Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

This was my first time playing an entry in the Ratchet & Clank series, being that I wasn't a playstation kid growing up, I was a Nintendo kid. I found this to be a mostly enjoyable romp, if not clearly a little juvenile, lacking real emotional resonance, coherence, or anything resembling a challenge. Still if you just want to galavant through space for 15 hours shooting all manner of different alien style guns, looking at beautiful backdrops you can do far worse, this just isn't a great game though. I shudder also to think about what the fandom for this game is producing and posting on deviantART, because you just know the hi-fi resolution look of those next-gen Lombaxes is helping to gestate some new furries. Otherwise, this is a beautiful game for kids and stunted adults, I had an enjoyable time collecting all the different weapons and messing around with them, even if it rarely feels like it truly matters situationally what weapons you use and you'll end up just using the same 3-4 overpowered weapons. I was glad this one didn't overstay it's welcome because had it been much longer I'm sure I would of tired of the pretty repetitive gameplay loop. Sure longtime players and fans of the series will have connected with this much more, but I also get why this is on PS Plus even if it's one of like 5 true exclusives for the system.

Rift Apart signals an ongoing Disneyficiation of the franchise, ripe with cringe inducing dialogue, flat characters, and plot that revolves entirely around the dimensionator MacGuffin. Mostly notably, both the characterization and voice acting for Kit, Quantum, and Nu-ferious, are utterly atrocious. But most of offensive of all is its lack of variety. Prepare to fight the same enemies and bosses over and over again, across a slim choice of planets, upon which you must visit multiple times. It's embarrassing, not to mention the fact that Ratchet and Rivet share the same arsenal. To make matters worse, leveling weapons no longer changes them substantially, it just unlocks passives for their respective skill trees. Remember when gloves of doom added jetpacks and guns to the minions? I sure do.

“Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart” is a "comfort" third-person shooter action with some tame platforming sections and an abundance of easily attainable collectibles. While the game takes no risks at all and ends up being rather forgettable, it provides a satisfying and enjoyable gaming experience that's easy to digest.

The game's most striking feature is undoubtedly its graphics, with colorful worlds that are rich in details and contribute to an engaging sense of exploration and wonder. The selection of wacky weapons is also a highlight that keeps the gameplay entertaining throughout. Experimenting with these weapons is a true joy, and the game's approach to upgrading them adds relative depth to the experience.
However, it's worth noting that the multidimensional rifts, which have been sponsored as a central mechanic of the game, don't quite live up to their potential. They mostly come across as scripted events or mere shortcuts within the same map. This missed opportunity leaves players wishing for a more innovative use of the concept.

Though it may not leave a lasting impact as a groundbreaking title, it's a game you can easily slip into for some laid-back entertainment, enjoying the vibrant visuals, charming worlds, and zany weaponry.

this is the 3d plattformer i never knew i wanted. the gameplay plays smooth like butter. i have been waiting for a game with such clean and smooth controls since forever. this is the ultimate escapist game for anybody that doesn´t wanna bother with annoying controls and just wants smooth accessible and overall amazing gameplay fun with superb presentation and simple but fun storyline. I have recently played Nintendos "great controls" flagship mario Odyssey and that game doesn´t even come close to the 3d plattforming combat of this game. mario controls come off super clunky in comparison. i know the GW rating is pretty good but it´s still very underrated. if this game wasn´t marketized as AAA (which it clearly is) im convinced the score would be much higher in the GW community.

Better than the PS4 quasi-reboot, but not by much to the degree that it's honestly disappointing? The first two thirds of the game are great, featuring unique scenarios to the series that take advantage of dimension hopping, character swapping and slowly building up an arsenal of weapons and gadgets, even if neither loadout is the best in the series. Unfortunately Rift Apart's gimmick runs out of steam by the end and the game devolves into pure firefights, which admittedly are some of the best in the series, but by the standards of 2021, it's not where it should be.

The addition of a dash and hoverboots add some much-needed movement options to the game, but the enemy variety is quite bad this time around, with the game recycling minibosses over and over, and often only making combat scenarios harder by throwing more enemies at you. Shootouts remain very fun due to a vast and expanding arsenal with a fun upgrade tree this time around, but it's not enough; with more enemies, setpieces or decent minigames, the experience would have felt less grindy, though it never becomes truly boring or monotonous either.

The story is more consequential than the series has been for arguably a decade, and the introduction of a gender-flipped and spunkier, even gritter, protagonist adds dimension (cough cough) to proceedings. The game wisely spends most of its playtime in Rivet's shoes, even if there are no actual gameplay differences between her and Ratchet, and seeing her having to walk the hero's path in a different direction to Ratchet but winding up at the same location in the end makes for a suitably engaging narrative; almost everyone has a great little character expanding moment, but it does all feel a bit sloppily assembled with how short the game is too, and unfortunately our villain sucks where he really should not this time around. The story is neither as deep and exciting as Crack In Time nor as funny and madcap as Crash 4, and ultimately matches the feel of the game as a whole: it gets the job done, and a bit more, but still feels like it could be grasping for something even greater.

