guns, blackhole miniguns, water spewers that turn enemies into topiaries, or a shotgun that pixelizes things. All these fun weapons, all this high-intensity action happening on-screen, just pure stupid fun, and meanwhile everybody in the story is feeling sorry for themselves?? What is this contrast??? The game is at odds with itself, latching on to the old DNA of Ratchet & Clank through its wacky and outlandish arsenal of weaponry, meanwhile the story is way too polite, way too nice, it doesn't reflect the tone of the gameplay at all. It's not the type of fun story that would fire a rocket launcher to blow up a robot's face, it's the type of story that would look at a rocket launcher and go "my parents died because of a rocket launcher... it was all my fault....."
So, yeah, did I get this across yet? This writing sucks. There's a time and a place for emotional storytelling, and this game's unsubtle and constant attempts at one totally clash with each other. Again, if this was your first Ratchet & Clank, I don't think you'd care that much, but seeing how this series started and seeing where it is now, I struggle to fathom how'd we end up here. There were definitely rough edges with the PS2 series, but this was the most patronizing, soulless way they could've possibly ironed them out. And I care about all of this, because I see the potential for Ratchet & Clank, and it always hurts to see a franchise actively reject its potential in favor of safety.
Alright, enough of that. What else? Hey, the gameplay's alright! Kinda. It's pretty mindless, actually, I mean, you really don't do much else in the combat other than strafe in one direction and jump over some enemy shots, there's little thought required. But damn, it does really feel good. Those guns of yours pack a serious punch, and upgrading them to Level 5 really brings out that oomph. Experimenting and finding the right series of weapons for you is encouraged, and serves as some pretty decent popcorn gameplay. It does, unfortunately, get pretty stale after the first couple hours when they start reusing mini-bosses, and the enemy variety just. Runs out. At that point, I started caring less.
More than the combat, I really enjoyed the movement, especially once you get those jet-shoes that allow you to blast off at high speeds. I've found a couple spots during gameplay where I could make some jumps that the devs probably did not intend me to do. Some of them led into invisible walls, but others were rewarding enough as actual shortcuts towards hidden collectibles. It's a pretty broken ability, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
This game has some real pretty graphics, and the gameplay has been refined quite nicely. I wouldn't know if this is the best that Ratchet has ever controlled, but I can't imagine it getting any better than this. Coming back to my rant briefly, it's just... a shame that all of these systems were wasted on a setting I couldn't care less about, and writing that bordered on sensory overload, and led me to turning down the speech volume to 0, something I've never done before.
To imagine a Ratchet & Clank game that plays like this, but under a passionate team that have full creative control to do what they want, rather than what feels the most "safe" to do, would be a dream. But, perhaps I should fuck off instead, and join the rank of R&C fans who have accepted long ago that this is just what the franchise is now. I've made my rant. I've calmed down. It's time to move on with my life.