Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
Insomniac’s omni-dimensional romp is Riveting
“PS5 HARDWARE ALLOWS FOR LARGER AND MORE IMMERSIVE WORLDS THAN EVER BEFORE.”
After their last official outing in Into The Nexus on PS3, PlayStation's buddy duo Ratchet and Clank are back in a brand-new adventure, and Insomniac Games is out to prove that this is an adventure only PS5 can deliver.
It won’t just be these two besties along for the ride, however. Rift Apart takes places across multiple dimensions, thanks to the Dimensionator device unwittingly causing rifts in the omniverse, so it only makes sense that there’s help from an alternate playable hero. After months of teasing, we now know that hero is Rivet, a female lombax who’s part of the resistance movement Ľghting the biggest threat in her world… who may look rather familiar.
While we’ve faced Dr Nefarious in past adventures, in this other dimension he’s a more capable villain – in fact, here he’s the emperor. The Ľrst city Ratchet and Clank drop into, where they become separated, is named Nefarious City, and in case you don’t get the message his huge golden statue stands in the middle of the plaza. That eyesore doesn’t detract from just how dazzling the rest of the neon-lit city looks – it’s a Teen-rated Night City complete with moody techno, where oppressed citizens go about their day while a ľeet of ľying cars can be seen above.
Just taking a trip through Nefarious City and Rivet’s hideout in alternatedimension Sargasso gives us an idea of how PS5’s hardware is enabling Insomniac to create larger and more immersive worlds than ever before. You don’t just see the improvement in 4K, you hear it in the 3D audio that makes every location dense with life.
RUN AND GUN
Of course, Rift Apart plays similarly to past Ratchet & Clank games: 3D platforming goes hand-in-hand with Ľring an army-sized arsenal of high-tech, bonkers weaponry, made all the more impactful by the DualSense’s adaptive triggers and haptic feedback. But Insomniac has clearly learned plenty from its work on Sunset Overdrive and Marvel’s Spider-Man, so Ratchet can unlock traversal abilities like Phantom Dash and wall-running on speciĽc panels – and Rivet has those same abilities.
The other key mechanic is rift-tethering, which enables you to travel through the two kinds of rifts in the game. The orange rips in spacetime essentially pull you from one spot to another nearinstantaneously, which is great for escaping when cornered in a ĽreĽght or trying to reach an otherwise inaccessible point. Then there are the more scripted purple rifts that pull you straight into another world, which can even happen during a boss Ľght. You’re not just being pulled into an isolated arena, either,
you’re literally loading into another world. This seamless traversal is only possible because of PS5’s SSD, rendering everything in real-time. In the past, we’d only have seen such spectacles in cinematic cutscenes. As impressive as this is, it’s worth highlighting that these are still select rift locations – you’re not freely warping between multiple open worlds – and some sequences look like they’re designed to be literally on-rails.
POCKETS FULL
That said, it still seems that Rift Apart will feature large open areas to explore, including up in the air as you mount a winged beast for bouts of aerial combat. Activities and collectibles abound; we’ll be snaŀing gold bolts, acquiring a range of armour to wear, and tackling Glitch Challenges and Arena Challenges. (The latter sound like the perfect way to put Ratchet’s ridiculous arsenal to the test.) Besides swapping between the backs of Ratchet and Rivet, Clank will get up to some puzzle-solving of his own in diļerent dimensions.
Also of interest are the optional pocket dimensions scattered around the omniverse. Whether these result from the Dimensionator’s destruction is up for debate, but these purple-hued areas seem more self-contained, existing somewhere in between realities and only as fragments. Although Rivet needs to travel through one in order to get hold of a Speetle to ride back into her own dimension, we’re not yet sure what else these pockets contain, or if they just serve as an excuse for Insomniac to get a little weird with the level design.
After the delightful gimmicks of Astro’s Playroom and the safer cross-gen antics of Sackboy, Rift Apart looks set to oļer a full-fat platforming adventure that fully showcases what PS5 is capable of. Sure, if you strip away the bells and whistles, this won’t stray too much from the 3D platforming and third-person shooting fundamentals that Ratchet & Clank has done well for the past two decades. Nonetheless, its CG animated-movie-perfect visuals and the greater immersion aļorded by DualSense tech will go a long way to ensure Rift Apart is this year’s mustplay summer blockbuster.
IMPRESSIONS
Looks even more like the playable CG animation we’ve been dreaming of.
The final game will show us just how much PS5 and DualSense transform the tried-and-true gunplay and platforming.