The typical lede on this is that it's the first game to really make use of next-gen technology - especially a lot of PS5-specific stuff (the adaptive triggers and haptic feedback in this game made me excited just to hold the controller) - and that definitely what will make this game stand out as an important part of gaming history. The most obvious and simple thing is that the graphical detail in this game is stunning, with lots of things going on both in and out of frame that make the world feel full and vibrant. (Which typically isn't a thing platformers need, but gives weight to stories and designs that are fundamentally, intentionally simple.) To just watch this game is a delight. (Ironic given that the last entry was literally made into a movie that no one liked.)

But more important than all the technical stuff is how that interacts with the gameplay, which to me felt a little undercooked in the previous entry. It felt too mired in the platforming styles of old, limitations that didn't need to stay but stuck around as a weak stylistic choice. This game does a lot to update that, crucially in how you move. The biggest improvement are a pair of rocket shoes you get that you can move with at varying speeds, where the max speed practically turns you into Sonic the Hedgehog. (Please, Sega, I'm fucking begging you to take notes.) The game doesn't really encourage these high speeds outside of certain areas that are essentially on-rails theme park rides (very exciting ones at that!), but it also doesn't feel all that hard to navigate through regular areas while rolling around at the speed of sound; you have pretty good control over your character. Alas, the level design does sometimes deter you from doing so, throwing in invisible walls that stop you from juking the system; likewise, the sheer amount of detail in these levels means that there are some things that look like platforms outside the main area that you can't actually land on. So your extra speed doesn't give you full freedom, but honestly just being able to do it in some areas and having it contain actually utility instead of being a mere gimmick is enough of a delight.

This extends to a lot of the other movement options that have been added as well, which aren't as immensely satisfying as the hover boots but still make controlling your character in and out of battle feel much nicer. A dash ability has lots of invincibility and a bit of cooldown, which makes it good for moving in the air and dodging attacks but less so for micromovement; the ability to tether to 'rifts' in certain areas is an easy way to navigate areas but more importantly lets you zip around battle areas much like you can in Insomniac's Spider-Man games. (Some lessons they learned making those games clearly transferred over here.) There is wall-running in the game that unfortunately does sit at the level of a gimmick - adds a little bit extra to the rails section, but doesn't do much meaningful for player-guided traversal. So no Titanfall running and gunning here, unfortunately.

These things mix well with the things Ratchet & Clank is actually good at - the weird, zany weapon choices that turn your enemies into hedges or assault your enemies with mushroom bullets - and also inform some of the level design. The extra movement speed allowed Insomniac to make some very big battle arenas where you can constantly go between sets of enemies, running and gunning at high speeds and dashing off to isolated areas when you need a breather. Some weapons were clearly designed with this in mind, too, like the ice bomb that freezes enemies and makes them weak to a melee attack - dash in and start whacking them while still using your hover boots. It is, needless to say, a lot of fun, especially when combined with some level concepts that are a lot of fun. My personal favourite is the one where you flip between dimensions, one dimension where a giant invincible monster is chasing you and another where you're inside a factory full of robots trying to kill you. You have to flip from one danger to another, essentially based on which place is going to be more of a problem in that moment, until you find another monster in the factory that's being tortured that you can bring with you to the other dimension and befriend both. Fun concept!

As for the story? I'll be honest - I still don't really like Ratchet, whose attitude (and voice actor) seem stuck in an era where video games didn't have the budget or the desire to feel like anything better than a C-grade kids' movie. But thankfully, the game's new character, Rivet, is great, wonderfully acted by Jennifer Hale and, well, the game's animators. Seeing the facial animations on Rivet through the game's cutscenes made me realize just how much that element has been lacking in even the best game narratives. Obviously some games have made tremendous strides in that regard, but there's so many subtleties captured in Rivet's expressions - a furry cartoon character, I might add - that conveyed a lot in a relatively simple character. Match that with a voice actress like Hale, who knows how to convey her peppiness, her awkwardness, and her pain, and she's always a delight to have on the screen.

The story itself is nothing special, and at this point I wouldn't expect anything of the sort from Insomniac. But it's at least not cringey - which isn't usual for Insomniac - and the parts that revolve around Rivet feel better than they are just through her existence. (And Clank, actually - his 'arc' is basically solving a fake problem that he doesn't seem to actually have, but David Kaye is one of the only old-school VAs here who seems to have earned his keep. I love that little dude's goofy laugh.) The heart of the story rests in Ratchet and Rivet wanting to find the rest of their extinct race, which we learn have actually disappeared to another dimension. Ratchet is unsure that he'll fit in with the rest of the Lombaxes because deep down he's just some guy; Rivet is unsure she'll fit in because she's something of a loner who's constantly been fighting the oppression of Emperor Nefarious without much assistance. (And the new robot, Kit, struggles to deal with her violent past - which we eventually learn took Rivet's arm.) The concepts don't go much deeper than what I just described, which is why it's so important to have the facial animations this game gives, and to have VAs like Jennifer Hale on board. It's in the aesthetic details that a simple story like that can feel like it's more than it is - which is perfect for a sensory delight like this game.

I don't think it's quite the masterpiece critics have claimed - there's still too much left in the actual design of the game to be expanded on, too many areas where the game is handing itself over to spectacle without letting the player have an active part in creating that spectacle. But man, it is still fun as hell. Between this, It Takes Two, and Psychonauts 2 - which I haven't played but am very excited to - it seems like 3D platformers are once againi no longer just Mario's domain. About fucking time.