Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart Review

Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart is Insomniac’s latest addition to it’s beloved franchise. It follows the heroic duo as they travel through dimensions in hopes to defeat the evil Doctor Nefarious who is set on interdimensional domination. Oh, and they also team up with alternate dimensional counterparts of themselves, Rivet and Kit, who have their own Nefarious, but in this reality he’s an emperor and far more evil. The game takes around 16 hours to complete, but does its gameplay justify the price tag? I mean

Hardware

Ratchet and Clank uses all of the PS5’s hardware. From the very first scene where you’re dropped into this dystopian society ruled by Emperor Nefarious, you’re instantly transported into the game. The rumbling controller along with the beautiful graphics hooks you in and let’s you know that this game is not messing around. I was impressed, and grateful, that this game made use of the Playstation 5’s technology. As I said, this game took me around 16 hours to complete, and not once did I get tired of the vibrations in the controllers and the adaptive triggers. Every time that controller rumbled, or I needed to shoot a weapon, I was amazed at how advanced this controller really is. Almost every gun has two ways of shooting it. For example, for The Enforcer (shotgun), if you pull R2 halfway, you shoot one shell, and if you pull it all the way, you shoot both shells. As for the vibrations, every shot taken, every rail ridden, and every explosion, you feel all of it, and it’s so cool.

Graphically, this game looks stunning. There are multiple visual modes that you can play the game in, and the game also makes use of Ray Tracing, which looks incredible. I personally chose to play in Performance Mode, and let me tell you, it looks and feels so smooth. The overall graphics of the game are also impressive. Obviously, this game isn’t a hyper realistic one, but that doesn’t mean that the planets don’t look great. Not to mention, the fur on Ratchet and Rivet is astonishing as you can see individual strands and the movement makes it look all the better.

Did I mention the loading screens? Oh I didn’t? That’s because there are none. This game transitions smoothly without a single pause in beat. You instantly go from cutscenes straight into gameplay. Everything works like a well oiled machine and it is truly fantastic. Not to mention, you are literally travelling into alternate dimensions without a single hiccup. The game transports you from a futuristic robot planet straight into a desert wasteland flawlessly. There are also portions where you use a rift gadget to get from point A to point B and even that is perfect. I was waiting for there to be a loading screen, just so I could see how fast the PS5’s load times really are. Well, it’s so fast that it doesn’t even need them.

You would think that a game loading this quickly would cause visual glitches and stuttering in the gameplay, but this game also succeeds in smoothness in that aspect. If you’ve ever played a Ratchet and Clank game you know that there can be so much going on the screen at the same time, and this game doesn’t stumble once; from my experience. Endless waves of enemies and explosions all over the screen are no match for this game. Again, using the PS5’s hardware to its advantage.

Story and Characters

The overall plot of the game is one that I found myself enjoying. The game brings light to the fact that Ratchet and Clank are constantly saving the universe and it kicks off with a celebration in honor of the duo. Clank prepares a dimensionator to give Ratchet at this celebration so that he can go in search of other Lombax’s. However, Doctor Nefarious has other plans, as he wants to steal the dementionator all in hopes to find a dimension where he wins. This brings us to the dimension of Emperor Nefarious, Rivet, Kit, Captain Quantum, and others, who are all the counterparts of our original characters.

This game succeeds in introducing new characters that people want to play as. They are likeable, however, don’t take away from the original characters that people have come to love; they compliment them. Moreover, I think it worked to play as Ratchet and Kit, and Rivet and Clank, as we at least got an original character with each transition. I think the duo being split could cause some distaste for people, however, I thought that this was fine and even enjoyed the new character interactions. We also get to play as another new character, Glitch, who helps us get rid of literal viruses inside of computers. She is also easily lovable and her levels are super fun to play as.

The game also throws in its own bit of comedy, which all Ratchet and Clank games have. I found myself chuckling at points of dialogue throughout the game. However, I think that the best comedy this game has to offer is with the reluctant villains. All of the villains, but the Goons especially, are pretty funny. This is something that I’ve enjoyed about Ratchet and Clank is that the game keeps you engaged and having fun because you can clearly tell that everyone on board is also having fun. It’s almost as if the heroes know they’re going to win and the villains know they’re going to lose. Although this game is more child friendly than the originals, I still found myself enjoying the wittiness.

Aside from its wit, the game also tackles some more serious issues that I wouldn’t think a game like this would. The game touches on feelings of self worth and brokenness. This makes sense as dimensions themselves are broken, but we can see that the characters are both physically and mentally broken. There’s even a character in the game called The Fixer just to further drive the head into the nail. I actually liked this aspect of the game as it gives our heroes a little more depth. Sure, they’re kicking ass left and right, but they aren’t perfect.

Weapons, Gadgets, and Collectibles

A big reason people love Ratchet and Clank games is because of the weapon variety. There are 20 weapons in total that can all be unlocked throughout the game. Each weapon is unique in its own way and they are super fun to use. Each weapon has its own skill tree that can be unlocked by collecting Raritanium around the map. The game gives us the perfect blend of new and nostalgia as well. The second I unlocked the Buzz Blades I was instantly brought back to Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando and it hit me right in the feels. There are even Omega versions of weapons that you unlock in the game's version of New Game+, which it calls challenge mode. Not to mention, the RYNO makes another appearance and can only be unlocked through collecting the 10 Spybots located throughout the planets.

Another reason people love Ratchet and Clank is all of the cool gadgets you unlock along the way. In total there are 7 gadgets. Among these gadgets is the Omniglove, which is really the all in one stop for most of the abilities in this game. It includes the Rift Tether, which allows you to teleport to different rifts. However, my favorite, and most useful, is The Phantom Dash. This allows for more ways to get out of the way of incoming enemies as well as some cool set ups for ultimate destruction. There are also the Hoverboots which allow for faster traversal around the more spread out planets.

Finally, we get to the collectibles in Ratchet and Clank. Overall, there are 5 types: Gold Bolts, Armor, Spybots, Lorbs, and Craiggerbears. All are super fun to collect and some pose a challenge while others are relatively easy. Collecting Gold bolts unlocks cheats such as ship skins, filter modes, and even unlimited ammo (for those of you trying to get the platinum trophy for this game, using cheats does not disable them). As for the armor, there are a total of 13 sets (helmet, chest, and boots) and each are collected individually, meaning 39 things to collect. These were by far my favorite things to collect because most of them are hidden in pocket dimensions and all of them are extraordinary. With the Spybots and Lorbs, they are more used to give us information of the planets we’re on and what happened to the Lombax species, respectably. However, you’re going to want to collect all of the Spybots as it’s the only way to unlock the RYNO 8. Finally, the Craiggerbears are fun to spot and collect, but it’s only worth collecting if you’re going for the platinum trophy.

Final Verdict

All in all, this game is incredible. Ratchet and Clank finally feels more like Ratchet and Clank again. I was nervous getting into this game just from all of the recent flops that this series has produced. The PS3 installments just weren’t up to par and were far too boring and easy. The PS4 reboot was alright, but it felt more like a movie than a video game with all of the cutscenes. However, this game? This game blows every recent installment since Up Your Arsenal out of the water. This game is fun, entertaining, and all out sick, and I’m willing to cut Insomniac some slack for making their games more kid friendly than in the past. The games use of the PS5’s hardware brings this game leagues ahead of other games that have been released on the PS5 thus far. With that being said, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart is a must have for anyone who has a PS5 and easily scores a 10/10.