Ratcheting ahead on PS5
Insomniac Games talks tech, guns, and DualSense
Players are aware of controller feedback even when the audio and visuals of the game are intense.
Eight years have passed since the last true mainline Ratchet & Clank, but Rift Apart starts as it means to go on with instant dimensional jumps and bigger, badder, goofier weaponry than ever before.
“You can look forward to some new developments that make weapon impacts feel amazing,” says director Mike Daly. “Custom adaptive triggers for each weapon that add new weapon functions to the pull of the trigger itself, advanced VFX that take visual spectacle over the top, haptics to give every impact unique and physical sensations.”
FEEL THE CLANK!
The DualSense makes a lot of this possible. “We combine haptics with the controller speaker to make the physical aspect of firing a weapon feel textured and believable,” explains Daly. “We’ve found that players are aware of controller feedback even when the audio and visuals of the game are intense, which enables us to give types of feedback through the controller that would normally get lost in the noise.” It allows players to intuit the action on screen through their hands.
“For example, if you are firing a heavy weapon, we can give you a subtle reload cue through the controller.”
“It has been an incredibly rewarding process of learning to shed outdated ‘best practices’,” says creative director Marcus Smith on targeting PS5 exclusively. “While so often new hardware feels like an upgrade to visuals alone, working on the PS5 has been a paradigm shift.”
Enjoy a new dimension of action when Rift Apart jumps onto PS5 later this year.