Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart might be one of the most technically impressive games I have ever played. It is absolutely gorgeous, and the animations look punchy and satisfying on the 30FPS fidelity mode. The cutscenes are near Pixar-quality animation, and the whole thing is so full of charisma that it felt like I was playing a blockbuster. I mean, what else do you expect from Insomniac?
The gameplay is incredibly satisfying, and the weapon variety is incredibly enjoyable. I loved trying out various combinations of weapons to see which playstyle worked best for me. Unfortunately, though, this is where my problems start. The game gives you the most overpowered weapon in the game pretty early on: the topiary sprinkler. This fucking thing will freeze any enemy it touches, allowing you to drain their health easily with other weapons. This even works on boss fights, which I found to be a really nice touch. Unfortunately, using this weapon on said boss fights is tantamount to just pressing the win button. Especially in later fights with a sufficiently leveled up sniper rifle, you will be able to drain boss health so quickly, that it zaps almost all challenge from any fight, Granted, you don't have to use the topiary sprinkler to beat the game, but come on... when you present the player with that much power, they're going to take advantage of it regardless. I played the game on the Rebel Agent difficulty (aka standard), so I'm sure that any balance problems are likely ironed out on harder difficulties. Still, though, this seems like an oversight.
Speaking of oversight, not every movement ability you unlock will be useful in every world, but some of them can be used to break the game, which is not great. There are several instances where platforming puzzles can be completely skipped through clever application of the hover boots, which was definitely not intended, but also never discouraged. There are no signposts clearly telling you how to solve a certain platforming challenge, and given the chance, I simply defaulted to the hover boots. This often made things remarkably easy, and I felt as though the game didn't do a good enough job of telling you that that wasn't the intended strategy.
Speaking of things the game didn't intend, there are numerous little glitches that add up to create a sizeable detriment to the experience. Misaligned geometry, wonky hitboxes, random invisible walls, and unfair instant death animations, to name a few. These were sparse, but still frequent enough to be a persistent annoyance, and it seems like they should have been ironed out before release.
Despite all these nagging issues, Rift Apart manages to astound, and provides plenty to enjoy, especially for those hungry for the first big game to take advantage of the PS5's hardware. If this is an indication of things to come, I am cautiously optimistic.
The gameplay is incredibly satisfying, and the weapon variety is incredibly enjoyable. I loved trying out various combinations of weapons to see which playstyle worked best for me. Unfortunately, though, this is where my problems start. The game gives you the most overpowered weapon in the game pretty early on: the topiary sprinkler. This fucking thing will freeze any enemy it touches, allowing you to drain their health easily with other weapons. This even works on boss fights, which I found to be a really nice touch. Unfortunately, using this weapon on said boss fights is tantamount to just pressing the win button. Especially in later fights with a sufficiently leveled up sniper rifle, you will be able to drain boss health so quickly, that it zaps almost all challenge from any fight, Granted, you don't have to use the topiary sprinkler to beat the game, but come on... when you present the player with that much power, they're going to take advantage of it regardless. I played the game on the Rebel Agent difficulty (aka standard), so I'm sure that any balance problems are likely ironed out on harder difficulties. Still, though, this seems like an oversight.
Speaking of oversight, not every movement ability you unlock will be useful in every world, but some of them can be used to break the game, which is not great. There are several instances where platforming puzzles can be completely skipped through clever application of the hover boots, which was definitely not intended, but also never discouraged. There are no signposts clearly telling you how to solve a certain platforming challenge, and given the chance, I simply defaulted to the hover boots. This often made things remarkably easy, and I felt as though the game didn't do a good enough job of telling you that that wasn't the intended strategy.
Speaking of things the game didn't intend, there are numerous little glitches that add up to create a sizeable detriment to the experience. Misaligned geometry, wonky hitboxes, random invisible walls, and unfair instant death animations, to name a few. These were sparse, but still frequent enough to be a persistent annoyance, and it seems like they should have been ironed out before release.
Despite all these nagging issues, Rift Apart manages to astound, and provides plenty to enjoy, especially for those hungry for the first big game to take advantage of the PS5's hardware. If this is an indication of things to come, I am cautiously optimistic.
Reviewed on Jun 15, 2021