Nintendo had Mario. Sega had Sonic the Hedgehog. And for Sony during the formative years of their first game console, nothing was more synonymous with the Playstation brand than Crash Bandicoot. But like their gaming hardware predecessors, Sony’s Playstation also had other titular characters to hang their hat on thanks to the games they were associated with being some of the best on the market – characters like Ratchet & Clank. The minds at Insomniac studios worked hard to discover their next big game following the success of “Spyro”, eventually converging on what would become the first game in the “Ratchet and Clank” series – another successful 3D action-adventure shooter & platformer.
Following multiple entries in the series, Insomniac’s developers grew tired of working on the “Ratchet and Clank” franchise and put it on the shelf following “Into the Nexus”. With the advent of Sony’s Playstation 5 came the revelation of Insomniac being back in the game both literally & figuratively by revealing what seemed like the truest testament of what Sony’s newest console system could accomplish. With the introductory trailer sporting new gameplay elements and characters, I knew I was in store for the “Ratchet and Clank” of a lifetime with “Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart”.
Did I Complete “Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart”?
Like many multi-genre experiences of its time, “Rift Apart” sports a plethora of things to do from completing missions both main and side to collecting trinkets & items to unlock even more trinkets & items. Journeying through the game’s nine planets as either Ratchet or the new playable character Rivet – a female Lombax who plays exactly like her contemporary right down to sporting the same type of armor & weaponry – the player is given the chance to experience so much from crazy battles, to skating down an electrified rail, to shooting across the desert in hover boots.
Thankfully the game doesn’t ask for the player to attain all the collectibles or finish every side mission; though the rewards for doing so are beneficial including attaining the aforementioned armor, new gadgets, and currency to buy some outrageous weapons such as gun that temporarily turns enemies into ice cubes. After nearly twenty hours I collected almost everything the game had to offer from ten “Spy Bots” to sixty “Zurpstones” with the latter providing a fire-breathing dragon, overcame the final boss, and started a “New Game Plus”/“Challenge Mode” playthrough. Due to two specific weapons only being available in “New Game Plus”, I spent another hour testing out the “Pixelizer” and getting my final trophies to attain my seventy-fifth platinum.
Did “Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart” Live Up to the Hype?
As expected from a “Ratchet and Clank” game no matter the era, “Rift Apart” melds third-person shooting with platforming by having vertically inclined “arenas” filled with hordes of enemies that range from frogs that will chase Rivet to the ends of the planet, to a bunch of energy-shooting adversaries that look like high-end versions of aliens seen in movies from the 1950s. Ratchet and Rivet can double jump, dash, and use a hammer to melee strike foes close and somewhat far by throwing said hammer. But what really makes the combat fun is the weapon selection.
Rivet & Ratchet can use the money obtained through doing almost anything from slaughtering enemies to bashing boxes to buy whatever new gadget is available including a water sprinkler that causes overgrowth on hit enemies to temporarily freeze them. Other projectiles include Mr. & Mrs. Fungi that distract enemies & fire lasers for a period of time. Guns are just as impressive such as the “Drillhound” that shoots exploding drill bits and the rocket launcher-style “Warmonger”. Players can only map four weapons at a time to the D-pad, but the player can open up the time-slowing weapon wheel at any time to select a new item or switch one weapon for another on the D-pad as a shortcut.
Weapons can be upgraded via points earned by simply playing the game, exploring, and completing missions. These upgrades can do everything from increasing the maximum amount of ammo a weapon has, to actually unlocking sub-upgrades (like better damage or a wider spread) by activating the upgrades around the golden icons located on the weapon’s skill tree. The weapon skill trees only become fully available when said weapon reaches level five with leveling coming courtesy of experience points earned by killing enemies with said weapon. Unfortunately one of the game’s biggest draws is also one of its most disappointing aspects: time rifts.
Using a “Rift Tether”, Ratchet or Rivet can teleport to different parts of an arena during battle and that’s it in regards to combat. Instead of doing things like transporting a fight into another zone or universe, “Rift Tether” action in a fight is just a quick traversal option best used to avoid being surrounded or defeating that last standing foe near the rift. Interestingly enough it’s items like Blizon crystals that do shifting through dimensions better than using the “Rift Tether” in combat. On the opposite end of the spectrum, tethering through rifts when moving around a planet adds a wonderful layer to exploration including discovering hidden areas holding both platforming puzzles and armor pieces – the latter providing buffs when put on including increasing melee damage or getting more experience points for weapons & the protagonists’ own levels that increases their health.
Platforming & traversal in general is definitely the game’s other most consistently fun aspect alongside the weaponry. Thanks to the multiple gadgets given to Rivet & Ratchet throughout the story, players can use items like “Moon Boots” to defy gravity and reach that once-impossible to obtain collectible. There are other platforming & puzzle sections specific to Clank and new anti-virus character Glitch that mix things up. Clank’s portions are more puzzle-oriented brain teasers that can be skipped if it’s too difficult, but shouldn’t be that hard for most to overcome. Glitch’s sections involve running & gunning viruses that become increasingly numerous & deadly.
Another disappointing aspect in regards to the combat & overall gameplay is mostly connected to the biggest of enemies. There is a lot of variety in regards to a majority of the enemies Rivet & Ratchet will overcome. But when it comes to bosses, this game is definitely lacking. After the first two bosses experienced in three to four hours, the player isn’t given a chance to fight another grand monstrosity in quite some time outside of the “Battle Cup” side mission arenas. Instead, the player must take on hordes of the same enemies fought before and the constantly reappearing “Juggernaut” that doesn’t do a single different thing from the initial time the player fights it on the first planet to its appearance during the final hour.
Narratively, “Rift Apart” is actually incredibly mature without forgetting the franchise’s childish aesthetic. After the events of the original story, Clank looks to help his buddy discover other Lombax’s like Ratchet by using the “Dimensionator”. Dr. Nefarious arrives to ruin Clank’s plans and results in the revelation of a universe where Nefarious becomes the world’s emperor. Though Rivet is just Ratchet differently skinned in regards to gameplay, her character is anything but a feminized version of the series’ poster Lombax. Rivet’s story of being a revolutionary in a world headed by a version of Nefarious that makes Dr. Nefarious look like a fool in comparison allows for players to see a war-hardened character who is emotionally flawed.
Rivet isn’t the only flawed protagonist thanks to the introduction of “Kit” – a robot in the same vein as Clank visually, but nothing like his counterpart personality-wise. The alternate take of NPCs from previous games aren’t superior to the new NPCs introduced including those connected to side missions that are used to give some more personality to the world & its inhabitants; also providing some challenging scenarios like the aforementioned battle arena.
From a technical aspect, the game looks absolutely gorgeous with quick load times when moving from planet to planet (the only loading times that occur when on a planet is when the protagonist dies and the game reloads a checkpoint). Though the checkpoint system is very good & consistent, the game does have some stability issues that are seemingly isolated to a small portion of the game (following the third planet) – stuff like hard crashes and even the game being stuck in slow motion until the player restarts a checkpoint. Thankfully, major crashes usually result in only losing a couple of seconds to a few minutes of gameplay.
“Rift Apart” takes advantage of the PS5’s DualSense controller by putting pressure on the triggers to change how someone shoots a weapon like one gun presenting a shield when the right trigger is halfway held down before propelling the shield like a bullet when the trigger is pulled all the way down. There are a plethora of accessibility options including color blindness mode & the like.
“Rift Apart” really doesn’t do much different than what has been seen before it in its genre, but what it does it does oh-so-well. The gameplay is fun & frenetic, while the story is definitely well thought-out & executed. The platforming and puzzle sections are fantastic, though the usage of rifts during combat leaves something to be desired. Thankfully this experience isn’t just all style and no substance – being another must-play Insomniac Games product.
Should You Play “Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart”?
There’s no denying that “Rift Apart” is one of the best early Playstation 5 exclusives thanks to all the positives that occurs when jumping from world to world, beating up baddies to make them explode into bolts & nuts, a wonderful narrative, and just staring at the gorgeous visuals from start to finish. “Rift Apart” isn’t perfect thanks to some stability issues, lacking gameplay differences when switching between Ratchet and Rivet, and its overall short nature if someone isn’t playing more than once. But the positives definitely outweigh the negatives to make this a must-own PS5 game. Seriously, who wouldn’t want to own a game where you can soar through the skies thanks to some hover boots and literally change reality?
